NewsMax.com: Autopsy May Shed Light on Terri's Death

I emphasize may. According to this article, the autopsy will include a complete evaluation of Terri Schindler Schiavo's brain by a neuropathologist, full body X-rays, gross and microscopic examination of her bones, and toxicological studies. The only thing that I would add to this examination is a full evaluation of her heart, of the type that any pathologist would do in a teaching hospital, having received authorization to perform a complete autopsy.

Concerning the disposition of her remains after the autopsy is done: Yes, I recognize that cremation sounds like a slap in the face of the Schindlers, who, being Roman Catholics, believe that one must preserve the body intact in anticipation of the Resurrection from the Dead. But in this case I hope I can set the Schindlers' minds at rest. The only reason why I do not want the body cremated is in case any future authorities, moved as they might be to investigate this travesty of justice, might wish to exhume the body for a repeat autopsy. I recall at least one case--one mentioned on Robert Stack's old program, Unsolved Mysteries--in which the family of a dead woman had her body exhumed twice, and on the second autopsy found that the woman had been injected with horse dope. The woman's husband fled, and when Robert Stack flashed his picture all over the world, his neighbor in, of all places, American Samoa called Robert Stack's toll-free number--whereupon the FBI hauled him in to face justice. He was convicted, and as far as I know he is still in prison for his crime.

So yes, preserving a body intact can have some benefit, and sometimes you have to examine a body three times to develop evidence of a crime.

But I sense that the real reason why the Schindlers are worried about cremation is that it would somehow prevent Terri--assuming that she is saved--from participating in the Resurrection from the Dead. Let not your hearts be troubled, please. Salvation of the soul, and everything that follows from that, is a gift of God, and does not depend on any work of man. That includes the Resurrection. When the time comes for Terri to participate in the Resurrection, her ashes--even if that be all that remains of her--will vanish from their urn and be reconstituted. Or she'll simply get a new body. But if an intact body were required for the Resurrection, then nobody buried any longer ago than the last twenty-five years or so--at maximum--could possibly qualify. Bodies decompose. The only civilization that ever came close to solving that problem were the ancient Egyptians--and I don't think anyone has ever figured out how they did it. But I wouldn't worry about it, and I would encourage the Schindlers not to worry about it. Michael Schiavo could permit that attorney of his to...well, never mind. None of it would matter, and nothing that happens to her body from now on will matter in the slightest to whether Terri will enjoy the Resurrection or not.

The only thing that does matter is whether Terri was a saved woman--whether she ever reached the point of putting her trust in Jesus Christ alone for her salvation, apart from any works of man--be they her own, or those of the Roman Catholic Church or any other church. Unfortunately, none of us are likely to learn the truth of that matter this side of the Eternal City. We can only trust God, and trust Divine Justice to be perfect--and also trust God alone for the execution of Divine Justice. God says quite clearly that Divine Justice is His own affair, not ours.

NewsMax.com: Mexican Military on Standby in Response to Minutemen

Well, what do you suppose this means? The Minutemen have repeatedly stated that they don't intend actually to place illegal border crossers under citizen's arrest. (My guess is that their concern is not legal but logistical: when you take a prisoner, you have to be prepared to hold him.) So Vicente Fox is putting the Mexican military on standby, just on the Mexican side of the border? What's this--a threat of invasion? That's war talk, Señor Fox (as in Crazy As). Better think about what you just said...

NewsMax.com: Planned Parenthood Thanks Anti-Terri Voters

Specifically, an unnamed executive at Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida sent a e-mail thanking six Republican Florida State Senators for breaking ranks and effectively voting to sentence Terri Schindler Schiavo to die. The national director of "Stop Planned Parenthood," or STOPP for short, explains how he got the information. He then says that the spectacle of Planned Parenthood praising these six for what it calls their "courage" should surprise no one.

Well, it certainly doesn't surprise me. Abortion and euthanasia go together. Which is why I hold that the entire "death with dignity" concept needs re-examination.

WorldNetDaily: Terri Schiavo dies of thirst

That happened at 14:05 UTC, or 9:05 a.m. EST. And, true to form, Michael Schiavo refused to allow any member of the Schinder family attend the moment of her death.

The article gives details of who was, and who was not, with Terri on this the final day of her life. Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, laid it on the line, in repeated interviews with Fox News: this was no mere death; it was murder.

And once again, I hope that certain players in this drama are satisfied. George Felos gets another death to swoon over. George Greer--well, his motives are difficult to pin down, but he, too, has a history of preferring death in such cases, though he has never given as many clues as has George Felos as to why he thinks this way. Michael Schiavo, of course, now gets to be with his Sweet Patootie.

The next event will be a medical examiner's autopsy. Ironically, Michael Schiavo might have triggered this by being so foolish as to insist on a cremation--because under Florida law (as is the law in most States), any body that is to be cremated must come to autopsy. The ME's will look at her bones, and will look at her brain. What they find, if the attitudes of my former medical colleagues is any indicator, will contribute to a rancorous debate that touches the proper interpretation of clinical signs and computed tomograms of the brain, whether she ever was in a "persistent vegetative state," and whether--as I strongly suspect--Michael Schiavo had put Terri into the condition she was in.

I know that this blog gets some regular readers, because of the comments I've gotten. To the person who threatened death to me and to all those who see abortion and euthanasia as the abominations that they are, let me warn you: maybe you didn't leave a signature, but HaloScan has your IP address. And if I ever catch another such threatening comment on my blog from that address, I will call the FBI, or whoever investigates cybernetic threats. Do not think that Internet correspondence is inherently untraceable.

That aside, many of you insist that Terri Schindler Schiavo would have wanted to die. But what do you rely on to determine that? All that Michael Schiavo ever adduced as evidence to support his claim was his own recollection and (though this is unconfirmed) the recollections of certain members of his own immediate family. That, sportsfans, is hearsay. The law in Florida, unfortunately, allows "evidence" of verbal wishes when no written documents exist concerning a patient's wishes for care while incapacitated. But the law also says that such evidence must be clear and convincing. How Judge Greer could pronounce himself convinced that Terri Schindler Schiavo would have wanted to die is beyond my comprehension. Therefore, if you are relying on Judge Greer's finding-of-fact in this case, then I say to you that that finding is in error and the facts are disputable.

More broadly, I stand by my earlier recommendation: Florida must amend its statutes so that hearsay will never again be admissible as evidence that any person would have wanted to refuse food and water. And as to this case, Judge George Greer has committed not only a number of reversible errors but also a number of impeachable offenses. Setting aside those Congressional subpoenas is the clearest of these.

And I repeat another thing that I have said: the Congress was entirely within its authority to act as it did. Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution clearly provides that Congress may by law regulate the jurisdiction of the courts. Congress could as easily have ordained and established a special federal magistrate, had such been its pleasure. Why it did not so choose, I can only speculate--though perhaps the creation of such a special court would have required selecting a candidate to sit on that court and holding confirmation proceedings in the Senate. Instead, Congress ordered the courts to review the facts of the case with a view to determine whether Judge Greer's fact-finding was in error. This Judge James Whittemore refused to do, and neither the Eleventh Circuit nor the Supreme Court caught that error.

In fact, I understand that one Justice of the Eleventh Circuit actually said that Congress' action was unconstitutional! On what basis, I ask? Does Congress have the authority to set the rules of the courts, or doesn't it? The only ground I could possibly see is an allegation that Congress' action somehow violated Article IV, which directs Congress to guarantee to the States that they will be under a republican government--meaning one in which interference in State affairs is kept to a minimum. Gee--I wonder whether the late General Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, would agree that Congress has been so scrupulous in the past.

To those who insist that "this is a private family matter," I ask this: Why do we have laws against spousal or child abuse? Shall we vest in a husband the full authority to kill his wife at his pleasure, as husbands had in ancient Rome?

Oh, but you ask, this was a matter of her "right to die." If anything, this case, and the disgusting manner of its handling, ought to prompt our society to re-examine the entire question of a "right to die." I know perfectly well that many who will read these words would wish that our society had the full gamut of euthanasia "options" now available in the Netherlands. Fine--you just think about that when you become incapacitated, and your greedy heirs are already planning their vacations to St. Tropez just as soon as they can ram your will through probate, or whatever they call it in your State. Wives, think about that if your husbands start to cast roving eyes. And to Jodi Centonze, I repeat: Think about what happened to your predecessor as Mrs. Michael Schiavo. As you prepare to become Wife Number Two, watch out for Wife Number Three. I have no idea who that person might be. That is not my affair. But it is yours. What happened to Terri Schindler Schiavo might happen, someday, to Jodi Centonze Schiavo. Statistics clearly show that remarriages between adulterers and their co-respondents never last--and sometimes they don't even last as long as the original marriages that the co-respondents managed to break up. Because a man who will rove on his wife will rove again, and he can always--always--find another squeeze where the current squeeze came from. Think about that, Jodi Centonze. And one more thing: You're a big girl. You handle it--if you can.

