Mark Foley, Barney Frank, Steven L. Gobie, Bill Clinton etc. - a hypothetical for perverts and future politicians

Let's say you are contemplating a career in politics. Let's say also that you have not decided which political party would best serve your future political aspirations.

Suppose, finally, that you are also a sex pervert - that you either have a desire for underage boys or that you don't mind having male prostitution rings operated out of your apartment by your gay male "partner" or that you have a tendency to force your attentions on female subordinates [or one of a hundred other fetish/tendencies/"preferences"/perversions].

There are undoubtedly at least a few people in the US facing such a situation. They are about to begin a political career but are nagged by fears that their sexual proclivities/activities may become exposed/reported at some time in the future. If you are one of these people, you have a very important question to answer before you begin your first campaign.

Which political party should you join?

Which political party would best serve a politician that engages in or facilitates hidden, illegal sexual activities? As the events surrounding Congressman Mark Foley make clear, the choice is obvious. You do not want to be a Republican if you are caught in some bizzare sex scandal.

Look at the evidence over the past 20 years. If you are a Democrat, you can count on your political allies to:

- lie for you
- deny, deny, deny
- rely on the thinnest of legal excuses
- hire detectives and thugs to smear and intimidate your accusers
- support you to the end notwithstanding the evidence against you

The worst you can expect from your allies is a cursory expression of moral qualms, which expression will not be backed up by any meaningful action.

You will be allowed to remain in Congress for years afterward and express faux moral outrage over every reference to your particular "preference." Your improprieties will be ignored by the MSM/DNC while the same MSM/DNC will give unlimited airplay to your bile on any issue.

You will be offered a guest appearance on Oprah and a lucrative book deal. You may even qualify as a new breed of hyphenated-American.

On the other hand, if you launch your political career as a Republican, you will have no protection. If you are ever exposed for the disgusting pervert that you are, the GOP will abandon you and join the calls for your head.

The same Democrats that would have defended you if you had only joined their party will now attack you unmercifully. [They will attack you not for your perversion or your actual crime - but only for "hypocrisy" - this being a case of "love the sin, hate the sinner."]

Rest assured also that MSM/DNC operatives are seeking to out most Republicans as perverts/hypocrites on a constant basis. [Don't think they haven't investigated every teenage boy that has ever met George W. Bush in a vain attempt to contrive some dirt.]

The choice is thus clear. If you have something to hide, join the Democratic party. You are in for a very successful career.
---------------------------------------------
Michelle Malkin links to more information on the Foley story, including a link to her own column from 2001 in which she tells of her own experiences as a Congressional intern.

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Democrats in Congress promptly introduced [in 1993] an "energy bill" that would put an additional 25-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline to stop "global warming," an atmospheric phenomenon supposedly aggravated by frivolous human activities such as commerce, travel and food production. This is the Democratic Party. That's their program.

Ann Coulter

Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.

C. S. Lewis

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?

Ayn Rand

Two - year blogiversary; milestones

Today is the second anniversary of the creation of this blog.

Last year on the first anniversary, I summarized the significant posts of the previous year.

On July 13th of this year, I celebrated my 100,000th hit.

On January 14, 2006, I endured my second Insta-lanche with a summary of the MSM/DNC lies of 2005.

I have blogged much more lightly in the past year than my first year.

I would like to return more to the mission set forth in my initial post on September 25, 2004 - warnings about the future.

Specifically, I would like to focus on the following areas:

- China

- Venezuela

- Islam on the march.

- The coming constitutional/electoral crisis.

While I have written much about most of these areas, it seems more imperative now than ever before to focus our attention on the areas that most directly threaten the U.S.' future and the extent to which they go hand-in-hand.

Quote of the day - Richard Miniter

[S]tarting in 1993, Rep. Bill McCollum (R., Fla.) repeatedly wrote to President Clinton and warned him and other administration officials about bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists. McCollum was the founder and chairman of the House Taskforce on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare and had developed a wealth of contacts among the mujihedeen in Afghanistan. Those sources, who regularly visited McCollum, informed him about bin Laden's training camps and evil ambitions.

