Terri Schiavo, Requiescant in Pace. At long last.
News Clips: March 2005 Archives
Now it's the Pope's turn to get a feeding tube. This seems rather ominous. I hope he'll survive for my trip to Rome in June. But if not, I expect I'll get to see his successor.
U.S. Supreme Court refuses to intervene in Terri Schiavo case. Lower court decision to remove feeding tube stands.
Looks like very bad news, though I am not sure of the implications.
Thanks to Marty who supplied the following encouraging article (the link will expire after some time; the text is an excerpt from it).
Tommy Joannou laughs at bawdy jokes and cries at sad stories. He can drink from a straw, lift himself out of bed and even shake a stranger's hand.
Each feat is a tiny miracle for Joannou's family, who have painstakingly helped him recover from a devastating brain injury nine years ago that left him in what doctors insisted was a "persistent vegetative state" - much like Terri Schiavo.
Continue reading More recoveries from PVS.
The House and Senate finally passed the legislation introduced on behalf of Terri, and the issue is now in Federal court. Hooray!
Terri is safe for the time being; a judge blocked removal of her feeding tube.
I read in last week's Newsweek that actress Jada Pinkett Smith was roundly denounced as "heteronormative" (a new invented word for ya) by Harvard's Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance for saying "Women, you can have it all &mdash a loving man, devoted, husband, loving children, a fabulous career" at Harvard's Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. They demanded an apology. Never mind the fact that even if we accept everything they believe, this will be normative (or rather, will remain normative) since no one is aggressive enough to believe that someday at least half the people will be gay. That is to say, for the forseeable future, the vast majority of women will be pursuing a man for sexual fulfillment, regardless of how far gay rights goes.
It's amazing how out-of-tune they are with the average American, who I contend would not only see nothing wrong with this statement, but would dismiss their concerns as ridiculous once it was explained to them. In fact, this was published in the Perspectives section of Newsweek, which highlights outlandish comments people make (though I suppose I am making the assumption that it is the gay comment that they considered outlandish and not the actress's comment).
But I fear if they scream loud enough and long enough, eventually people will learn to give them deference and adopt their standards. It's happened before and I'm sure it can happen again.
A casino bought a pretzel in the shape of the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus.
Organization for poor gets unexpected gift from burglar
Quite a deal, if you ask me.
Doctor botches assisted suicide; patent survives to die naturally
Someone has actually been denied communion!
I was beginning to think it was a merely hypothetical gesture.
It's wonderful to see some backbone. And against Call To Action folks, no less.
This is a very interesting news article on the St. Louis case that inspired the book "The Exorcist".
Excerpts:
'Obscene words and images appeared on his skin, in raised red welts, like bas reliefs.
''These brandings on the boy's skin - it happened as many as 30 times each day - were unquestionably paranormal,'' says William Peter Blatty, who wrote the novel ''The Exorcist,'' inspired by the incident. ''Some of the markings were on the back, and some were pictures, often lasting from three to four hours. All over the (official) diary were accounts of these brandings.'
'''One night, sitting on the bed beside the boy, Bowdern watched a tiny, nearly invisible pitchfork, or lines, move from under the boy's upper thigh all the way to the ankle,'' Blatty said. ''Droplets of blood occurred. Bowdern was only a foot away, and there were the usual four or five witnesses.'''
Proof that this stuff is real! The boy and his family, who were Lutheran, ended up becoming Catholic.
The world has so consigned Satan to the realm of the imaginary — and obligingly he's maintained a low profile in the First World &mdash that people have forgotten that he is alive and well on planet earth.
There are two errors to make regarding Satan — give him too much credit, or not give him enough credit. It's hard to find the right balance between the two &mdash really hard, I think. I've been involved in disputes where one person thinks there is a greater temptation to give Satan not enough credit and the other thinks that the greater temptation is to give him too much. I can see the points of both sides, to a point. Experiencing excesses of one view tends to drive us toward the other view.
But what we know is that Christ has conquered sin and death and has ultimately defeated Satan! Thanks be to God!