WorldNetDaily: Jesse Jackson hammered for Terri visit

The man doing the hammering is The Rev. Jesse L. Peterson, head of Brotherhood Organization for a New Destiny (BOND). Says "the other Jesse":

Jesse Jackson visited and prayed with the parents of Terri Schiavo yesterday in Florida and urged that her feeding tube be reconnected," Peterson said in a statement. "For Jackson to insert himself in this case in the final hours of Terri's life is the height of desperation. He is using this case to get himself back in the news, just as he has done in the Michael Jackson molestation case. Jesse Jackson is an opportunist and has no interest in helping Terri. He is exploiting her plight to push the liberal Democrat's agenda for socialized health care...Until Jesse Jackson repents for condoning the culture of death and the killing of millions of black babies in the black women's womb he cannot be trusted.

Well, I admit that I didn't think about the socialized-medicine angle. But the reason I didn't is that the expense--to anyone--of Terri's care is not at issue. The parents are willing to assume full financial responsiblity for Terri's care--to say nothing of private foundations that have offered endowments, remittances (money to pay Michael Schiavo to get lost), and so on. Thus, "socialized medicine" has nothing to do with it, and until Jesse Jackson makes any statements along that line, in connection with this case, I won't assume that he's making any such plugs. The Rev. Mr. Peterson would have served himself much better simply to take Jackson at his word and perhaps ask Jackson whether he was now willing to rethink some of his past positions--and political affiliations. Which is what I'm asking Mr. Jackson right now.

WorldNetDaily: Senator: Schaivo judges should be 'held accountable'

The Senator involved is Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA). And he has every right to be concerned. Judge Greer cast aside two Congressional subpoenas--and Judge James Whittemore refused to give the case the de novo review that the law specifically called for.

Now we shall see whether Senator Santorum is serious--and he very well might be.

Empire Journal: Greer Impeachment Investigation Considered by Judiciary Chairman

That's right, sportsfans. Judge Greer might face removal from office by impeachment for, and conviction of, "misdemeanor in office." The Empire Journal says that he stands in violation of multiple parts of Florida's guardianship law and perhaps of campaign finance law as well--and certainly he stands in violation of certain ethical canons involving partiality in judging.

Appeals Court to Consider Schiavo Request

From NewsMax.com, which also reports on the latest efforts by none other than The Rev. Jesse Jackson.

With regard to this last: When The Rev. Jesse Jackson, or anyone with whom I have had my previous differences on other issues (like Ralph Nader), lends his support to an effort to keep a woman alive who is not guilty of any crime, I take him at his word. In Ralph Nader's case, he seems to think (as he evidently said to Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation) that the nation's HMO's are all eager to see Terri die because it will excuse, or even justify, their denial of care to patients judged not to have any "reasonable expectation of recovery." (He might even be right about that, and if he is, this illustrates the value he provides to any consumer-oriented society like ours.) All of this goes to show that sometimes an issue comes along that challenges people to assess whether they really have any core principles. The drama of Terri Schindler Schiavo is one such case. I commend The Rev. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Nader for finding in their hearts the resolve to defend certain principles that they have always claimed to hold dear. I wish a certain Senator from New York State--either Senator--would find a similar resolve in his or her respective heart.

Back to that appeals-court angle: The lawyer for the parents has petitioned the Eleventh Circuit to make a motion for a new hearing, on the grounds that Judge Whittemore did not give the case the thorough, de novo review that recently enacted federal law requires. Thus far, we know only that the Eleventh Circuit accepted the motion and are willing to consider it. We do not know yet whether they will grant or deny the motion.

While I'm on the subject, I know I must be touching a few raw nerves, considering a few of the comments I have lately received. In response to my open letter to, among other persons, Jodi Centonze (advising her to think about whether Michael might do to her what he is trying to do to Terri), I received my first death threat. Whoever made the comment should consider himself lucky that he had the good sense to post that anonymously--because a death threat is serious business, and the law takes it seriously. And in case anyone out there is wondering whether I am complaining about any pots calling this kettle black, let me make one thing clear: I have not made, nor do I condone anyone else making, any threat against Michael Schiavo, Jodi Centonze, George Felos, George Greer, or any of their allies, friends, relatives, or associates. I have offered warnings concerning the very real risk that each person runs concerning the lack of honor among or between thieves (as regards Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze) and concerning the eventual trial that God HImself will hold of all whose names are not written in the Book of Life [Revelation 20]. And that is all I ever said or meant, as a review of the archives of this blog will clearly show.

Threatening messages aside, I realize that some of you think that I am accusing Michael Schiavo unfairly. (One of you must think I'm making this stuff up out of the whole cloth, this although you couldn't make this stuff up even for a psychological thriller in the mold of Gaslight or The Bad Seed. But I digress.) But I ask you: Why else is Michael Schiavo still insistent on not simply walking away from this case, even after some have offered him million-dollar or even multi-million-dollar remittances? Why did he wait seven years to say, "Oh, by the way, my wife said that she'd just want to die"? How do you explain the nasty reputation that carries over from his past romances?

One more thing: We now hear that Michael Schiavo has "consented" in advance to an autopsy if his wife dies. Don't buy that Brooklyn Bridge, sportsfans. Florida law requires an autopsy in any case in which the body is to be cremated. Michael Schiavo is trying to pretend to consent to something that the law requires--this although he knows that an autopsy just might provide the explanation of that bone scan, the one showing multiple fractures in various stages of healing.

To sum up: at last report, both the Senate of Florida and the Eleventh Federal Judicial Circuit are considering, well, "eleventh-hour" appeals. Stay tuned....

UPDATE at 3:24 p.m. EST: Sean Hannity just broke the story that the Eleventh Circuit has denied the motion for a re-hearing. So all eyes now turn to the Florida Senate.

WorldNetDaily: Michael Schiavo lawyer gave to judge's campaign

And he made that contribution one day after another judge ruled that the original "Terri's Law" was unconstitutional. Not only that, but three other lawyers who have from time to time represented Michael Schiavo's side of the case have also made campaign contributions to Judge Greer.

Sportsfans, that's bribery. And incredibly, it does not violate Florida law--though it does violate judicial ethical canons.

Think about that one the next time anyone says that Terri Schindler Schiavo got a fair trial.

NewsMax.com: Oil-for-Food Blamed on Conservatives

Boutros Boutrous-Ghali, the immediate former SecGen of the UN, says that "right-wing politicians" here in America are using the oil-for-food scandal as mud to sling at the UN.

Yeah, well hey--Senator Norman Coleman (R-MN) didn't run a racket for six years. Kofi Annan did. This complaint is like blaming the witness for calling the cops, and I am singularly unimpressed.

WorldNetDaily: Supreme Court refuses to hear Schiavo appeal

And unhappily, the vote was unanimous and given without comment. We can only speculate on the reasoning that every single Justice used, but I have this idea: none of the Justices wants to entertain the notion that, at bottom, you have a trial judge who is systematically killing a woman just to satisfy a blood lust.

Why do I suggest that? Because Judge Greer turns out to have a history of insisting on terminating a life that he does not find worth living--and never mind that those who speak the loudest about "rights to die" stand to gain materially from the deaths involved.

Sportsfans, you've heard of nurses who eased patients out of this life because of their own notions of "quality" of life. You now see a judge doing exactly the same thing. Only when a judge does it, it's perfectly legal.

Well, I wouldn't give my immortal soul to watch Judge Greer squirm before the Great White Throne Judgment [Revelation 20] to answer for his handling of this and all those other cases. But I'd probably give any amount of riches short of that.

In the meantime, Jeb Bush needs to fish, or cut bait. The law gives him certain authority to act, and he must use it now. The time for waiting for a court to sanction his acts is over.

WorldNetDaily: The whole Terri Schiavo story

This is the most comprehensive re-cap of Terri's story that you are likely to find anywhere--because WorldNetDaily broke the story initially and has been on it ever since. The heartbreak, the lies, the fraud, the gross miscarriage of justice--it's all here. The only thing that's missing is Jodi Centonze' name and photograph--perhaps because WND feels that this story is about Terri Schindler Schiavo, and about her loving parents, her abusive husband, and certain corrupt officials, and not about Michael's current squeeze.

