Posted on 03/31/2005 2:27:31 PM PST by goldstategop
RUSH: Having now gotten their wish in having Terri Schiavo put to death by court order, the American left is now free to turn their attention to saving Scott Peterson (news) from the same fate, which will no doubt happen. Again greetings: 800-282-2882 is the number. Terri Schiavo passed away, 9:03 this morning at the hospice down in Pinellas Park, Florida. We're going to talk about that. We'll talk about the court decision, this majority opinion written from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal yesterday. This was incredible. It's arrogant. This judge, Mr. Birch, a Bush appointee, Bush 41 appointee, wrote an opinion yesterday. It's unbelievable. The judiciary is fighting back. This opinion lashed out at the president, lashed out at Congress, lashed out at the public, and basically ordered all other judges to stay away from this case. I have the ruling. We'll get to that in due course. (Limbaugh Legal Division: Judiciary Fights Back) Also, a great piece today from Judi McLeod, who's the editor of a newspaper in Toronto, the conflicts of interest that involve the Schiavo legal team and the sheriff and so forth and this hospice down in Pinellas Park. It's interesting because the mainstream press was all trying to find conflicts of interest on all the other sides of this issue, but when it comes to the Felos-Schiavo side of this they didn't seem to look very hard. Somebody has, and we'll pass that on to you as well. But first let's go to the audio sound bites. The president today, about 11:30, had this to say about the passing of Terri Schiavo.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Today millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. Laura and I extend or condolences to Terri Schiavo's families. I appreciate the example of grace and dignity they have displayed at a difficult time. I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others. The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in favor of life.
RUSH: Now, this is interesting. In addition to the substance of what the president said -- if you just bear with me until we get there -- the president in this statement takes a mild swipe back at this judge and the whole 11th Circuit, and I think the judiciary as well. It's very mild. You have to have read that opinion and heard some of the primary points that judge made in his opinion to understand this. The president's next sentence, by the way, talked about the president's most important responsibility is to protect the lives of the American people, and he went then into a discussion of this intelligence report, which we'll also discuss as the program unfolds today. Let's move on to more audio sound bites. Jeb Bush spoke to the press. We have two sound bites.
FLORIDA GOVERNOR JEB BUSH: It's heartbreaking, to be honest with you. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, to all the people that wanted her to live, and to everybody. This was a very, very emotional couple of weeks. And I would hope that from this, that all of us can grow as people in terms of our appreciation for end of life issues.
RUSH: An unidentified reporter asked, "Governor Bush, do you feel like the debate and the time that's up here as taken emphasis away from this?"
GOVERNOR BUSH: This issue transcends politics and policy, and so, yes, it's taken -- deservedly so -- has taken attention away from other matters, but having said that, we've got time to deal with the policy initiatives of the leaders and the legislature and our agenda. So we'll continue to do our work.
REPORTER: Is this the toughest thing you've ever had to deal with, governor?
GOVERNOR BUSH: As governor? I had challenges in my personal life that have created the same emotional challenge, but as governor this has been the toughest.
RUSH: We move on now to one of the family priests that ministered to the Schindler family. This is the national director of Priests for Life, Father Frank Pavone, speaking to the press after the passing of Terri Schiavo.
PAVONE: Unfortunately just ten or so minutes before she died we were told that we had to leave the room because there would be an assessment of her condition and then a visitation by Michael. Bobby Schindler, her brother, said, "We want to be in the room when she dies." Michael Schiavo said, "No, you cannot," and so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment. At the same time, once she did pass away, we were called back into the room and at that point only the immediate family was able to go in to give her their final embraces. I stood at the doorway and offered the prayers of the church for those who have just died.
RUSH: Father Pavone wanted to add one more thing.
PAVONE: Let me just say one more thing, that this is not only a death with all the sadness that brings; this is a killing -- and for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed, but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this, and we pray that it will never happen again.
RUSH: Last night Scarborough Country, MSNBC. This gets hot and heavy. The guests included Catherine Crier of Court TV, Pat Buchanan and Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic. Buchanan says to Peter Beinart, "You know how she's dying? The way they died at Dachau, the way they died at Andersonville."
BEINART: That is an outrageous, outrageous statement.
BUCHANAN: It is not. They were starved to death and denied water.
BEINART: You know, it is outrageous for you to say --
BUCHANAN: Why do you want her dead so bad, Peter?
BEINART: She cannot feel the pain that we would feel in starvation, and compared to the Nazis, when this woman, when the court said this woman wanted to die, it's just outrageous. Outrageous.
CRIER: And Pat? How dare you, Pat? How dare you ask us how much we want this woman to die, because there is no one on the other side of this that wants her to die. If I could will her to get up, to --
BUCHANAN Well, why don't you give her some food and water?
