Still Waiting

Dakota Voice ^ | 1/29/2007 | Carrie K. Hutchens

[8mmMauser]

I don't know about anyone else, but I am still waiting for Michael Schiavo to make a correction on his blog about what "actually" took place in Colorado when he went there (to the debate) to supposedly ask Congresswoman Musgrave one question and she and her staff supposedly tried to have him removed. He called it, "My unreal night in Colorado - with radio link" (Thu Oct 26, 2006 at 08:05:14 PM PST). I'll say (from what I read) that it was his "unreal night".

As I said before in "Standing up and Admitting a Mistake: Not Schiavo's Style?",  if four uniformed officers were around my seat, I would have some idea of what was going on. I certainly wouldn't be sitting in "duh mode" to only be told later of what took place right there around me, as Michael suggests he was. If Michael's account is realistic -- his response and reaction is not. Nor is his response appropriate now that he has "learned" what he was "allegedly told" is not what took place. One would think if he can't get the words out that he was mistaken, he could at least have removed the inaccurate entry from his blog.

He has done neither.

I'm also still waiting to read about, "Also, maybe tomorrow I'll post about my election-eve rally with Bill Clinton in Florida." (A real election impact by Michael Schiavo, Thu Nov 09, 2006 at 10:40:34 AM PST).  Indeed, I would love to read that story by Michael, since I read it was not possible. Not if he was implying it was the Bill Clinton that is the former President of the United States. Will be interesting to see what he says about that if he ever does.

If Michael couldn't get it straight what happened at the Musgrave debate or even if he spent election-eve with former President Bill Clinton -- do you suppose he might have gotten Terri Schiavo's wishes mixed-up as well? (He does claim to have a bad memory from what I read.) Makes one wonder. At least makes me wonder. Whatever...

I'm still waiting for the corrections if not the explanations!

 

Carrie Hutchens is a former law enforcement officer and a freelance writer who is active in fighting against the death culture movement and the injustices within the judicial and law enforcement systems.

[T'wit]

>> Pay particular attention to page 11 on this pdf document. Then vomit.

I read it, and yes, it's vomit city. That's Felos for ya, gallantly twisting words and law to kill an innocent and defenseless woman. Kick her when she's down, George. Torture her to death. You can always say she asked you to... and I'll bet a year's rent you can produce a couple of witnesses, too.

[T'wit]

>> which ended with the simple daybreak that the future of a child is to be decided by his parents." - William F. Buckley Jr.

Far be it from us to notice that it was the mother who tried to give Elian a future of freedom in the United States -- and died in the effort. Far be it from us to note also that he liked it here and was well cared for by relatives. The commies here handed Elian back to the commies back in Cuba, just to rub it in the noses of free Americans.

[T'wit]

The behavior of Scott’s wife just astounds me. In a matter of a few weeks, she conks him, says he tripped over a dog, rips down all his pictures, moves her lover into the house, and tries to take Scott off his feeding tube. This gal is the new national champion of mean-minded stupidity.

[bjs1779]

The commies here handed Elian back to the commies back in Cuba, just to rub it in the noses of free Americans.

.

Poor kid.

.

Cuban President Fidel Castro and Elian Gonzales during the commemoration of the fifth anniversary of Elian's return to Cuba.

Monday, April 25, 2005

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Elian Gonzalez, the shipwreck survivor whose custody battle morphed into a US-Cuban political wrestling match, made his first public speech Friday, thanking the United States for bringing him back to his country and home.

"I would like to thank the support the American public gave our cause," Elian, in his school uniform and maroon Pioneers' communist youth scarf, said late Friday with President Fidel Castro looking on, at a ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of his return from relatives' care in Miami, within earshot of the US Interests Section here.

"That was the happiest day of my life," said Elian, reading from a prepared text. He urged the United States to allow the return to Cuba of another girl whose case he described as similar to his own.

Elian knows that’s something extraordinary for a kid. He says he thinks of Castro “not only as a friend, but also as a father.”

[T'wit]

Bunch of wormy, eel-sucking, servile, slavering French lickspittles kissing Castro's capacious and grimy buttocks.