Nevertheless--Jodi, if you can access this, I suggest you read it--thoroughly. Before events replace "Terri" with "Jodi" in the future...!

WorldNetDaily: Is starving Terri Schiavo malpractice?

Nice to hear from a colleague who isn't a bought and paid for man of the Hemlock Society! Dr. Randolph Brinson lays it on the line: the judges in this sick-making case are wrong, and the doctors involved are just as wrong for obeying those orders.

My Last Visit with Terri Schiavo - Christianity Today Magazine

Written by Barbara Weller, this is her account of her last visit with Terri Schindler Schiavo last Friday. Among other things, Ms. Weller told Terri that Jesus would stay by her side.

At this report, the Florida Senate has just voted against changing their laws about the withholding of nutrition. So now Randall Terry is marching straight to the governor's office to plead with him to declare this an abuse case and move in.

WorldNetDaily: State might seize Terri

The order might come straight from the Department of Children and Families. The secretary to the Department specifically said that, though the law requires that they petition a court for permission to remove a "vulnerable adult" from an abusive or neglectful situation, they need not wait to get that permission. If they believe that she'll die if they don't act, DCF can just go in and take Terri any time they please. Furthermore, she declared that they need not review prior proceedings in any given case.

In case you haven't heard, the Eleventh Circuit has definitely refused to re-hear the Schindler's appeal. So that's it--all eyes now train on the State of Florida.

Governor Jeb Bush is at this moment hosting a press conference to pressure the Florida Senate to get their act together and--well, act. If and when they do, the Governor will not wait for any court review.

Might I suggest that if they get the opportunity to reinsert that tube, they follow it up at once with rehabilitative therapy (and forget Michael Schiavo!) to enable her to eat and drink without it. That alone will make her less vulnerable in future.

WorldNetDaily: Jeb Bush can save Terri and win the presidency

This commentary comes from Tom Ambrose, who spells out much more clearly how Jeb Bush just might have the authority to act, and even the responsibility.

WorldNetDaily: Bush brothers urged to intervene

And how intervene? By taking Terri into protective custody. Whether it's Jeb acting on the law concerning the withholding of food and drink, or George W. acting to enforce those Congressional subpoenas, these twenty organizations seem to think that either man can simply walk in with either State Police or US Marshals and take Terri away.

Surprisingly, Michael A. Peroutka of the Constitution Party is involved in this. I didn't think he would--except that if you couch it as something a State governor could do, he would go along with that more quickly than seeing a President act in this way.

UPDATE: On Michael Peroutka's own site, he urges both brothers to intervene, not just the governor. Clearly he thinks it is the President's place to intervene.

WorldNetDaily: Schindlers appeal to full 11th Circuit

Well, first I heard that they were petitioning the Supremes directly. Now I hear that they're asking for an en banc hearing before the entire Eleventh Circuit. That might work, because I recall that the Eleventh Circuit has a history of reversing some of its own three-judge panels on en bank appeal.

NewsMax.com: Second, Third Nurse Accuse Michael Schiavo

We've heard from these nurses before: Heidi Law and Carolyn Johnson. Neither of them allege anything as frightening as the insulin shots, but both corroborate Michael Schiavo's callous attitude toward Terri and routine interference with her care. They also corroborate his going into his wife's room and locking himself in with her, and how upset Terri would often be after one of his visits.

Appeal Denied; Supreme Court Next for Terri

By a vote of two to one, the three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit ruled against the Schindlers. Rather than seek an en bank hearing of the full Eleventh Circuit, they now have filed a cert petition with the Supreme Court.

Two of the judges still don't see this case for what it is: a case of homicide, aided and abetted by bought-and-paid-for men of a political activist group with an bone-chilling agenda and an arrogance to match it. But one judge sees the central problem: that Terri Schindler Schiavo will die without that feeding tube before the courts have a chance to consider the case fully. That dissent is their key help in getting the Supremes to consider their petition.

Media Bias in Terri Schiavo Case at Extreme Levels in AP, Reuters Reports

And how! Not a word about Michael Schiavo deliberately denying therapy, nor about his altering a patient's chart and threatening the institution with lawsuits if they didn't let him do it. Not a word about Terri's actual improvements. And definitely not a word about the allegations involving insulin shock, nor about how he called Terri a loose woman, kept wondering when she was going to die, and talking about how rich he was going to be. (Of course, he doesn't talk about riches now, not only because it looks bad, but also because he's drained the money by now, in legal fees.)

Most disturbing of all is having to listen to my fellow citizens say that she ought to die--until I tell them about the fingermarks on the throat, and about Jodi Centonze and her role in Michael Schiavo's life.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I have never suggested, nor have I grounds even to suspect, that Jodi Centonze has played any active role in aggravating Terri Schindler Schiavo's condition. As far as I can see, Jodi Centonze is nothing more than Michael's "Sweet Patootie"--whom he kept under wraps, by the way. I doubt that she has the slightest concept of the risks she is taking just by being associated with the kind of man who could so callously and deliberately bring a woman ever closer to death, for any reason. I cannot comprehend what could be going through her mind.

But if she hasn't thought about how what happened to Terri could happen to her someday, unless Florida changes that barbaric law, then she'd better start. And she ought to start thinking about how she is his partner in adultery--which, though not a crime, is still a sin, and a highly specific one. God handed down the Seventh Commandment for a reason, after all. How will she feel if he decides to run around on her? Does an adulterer ever "settle down" with the particular squeeze with whom he ran out on his wife? I doubt it. After all, there's plenty more where she came from.

Add attempted murder, and the mix becomes explosive. And that is what Jodi Centonze really ought to start thinking about--before she feels his hands around her throat.

WorldNetDaily: Nurse: Michael tried to kill Terri

This corroborates everything I have said about Michael Schiavo, and I mean everything. This includes calling her a female dog (actually, the five-letter word used for a female dog is also used to describe a woman of easy virtue) and asking when she was going to die, boasting about his prospects for inheriting vast wealth, and in general, forbidding her immediate caregivers to help her in any meaningful way. And then this nurse accused Michael Schiavo of something worse than that: of injecting her with regular insulin to throw her into "insulin shock" (the fancy medical term is "insulin-induced hypoglycemic coma").

Yes, I know I'm late blogging today, and that's because this case has become painful to watch. It looks as though Michael Schiavo is going to get his wish, despite the best efforts of the lawful authorities--because the State of Florida put this horrible proviso in their "right-to-die" laws that essentially admits hearsay in the determination of a wish to die, and even admits hearsay from an interested party in the patient's estate.

I hope you're satisfied, Judge Greer--and Judge Whittmore--and Bill Clinton, who appointed Judge Whittmore to the federal bench. This will be a warning and a testimony against the entire abortion and euthanasia movement. This is where the law has now come--taking the side of an abusive and even murderous husband, so that he can be with his Sweet Patootie! And I repeat what I said earlier: Congratulations, Miss 111. Your partnership-in-crime is about to pay off. But how many years will pass before he does to you what he is doing to Terri? Think about it, Jodi Centonze! Think about it...!

WorldNetDaily: Michael Schiavo to Bush: Come down to visit Terri

Talk about brazen! Michael Schiavo has now convinced himself of his own swindle. He dares the President to communicate with Terri!

If I were the President, I'd test that. I'd show up, all right--with US Marshals to beef up my Presidential Security Detail. And then this woman would become a guest of the White House.

Didn't Harrison Ford play the President in a movie, a few years ago? Maybe he now has another reason to call his agent.

Is Terri trying to talk?

Play the MP3 file on your system and judge for yourself. Ask yourself what's happening, and whether she is responding to her father or is just making automatic noises, as so many Hippocrates-violating "doctors" now assert. (Hat Tip: WorldNetDaily and Michelle Malkin.)

Frist Threatens Jail for Terri Judge

From NewsMax.com, with source material apparently from New York Newsday. Senator William Frist (R-TN) is, of course, the Senate Republican floor leader--but he is also the top ranking physician in the Senate. He and Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX), the House Republican floor leader, are clearly furious. Frist issued this statement on the matter on Friday evening. The bottom line: committees of each House have issued subpoenae to Terri Schiavo and Michael Schiavo. It is not for a State judge to decide whether Congress is overstepping its subpoena power, as George Greer presumed to do. And for that, the judge could go to jail or at least pay a heavy fine. We now hear that Congressman DeLay is preparing to hale Judge Greer before Congress on a contempt charge.

