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He's coming in second in the DeathRace.
Actually, I liked this Pope. I attended an Easter Mass in Vatican City in 1983. He blessed us in, like, a hundred different languages.
A whole generation is about to learn (and I am about to re-learn) those silly and wonderful rituals about black smoke and white smoke as a new pope is elected selected. One good thing: at least it will get the media to shut up about Terri Schiavo.
At Alan Keye's Renew America site, they aren't mincing words:
Dear President Bush,
As a lifelong Republican and staunch supporter of you and your policies, I feel compelled to write to you today, during this Easter season of life and liberty from sin and death, where we all come together to experience the transcendent joy which traditionally marks the anniversary of our Lord Jesus Christ's passion, death and resurrection.However, with great sadness and in stark contrast to the joyous atmosphere which traditionally permeates the collective soul of our nation in springtime, here today we stand together instead to watch one of our own, Terri Schiavo, starve to death at the very hands of the people who claim to be her fellow Americans, indeed, those same individuals who swore oaths to be her protectors and defenders.
"One of our own"? What does he mean by that? Are all wingers brain dead? Or on a feeding tube? Or what?
Well, it goes on like that for a while, but it soon gets incredibly shrill.
You had all of our support. Our loyalty was boundless. Our hopes and expectations in your leadership were limitless — until now. Support, loyalty, hope, expectation — these now lie in shattered pieces on the ground. Do you realize what you have done? Can you comprehend the magnitude of destruction? How many more will follow Terri to the grave before God is ready to receive them now that the gates of hell have been unleashed?
Fuck me! The gates of hell have been unleashed? Excuse me. I just soiled myself. I am soooooo not prepared for this. I thought it might happen, but -- you know -- I thought it might be because of wars or whatever. Not hospices.
You had the opportunity to become a truly great president. This opportunity rested in the palm of your hand. Yet, you chose to throw it away, for it was inseparably linked to the precious life of Terri Schiavo. Your greatness, along with the respect that we had for you, now lies in the grave with her.
History will not place your marble bust along side those of Washington and Lincoln, who heroically and by demonstrable faith led our nation through very dark and dangerous times into safety and prosperity to become "one nation under God." Such an honor is not befitting men in authority who betray oath, trust and loyalty as you and others have done.
"One nation under God" was put into the Pledge of Allegience in the mid-1950's -- a while after Washington and Lincoln -- but I get your point.
No Mr. President, your bust will be placed next to that of Pontius Pilate where, like him, you, too, will be provided a marble wash basin to forever rest in front of your image.
I recall that Pilate "washed his hands" of Jesus (that's where that phrase comes from, in fact) using a basin. I just don't recall that Pilate was forced to look at a sink for the rest of his life.
Mr. President, history will record that at the moment of Terri Schiavo's death, you did not eliminate Saddam Hussein — you became him.
Paul Rasavage
Sounds like Paul is unhappy. Of course, I have a clue as to why, and it may have nothing to do with Terri Schiavo, or the president. The clue rests in his bio:
Paul is also founder of the Serenellians, a Catholic apostolate that ministers to individuals who desire to break free of their addiction to pornography . . .
Paul, a life without porn is a life without pictures and movies of naked people having sex with each other. Yeah, I mean -- everything in moderation -- but . . . you know. Get real.
Inciteful comments on The Daily Show from the Harvard Political Review:
People are listening to Jon Stewart. With his recent best-seller America (The Book) and his hit fake news show on Comedy Central, The Daily Show, it seems clear that his message is being heard: for instance, over 1.5 million people tuned in to watch Stewart interview John Kerry. Still, his message and role are not so clear, depending in large part on who is listening.
Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly characterized Stewart's audience as "stoned slackers" and "dopey kids," when Stewart appeared on The O'Reilly Factor last September. Regardless of the veracity of those statements, O'Reilly hit closer to home when he added, "You know what's really frightening? You actually have an influence on this presidential election. That is scary, but it's true."
Tough Crowd
O'Reilly's description of Stewart's fans is a bit off the mark. According to the National Annenberg Election Survey from the University of Pennsylvania, Daily Show viewers are 78 percent more likely than the average adult to have four or more years of college education. If these are the "stoned slackers" to whom O'Reilly referred, it is interesting to consider who watches his program: the survey found that O'Reilly's audience was only 24 percent more likely than average to have this same level of education.