[floriduh voter]

HEALTH NEWS ALERT: Ambien is waking up PVS patients and Ambien is also helping autistic children and adults... Isn't that great news? My source is thru the grapevine. If someone wants to verify, they should google it for themselves. I work for no one.

More news: ROBERT WOODS JOHNSON FOUNDATION which helped bump off Terri is on a new mission to help obese children. Makes one wonder what method they will use. (The disability advocacy center is part of RWJF foundation. They were supposed to help Terri but they burned her file so Judge Greer, et al could murder her without any complications.

http://www.judgegeorgegreer.com

[Sun]

“..Ambien is waking up PVS patients..”

Let’s all spread the word!

[8mmMauser]

NKR (Not quite right)

Something is wrong with this picture. It just doesn't fit. Rudy pauses in the area near Pinellas Park for this, and the St. Pete Times reports...

ST. PETERSBURG - "America's Mayor" swept into Florida's biggest swing county Wednesday, picking up a batch of endorsements and casting himself as the strongest presidential candidate to fight terrorists.

Republican Rudy Giuliani, leading in most national polls but moving slower than his rivals in building a Florida campaign, drew at least 300 people to St. Petersburg High School eager to see the former New York City mayor made famous in the aftermath of 9/11.

~Snip~

- He told reporters he supported government intervention to keep the severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive after courts ordered her feeding tubes removed: "I thought it was appropriate to make every effort to give her a chance to stay alive."

Giuliani takes early swings for president... The former New York mayor talks tough on terror in St. Petersburg.

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[8mmMauser]

Thread from wagglebee on what is happening to the Dutch in the wake of the practice of euthanasia. Wesley J. Smith article.

In his book Seduced by Death, Herbert Hendin reported that one reason the Dutch people have not turned against their euthanasia law is that doctors and the media in Holland do not candidly report about the many abuses and violations of the law that occur with regard to their country's euthanasia policy.

A recent news report on Radio Netherlands, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of formal legalization, gives a good example. It contained no discussion of the approximately 1,000 patients who, without requesting euthanasia, are nonetheless killed by Dutch doctors.

It contained no discussion of the Dutch Supreme Court permitting the depressed to be assisted in suicide. It contained no substantive dissent at all.

Dutch Euthanasia Law Marks 5th Anniversary - What They Won't Tell You

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[8mmMauser]

From Cheyenne on unborn, a thread by wagglebee...

Cheyenne, WY (LifeNews.com) -- Last month, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal vetoed a measure approved by the state legislature that would protect pregnant women and their unborn children from acts of violence. The bill would allow prosecutors to charge criminals with two crimes when they kill a pregnant woman like Laci Peterson and her unborn child.

In a form letter Freudenthal's office disseminated at the end of last week to constituents who contacted him supporting the bill, the governor's policy analyst Robert Black misleads voters about the reasons why the governor vetoed the bill.

Wyoming Governor Misleads Constituents on Laci Peterson Bill Veto

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[8mmMauser]

Ping to a thread by Antoninus. Thanks, Coleus...

Monday was the second anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II, and Cardinal Mahony, during Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles, urged Catholics to oppose a state bill, AB 374, which would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients with only six months to live. Safeguards include a provision that two doctors have to concur on the diagnosis and verify the patient’s ability to make the death choice.

Though euphemistically called, “Compassionate Choices,” the bill “is nothing more than an assisted suicide bill,” said Mahony. The bill has received support from Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, whom the cardinal singled out in his talk. “We should be troubled that Fabian Nuñez --- who has worshipped here in this cathedral, is a Catholic --- somehow has not understood and grasped the culture of life but has allowed himself to get swept into this other direction, the culture of death,” said Mahony.

Cardinal Mahony Publicly Decries Suicide Bill --- and Fabian Nuñez

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[T'wit]

Well! My estimation of Mayor Rudy goes up! I like his formulation of intervening to give Terri a "chance to stay alive," which correctly assumes that she was being killed against her wishes.

We even think about offshore drilling for oil and gas.