Clearly Senator Frist and Representative DeLay, not to mention the two committee chairmen involved, were unprepared for such a brazen act of defiance. I would have anticipated such an act, and have instructed the United States Marshal's Office for the specific district where Pinellas County is located to go out to that hospice and either

form a protective cordon around Terri and allow no one to perform any surgery on her to remove that tube, or
1. take her into protective custody and remove her from the hospice entirely,

at their discretion. (Tommy Lee Jones, call your agent. This is the movie you should have made as a more fitting sequel to The Fugitive. For that matter, maybe Harrison Ford should call his agent, too.)

Nurse: Terri Can Eat Normally

From NewsMax.com comes a dynamite summary of the details of Terri Schindler Schiavo's case that people have probably forgotten. It turns out that Terri could be taught to eat normally, and has eaten normally, except that Michael Schiavo refused any therapies of any kind, including that kind of rehabilitation. This also serves as a recent corroboration of an allegation that regular readers have seen me make before: namely that he has called Terri by a name reserved for female dogs and repeatedly asked whether she was dead yet. (Why female dogs should be an insulting metaphor is another issue for another day, but in case any of you don't believe me, read this article for yourselves.)

At last report, Terri's case is now up before a federal judge, according to the law enacted hours ago granting the federal courts jurisdiction in this case.

WorldNetDaily: Terri's death wish or Michael's?

Good question. When Michael Schiavo gave an interview to Larry King, he actually tripped up over his words. Judge for yourselves; here is the CNN transcript.

In related, happier news, Congress has now passed a bill to make this a federal case, and Bush signed it this morning.

US News : Florida Woman's Husband Attacks Congress Intervention, ( Breaking News,Kerala news, India News,Us,UK,Kerala Shopping,Onam Special, Kerala Gr

US News : Florida Woman's Husband Attacks Congress Intervention.

Herewith the latest words of Michael Schiavo:

They should be ashamed of themselves...Leave my wife alone. Leave me alone.

Michael Schiavo--you whom at least one previous girlfriend has accused of talking her, you whom many sources have quoted as calling your wife a female dog and asking whether she was dead yet--you who won a million dollars to take care of your wife, and spent it all on legal fees to ensure her death at a court's order--how dare you cry out to others to "leave you alone"?

The Schindlers have a mountain of evidence against you, and as soon as some real doctors take over Terri's care, they are likely to develop a whale of a lot more. That's why you wouldn't take the million-dollar remittance: because you know as well as the rest of us that if she talks, you are toast.

To the Schindlers I say this: If you really want your daughter to live, and if you have any reason to suppose Michael Schiavo guilty of foul play, then the time for wishing various organs of the State to investigate is over. You should have hired a private investigator long before this. Will you now do so?

This is crunch time. Without this evidence, you might have little chance to persuade even a Federal judge of the justice of your case. Decide quickly--Michael won't wait.

Help, My Professor is an Anarchist!

That's what more and more students are finding out--and now they have a place to go where they can share various classroom and campus outrages with the rest of us. (Hat Tip: Monica Crowley.)

The site sports a blog, a members-only forum (archives open to the public, but only members may post; membership is free of charge), and a reading list. That list contains some of the most provocative recent conservative releases, including Mark Levin's Men in Black (not to be confused with the goofy Tommy Lee Jones UFO movie by that same name), How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), and Michael Savages' The Enemy Within. You know exactly where these guys are coming from when you read this quote:

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Abraham Lincoln

I recommend this site highly to any college student, and to any prospective student and parent.

Judge in Terri Schiavo Case Quits Baptist Church He Attended

What prompted him to withdraw his membership was a chain of events that began with some scathing editorial comment from The Saint Petersburg Times about his handling of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo matter. He said:

If I don't like what the St. Pete Times writes about me, my only recourse is to cancel my subscription.

And he said it to a church deacon, informing him that he would no longer pay his tithes and offerings. Naturally the pastor wrote him and asked him whether he cared to remain a member, if such would be his attitude. And he said, "No."

Frankly the pastor ought to have initiated Matthew 18 proceedings against him long ago. When a man persists in public sin and brings scandal on the Body of Christ as a result, first you tell him about it privately, then you tell him about it in front of a witness, and finally you bring the matter to the full church. And if he still does not listen, you say good-bye. [Matthew 18:15-20]

WorldNetDaily: Attorney: Terri cried at news

Not only that, she actually tried to form words. "I WANT TO LIVE!" she wanted to say, but all that came out was "IIIIIII WAAAAAAA....!" Incredibly, the cops simply hustled the witnesses out and carried on.

Now I'm going to say something I never thought I'd say:

George Peppard, Lawrence Turreaud, Dirk Benedict, and Dwight Schultz, call your agents! Oh, sorry--George Peppard is dead. Too bad...

WorldNetDaily: Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed

And while this is going on, the legal maneuvering continues, and will continue until either

the tube is put back in yet again, or
1. Terri Schindler-Schiavo dies.

The most incredible thing about this case is the attitude of Judge Greer. How a State judge can thumb his judicial nose at Congress, as he has just done, is beyond my comprehension.

The ivory-tower-living medical experts continue to debate her cognitive state--which means that they wouldn't want to have the public think that a perfectly aware woman was going to die a death almost worse than that of a Western hostage in Fallujah before the Marines captured it. In any case, those physicians who removed the tube stand in violation of the Oath of Hippocrates and of every applicable standard of decency.

Sean Hannity is now in an almost unenviable position: mediating between the Republican causes of the US House and Senate! At issue: the language in the Senate bill, which Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) says was changed without the knowledge of the House. And now the House has adjourned--though how quickly it can reassemble is an open question.

I repeat what I said before: someone should have hired a private investigator. In fact, someone should have done that long before this.

This case has seen the tube removed before, and then reinserted. As of now, she has ten days to live. Stay tuned...

Judge OKs Removal of Schiavo Feeding Tube

Here's the latest from NewsMax.com, recapping the latest post I made. Of all the issues on which any judge would wilfully ignore the expressed will of Congress, I would never have expected this one. Rush Limbaugh repeats that the next step will probably be to seek a Federal injunction.

Judge Greer Defies Congress!

Incredibly, Judge George Greer has declared that those federal subpoenas have no force! "Remove the tube, and do it now!" he is quoted as having said.

House Republican leaders are now determined to go to a federal court and enjoin Florida authorities from carrying out that order, on the grounds that Terri Schindler-Schiavo is now a federal witness and, as such, under federal protection.

Deadline Passes; Terri's Tube Still Connected

This is a live blog of the latest bulletin on ABC Radio News. Now that two committees of Congress have issued subpoenas to Terri Schindler-Schiavo and her husband (and in the House case, to two attending physicians and the hospice administrator), a Florida court will convene a hearing at 1:15 p.m. ET today to determine whether those subpoenas have any force. This looks as though it will set up a Schoolhouse Door-style showdown between State and Federal bailiffs. Stay tuned...!

My Way News: House Panel Seeks to Keep Schiavo Alive

Unfortunately, the full Senates of the US and Florida have failed to act. Therefore, the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight has apparently laid aside its baseball 'roids investigation (perhaps temporarily) and opened an investigation that really matters. They are now investigating the case of Terri Schindler-Schiavo and have issued "subpoenas ordering doctors and hospice administrators not to remove her feeding tubes and to keep her alive until that investigation was complete."

And as if that weren't enough, Drudge informs us that Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman of the Senate Health Committee, has now stated that he wants Terri Schindler-Schiavo to testify before his committee! Just by declaring that officially, he has placed her under the legal protection of the Senate. Because Drudge put this text on his front page, and that front page is subject to change, I have taken the liberty of reproducing it in its entirety:

**Exclusive Fri Mar 18 2005 00:50:07 ET** The Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee, Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) has requested Terri Schiavo to testify before his congressional committee, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. In so doing it triggers legal or statutory protections for the witness, among those protections is that nothing can be done to cause harm or death to this individual.

Members of Congress went to the U.S. Attorney in DC to ask for a temporary restraining order to be issued by a judge, which protects Terri Schiavo from having her life support, including her feeding and hydration tubes, removed... Developing...

"Developing" just about says it. We will know within four and a half hours what result all of this will have.

UPDATE 12:20 p.m. ET: Rush Limbaugh also echoed, or confirmed, Drudge's account of what Senator Enzi did. "Talk about a nuclear option!" he cried, obviously excited and pleased. (I would have said, "Talk about the marines landing.") We also hear that yet another Florida hearing will convene shortly.

WorldNetDaily: Senators pledging to help Boy Scouts

In the wake of recent ACLU nastiness, a group of Senators are now pledging to clarify, as a matter of law, just what rights the Boy Scouts have to use Federal land for their activities.

