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Terri Schiavo's autopsy came out a few days ago. Before she was allowed to die, her brain had shrunk to half the weight of a normal, healthy brain. Among the brain bits which had atrophied away were the areas that correlate with eyesight, so Terri Schiavo was blind.
"She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."
Her parents said that, as her feeding tube was unplugged, Terri Schiavo had tried to say, "I want to live!" In an emergency motion, her parents said, "She managed to articulate the first two vowel sounds, first articulating AHHHHHHH and then virtually screaming WAAAAAAAA."
The autopsy established that Schiavo's brain was mostly liquid.
"On my program today, I read in detail the finding of a noted Nobel Prize-winning neurologist named Dr. Hammesfahr. This man examined her for several hours, and his conclusion was that she could swallow, she was responsive to voices, she was responsive to music. That she could feel pain, that she had been given painkillers. This woman was not persistent vegetative. And Dr. Hammesfahr said, 'I've treated patients that were worse than she was and brought them to some kind of a recovery.'"
Some of the "Christian activists" who wanted to "save" Schiavo said that her husband had "violently beaten" her, and/or tried to strangle her, and/or that he had tried to drug her. The autopsy showed no sign she had been strangled, beaten, abused in any way, or given drugs beyond those required for her treatment.
"To be able to make a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state -- which is not brain dead; it is not coma; it is a specific diagnosis and typically takes multiple examinations over a period of time because you are looking for responsiveness -- I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond."
She had fractures in her spine, due to osteoporosis -- soft bones. The disease was so far advanced, her spine was ever-so-slightly fractured almost every time nurses turned her over to prevent bed sores.
"The legal issues, I grant everyone, are complicated, but the moral ones are not. Terri Schiavo is not brain dead; she talks and she laughs and she expresses happiness and discomfort."
Like flies to honey, lying bastards were drawn to Terri Schiavo's case. Shameless, pandering politicians made up stories, just because the lies sounded good, and might win them the "stupid vote."
The lies, of course, just fanned the hysteria that led hundreds of people to be arrested during Schiavo's last days, for trying to smuggle bottles of water into Schiavo's hospice -- water that, had they successfully poured it into her mouth, would have drowned her, since she was incapable of swallowing.
All these liars, with the possible exception of Schiavo's presumably delusional parents -- have they no consciences? Where's an apology, from a single one of them, for being proven wrong? Where's a simple "Oops, my bad," for intruding on an intensely painful family decision, taking that woman's fate from her family, taking it from the court, and making it into a whorish Entertainment Tonight public debate, filled with lies, political posturing, lies, frightful legal precedents, and more lies? Where one single person who argued to "save Terri" now that it's known there was nothing to "save"?
Where are they now? Well, apparently, they're going after Terri Schiavo's husband.
LINK
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To my observing eye, I think a lot of America's insanity is about panicking people. That's why the Falwells and Robertsons, and so many other so-called Christians and so-called Republicans fan the flames of fear with endless rhetoric (most of it nonsensical) about homosexuals (which is usually pronounced 'homersexuals' or 'ho ... mo ... sekshuls').
The liars, charlatans, and hypocrites act as if gays and lesbians are seeking to take over America. As if there's a plot to convert our young to homersexual ways.
Why, unless we pass laws discriminating against homersexuals, normal God-fearing men and women will never have heterosexual sex again. Humanity will be driven to extinction, as men everywhere turn to the warm, lubricated, luscious, inviting anuses of other men for sexual gratification, leaving the world's women to tend to each other, as childbirth ends, the church is destroyed, and all humanity burns in hell forever.
To stupid people, to fearful, close-minded, and un-minded people, them-thar-queers are beyond comprehension but never beyond fear and derision. The most ridiculous rhetoric enflames the stupid, and makes them write checks and vote Republican.
But I don't think Bush and Cheney, Falwell and Robertson and the rest are stupid enough to believe their own lies. The preachers at the pulpit, and the liars running for office don't really give a damn about homersexuals. They only care about the checks and the votes. LINK
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According to this Associated Press report, about 2,200 reporters "received credentials to cover Michael Jackson's trial -- more than the O.J. Simpson and Scott Peterson murder trials combined and enough to form a vast, humming tent city outside the modest courthouse."
And they say it as if it's sane? As if it's something to be proud of? Two-thousand, two-hundred reporters were assigned to Jackson's trial -- an event which will have no discernable impact on our lives.
Meanwhile, most Americans have never heard of the minutes that amount to proof that President Bush lied America into war. LINK
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Here's another little lie from the White House, a tiny p.s. to the story about the White House schmuck employed to insert lies into scientific reports:
In the original coverage, it was revealed that "Philip A. Cooney removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved." Cooney resigned two days after his lies came to light, but, we were told at the time, his resignation was just a coincidence:Dana Perino, a deputy White House press secretary, said Mr. Cooney "had long been considering his options following four years of service in the administration." Ms. Perino said the decision was unrelated to revelations about the documents. ...
Ms. Perino noted that the documents in question dated from 2003. "He had accumulated many weeks of leave and had decided to resign and take the summer off to spend the time with his family," Ms. Perino said. Cooney's "summer off" apparently lasted about a week, as he's now taken a gig with ExxonMobil. LINK
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It'll all come out in the end, I tell myself, but sometimes I don't believe it will ever come out.
For the first few decades of my life, my stomach was iron-lined. I could eat sour apples all day, wash 'em down with Whiskey, and have no regrets. Now I'm a little older, and eating anything out of the ordinary (or even things I used to eat very ordinarily) can lead to explosive diarrhea or concrete constipation. Last night was some of both.
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My intestines were blocked like a Congressional investigation during a Republican administration, and nothing, absolutely nothing was moving. And then, behind the blockage, a soup as watery as Terri Schiavo's brain began sloshing, waiting to flood forth like a
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tsunami once the wall of constipation was gone. But walls don't tumble easily.
At midnight, at 1:30 in the morning and again at 2:00, 3:15, 4:00, I remained seated, still -- unmoving and unmoved -- until finally, with great effort as the sun came up, I lost five pounds in five minutes.
The diarrhea and constipation have been alternating for several days, and if we had insurance coverage I'd probably be trying to see a doctor. But of course, this is America, and anyone who thinks poor people should have health care must be a pinko commie. LINK
© by the authors.
What do you think?
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My intestines were blocked like a Congressional investigation during a Republican administration, and nothing, absolutely nothing was moving.
And then, behind the blockage, a soup as watery as Terri Schiavo's brain began sloshing, waiting to flood forth like a tsunami once the wall of constipation was gone.
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I can't afford therapy, but boy do I need it. So as an affordable alternative, I've decided to start pounding my anger into a weekly column here.
Fair warning: My parents were repressed -- using any bad words would get my mouth washed out with soap, literally. I still remember the sickly flavor of DoveTM. So as an adult, vulgarity helps with the healing. If naughty language offends you, beat the rush and get offended now.
This page is for my own good, not yours, so you may not like it, but I don't care.
About the authors
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Helen and Harry Highwater have published Unknown News since 1997. We're a married couple sharing a byline à la Lennon and McCartney, and "I" can be either of us, or both of us. If you're consumed by curiosity, it's safe to assume the more boisterous and aggressive bits come from Helen, and anything ladylike or demure is probably Harry's work.
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