The Burr in the Burgh

Today, Scott Edmund Stiegemeyer (the first) turned 36 years young. I know; I know. You can hardly believe that I'm that old. I get that a lot. I was most recently carded at a restaurant less than twelve months ago. So although it absolutely positively stretches the limits of credulity, I am 36 years old today. And luvin it.

Actually, as I think about it, I really think of myself as nothing more than an overgrown teenager... for better or worse. I still like rock-n-roll (my son tells me to TURN THAT MUSIC DOWN). I still enjoy many of the same types of movies, television and books that I did when I was 16. Of course, at that age, I was an avid reader of theology and history.

Here's what I did:

• My wonderful wife and son took me down to the Three Rivers Arts Festival. I love that kind of stuff and bought a silver bracelet for my wonderful wife. We're planning to go back down in a couple of days to hear Aimee Mann.
  
  
• We went to my son's baseball game. He got a double, a ground out, a walk, and a strike out. He mostly played 3rd base and had a good throw to 2nd getting out a runner. His team won. Two wondeful people from my congregation showed up to cheer for my son. It was great to see you Joy and John.


• My wonderful wife and son took me to dinner after the game to Nakama, a Japanese steakhouse where I had miso soup, salad, hibachi shrimp appetizer, rice, veggies, filet mignon, and two glasses of my favorit beer: Guiness stout.


• Got home around 10 p.m. and opened gifts. A lovely day.

One major highlight: Eating deep fried Oreo cookies and a deep fried Twinkie at the Art Festival. Ain't life grand?

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You have to admit that this is a pretty ridiculous headline: Terri Schiavo Autopsy: Manner of Death Undetermined. Again, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure we do know the cause of her death. Maybe being denied food and water for two weeks had something to do with it.

Michelle Malkin, once more, sheds light on a cloudy subject. She writes, "Terri Schiavo, a profoundly disabled woman who was not terminally ill and who had an army of family members ready to care for her for the rest of her natural life, succumbed to forced dehydration at the hands of her spouse-in-name-only.

We know she died of dehydration. And we know that she was severely brain damaged. What the 39 page autopsy did not answer is what caused Terri Schiavo to collapse 15 years ago. We will probably never know that.

The autopsy does not tell us what degree of awareness Terri experienced. But some will ask, "wasn't she a vegetable?" Experts have reminded us that an autopsy cannot determine the existence of PVS.

Supporters of Michael Schiavo now mock those "extreme right-wingers" who wanted to keep Terri alive. I guess they forgot about the legions of lefty Democrats who also defended her life such as Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Joseph Lieberman, Nat Hentoff, Lanny Davis, and Alan Dershowitz. Only extremist left-wingers think this was a right/left debate.

Some good thoughtful comments from Captain's Quarters, who wrote:

Terri had never requested to die, not with any transparency or formality. All we had for witnesses on her state of mind was a husband who waited until after he had won a substantial lawsuit to recall a conversation in which Terri made an offhand comment about not wanting to live on a respirator, and two of his relatives who corroborated him. The husband had a conflict of interest in the matter, having started a new relationship with another woman and fathering two children. On the other side, Terri's parents and siblings were willing to take over her medical care and the responsibility for its costs.

Amd most of all, as the coroner affirmed yesterday, Terri was not dying.

Despite all of this, Florida decided that it would deliberately kill Terri on the basis of her husband's wishes, without any living will or formal indication of her state of mind....

And when the state decides to kill someone who isn't dying on their own -- as opposed to stopping artificial breathing/cardiac support for those who lack any ability to survive without it -- it should have more substantial oversight before doing so, and it should have more to rely on than an estranged husband's belated recollection of a superficial, general conversation as its basis.

Why do you suppose 26 national disability rights organizations spoke in favor of preserving Terri's life? Because, if we don't check ourselves, this really can become a slippery slope.

Other good insightful commentary can be found at Polipundit and Gatewaypundit.

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