WND says that this group of Senators is "bipartisan." To be scrupulously fair, this bill has one Democratic co-sponsor: Senator Bill Nelson, D-Florida. All seven other co-sponsors are Republicans, including both members of the Tennessee delegation. Full disclosure requires that yours truly reveal that he was a Boy Scout--and an Eagle Scout--in the Chickasaw Council, headquartered and centered at Memphis, TN.

This bill is long overdue, and considering that Federal lands are involved, Congress is the one to pass it. After all, the Constitution vests in Congress absolute authority over all lands which the Federal government may from time to time purchase to build a fort or magazine or other "needful building." [See Article I, Section 8, Clause 17.] That the ACLU made it necessary is a bad reflection on them--though perhaps I should expect no better of an organization whose very mission is to drive religion out of public life and, if possible, out of private consciousness.

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Faith Helped Courthouse Shootings Hostage

The article discusses Ashley Smith, the last person whom shooting suspect Brian Nichols took hostage before finally surrendering to authorities. He forced his way into her apartment, and also restrained her by force--and I will "close the curtain of charity"--to say nothing of modesty--on the manner of the restraint he used. And how did she survive the ordeal? By talking to him, and urging him to face the consequences of his sins by surrendering to lawful authority. At one point, he removed the restraints, and demanded "some real food"--whereupon she prepared him a hearty breakfast. In the end, he did exactly as she urged him to do: he surrendered.

Many people are making entirely too much of the frankly congenial manner in which she interacted with the suspect. Some have suggested that she herself surrendered to the "Stockholm Syndrome," named after a large group of hostages who displayed affection for their hostage taker when authorities rescued them and apprehended their captor. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have both mentioned those assessments--only to condemn them, of course.

Let's look at this case carefully and dispassionately:

1. When she found herself taken hostage, she had a judgment to make, and a judgment only she would be in any position to make. Only she could have determined whether the hostage taker was amenable to the kind of moral suasion she decided to employ, and only she, in any event, could have decided how best to save herself from becoming his fifth victim. No one--least of all a bunch of smart second-guessers--has the right to question her actions in any way, shape or form. Not unless she had done anything tantamount to treason--which she did not do.
2. Judge her actions by their result: she is safe and unharmed, and he is in custody, and that without having harmed or threatened anyone else.
3. Everything she said is exactly in accord with Holy Scriptures. She offered the suspect what amounted to forgiveness for the threats he issued, and the way he forced his way into her life without being invited. (We have no evidence that he forced himself upon her in any more intimate way.) She shared her faith with him--and "witnessing" is an elementary instruction to any Christian. And she urged him to surrender to lawful authority--just as St. Paul specifically said, "Let every soul subject itself to the ruling authorities"--a fancy phrase that includes the police. [Romans 13:1] And he took her advice.

Had she acted after the fashion that some of the second-guessers might have urged, she would probably be dead. And now anyone who wants to criticize her must ask himself what her death would gain. If he were a cold-hearted terrorist, nothing she did might have availed her anything--but I don't think anyone can assert that giving him a square meal would have posed any great national-security compromise even if he were a terrorist. The point is that right now he's not a threat to anyone--in fact, he's in custody (which is fancy Latin for "under guard")--so I'd say that she won the grand slam in hearts, the rubber, and the match.

WorldNetDaily: Earthly answer to UFO mystery

Specifically, this article discusses a big UFO scare in Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia. Observers spotted a large triangular object that made several swooping motions in the night sky and also appeared to light up and then darken, before finally disappearing from sight.

The object turned out to be an oversized triangular kite! The light going on and off was the reflected light from the flashlight that the kite fliers trained on the kite at different times, trying to spot the kite as it flew.

More generally, this is another example of a misinterpretation of an earthly event. In fact, Peter Jennings' "large triangular object" could also have been a kite, even if it wasn't a secret Air Force prototype of a blended-wing-body aircraft ("flying wing").

So I ask again: Why didn't Peter Jennings predict that a lot of UFO sightings would have just such a prosaic explanation?

Decades ago, another big scare arose over a region of the Caribbean Sea, called the "Bermuda Triangle," where ships and planes had allegedly vanished over the years. Except that the vanishings turned out to be associated with the violent storms for which the sea in general is famous. A TV special devoted to the Triangle mystery did what a good report should do--assure everyone that the so-called disappearances were perfectly reasonable under the specific circumstances. If Peter Jennings had done that kind of reporting on his UFO special, he'd be a lot better journalist than he seems to be.

NewsMax.com: NY Times Admits Iraq Had WMD 'Stockpiles' in 2003

That's right, sportsfans. After long supporting the Democratic Party official position that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, The New York Times now admits that Saddam did have such weapons and that he had them smuggled out across his border. The Times won't say where. My guess is Syria, mainly because the crazies who tried to gas the residents of Amman, Jordan, to death staged out of Syria.

Well, now, Senator Kerry, what have you to say about that?

NewsMax.com: Mel Gibson Supports Terri Schiavo

Yes, for what it's worth, Mel Gibson actually called Bob Schindler and told him to keep fighting. He even FAXed Schindler a prepared statement reiterating his support.

What will this accomplish? Well, I can't blame Gibson for not offering yet another remittance; everyone knows that Michael Schiavo won't take it, and I stand on my two alternate--and unattractive--theories. But if Gibson can shame Congress into acting, that might be enough to stir up a law.

USATODAY.com - Schiavo turns down $1M offer

That's right: Michael Schiavo has practically spit upon Robert Herring's offered remittance. His attorney, George Felos, called the remittance offer "offensive"--no surprise there, because George Felos lives to see euthanasia performed as a matter of routine, almost after the fashion described in Nolan and Johnson's sci-fi chiller Logan's Run. Mr. Herring says that the offer is still on the table, and his earlier deadline of 4:00 p.m. Monday still stands. (We can't, in all fairness, expect Michael Schiavo to comment directly. No litigant, having already retained an attorney, ever talks to anyone--unless he's Michael Jackson, which Schiavo is not.)

All eyes now turn to Congress, where "Terri's Federal Bill" (my name for the Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act) is her last hope.

A number of correspondents, and others in non-cyberspace with whom I have spoken about this case, have asked me to consider whether Michael Schiavo might in fact be correctly representing his wife's end-of-life wishes. In answer, I say that his behavior and demeanor since her collapse are not those of a loving husband. One does not call one's loved one by the common name given to a female dog (which epithet is an insult to dogs, but I digress) and ask only whether she is dead yet. Add to it that he has a mistress, has evidently had one since before Terri's collapse, and stands to gain financially from her death (though maybe not as much as a million dollars or the reported ten million dollars that someone else is supposed to have offered as a remittance), and he clearly has a conflict of interest and cannot therefore speak as the only witness to Terri's wishes and desires.

Since he will not take the remittance, one might suppose that he really does have the carrying-out of her wishes at heart. But in this case I have heard hints of spousal abuse, and I have seen clear and convincing evidence of the disallowance of routine medical and dental care. And that is why I suspect that he put her in the state she's in, and doesn't want her to talk, either with her natural voice or with her fingers on a computer keyboard, and perhaps accuse him of attempted murder.

Against this, Robert and Mary Schindler's failure to hire a private investigator and task him with solving the mystery of her death strikes me as negligent in the extreme. If someone did offer Michael Schiavo a ten million dollar remittance--ten times as much as Robert Herring is now offering--then why did that someone not use that spurned remittance to hire the private investigator right then?

We now have to consider, frankly, whether Terri Schindler-Schiavo is what we would call a "saved" person, and whether, as a result, she would indeed pass on to a better place if the latest court order were carried out. On that point, sadly, I have no evidence.

BreakPoint | Life or Death in Florida

While a California businessman prepares to offer Michael Schiavo a million-dollar remittance, Chuck Colson urges people to contact their Senators and Representatives to support the new Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act. Under that Act, Terri Schindler-Schiavo would get a federal hearing and be entitled to her own lawyer.

Time is running out for Terri, as you know--because Judge Greer has ordered her feeding tube removed by 1:00 p.m. seven days from now (March 18). But if this law passes, that will change the nature of the game--and then time will be running out for Michael, not Terri.

Right now, Michael has until 4 p.m. Monday (March 14) to take the remittance or leave it. A remittance, as I'm sure you know, is money someone pays you to get lost. Robert Herring, the one who ponied up the remittance (and deposited it already in Gloria Allred's lawyer's trust account), has laid down very simple terms: Michael Schiavo waives his interest in Terri's legal and medical decisions, and Herring pays Schiavo the million dollars. If Michael Schiavo does not take the million, then he is either a blind, raging maniac or, as I have long suspected, guilty of attempted murder and afraid that she'll talk.