Richard Miniter - interview with NRO - September 11, 2003.

Intelligence report on global terror; increase in terror activity

I have some questions for those who seek to use a recent intelligence report to prove that America's liberation of Iraq has caused terrorism to increase:

- Did the killing of Al Zarqawi cause terrorism to increase?

- Did the capture of Muntasir al-Jibouri cause terrorism to increase?

- Did the liberation of Iraq in 2003 cause the attacks of 9-11-01? [John Murtha seems to think so.]

- Did the American liberation of Afghanistan cause terrorism to increase?

- In what country have more Al Qaeda terrorists been captured or killed - Iraq or Afghanistan?

I truly don't know the answer to the last question. But that question needs to be explored before anyone criticizes the Iraq liberation and before anyone refers to the Iraq liberation as somehow separate from the War on Terror.

Hugo Chavez; boycott Citgo

H/T Michelle Malkin for the logo.

Keep in mind that any profits Venezuela makes on Citgo gasoline go to fund revolution throughout Latin America. Our dependence on Venezuelan oil will come back to haunt us when conditions in South and Central America reach a point that is twice as bad as they are today.

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

Compromising by splitting the difference may solve many immediate problems by creating bigger long-run problems. Splitting the difference rewards the side with the most extreme and most intransigent position, guaranteeing continuing unreasonable demands and the continuing strife this generates.

Thomas Sowell

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

TOUGH LUCK: Scott Peterson is now the first American in a
generation to be convicted for killing an unborn chlld.

Joe Sobran - December 2004

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter - Treason

"The only subject fewer authentic Americans cared about than the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo was World Cup Soccer. America is in an epic global battle with ruthless savages who seek our destruction, and liberals are feeling sorry for the terrorists." -- Ann Coulter, P. 15

Quote of the day - Ayatollah Khomeni

A man who has had sexual relations with an animal, such as a sheep, may not eat its meat. He would commit sin.

Ayatollah Khomeni - from the Blue Book - h/t Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Manuel Paleologos II

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

Manuel Paleologos II - 14th Century Byzantine Emporer

Anthrax 5 year anniversary; New York Post; Johanna Huden

Michelle Malkin posts an item today about the fifth anniversary of the anthrax scare that began in the immediate aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. The MSM/DNC has ignored this anniversary much like it ignores other terror anniversaries.

The anthrax story has the hint of a prewar Iraqi connection - all the more reason for the MSM/DNC to pretend that this event never happened.

Michelle includes a photo from the New York Post front page during the height of the crisis. I remember this particular photo. Drudge included the photo on his page at the time. [See Michelle's post for the photo.]

When I first saw it on the Drudge Report nearly five years ago, I immediately drove to the nearest newstand to pick up a copy. I was inspired by the open defiance. [Little did I realize that the MSM/DNC would, by a process of attrition and guerrilla warfare against the War, drain away all such signs of defiance against the terrorists over the next 5 years. Cindy Sheehan has replaced Johanna Huden (and Todd Beamer and Pat Tillman and others) as a symbol of this war.]

When I asked the newstand clerk if she had the New York Post, she sort of shrugged, looked away with a frown and pointed to a stack of papers laying face down on the floor apart from all of the other neatly arranged newspapers. As I retrieved my own copy from the pile, it was obvious that the cover photo offended the traditional sensibilities of the newsstand clerk (and many others). I was glad. In order for us to fight this war, we needed to adopt the attitude that the Post once displayed. I saved my copy, which I still have today. I did not know that this newspaper copy would become a momento of the defiant attitude that we once had and need to recapture in order to win this war.

Quote of the day - Ayatollah Khomeni

“If a man marries a minor who has reached the age of nine and if during the defloration he immediately breaks the hymen, he cannot enjoy her any longer.”

Ayatollah Knomeni [from the Blue Book]

Russia to lease almost 2.5 million acres to China

Mark Steyn linked recently to this quote from Radio Free Europe:

RUSSIA TO LEASE HUGE TRACTS OF FOREST TO CHINA?

