The best and worst thing about life is that nothing lasts forever.
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Meta-Theme: Who Decides?
I am struck by the arguments being used by many of the people who oppose Congress’s intervention in the Terri Schiavo case: That the decision should be left to the doctors and those who love Terri. The fact that those who love Terri disagree is what brings the issue to the courts, but the question there, too, is “who decides?” However, the courts are choosing between two *people* (or sets of people) – the parents or the spouse. In the arena of public opinion, the choice is between “the government” and “the individuals involved.” Public sentiment has come down overwhelmingly on the side of “the individuals involved.”
Yet many of the same people who believe the government should leave the decisions about Terri’s fate to the people involved (along with whatever professionals and counselors those people deem appropriate), are “anti-abortion” and vote for anti-choice politicians specifically *because* they are anti-choice. The Schiavo case seems to have shown that many of these anti-abortion voters aren’t truly anti-choice.
Who Are You?
This entry has no answers, only questions. Or, to be precise, *one* question:
Who are you, who-who, who-who?
Who are you, who-who, who-who?
I really want to know
With the theme song from CSI running through my head (borrowed, of course, from The Who), I think this is the question that approximately 30% of American voters – the so-called “swing voters” are asking the Democratic Party.
A lot of pundits and political analysts claim that the a lack of a definitive – or even consistent – answer to this question is what caused the Democrats to lose seats in the House and Senate, as well as the Presidential election, in 2004. I think they’re probably right. So, have we learned our lesson? Apparently not.
Senate to extend Cheney Doctrine to 50.59% of Americans
Did you know that even though Democratic Senators are in the minority, they actually represent 50.59% of the people in this country? That’s assuming each Senator represents all the people of his or her state, of course. (Another way to do it would be to count up how many people actually voted for each Senator in his or her most recent election, as the Gadflyer has done here.) So, as I read about the Republican Senators considering the “nucular” option for stopping Democrats from filibustering Bush’s reichwingnut Judicial nominees, I started wondering, how many people will they actually be telling to “go fuck themselves” if they do this?
Continue reading Senate to extend Cheney Doctrine to 50.59% of Americans
Conspiracy Theory
It’s a conspiracy, I tell ya! First my hard drive goes wonky, will only boot in safe mode – which prevents me from even accessing the internet! Then the repair shop I take it to is _seriously_ understaffed, waiting nearly two weeks just to tell me that, gee, maybe they should just wipe the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. This after I *specifically* asked them to find out if it was the hard drive that was bad, or something ON the hard drive – because re-installing the operating system on a bad hard drive will simply cost me $60, and not solve the problem. Clearly, stealthily installing incompetent techs in a previously stellar repair shop is part of the conspiracy, too.