But if he passes up that offer, and the IPLPA passes, then he's in major-league trouble--for what do you suppose any Federal judge will think of the standard of care that Terri has had all these years? Add to it that Michael Schiavo has found another squeeze and sired two children on her, and his position becomes acutely embarrassing to say the least. And then maybe someone could persuade Mr. Herring to offer up that milliion dollars--as his all-inclusive fee to hire a private investigator to solve the mystery of Terri's so-called collapse once and for all. (Where is Joe Mannix, or Philip Marlowe, when you could sure use one of them?)

BreakPoint | The Real Million Dollar Baby

That's right, sportsfans: Million Dollar Baby, the one that achieved that big Oscar near-sweep, had its basis on a true story. The only trouble is, the real-life story didn't end the way it did in the movie. The screenwriter wrote that euthanasia plot that took up the last fifteen minutes of the film. In fact, the real "million dollar baby" moved in with her sister, who encouraged her to renew her previous interest in painting. You can read all about it in today's BreakPoint.

Now you know that the liberals have lost the marketing campaign of ideas, when they have to lie about real events to make their points. The difference now is that they can't get away with it anymore.

The Hillary Makeover Continues...

Several months ago, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) complained about our country's immigration policy--dead-bang-on-target complaints to be sure, but she only made them because she wants to be President, and she knows that the Red State voters will never give her a single electoral vote with her record. In other words, she is totally insincere.

And now from NewsMax.com comes Hillary's latest makeover ploy: about how TV has too much sex on it.

Well, whaddya know? Are we to believe that she never noticed that before? As Nell Carter said long before anyone ever heard of Ward Churchill, give me a break.

Calling the proliferation of adult entertainment "a silent epidemic," the top Democrat said, "Just a decade ago, we made great strides to keep children away from inappropriate material."

Yes, and as NewsMax points out, she said not a word about how her own husband contributed to that "silent epidemic."

That's the problem with Hillary: much of what she says these days has a grain of truth to it. Sex on TV is a silent epidemic, as she says--and not just on TV but everywhere you go to take a walk. But where was she when Monica Lewinsky got her internship at the White House? And how does she square what she's saying now with decorating the White House Christmas Tree one year with condoms and sex toys? (For all the disgusting details, go check out Unlimited Access by Gary Aldrich.) That's something even NewsMax forgot to mention--and nor did they mention that Bill Clinton stocked the film library aboard the Presidential transport (the one that usually flies under the call sign "Air Force One") with R- and NC-17-rated material, all of which Bush ordered thrown off the plane when he took over.

But somebody has to mention these things, and every other piece of evidence that Hillary is the worst kind of hypocrite, even for politics. Can a woman totally make herself over long enough to sit at the most august desk in the land? Not if bloggers like me can help it.

Muslims, Christians try to repair relations after arrests in family's murder

From the Associated Press, distributed by Newsday.com. Specifically, the local Coptic community, the American Coptic Association, and many others--including myself--all assumed that when a Coptic family died violently in their home, Muslim terrorists had done the deed. Now, however, the Jersey City Police have two very likely suspects in the case--caught on tape trying to use Hossam Armanious' ATM card one too many times, and with an opportunity that no outsider could match--and who are, by all account, not Muslims and definitely not Egyptian. So now, it seems, the local Muslim activists are demanding some apologies.

Well, I'm not ready to apologize just yet. I've already discussed about how I had every reason to assume that the police had ruled out those closest to Hossam Armanious and his family. We now learn that they utterly failed to take Edward McDonald, the upstairs tenant, into account until they finally checked into Hossam's financial records and found $3000 of ATM withdrawals--which in turn led them to the bank, where McDonald was caught on tape using Hossam's ATM card (only to have the ATM eat it). So if anyone has to apologize about the handling of this case, it's the police, for not "playing the percentages" and checking out the upstairs tenant from the get-go.

But I have some more questions:

1. Who was the Internet chat participant who irresponsibly threatened Hossam Armanious with death? Yes, I'm a veteran of Internet discussion, and that includes flame wars. I've singed myself dozens of times under circumstances that I'll not mention here. But last time I checked, threatening anyone with death is enough to cast suspicion on you if that person winds up dead.
2. Why did the Egyptian consulate threaten the extended family with an undisclosed sanction if they did not "keep quiet" about the circumstances of Hossam's death? The Egyptian Ambassador has some major 'splainin' to do. If his personnel had kept their mouths shut, they could have saved themselves a great deal of embarrassment.
3. Why don't we get a single straight answer on what the Koran actually demands of its followers?

If Muslims are interested in repairing damaged relations, then maybe they could start with the very real grievances that the Copts have with Muslims. Friends and relatives of Hossam Armanious suspected Muslim involvement because such involvement is typical--and also because some loose cannon on the gundeck made a threat in a public forum.

And besides--maybe those yo-yos aren't Muslim and not Arab after all. But we still don't know "boo" about what other associations they might have. The FBI needs to run down every associate that either suspect has--just to be complete.

Islam's Culture War - Christianity Today Magazine

We have here a review of a new book, Why the Rest Hates the West by Meic Pearse. Pearse's thesis is that the real reason why Muslims hate the West has to do with Western cultural excesses, not Western foreign policy. Reviewer J. Dudley Woodberry correctly notes, however, that Western foreign policy, and the very nature of Islam itself, are "central [in] importance" to explaining why Islam and the West are in conflict.

I haven't read Pearse's work, but if Woodberry's description of it is accurate, Pearse is actually describing the secularistic influences on Western culture--the very things with which I myself quarrel. "[L]ack of respect for the past, religion, family, and honor, while overindulging in sports, entertainment, and sex": I couldn't have said it better myself. Now I hasten to add that "honor", to me, does not permit killing your daughter or sister because she has somehow "stained the family honor" by having an affair with someone or even by being the victim of rape. That said, I think the secularistic culture mavens of today do deliberately pour contempt upon history, religion, family, and honor--and by honor I mean "as in 'word of.'"

On my honor, I will do my best

• To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law,
• To help other people at all times,
• To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

(Source: The Boy Scouts of America.)

So Pearse says that the West must reform itself to be more like "the rest."

He says this renewed moral vision should be based not on a culture of rights but of duty. Religious faith and life, he argues, must be brought back into the public square.

I would agree with the above, up to a point. Duty as a concept is a thing that the West has forgotten, at its peril. Attention to duty made the Romans great, and once made America great. If you don't believe that, I invite you to visit Valley Forge. (I have, and I can probably point to the place where General George Washington knelt down in prayer, as portrayed in the famous painting.) I further maintain that a proper acknowledgement of God and His Christ should be brought back into the public square. But I cannot countenance the bringing of Allah into the public square. Pearse ignores the verses in the Koran itself that exhort its readers to commit treason against any society that does not govern itself according to Muslim law--not to mention the Muslim version of the Apocalypse, which says that the very trees shall betray the enemies of Allah to Allah's instruments, the Muslims. (Or rather, the Arabs, because Islam is and always has been nothing more nor less than pan-Arab nationalism in religious dress.)

Does the West have a serious cultural problem? Yes, indeed. A society that treats sports figures and actors and actresses as Very Important Persons when they clearly don't deserve it, while permitting an abusive husband to starve his wife to death, is not a God-fearing society. But is that the only quarrel that Islam has with us, or we with it? No, no, and a thousand times, no.

WorldNetDaily: Federal bill introduced to save Terri Schiavo

And not only that, but Representative David Weldon, MD (R-FL) has enlisted Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) to introduce the bill in the Senate at the same time he himself dropped it into the hopper in the House. The Incapacitated Person's Legal Protection Act would grant automatic access of incapacitated persons to the federal courts, same as inmates on death row now have.

This article also discusses the opinion of Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Nobel nominee, that Terri Schindler-Schiavo could still benefit from treatment, and has links to the petition by the Department of Children and Families for the right to intervene, and the motion by Terri's parents for a retrial or a re-determination of the original case by reason of reversible error.

Temple U. Faces Suit After Trying to Have Christian Student Committed

From Agape Press. The following excerpt describes the issue:

Back in 1999 Temple University sponsored the controversial and blasphemous play Corpus Christi, in which Christ is portrayed as a homosexual. Michael Marcavage, then a Christian student at the Philadelphia school, complained to administrators. Temple officials eventually tried to have Marcavage committed to a mental institution because of his opposition to the play.