Now if only he will admit that he can no longer believe in Santa Claus..........

[T'wit]

I looked in on this one. The locals were scratching their heads and trying to remember when they had ever had reason to suspect Cardinal Mahony of being Catholic before.

[Lesforlife]

From a guy who even now says he supports forcing
taxpayers to fund abortion against their will?

I have my doubts he opposed Terri’s murder!

Perhaps he’s beginning a Romney morph.

[T'wit]

>> I have my doubts he opposed Terri’s murder!

:-) Kinda funny, les. We keep hearing from the strangers among us that support for Terri cost the Republicans the last election. But now, we are avidly courted by all the leading Republicans. Do you suppose the candidates have it figured out right, and the visitors who echo Michael Schiavo and Howard Dean are... really not being quite... sincere with us?

Gotta run. Cheers, all.

[vox_freedom]

And in this darkness there resounds the awesome cry from the cross: Sitio! –

What a torture must have been our Savior’s thirst, considering His fever and death agony.

Sitio! As if to say, “My tongue is cleaving to my palate; my strength has failed me utterly. I am become like a potsherd; my bones are parched like a hearthstone; my heart is dry as grass that is withered in the searing sun.” Sitio! I thirst.

He thirsts, who so often had called out to the multitudes: “if any one thirst, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7, 37)

Shall you, the servant, carouse while your Master thirsts?

Shall you revel, and withhold from Christ the drink he craves, by letting his poor go hungry?

Shall you revel, and like Dives damn your soul to Hell, when it was to save you from the fate of Dives that our Lord suffered that excruciating thirst?

Christ thirsts for the accomplishment of the will of his heavenly Father. On one occasion he said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.” Now adds, I thirst, to intimate, “Blessed are they who thirst for justice,” for perfection.

Christ thirsts also to endure greater suffering for you and me. At first he had trembled at the chalice he was to dink; now he is eager to suffer still more. Sitio!

…
“And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me and I found none.” (PS. 68, 21)

From Pusillum
A Vademecum of Sacerdotal Virtue in Brief Meditations
By Athanasius Bierbaum, O.F.M. 1932

[floriduh voter]

Okay, so Rudy gets an A for Terri but could have used his support in 2005. Mitt gets an F for Terri.

TERRI'S FINAL HOURS here..

Terri Schiavo's Final Hours An Eyewitness Account

Fr. Frank Pavone National Director, Priests for Life President, National Pro-life Religious Council You may have seen on the news that I was at Terri Schiavo's bedside during the last 14 hours of her earthly life, right up until five minutes before her death. During that time with Terri, joined by her brother and sister, I expressed your care, concern, and prayers. I told Terri over and over that she had many friends around the country, many people who were praying for her and were on her side. I had also told her the same things during my visits to her in the months before her feeding tube was removed, and am convinced she understood.

I've known Terri's family for about six years now and they put me on the visitor's list. Terri was in a hospice but there were police officers stationed outside her room. If I were not on that visitor's list I could not get in that room beyond the armed guard because the visitor's list was kept very, very small and very well controlled. The reason? The euthanasia advocates had to be able to say that Terri was an unresponsive person in some kind of vegetative state, coma or whatever terminology they want to use to suggest that she was completely unresponsive. The only way to prove she was responsive was to see her for yourself. I went down to see her in September 2004 and again in February 2005.

When her mom first introduced her to me, she stared at me intently. She focused her eyes. She would focus her eyes on whoever was talking to her. If somebody spoke to her from the other part of the room she would turn her head and her eyes towards the person who was talking to her. You know what some of the doctors have dared to say about this? "Oh, it's just reflex reactions. Unconscious reflex reactions." Interestingly, that's exactly the same thing they say about the unborn child when you look at the video The Silent Scream when the child opens his mouth and tries to move away from the instrument that is about to destroy him.

