Or they could simply have no interest and concentrate on praising God.
>>If defending the proposition that the saints do not pray for us requires concocting demented claims like that,<<
No, demented would be to assume anything about what we are not told about and making up carnal reasoning. The focus should be praising God, not looking back. Think Lot's wife.
>>but the moment she dies, praying for me is an attack on Jesus Christ.<<
That's right. It's the Holy Spirit that helps true believers pray.
Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Now why would you blaspheme the Holy Spirit by thinking some human can do better?
>>The notion that my mother, in Baltimore, is filled with love and concern for me, and prays for me, and then, my mother, in Heaven, turns into a doorstop, is preposterous, ugly, and sick.<<
Actually to be so arrogant to think that people on earth are more important to pay attention to for those in heaven rather then God is preposterous, ugly, and sick. It also demands attention from them that they should be focusing on God alone.
Your worries about the blessed in Heaven being hampered by "divided attention" (or, as another anti-Catholic argued, Mary couldn't pay attention to our prayers because they would be arriving by the millions per second) betrays an extremely materialistic, childish level of thought.
The Two Great Commandments: 1) Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your mind. 2) Love your neighbor as yourself.
We are to obey BOTH of these commandments while still on earth. THEY DO NOT CONFLICT.
Show me where in Scripture it is taught that the blessed in Heaven CANNOT and DO NOT obey the Second Great Commandment.