With such an educated audience comes a certain set of expectations for Stewart. His popularity among educated young Americans might be due to a desire for a more critical (or satirical) approach to the news. When the same Annenberg survey also found that Daily Show viewers know more about election issues than people who get their news from traditional media outlets, this is not because Stewart better informs his viewers-the viewers themselves tune in to his program already informed of the issues.
Continue reading "Harvard Political Review on Jon Stewart" »
March 29, 2015 is the day that, according to that mental giant Bill O'Reilly, we will all be able to marry goats, "mark his words":
O'REILLY: The judges in Massachusetts knew they weren't going to be impeached when they said to the state legislature, "Gay marriage is now legal in Massachusetts because we say it is. We the judges" -- they knew they weren't gonna be impeached. They knew the legislature didn't care. You get the government you deserve. In California, the prevailing wisdom is marijuana is no big deal, let's legalize it. And since we can't get that through the legislature, we'll do it this way. And they did it! You see?
And 10 years, this is gonna be a totally different country than it is right now. Laws that you think are in stone -- they're gonna evaporate, man. You'll be able to marry a goat -- you mark my words!
I think O'Reilly has gone off the deep end. Yesterday, he said -- in all apparent seriousness -- that the ACLU is a greater threat than al Qaeda.
O'REILLY: All right, this hour's devoted to the most intense threat to your freedom in the world. It's not Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is not the most intense threat to your freedom -- it's the American Civil Liberties Union. And I will back up what I say.
Let's just think about that for a second -- who would you rather be trapped in an elevator with:
or . . . .
Amy Sullivan asks the one question that I would like answered:
A cradle Baptist, I was taught in the church that while we were not to hasten death, neither were we to postpone or fear it. The ending of a life was sad for those who remained, but a joyous event for the one who died. As one of my friends put it this week, If all of these folks believe Terri Schiavo was a Christian, shouldn't they want her to slip from this life to be embraced by the arms of God? I understand that this is a particular kind of religious belief, not shared by all, but it is a belief to which most of the leaders you've seen on tv over the past few weeks subscribe. And yet the implication of their fight has been that death is something to be held at bay using all available means, that any quality of life is better than what may come next.
Incredible(!) story from The Moscow News about something that happened in 1983 that you didn't know about, because you were sleeping soundly in your bed. I reprint it here in full:
The Man Who Saved the World Finally Recognized
Sirens blaring, warning lights flashing, computer screens showing nuclear missiles on their way, one man in charge of a red button labeled “START” - that’s start a retaliatory strike — and a roomful of people at their terminals and switchboards waiting for him to push it. Sound like a typical Hollywood Cold War cliffhanger?
It was indeed just like in the movies, says the man who was poised over the red button over twenty years ago, except “in the movies, Hollywood specialists and directors can stretch a little situation into half an hour. In our case, from the time I made the decision to when it was all over, it was five minutes max.”
Stanislav Petrov was a Soviet army officer monitoring the satellite system for signs of a U.S. attack, the year was 1983, and his instructions, if he detected missiles targeting the Soviet Union, were to push the button and launch a counter-offensive.
He didn’t. Minutes later, no missiles came; months later, the frightening data across his monitor was determined to have been a system glitch. Today, the Association of World Citizens is calling him “the forgotten hero of our time,” a title befitting the man whose responsibility had been to start World War III.
On the Spot
Half an hour past midnight on September 26, 1983, he saw the first apparent launch on his computer monitor in a glass-walled room on the top floor of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) command and control post.
“I was supposed to supervise the combat crew. When the first launch happened, everyone was stupefied. After the first launch, I started giving orders, because in the room below, where there were five switchboards, and all the operators jumped out of their seats to see what my reaction was. I can only imagine what went on at the other posts.”
The warning system was by now showing five missile launches in the U.S., headed toward the Soviet Union. The “START” command Petrov was expected to give would have started an irreversible chain reaction in a system geared to launch a counter-strike without human interference.
“The main computer wouldn’t ask me [what to do] — it was made so that it wouldn’t even ask. It was specially constructed in such a way that no one could affect the system’s operations.” All that was up to Petrov was analyzing the available information and either saying the alarm was false or giving the computer the go-ahead, as per the directive he himself wrote.