They say, "Oh, that's just an automatic reflex." That's the phrase they always use to dehumanize the person. I told Terri she has many people around the country and around the world who lover her and are praying for her. She looked at me attentively. I said, "Terri now we are going to pray together, I want to give you a blessing, let's say some prayers." So I laid my hand on her head. She closed her eyes. I said the prayer. She opened her eyes again at the end of the prayer. Her dad leaned over to her and said, "OK Terri now here comes the tickle," because he has a mustache. She would laugh and smile and after he kissed her I saw her return the kiss. Her mom asked her a question at a certain point and I heard her voice. She was trying to respond. She was making sounds in response to her mother's question, not just at odd times and meaningless moments. I heard her trying to say something but she was not, because of her disability, able to articulate the words.

So she was responsive. Now, the night before she died I was in the room for probably a total of 3-4 hours, and then for another hour the next morning -- her final hour. Brothers and sisters to describe the way she looked as peaceful is a total distortion of what I saw. Here now was a person, who for thirteen days had no food or water. She was, as you would expect, very drawn in her appearance as opposed to when I had seen her before. Her eyes were open but they were going from one side to the next, constantly oscillating back and forth, back and forth. The look on her face (I was staring at her for three and a half-hours)

I can only describe as a combination of fear and sadness; a combination of dreaded fear and sadness. Her mouth was open the whole time. It looked like it was frozen open. She was panting rapidly. It wasn't peaceful in any sense of the word. She was panting as if she had just run a hundred miles. But a shallow panting. Her brother Bobby was sitting opposite me. He was on one side of the bed I was on the other facing him. Terri's head in between us and her sister Suzanne was on my left. We sat there and we had a very intense time of prayer.

And we were talking to Terri, urging her to entrust herself completely to the Savior. I assured her repeatedly of the love and prayers and concern of so many people. We held her hand and stroked her head. During those hours, one of the things I did was to chant, in Latin, some of the most ancient hymns of the Church. One of the chants I used was the "Victimae Paschali Laudis," which is the ancient proclamation of the resurrection of Christ.

There, as I saw before my eyes the deadly work of the Culture of Death, I proclaimed the victory of life. "Life and death were locked in a wondrous struggle," the hymn declares. "Life's Captain died, but now lives and reigns forevermore!" And then we had just times of silence"; just sitting there in silence trying to absorb what was happening. But besides Bobby and his sister and Terri herself, you know who else was in the room with us? A police officer. The whole time. At least one. Sometimes two. Sometimes three armed police officers in the room. You know why they were in the room? They wanted to make sure that we didn't do anything that we weren't supposed to do, like give her communion or maybe a glass of water. In fact, Bobby, sitting on the other side of the bed, would occasionally stand up to lean over his sister. When he stood up and did that, the officer would change position. He would move around towards the foot of the bed so that he could have a direct line of sight on what we were doing. The morning that she died we went in there fairly early and I had to go back outside in front of the hospice to do an interview.

In order to go out on time I had a little timepiece in my hand and at the beginning of our visit I put it in my left hand, leaned over Terri and extended my right to bless her and we began praying. I closed my eyes and I felt a tap on my left hand. It was the police officer who said, "Father, what do you have in your hand?" I said, "Oh, officer, it's a little time piece."; "I'll have to hold it while you're here", he said. We couldn't have anything in our hands. He didn't even know what it was. Maybe I was going to try to give her communion. Maybe I was going to try to moisten her lips. Who knows what terrible thing I was about to do?

You know what the most ironic thing was? There was a little night table in the room. I could put my hand on the table and on Terri's head all within arms reach. You know what was on that table? A vase of flowers filled with water. And I looked at the flowers. They were beautiful. There were roses their and other types of flowers and there was another one on the other side of the room at the foot of the bed. Two beautiful bouquets of flowers filled with water. Fully nourished, living, beautiful. And I said to myself, this is absurd. This is absurd. These flowers are being treated better than this woman.

She has not had a drop of water for almost two weeks. Why are those flowers there? What type of hypocrisy is this? The flowers were watered. Terri wasn't. The other irony is - had I dipped my hand in that water and put it on her tongue - the officer would have led me out probably under arrest. He would have certainly led me out of the room. Something is wrong here.