The Federal Forestry Agency recently announced plans to lease 1 million hectares of woodlands to China for 49 years, "The Moscow Times" reported on August 23. The daily carried a commentary from Ekho Moskvy radio that argued that "Russia has not undertaken anything on this scale since selling Alaska to the United States in 1867." The article noted that it would be unwise to conclude such an agreement given "the Chinese people's diligence, sheer numbers, and ability to think in terms of centuries.... Suppose 49 years from now, Russia realizes there are no ethnic Russians living on those 1 million hectares. How would it ask the Chinese to leave?" The commentary also argued that "the Kremlin is cozying up to China to spite the United States.... [But] however much the Kremlin dislikes the United States, Washington is not after Russian land or witnessing enormous emigration, and is certainly not interested in Russia falling apart and the appearance of, for example, a Chinese-Finnish border and a Caucasian caliphate." The article suggested that the Kremlin dislikes the United States because Washington "has the unpleasant habit of raising questions about human rights and official corruption."

[A hectare equals almost 2.5 acres.]
Steyn noted the following:

Given that even alcoholic Slavs with a life expectancy of 56 will live to see Vladivostok return to its old name of Haishenwei, Moscow might as well flog it to Beijing instead of just having it snaffled out from under.

Chinese industry will see a boost from China's new control over Russia's resource rich eastern frontier. The Chinese military will benefit greatly as well.
---------------------------------------------------
Previous - Chinese bomb shelters, Chinese troops in Haiti and the Panama Canal.

The Chinese military buildup and, most importantly, the Clinton-China scandal.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn, Oriana Fallaci

In her latest book, The Force Of Reason, the fearless Oriana Fallaci, Italy’s most-read and most-sued journalist, recounts some of her recent legal difficulties with the Continental diversity coercers. The Federal Office of Justice in Berne asked the Italian government to extradite her over her last book, The Rage And The Pride, so she could be charged under Article 261b of the Swiss Criminal Code. As she points out, Article 261b was promulgated in order to permit Muslims “to win any ideological or private lawsuit by invoking religious racism and racial discrimination. ‘He-didn’t-chase-me-because-I’m-a-thief-but-because-I’m-a-Muslim’.” She’s also been sued in France, where suits against writers are routine now. She has had cases brought against her in her native Italy and, because of the European Arrest Warrant, which includes charges of “xenophobia” as grounds for extradition from one EU nation to another, most of the Continent is now unsafe for her to set foot in. What’s impressive is the range of organized opposition: the Islamic Centre of Berne, the Somali Association of Geneva, the SOS Racism of Lausanne, and a group of Muslim immigrants in Neuchatel, just to name a random sampling of her Swiss plaintiffs.

Mark Steyn - Spring/Summer 2006

Quote of the day - Oriana Fallaci

"I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger. . . . I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true. It's that simple! There must be some human truth here that is beyond religion."

Oriana Fallaci

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Today it is easier to imagine the editors of NATIONAL
REVIEW attending a Bruce Springsteen concert than reading
Edmund Burke.

Joe Sobran

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

The day of Clinton's scheduled impeachment, Dec. 18, 1998, he bombed Iraq. This accomplished two things: (1) It delayed his impeachment for one day, and (2) it got a lot of Democrats on record about the monumental danger of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.

So don't tell me impeachment "distracted" Clinton from his aggressive pursuit of terrorists. He never would have bombed anyone if it weren't for the Clinton-haters.

Ann Coulter - September 13, 2006

CNN 9-11 coverage; Jeff Greenfield; the day America's luck ran out

Click here for previous commentary of CNN's 9-11 news coverage.

As I noted earlier, CNN reran (on its "Pipeline" website) its coverage of the September 11 attacks. Another item I noted was the commentary of Jeff Greenfield. At one point, Greenfield listed some of the attacks that had occured during the previous few years, such as the first WTC bombing (in 1993), the USS Cole and the foiled millenium bombing. He stated that we had been lucky thus far, but today was apparently the day that our luck had run out. [I believe I am paraphrasing pretty closely here.]

I think a parallel is developing with current events in Iran. We have been lucky thus far that Iran (or Al Qaeda, etc.) has not delivered a nuclear device for detonation in Manhattan. The day will come when our luck runs out again and it will make 9-11 look mild by comparison.

