I knew it was just a matter of time before the celebrities started chiming in:
In a statement released yesterday, an angry [Mel] Gibson has thrown his weight behind Schiavo's parents' ongoing fight. He fumes, "I fully support the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Schindler to save their daughter... from a cruel starvation. Terri's husband should sign the care of his wife over to her parents so she can be properly cared for."
"After all," he continued, "I won an Oscar, and they don't just give those out unless you have a keen grasp of neurology and American law."
And former Everybody Loves Raymond star [Patricia] Heaton is just as fired up about the euthanasia battle. She says, "I don't know how the courts allowed this to happen but it's a very, very dark day for people with disabilities. There's a woman, who is disabled, who is being starved to death. Terri Schiavo is not brain dead; she's alive, she's breathing, she's disabled. People on Death Row get more of a shot at appealing their sentence that Terri Schiavo is getting - and she hasn't committed any crime."
Schiavo has had 15 years of attention from the courts and court-appointed physicians who have all reached the same conclusions: Michael Schiavo is the correct person to make legal decisions, and that there is no chance she will ever recover from the damage to her brain.
That's three years more than Lionel Herrera got, BTW. And 14 more than Gary Gilmore.
But it's always refreshing when the handful of conservative Hollywood celebrities put their two cents in. We're still waiting to hear from Charlton Heston (don't hold your breath), Tom Selleck, Kurt Russell, and James Woods. Maybe they're actual conservatives, however, who realize the idiocy of Congress stepping in to overturn a legitimate court decision.
A decision which is now, possibly, headed for the Supreme Court.
Heaton is planning to fast on Good Friday to "show some solidarity".
Ye gods.
Actually, that does raise a good question. Have the liberal activist actors said anything yet? If they have, I've missed it.
I'm going to show solidarity on Good Friday. I'm going to eat my vegetables.
Yeah, you really know my stuff, "doc." I mean, when have I ever made fun of liberal celebrities?
And certainly I wouldn't allow that to creep into my other writing, would I?
And it was Heaton who made the stupid death row comparison. Fight hyperbole with hyerpbole, I always say.
HW...I haven't seen anything about the usual liberal Hollywood suspects. Martin Sheen is defending his son's reputation against the nasty news media, and everyone else seems preoccupied with the war. Go figure.
I think Charlton Heston's gonna need a court order soon to keep his body going after his brain quits.
I love how conservatives like the good doctor always whine ceaselessly about liberal Hollywood and how actors have no right to express political opinions, but then jump to the defense of conservative actors who speak out. Then again, consistency is something impossible to expect from a conservative.
I would like to hear some conservative explain how they can be so in favor of "states rights" when it comes to things like abortion laws, protecting homosexuals from discrimination, or teaching creationist myth in schools... yet they can applaud when Congress intervenes into a Florida court case that has undergone 15 years of judicial review. Either you think states should make these kinds of decisions themselves, or you think the federal government has a role. Not both, Chuckles.
Unless, of course, conservatism is really designed not to keep government out of our lives but rather to turn the Republican Party and Congress into the political wing of the evangelical Christian sect (kind of like Sinn Fein for the IRA).
Actually, we knew that already. Never mind.
I must have seen that reactionary, shrieking weirdo on at least 12 different programs yesterday. You know the one I mean... the one who makes Peter Boyle look attractive.
I'm still waiting to hear from Ron Silver before I decide how to come down on this. After all, he played a lawyer in Reversal of Fortune and has fantastic hair for a 58-year-old.
Oh my God, we have to save Patricia Heaton! She needs a court order to forcibly insert a feeding tube into her stomach. Sure, she said she doesn't want to eat, but this is a woman's life at stake. We can't take chances by allowing her own express wishes to be controlling. Quick, call the Supreme Court!
What would Lennie Brisco say about all this? He was no religious fanatic, but something smells wrong about this Michael Schiavo character.
What would Lennie Brisco say about all this?
Are you predicting a "Law and Order twist?"
Hmm. On the off chance that Schiavo isn't brain dead, and has some small concious activity, it certainly would be cruel to starve her to death.