As you may have also seen, those who killed Terri were quite angry that I said so. The night before she died, I said to the media that her estranged husband Michael, his attorney Mr. Felos, and Judge Greer were murderers. I also pointed out, that night and the next morning, that contrary to Felos' description, Terri's death was not at all peaceful and beautiful. It was, on the contrary, quite horrifying. In my 16 years as a priest, I never saw anything like it before. After I said these things, Mr. Felos and others in sympathy with him began attacking me in the press and before the cameras. Some news outlets began making a story out of their attacks and said I was "fanning the flames" of enmity and hatred. Actually, there's a simple reason why they are so angry with me. They had hoped that they could present Terri's death as a merciful and gentle act. My words took the veil of euphemism away, calling this a killing, and giving eyewitness testimony to the fact that it was anything but gentle.

Mr. Felos is a euthanasia advocate, and like all such advocates, he needs to manipulate the language, to sell death in an attractive package. Here he and his friends had a great opportunity to do so. But a priest, seeing their work close-up and then telling the world about it, just didn't fit into their plans. One of the attacks they made was that a "spiritual person" like a priest should be speaking words of compassion and understanding, instead of venom. But compassion demands truth. A priest is also a prophet, and if he cannot cry out against evil, then he cannot bring about reconciliation.

If there is going to be any healing between these families or in this nation, it must start with repentance on the part of those who murdered Terri and now try to cover it up with flowery language.

Another aspect of the Terri Schiavo tragedy is that many people misunderstand its cause and therefore its solution. They think the problem was that Terri did not leave any written instructions about whether she wanted to be kept alive. In order to avoid any such problem in their own lives, they are now told that they have to draw up a living will. This is both erroneous and dangerous. Terri's case is not about the withdrawal of life-saving medical treatment, but rather about the killing of a healthy person whose life some regarded as worthless. Terri was not dying, was not on life support, and did not have any terminal illness. Because some thought she would not want to live with her disability, they insisted on introducing the cause of death, namely, dehydration. So what good is a living will supposed to accomplish, aside from saying, "Please don't argue about killing me, just kill me?" The danger in our culture is not that we will be over-treated, but rather that we will be under-treated. We already have the right to refuse medical treatment. What we run the risk of losing is the right to receive the most basic humane care like food and water in the event we have a disability. Our culture also promotes the idea that as long as we say we want to die, we have the right to do so. But we have a basic obligation to preserve our own life.

A person who leaves clear instructions that they don& want to be fed is breaking the moral law by requesting suicide. If you want to make plans for your future health care, do not do so by trying to predict the future. The reason you cannot indicate today what medical treatments you do or don't want tomorrow is that you don't know what medical condition you will have tomorrow, nor what treatments will be available to give you the help you need.

Living wills try to predict the future, and people can argue over the interpretation of a piece of paper just as much as they argue about what they claim someone said in private. The better solution is to appoint a health care proxy, who is authorized to speak for you if you are in a condition in which you cannot speak for yourself. This should be a person who knows your beliefs and values, and with whom you discuss these matters in detail.

In case you cannot speak for yourself, your proxy can ask all the necessary questions of your doctors and clergy, and make an assessment when all the details of your condition and medical needs are actually known. That's much safer than predicting the future. Appointing a health care proxy in a way that safeguards your right to life is easy. In fact, the National Right to Life Committee has designed a Will to Live, which can be found at www.nrlc.org and which I recommend highly.

I am in regular contact with Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, and her siblings, Bobby and Suzanne. They are strong Christians with a beautiful, gentle spirit. If you wish to relay a personal message to them, you can send it to terri@priestsforlife.org and I will pass it along to them myself.

Meanwhile, let us continue to commend Terri to the Lord, mindful of the equal value of every life, no matter how prominent or obscure, healthy or sick.

FV SAYs: Jodi Centonze (w/two illegitmate children) COULD NOT marry a divorced man but could marry one who had his wife murdered. Terri we are led to believe had to die for Jodi to have a church wedding. That was a church of a different color: RED.

[8mmMauser]

Clueless in Joliet...

The reporter comes across as well meaning and supportive but I bet I would throw her off her game by asking what is the meaning of today, Good Friday.