Specifically, the officials summoned him to their offices and read him the riot act about tolerance and all that schmaltz. In reply, Marcavage said that he had to go and pray. So he went to the bathroom to have a private space--and they rushed him and held him down by force. They were all ready to have someone put a straitjacket on him and throw him into the rubber room!

I remember thinking at the time, Did I just step through the "Atavachron" (Star Trek episode titled "All Our Yesterdays") and pop out in Moscow, USSR, when Josef Stalin was in charge? What in the name of St. Paul is this?

Mr. Marcavage has gone on to graduate, but immediately announced his plan to sue Temple University in federal court. That case is now, at long last, about to come to trial.

For a further update on what Michael Marcavage is doing with himself, check out his new site, Repent America.

Teresa Heinz: Bush Win Suspicious

From NewsMax.com. And no, this is not yesterday's headline. This is what she is saying right now, which the Seattle Post-Intelligencer overheard. Specifically, she says:

Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States...[and it would be] very easy to hack into the mother machines.

I don't know what she's talking about. Here in northern New Jersey, we're still using the Print-O-Matic mechanical voting machines with the built-in hand-crank printer. I've worked as an election inspector and judge, and I can tell you right now that such "hacking" is impossible with such a machine. Now the machine I really worry about is an electronic voting machine, or ballot terminal, especially if it has any connection with the outside world. But I don't believe that eighty percent of all voting machines are electronic.

Worse yet--Theresa, didn't we go over this rigmarole already? I seem to recall that Barbara Boxer made a jenny-ass of herself on the floor of the United States Senate on this issue back in January. So why are we hearing about it now?

Dan Rather's Final Days

From NewsMax.com: Mike Walker at The National Enquirer says that you could have predicted the Killian Memoranda fiasco early in Rather's career. Walker's history is a shocker, full of forgeries that make the Killian Memoranda positively elementary.

In the meantime, Rather is clearly on the defensive as his last broadcast comes up--and to the New York Daily News he says, "I'm not retiring; I'm just changing jobs." In your dreams, Danny Boy. You don't even know that Fifty-nine-and-a-half Minutes Too Late on Wednesday will ever see another season.

Unrepentant and defiant--and tragic, considering how wrong he was and is.

DenverPost.com - CU in Crisis

The President of the University of Colorado (CU) just turned in her resignation--and obviously the Ward Churchill dust-up isn't the only issue that CU has on its plate. CU is the same place where the football program directorship provided booze and prosties to prospective football recruits, and now the scandal even touches the former Colorado AG who just became Colorado's junior US Senator.

You would think, wouldn't you, that Ward Churchill couldn't get away from CU fast enough--for how can his association with a school whose football program lures new recruits with drink and sex help his liberal credentials? He and CU clearly deserve each other. As for Betsy Hoffman, the CU president who resigned today, she needs to re-evaluate a lot of her thinking on what higher education is supposed to be all about.

WorldNetDaily: Doctors stir revival of Hippocratic ethic

And it's about time.

Hippocrates of Cos originally had doctors swear to six specific points. The first we can probably discount because it treats the master-apprentice relationship that most doctors had in those days, and even in America before Abraham Flexner issued his blistering report on the sorry state of medical education. But the other points are salient and relevant.

At issue here is this point of the Oath:

I will give no deadly preparation to anyone, even if asked, nor suggest such a course; neither will I give to any woman a pessary to cause abortion. But I will keep clean and holy my life and my art.

(Some have quoted the above to read "I will keep pure...", but in Hippocrates' day, the word that would translate as "pure" would actually mean "one-thousand fine" and would refer to refined metal, coming as it does from the Greek word for fire.)

After the Supreme Court's decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, medical schools everywhere ceased to swear their graduates to the original Hippocratic Oath. When I got my degree, I swore to a watered-down Oath that did not contain the above clause. So now Dr. Patrick Johnston of Zanesville, Ohio, has decided to do something about that. He has recruited nine physicians thus far in his new Association of Pro-life Physicians to declare publicly that they stand by the original Oath and even to hit the local speaking circuit. They even have erected billboards around Zanesville to make their point. (Check out the photograph taken from the famous intra-uterine operation on a pre-born child with a spinal malformation. See that little hand reaching up to grab the surgeon's finger? Most pictures are worth a thousand words; that one is worth a million.)

Of course, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations are way ahead of this group. They even have their own version of the Physicians' Oath. You will find it, and all the other position statements of this fine organization, here.

WorldNetDaily: Judge to hear abuse claims in Schiavo case

The abuse claims come from the Florida Department of Children and Families. They filed this petition (a PDF file) for the right to intervene in the case of Schiavo v. Schindler and Schindler. At issue are thirty separate allegations of "abuse, neglect or exploitation" received over the course of three days (February 18-21, 2005) and filling an incredible thirty-four pages. DCF seeks:

1. a stay of the order to remove the feeding tube for as long as it takes DCF to investigate,
2. an injunction against Michael Schiavo to stop him from doing it on his own,
3. the appointment of a separate attorney for Terri, and
4. that all future proceedings be closed to the public.

Judge Greer will hear the allegations formally next week.

Flash! Armanious Case Broken!

This article is from New York Newsday. Remember that rash of ATM withdrawals, and the ATM surveillance tape with good pictures of the car? That was the first real break in the case, and it came when authorities got a court order to search Hossam Armanious' financial records. Three thousand dollars of ATM withdrawals made after the Armaniouses were dead tipped them off, and prompted them to look for those surveillance tapes. And now two men--one of whom was the Armaniouses' upstairs neighbor and tenant--are under arrest and charged with four counts of felony murder. The names of the suspects are Edward McDonald and Hamilton Sanchez. Neither name is Arabic, and both men were on federal parole for prior drug-offense convictions.

After months of criticizing the authorities for faulty enemy identification, I must now criticize them for the opposite problem: failure to check out those closest to the victims. The police really have egg on their faces now, not because this was a terrorist plot (it wasn't, after all), but because they did not follow the most elementary police procedure. To paraphrase the pulp author Sidney Sheldon: when anyone falls to an act of murder, and you're assigned to investigate, the first thing you do--the very first thing you do, the simple, obvious, you-don't-have-to-write-it-on-the-blackboard thing you do, is to check out all of the near acquaintances of the victim. Nothing can be more elementary than that. Yet these authorities never once asked themselves whether someone living directly upstairs from the victim might have known that he had recently come into a pile of money and would therefore have a motive for robbery.

The story we now hear about these tragic deaths is this: The two robbers, both masked, gained entry into the house under false pretenses of friendship (after all, the guy was the upstairs neighbor, which explains why the cops found no signs of forced entry) and bound and gagged the mother and the two daughters. They then waited for Hossam to come home from work and then captured him, too. But then something went wrong: the eight-year-old freed herself and identified the upstairs neighbor despite his mask. And the manure hit the blower. After that, the two robbers killed the whole family, for the oldest reason in the annals of crime: Dead men, and dead women and little girls, tell no tales.

To be fair, Mr. McDonald put on such a "nice guy" front that he fooled even the extended family. I can excuse an ordinary civilian for wanting to believe the best of his neighbors. But I can't excuse the police. Perhaps if they had properly investigated Mr. McDonald from the get-go, they might have spared the country what I must now acknowledge has been fruitless and pointless speculation as to whether this was an anti-Coptic or anti-Christian plot. The police were even looking for robbers--so why didn't they check out two obvious suspects who were closest to the victims?

First prize is that those two idiots will someday be executed for what they did. (The two men were definitely adults, so the Roper v. Simmons case doesn't apply here.) Second prize is that they draw life without the (further) possibility of parole and get tossed into Maximum. But I would like to suggest that someone reprimand the investigating officers for not bringing this case to a far faster closure, as they could have done.

WorldNetDaily: Judge's error to save Terri Schiavo?

And what error did George Greer make? At issue is the testimony of Diane Meyer, who talked to Terri Schindler-Schiavo about the "right-to-die" case involving Karen Ann Quinlan. Terri said that she did not agree with Karen Quinlan's parents' decision to take their daughter off life support.

Greer threw out that testimony on this basis:

1. Ms. Meyer said that she talked to Terri about that case in 1982.
2. The judge "believed" that Karen Quinlan died in 1976, the year that her court case ended, and Terri Schindler was only twelve years old at the time.

The punch line: Karen Quinlan did not actually die until 1985! You all remember--they disconnected her ventilator, and then she lingered on--and on--and on--until she finally died nine years later.Therefore, in 1982, the Quinlan matter would still be current--and the key is that Terri Schindler was eighteen years old, therefore a voting-age adult when she had that conversation! Therefore the judge had no basis to exclude Ms. Meyer's testimony about Terri Schindler-Schiavo's verbal expression, as an adult, of her policy on end-of-life issues.