Why Didn’t He Do It?
All the data checked out, to all appearances, the system was right on target — or rather, the missiles it reported were. A couple of thoughts flashed past Petrov’s mind.
“I just couldn’t believe that just like that, all of a sudden, someone would hurl five missiles at us. Five missiles wouldn’t wipe us out. The U.S. had not five, but a thousand missiles in battle readiness.” It just didn’t seem like any scenario considered by military intelligence before.
The second thought on Petrov’s mind every time he was on duty was this:
“I imagined if I’d assume the responsibility for unleashing the third World War — and I said, no, I wouldn’t.”
The tension must have been overwhelming — did he really have the time to consider the global context of his actions?
“I always thought of it. Whenever I came on duty, I always refreshed it in my memory. At that moment, there was no time to think, I had to work, work, work.”
Petrov reported the alarm to his superiors and declared it false. Had he been mistaken, the mistake would have become obvious in minutes: the post’s detection system had a 15-minute advantage over the ground radars. No missiles rained on Soviet Union in a quarter hour; rather, in an hour, high command descended on the command post.
What Happened?
“It was a false alarm started aboard a satellite,” says retired General Yuri Votintsev, then the Commander of the Soviet Missile and Space Establishment. Votintsev raced to the command post and was the first to hear Petrov’s story after the incident.
“I noted Lieutenant Colonel Petrov’s correct actions, given the situation. Literally within a minute he informed all the command posts that the information about the launch of space vehicles is false. His actions were duly noted.”
Petrov himself tells a different story — although at first he was praised for his actions, he found himself slighted and picked on after the warning system was meticulously dissected and many bugs were found.
“When a lot of garbage was found in the way the system worked, it was uncomfortable for them to praise me — like they’re all horrible and I’m the only one who’s any good.”
Twenty-One Years Later
Several months later, Petrov retired from the army, exhausted by the stress. Twenty-one years later, Petrov, surviving on a tiny army pension in a small town outside of Moscow, is being honored for his decision by the San Francisco-based Association of World Citizens. On May 21, 2004 Colonel Petrov has joined the ranks of World Citizens and receive a financial award AWC raised for him through its website.
The director of Memorial, Russia’s historical heritage and human rights organization, Arseny Roginsky, congratulated Petrov on behalf of AWC in an awards ceremony that took place at Moscow News’ office. The only regret AWC had, he said, was that they hadn’t acknowledged Petrov’s heroic action years ago. “They believe, you see, that in this world, people who are capable of actions like that can be counted up on one hand.”
Ah, let's hope it lasts:
Glenn Reynolds has more, but that's probably because he's in the middle of the right-wing blogosphere.
RIP, finally.
UPDATE: The response from the right-wing blogosphere -- full of death poems and scripture, not to mention wailing and gnashing of teeth -- was a little TOO predictable, don't you think?
UPDATE #2: I take that back. I was just home for lunch and caught about 20 minutes of the cable news networks. Man, do they want this story to live. They won't give it up. The typical broadcast went like this:
"Well, Terri Schiavo died this morning, but the controversy is sure to rage for days and weeks. The fallout is political, legal, religious, and medical. And we'll be talking with the experts for days and weeks and months to come. We LOVE this story! Not even her death can stop us! Bwaaaa-haha-haha! We'll continue to suck at this cow's teat until there's nothing left to suck!!!!"
UPDATE #3: No, I take that take-back back. The MOST fucked response isn't from the media, but from the right-wing, as I originally said. Huge wingnuttery this time in the form of Tom Delay, who took the opportunity to make threats against judges, doctors, and private citizens like Michael Schiavo:
Mrs. Schiavo’s death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo’s friends in this time of deep sorrow.
Runner-up in wingnuttery response goes to James Dobson who, according to Atrios:
is on CNN bitching about the courts going against "the will of the people" (ignoring the fact that, in this situation, the courts are clearly with the people). And, after his basic culture of life whine, he brought up the example of how people are overwhelmingly in support of "executing minors" and those dastardly courts won't let it happen.