Perhaps a clue is hidden in one of the decorated eggs. Incidentally, this is an article in the Catholic Explorer. At least it was linked to the Easter at Pinellas Park.

JOLIET—In keeping with the springtime theme that celebrates the wealth of new life found throughout nature—blooming flowers, budding trees and newborn bunnies—the pro-life ministry at St. Patrick Parish in Joliet fits right in. A committee of 20 parishioners and a host of pro-life teens from several surrounding communities had a part in delivering a message that supports life beginning at the point of conception.

~Snip~

Being part of a parade is healthy, family fun, he said, but more importantly, the theme of the float speaks to a set of values the couple shares. Speaking of pro-life, he said, “It’s just something we’re passionate about.”

The parade comes on the heels of the two-year anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo, whose husband gave permission for her to die by dehydration. She succumbed on March 31, 2005, in a St. Petersburg, Fla., hospice facility. Fifteen years previous, she had suffered brain damage and became dependent on a feeding tube. After her husband petitioned to have her feeding tube removed in 1998, the case became a landmark in the pro-life movement. Despite intervention by President George W. Bush and numerous legal petitions filed by the likes of Robert Schindler—a noted pro-life advocate—the court on four occasions denied appeals.

Perona added, “The whole Terri Schiavo incident gives light to” the pro-life movement. He said his attitude is not a narrowly definition of pro-life, it’s a matter of “respect” for the elderly too.

Easter parade showcases parish’s pro-life promotion

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[8mmMauser]

From Chuck Colson...

..........................

Over the years our Wilberforce Forum has devoted much time to teaching biblical worldview to members of Congress. Through our Capitol Hill lecture series, congressmen hear some of the best Christian minds in the country discussing everything from stem-cell research to economics to business ethics. This teaching pays off richly, as I recently discovered while having coffee with one congressman.

This Christian lawmaker has been profoundly influenced by our teaching. During the Terri Schiavo episode, he championed the cause of keeping Terri alive, drawing much heat in his congressional district.

One day a medical school in his home state invited this congressman to defend his position. The crowd was so hostile that he decided to forego his speech and simply answer questions—a smart tactic.

The congressman allowed the opposition to “vent” about the government “interfering” with medical decisions. And then he responded by saying, “Let me straighten one thing out. Terri Schiavo was not on life support. What was done in her case was simply to remove a feeding tube. Whatever state she was in, she was simply being fed.” He then asked if anyone questioned that. No one did.

The congressman then drew on arguments he had heard from Princeton professor Robert George and University of Texas professor J. Budziszewski, both speakers in our lecture series. He told the angry crowd that nearby there was a nursing home for people who could not feed themselves; for various reasons two hundred people had to be spoon-fed. The congressman then asked if the audience would object if the nursing home decided to stop feeding them. Should the government step in and force it to feed the patients? Absolute silence: Not a single person spoke.

The congressman’s arguments got around, and much of the opposition to his position was diffused.

How to Win the Culture War

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[8mmMauser]

Duffus and Daulphin find positive side of hospice care...

.......................

Duffus said even after her family was able to confront the fact that her mother was terminal, it was still difficult committing to hospice care.

"We all thought at one point, 'We're going to bring her home,' " Duffus said. "But she needs 24/7 care and that would have been so hard on us."

Stone said she was wary of the idea at first. "After all, you associate it with dying," she said.

Now, seven years later, both are happy with the decision.

"We've been able to visit her and bring her home on the occasional weekend," Duffus said. "It's absolutely wonderful."

~Snip~

"People think that if something happens outside the hospice diagnosis, like a broken leg, that it won't get treated," he said. "But É we don't stop treating the patient. We're not giving up."

Levine said the myth of giving up has become increasingly difficult to overcome since the 2005 controversy regarding Terri Schiavo.

Schiavo was in hospice care at the time that her husband decided to have her feeding tube removed.

Daulphin said that while Schiavo's case perpetuated the stereotype that hospice care is giving up, it also forced people to acknowledge the issue of death.

More terminal patients turning to hospice care

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