That the judge would forget that detail is incredible--but that he would commit an official act on the basis of that mistake is what lawyers call reversible error. Accordingly, Bob and Mary Schindler's new lawyer has filed a motion for Judge Greer either to set aside his earlier verdict or else convene a new trial of the matter of Terri Schindler-Schiavo's end-of-life "wishes."

In other news, the WorldNetDaily piece reports that Representative Dave Weldon (R-FL) will on March 8 introduce a bill to allow the Schindlers to make this a direct federal case. As a result this would no longer be an appeal of a state Supreme Court ruling, but a matter to be tried, or at least heard, in the federal courts.

Drudge Report Flash: Meet the President!

They have got to be kidding!

This is supposed to be the President of the United States?

The woman in the graphic is Geena Davis, who has been a Democratic activist for some years. So now she will appear in a two-hour series pilot titled Commander in Chief. An open casting call will take place this Saturday at the venerable Willow Lawn Shopping Center in Richmond, Virginia. The casting director is looking for people to portray government officials and Secret Service agents.

That this show should pick Richmond, Virginia for such a casting call strikes me as curious. But Geena Davis as President? That's absurd. I can think of many, many actresses who would be far more convincing as a woman President than Geena Davis. Meryl Streep (who appeared in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate) is one of them; Glenn Close is another; and Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry, Million Dollar Baby) might--just might--be a third.

But Geena Davis? Here's a rundown on her prior projects. Thelma and Louise--enough said. And if you think that's bad, how about Earth Girls are Easy? Or how about the made-for-TV movie Secret Weapons, where she plays a student at the old KGB Girls' Charm School for female honey-trap artists? (To be fair, she does have one Oscar to her name: she won as Best Supporting Actress in the 1988 release year, presumably for her role in The Accidental Tourist.)

Sorry, Geena, but you are not Presidential material--and this has nothing to do with the question of whether a woman could properly do the job of President of the United States. Maggie Thatcher, or even Hillary Clinton, you are not. If you go through with this project, you will embarrass yourself more thoroughly than any actress I can remember.

Russia Moved Iraqi WMD

From Charles R. Smith, writing at NewsMax.com, comes this article, which he backs up with claims from a former Bush administration official willing to give his name: John Shaw, "former deputy undersecretary for international technology security." The Russians did this, says Shaw, before the war. And where did they move them? To Syria and then on to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.

Sean Hannity has often said that he thinks the WMD are in Syria. John Shaw is more than just a commentator--he's an expert witness. Nor is he the only one.

And the CIA knew nothing about it.

WorldNetDaily: Sect leader calls for FBI probe

Specifically, the acting president of the American Coptic Association has now asked the FBI to open a civil-rights investigation into the murders of Hossam Armanious and his family.

For a review of the Armanious' tragic story, see here, here, and here, here, here, here, here, and here. You will note that I have said time and again that the FBI needs to investigate this case more fully than it has. My only difference of opinion with Mr. Dawoud is that the Civil Rights Unit would be out of its depth investigating the Armanious case. They need to call in the Anti-terrorism Unit, or whatever they call it.

Fortunately, the FBI now does seem to be involved. From The Jersey Journal, we now learn that someone used an ATM card stolen from the Armanious house to empty Hossam Armanious' bank account--and that someone had the bad sense to park his car too close to the ATM's camera! Result: the FBI knows exactly what kind of car this guy was driving.

Now I remember how the J-3 of Al-Qa'ida got caught literally with his pants down and with a laptop computer containing all his most sensitive passwords right where the Pakistani authorities--and later the FBI--could read them. But doesn't any terrorist, or any crook, know that ATM's always make a videotape of everything that goes on at or around their booths? Didn't those jihadi warriors learn any tradecraft lessons from what happened to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad? Then again, the Hudson County Prosecutor took special pains to deny that the ATM thief was linked to the Armanious murders in any way, shape or form other than having Hossam's ATM card--though I have to admit: what are the odds of an unconnected burglar walking into the slaughterhouse into which the terrorists (and I still think that's what they were) had turned the Armanious home, and nonchalantly making off with the ATM card which the terrorists, in their haste, had left behind? Any way you slice it, that thief has a lot of explaining to do.

Of course, now the authorities are going to play up the robbery angle. But who says that emptying the guy's bank account wouldn't be just the thing for terrorists to do, after wiping out the guy's family? After all, such funds would constitute spoils of war.

Stay tuned...

Mary Mapes Plans Tell-All Book

This we have from NewsMax.com. And so it begins: the Big Cash-in. When you or I lose our jobs, we have to slink away and say nothing unflattering about our former bosses, because we have to put their names on job applications, list them on our resumes (or curricula vitarum), and sometimes get letters of recommendation--a difficult-enough thing to ask for under the best of circumstances, as any denizen of Monster.com will attest. But when a Mary Mapes loses her job, she gets to rat out her former bosses and make a pile of money while doing it.

Not that I sympathize in the slightest with CBS or with Viacom, its owner. To begin with, they should never have let the Killian Memoranda story go to air, and arguably should never have had such loose cannons on the gundeck of the fourth estate working for them. And then--the kicker--they fire her outright, giving her no severance beyond the standard package, and forget an elementary thing like a golden liplock. So--with her lips unlocked, she's out for revenge.

In sum, if ever two sides of a war of words (and possibly nerves) deserved all the harm they are about to bring to one another, Mary Mapes and CBS/VIacom would be those two sides.

Her agent (and how about that--she already has an agent!), however, makes this really incredible statement:

[She] plans to argue for the veracity of the four memos supposedly typed by President Bush’s former National Guard squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, in the early 1970s...Now that the other people have copped a plea ... she’s the only one who can tell this story.

This is just silly. She still believes that those memos are genuine? Or that she can fool milliions of people into believing that? And what's this about "copp[ing] a plea"? When was anyone at CBS brought to book in a court of law? That's what should have happened--but all that did happen is that Dan Rather is about to be put out to pasture--sort of--and four people have lost their jobs, and none of them would be exactly hurting if they never got that kind of job again. (Actually, one of them is still holding out for whatever settlement he can wring from CBS--but that's another story.)

IThe only value that this book is likely to have is as evidence against those at CBS who did not lose their jobs, including Dan Rather (maybe) and Andy Heyward (most definitely). But if she's going to continue to insist that the memoranda were genuine, she'll be nothing but a laughingstock--and the publishing industry will have yet another piece of trash to its dubious credit.

WorldNetDaily: U.N. influence on court's juvenile execution ban

The influence consists of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that no person shall be executed upon conviction of any crime committed while that person was a minor. And yet the international consensus seems to be that a minor is perfectly qualified to decide to abort her baby. And--wait a minute! When did the US Senate ratify the UNCRC? Did I miss something? I don't think so...

Actually, the decision in the case of Roper v. Simmons reminds me of a certain motion picture--now what was it's name?--something about a pretty little eight-year-old who had a few bad habits, among which were lying, cheating--and murder. Ah, yes--The Bad Seed! Well, I'll tell you how that film would play out if Warner Bros. Pictures remade it today. First, it would turn out pretty much as the original Broadway play did--meaning that little Rhoda Penmark would get away with it. The doctors would pump out her little stomach, and Colonel Penmark would take Rhoda in, suspecting nothing--until perhaps she took a notion to kill him, as she had killed her classmate and Old Leroy the handyman.

And second, when Leroy started threatening her with execution, and jawing on about "a little blue chair for little boys and a little pink chair for little girls," she would smugly say,

You're lying, Leroy! Shows how much you know! The United States Supreme Court, in Roper v. Simmons, said that they can't execute kids for things they did while they were kids. So if you tell anyone, then I'll simply go to the reform school, and I'll be out in twenty-five years. And I'll make friends in that reform school--loyal friends. And we'll come after you, and...

As Mark Twain would no doubt say, I will close the curtain of charity on the sort of detailed threat that Rhoda Penmark would make next. (If you doubt that a sweet-faced eight-year-old girl was quite capable of making dire threats--and even carrying them out--as far back as fifty years ago, then you need to see this movie! But I digress.) In fact, this case might just as well have been called Roper v. Penmark, because the facts in Simmons were just as horrible as in that movie, and the attitude of the defendant just as cold and calculating as that of the character Rhoda Penmark.

Well, Mr. Justice Anthony Kennedy, are you satisfied? Will you be satisfied when one of those stone-cold evil juvenile murderers targets one of your relatives? Think about it...