Slightly altered from Robert Friedman's brilliant column:
* In the event I lapse into a persistent vegetative state, I want medical authorities to resort to extraordinary means to prolong my hellish semiexistence. Fifteen years wouldn't be long enough for me.
* I want my spouse and my parents to compound their misery by engaging in a bitter and protracted feud that depletes their emotions and their bank accounts.
* I want my spouse to ruin the rest of his/her life by maintaining an interminable vigil at my bedside. I'd be really jealous if he/she waited less than a decade to start dating again or otherwise rebuilding a semblance of a normal life.
* I want my case to be turned into a circus by losers and crackpots from around the country who hope to bring meaning to their empty lives by investing the same transient emotion in me that they once reserved for Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy and that little girl who got stuck in a well.
* I want those crackpots to spread vicious lies about my spouse.
* I want to be placed in a hospice where protesters can gather to bring further grief and disruption to the lives of dozens of dying patients and families whose stories are sadder than my own.
* I want the people who attach themselves to my case because of their deep devotion to the sanctity of life to make death threats against any judges, elected officials or health care professionals who disagree with them.
* I want the medical geniuses and philosopher kings who populate the Florida Legislature to ignore me for more than a decade and then turn my case into a forum for weeks of politically calculated bloviation.
* I want total strangers - oily politicians, maudlin news anchors, ersatz friars and all other hangers-on - to start calling me by my first name, i.e., "Bobby," as if they had known me since childhood.
* I'm not insisting on this as part of my directive, but it would be nice if Congress passed a "Bobby's Law" that applied only to me and ignored the medical needs of tens of millions of other Americans without adequate health coverage.
* Even if the "Bobby's Law" idea doesn't work out, I want Congress - especially all those self-described conservatives who claim to believe in "less government and more freedom" - to trample on the decisions of doctors, judges and other experts who actually know something about my case. And I want members of Congress to launch into an extended debate that gives them another excuse to avoid pesky issues such as national security and the economy.
* In particular, I want House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to use my case as an opportunity to divert the country's attention from the mounting political and legal troubles stemming from his slimy misbehavior.
* And I want Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to make a mockery of his Harvard medical degree by misrepresenting the details of my case in ways that might give a boost to his 2008 presidential campaign.
* I want Frist and the rest of the world to judge my medical condition on the basis of a snippet of dated and demeaning videotape that should have remained private.
* Because I think I would retain my sense of humor even in a persistent vegetative state, I'd want President Bush - the same guy who publicly mocked Karla Faye Tucker when signing off on her death warrant as governor of Texas - to claim he was intervening in my case because it is always best "to err on the side of life."
* I want the state Department of Children and Families to step in at the last moment to take responsibility for my well-being, because nothing bad could ever happen to anyone under DCF's care.
* And because Gov. Jeb Bush is the smartest and most righteous human being on the face of the Earth, I want any and all of the aforementioned directives to be disregarded if the governor happens to disagree with them. If he says he knows what's best for me, I won't be in any position to argue.
| Issue | Liberal Position |
Osama bin Laden Position |
NeoConservative Position |
| Abortion | Favors |
Opposes |
Opposes |
| Prayer in School | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Separation of Church & State | Favors |
Opposes |
Opposes |
| Censorship | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Pre-emptive Attacks | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Interpretation of Religious Scripture | Not Literal |
Literal |
Literal |
| Women's Rights | Favors |
Opposes |
Opposes |
| Death with Dignity | Favors |
Opposes |
Opposes |
| Theory of Evolution | Accepts |
Rejects |
Rejects |
| Invasion of Iraq | Opposed |
Favored |
Favored |
| Interest on Loans | Supports Fair Interest Rates |
Opposes All Interest |
Opposes Any Limits on Interest |
| United Nations | Supports |
Opposes |
Opposes |
| Gay Rights | Favors |
Opposes |
Opposes |
| Contraceptives | Favors |
Opposes |
Opposes |
| Sex Education | Favors |
Opposes |
Opposes |
| Severe Penalties for Drug Use | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Corporal Punishment | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Thinks There is Only One TRUE God | No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Dissent = Disloyalty | Disagrees |
Agrees |
Agrees |
| Torture | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Death Penalty | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Execution of Mentally Ill and Children | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Detention Without Trial | Opposes |
Favors |
Favors |
| Gasoline Prices |
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