And if she is truely functioning with only brainstem activity (and perhaps midbrain), and if her parents want to care for her, and there is sufficent money to do so from the settlement, who is harmed by letting her live?
I do find it surprising that so many on the left, who have long championed the casue of Federalism, have suddely become States' Rights advicates and are upset that the the Federal Government has become involved in this matter. What's next? Michael Moore demanding we revisit Plessy v. Ferguson?
We really have no way of knowing for certain if she in fact has any concious activity at any level. We generally believe that cerebral cortex is the seat of conciousness, but we also know that there are various levels of conciosness. Terry has an atrophied cortex, but a very active brainstem and midbrain, and there are a lot of PETA activists who think that animals absent a cerebral cortex, like lobsters, feel pain.
I wonder why PETA hasn't stepped into this fray?
Nice when folks don't have the guts to leave even a fake name to their comments, huh?
I can't speak for everyone on the left, and I'm not trying. But for me, I am not so much championing the cause of states rights so much as laughing at the sheer and blatant hypocrisy of a movement that has spent decades justifying every kind of government intrusion on our lives (restricting abortion, mandating acceptable bedroom behavior, deciding who it's okay to discriminate against, etc.) under the banner of states rights... only to run screaming bloody murder to the federal government when years of state judicial activity have resulted in an outcome that doesn't fit with their evangelical Christian agenda.
Do I believe that the federal government has a role to usurp states' authority when states go astray of the intent of federal statute? Yep. Absolutely. My issue here is not that the federal government overstepped its bounds. My issue is the phoniness exuded by conservatives through this whole thing ... and how the sheep's clothing has been stripped from the right's agenda.
Just like with so many other scientific issues (global warming, stem cell research, and evolution to name just a few), this administration and the evangelical party he represents are ignoring scientific fact in order to pursue their own agenda. 15 years of doctors observing and testing Terri Schiavo, and they've reached the same conclusion: she's brain dead. She ain't coming back. But I guess when science doesn't fit a conservative's view of the way the world should be, we should just toss science out, huh?
Not only that, but Michael Schiavo has been able to convince 15 years worth of judges, at all levels of the judiciary, that Terri Schiavo's wishes would be to not be kept alive. 15 years, multiple judges and courts... yet even despite this, conservatives (who always whine loudest about perceived government intrusion on our personal liberties) are leaping to have the federal government step in to act and thwart the carrying out of this individual citizen's wishes.
If you don't see the hypocrisy in that, you probably still think there were WMD's in Iraq that posed an "imminent danger" to American national security.
I do find it surprising that so many on the left, who have long championed the casue of Federalism, have suddely become States' Rights advicates and are upset that the the Federal Government has become involved in this matter.
You got that backwards. The question is why so many on the right, proponents of states' rights, suddenly find themselves Federalists when it comes to family law and marriage issues.
We really have no way of knowing for certain if she in fact has any concious activity at any level. We generally believe that cerebral cortex is the seat of conciousness, but we also know that there are various levels of conciosness.
Doctors have had 15 years to determine if there is a level of consciousness abouve vegetative, and also whether there's any hope of recovery. All (and I'm talking about those who have examined her personally, not internet neurologists and Bill Frist) agree that there isn't.
UPDATE: Of course, upon submitting this, I see Mudge beat me to the punch. What he said.
I think, to add to the mix, that if a lobster suddenly acquired sentience and the ability to communicate, and said lobster were then able to leave a will indicating that it should be terminated should it lose its newfound higher brainpower, and then, Flowers for Algernon style, it did, PETA would have no problem with destroying that animal. PETA gets unhappy when creatures unable to express their own feelings get treated inhumanely; a lobster that can communicate would no longer be of interest to PETA.
I will conclude by saying that, were I the executor of said lobster's final wishes, I would eat it with slices of lemon and drizzled in melted butter. Yum! not that I'm suggesting we do that with Terri Schiavo. Ugh.
Ah, such eloquence from an antiSemite and a woman who shills for Albertson's. The Schindlers are truly in good company and couldn't have more erudite spokesmen if they'd sought them.
As opposed to the ubiquitous liberal actors who are so intelligent and knowledgable?
Comparing Terry Schiavo to Gary Gilmore?
Priceless.