Thursday, September 17, 2009

Sometimes, people make me angry

This video from the American Life League has to be one of the most ridiculous and equivocating things I've ever seen. First off, they make gross claims that fly in the face of fact, such as the claim that this guy makes that the vast majority of Americans are against abortion, which just simply isn't true. If the vast majority of American abhorred it, we wouldn't have it. That's typically the way things work in a Republic.

Furthermore, they are pointing out all these things that actually empower "grandma." As one commenter points out on ALL's YouTube Channel,


Everything you are talking about is already the law. I can sign an end of life directive right now and any doctor who ignores it violates the law. What this bill does is provide Grandma a voice and an opportunity to tell her doctor what to do in certain situations. Had Terry Schiavo's doctor met with her, she could have decided for herself if she wanted to be kept alive on a feeding tube. But since Terry didn't have a living will, the court made that decision. Stop scaring uninformed people.

The guy keeps bringing up the Terry  Schiavo, (you know, where "scary big government" tried to impose itself on a person and make decisions for her-- that thing that conservatives are supposed to dislike) but the fact of the matter is, as the poster points out, that this bill has the provision and the language that would have encouraged and allowed Terry to meet with her doctor and then a living will could have been established.

This bill, far from victimizing "grandma" attempts to empower her and to encourages her and her family to talk have the tough discussion about what happens when the eventuality arises when one cannot speak or reason for oneself any longer. These tactics are infuriating and people buy into them. Each of us has a duty, as citizens, to try and combat this. The ludicrous supposition that the President wants to kill off old people is nauseating and yet hordes of gullible and impressionable people drink up from the arch-conservative bottle.

Don't let you or one of your friends be one of them! We can always try to make the case for a little cool-headedness and rationality. Of course, in the face of marches at the state capitol (and the National Mall) with signs equating President Obama with Hitler, that might not win the day and we may have to pose a question like Barney Frank (D-Minnesota) to someone, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?"

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