RUSH: If you want her to live, why don't you get up and give her some food and water? You know, Buchanan is onto something here that I picked up on in the early stages of this two weeks ago. There did seem to be this unbridled enthusiasm for this woman to die. We know that there was. Catherine Crier is wrong about this. We know that there was an enthusiasm for this woman to die -- and we know why. There are several reasons. Among them, the left in this country is just frightened to death of the Christian right, and they blame the Christian right for all their electoral losses since 1994 and they want to stick it to the Christian right. Anything the Christian right can lose on, the left will be happy about, even if it takes the death of Terri Schiavo to upset the Christian right and cause the Christian right to experience a so-called loss on an issue. We also had a number of people protesting down there that were in fact anti-Bush, members of the Communist Youth League or some such thing, and they're out there eagerly hoping that Bush loses this because he was on the side of Terri Schiavo living.
So it may be a thin line. There may not have been that many people eager for her to die, but there were that many people that were eager for the Christian right and Bush to lose. Of course, the outcome is the same: Terri Schiavo dies. They're asking to suspend quite a lot of reality by saying, "We didn't have any enthusiasm for her to die," but that was the end result of these rulings. That was the end result of what these courts decided. All of these courts decided, "This woman's gotta die and nobody can give her any sustenance whatsoever," and there were people that supported that, and they did so under the guise of supporting the rule of law or supporting federalism or not supporting federalism or what have you. But it is plain as day what happened here: The United States government ordered the starvation of an innocent citizen who was not dying.
"fear of death" "cessation of inputs" "viable person"
I've got to hand it to you, you've got the death culture lingo down.
For a human true life is a life which contains those spiritual qualities which have come to define a human. Humans think, create, worship, display courage, display love, produce, in general use the brain God gave us to do these things with.
True life for other species is something else, some have little but reflexes and no consciousness. Plants have neither but can respond to some stimula. I don't think moving heaven and earth so that a human can continue in these lower forms is helpful to anyone least of all the one reduced to such states.
Anyone who has followed this exhibition of insanity is an expert on that.
It isn't subjective but a medical opinion relied upon every day. Nothing uncommon, revolutionary or new.
I am just a man who has seen his beloved go through something like this and took its lessons to heart. Rationality is always been preferrable to hysterical emotionalism.
Calling names the only thing you got left? Haven't called me a "nazi" yet.
Unnecessary suffering is that which would not occur if medical advice is followed rather than selfish desires of third parties in this case. For a good example the soldier who shot the wounded Iraqi to put him out of his agony. That was an act of mercy.
It is disturbing to see his conviction pass without remark or protest while deadletter cases like this incite huge responses. Twisted priorities and lack of proportion is why that is the case.
For a human higher brain activity. Although many on your side would undoubtably claim that even with NO brain activity heroic medical measures should still be taken.
Helpful to the person or helpful to society.
Sometimes it is helpful to end a life particularly when the person has been so severely damaged that they cannot recover and is in agonizing pain. While Terri had no pain she also had no real life just a bare existence. Would you want to continue a "life" like that?
In our society every measure is taken to avoid death as it was in this case which consumed fifteen years worth of resources to no purpose. When the court got involved there was no doubt that the dying was going to be dragged out for years. Without court involvement it would have ended years before as is the case for 99.99% of these tragedies.
There was a post this morning that shows that the public opinion has shifted on the Shiavo case. The majority of the people (including 40% of the Black vote) now believe that removing the feeding tube was murder. So, I guess that puts you in the minority at this point.
I believe humans have and individual spirit which is eternal and a soul which is not. Animals do not have an individual spirit but some say have a group soul.
It is the spirit which has produced all things of value. It is the spirit which animates our bodies. When that spirit leaves the body dies without artificial interventions. Terri's spirit left but her body was not allowed to die.
I am most comfortable in the minority so that doesn't matter in the slightest. I do not get my beliefs from the mob.
Come to define a human according to who? And who says these are 'spiritual qualities'? (You seem to call these activities both 'spiritual qualities' and outgrowths of the use of the human brain. Are you claiming the brain and the spirit are one and the same?)
You may not get your beliefs from the mob, but you were definitely taking satisfaction in thinking that the people who wanted to Terry to live were in the minority and that murder by judicial fiat was now law of the land.
But then all rationality disappeared days ago.
It is the products of the brain and spirit which make human life different than that of other creatures.
No but the brain is the instrument of the spirit. When that connection is broken, such as by dying for fifteen minutes, the body is left in a vegetative state.
I still believe them to be in the minority but my only concern in that regard is that toading to that minority will hurt the GOP. After all even those toadied to are venting their rage on Jeb.
Your statement is an inaccurate description of the situation, however. There was never anyone who didn't want Terri to live but there are many who don't think she had a life and were ready to stop the pretense. And there was no "murder" involved. Terri died when her heart stopped. Bringing her body back to a semblence of life did her no favors.
It is such wild rhetoric which produces doubt about this crusade.
Sounds like you are saying that it is the human spirit that makes us human. Is that correct? If so, doesn't that mean that 'true life' remains as long as the spirit is in the body?
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