As CCN viewers listened to Greenfield's comments on 9-11-01, I imagine many of them wished we had done more to protect ourselves after each of the previous events that he listed. We have that chance now. We have the chance to disarm Iran NOW before its nuclear program is complete and before it destroys a major American city. We have the chance to avoid the mistakes of the 1990's. I don't want to find myself sitting in front of a TV someday listening to future commentators tell us that our luck has run out yet again as we desparately await news from a 10 mile radius around a flattened and glowing New York City.

Quote of the day - Jesse Helms

After debating then-Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-ILL) about the virtues of the Confederate Flag: "I'm going to sing 'Dixie' to her until she cries."

Jesse Helms

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

Ann Coulter - 9-12-2001

9-11 coverage - CNN, accident theory, navigation error

Click here for an earlier post commenting on vhs tapes of the news coverage of the 9-11 attacks.

This morning I have been watching CNN's website, at which CNN is transmitting a repeat of its live coverage from 9-11-2001. I find all of it fascinating, but one item stands out in particular.

Watching live coverage at about 9:00 in the morning, one can clearly see the north tower burning. As the CNN commentators speak, one can see an airplane fly into the south tower, followed by an explosion. The commentators keep talking as if they hadn't noticed. The commentators then begin speculating that a second explosion has occured at the scene of the north tower. This second explosion supports the theory that the first plane was still inside the north tower and was still exploding, according to the CNN commentator.

The point is that the commentators did not notice the second plane hitting the WTC even as it appeared on the screen. They began attributing the damage caused by the second plane to other causes at the wrong tower. This discussion continued for several minutes.

Even after the CNN anchors acknowledged that a different plane had hit each tower, they refused to acknowledge the possibility of terrorism or an intentional attack. For at least 15 minutes after the second plane hit, the anchors speculated as to what kind of navigation error could cause two commercial jets to crash into the World Trade Center in the same morning. They speculated as to some sort of homing beacon gone awry. They discussed the normal flight paths and the distance between Battery Park and the airports. The continued on this theme until some government source stated that this must be a terrorist act.

This commentary stands in marked contrast to the immediate reactions of ordinary people, such as those who commented on Howard Stern's radio program at the same time. Various callers and Stern's own people immediately jumped to the obvious conclusion that terrorism was the cause of these crashes. I recall my own reaction (and those of my co-workers) being the same.

This coverage leads me to two thoughts.

(1) The MSM/DNC is so paralyzed by a PC, defeatist attitude that they cannot even acknowledge the possibility that an attack has taken place until long after it becomes obvious to everyone else.

(2) The moonbats might have seen this presentation this morning and gotten more ideas for their "inside job" theory. They may begin theorizing that the CIA directed the planes into the buildings by remote control homing devices so that George Bush could start a war.

The first mention of Osama bin Laden came at 9:55 A.M., maybe a half-hour or more after CNN first acknowledged the terrorist angle (upon government prompting). CNN then noted that the administration had previously (prior to 9-11) issued a warning that bin Laden might attack American targets.

I do applaud CNN for rebroadcasting its coverage over the internet today.

Michelle Malkin posts commemorations.

9-11 news coverage - the fifth hijack team

In 2003, I posted the following on a Yahoo discussion group after reviewing my VHS tapes that I recorded within a day or two after 9-11. It is interesting how much one forgets after a couple of years. The news coverage of any event is never the same as the initial reports. Details are forgotten and bias creeps in as the MSM/DNC gets its story straight and discovers its theme. But when one watches the initial reports from the day in question, one sees details that do not fit the MSM/DNC theme. Here is the quote from my post in 2003:

This weekend I dusted off a couple of video tapes containing
recordings I made from news broadcasts in the days immediately
following September 11. The broadcasts are full of very revealing
information that takes on added significance in light of the events
of the past 22 months.

We all know what happened on September 11, but we don't remember
many details that, upon reflection, shed light on the attitudes of
the newscasters, the bias of the networks and the extent to which we
all have forgotten how widespread is the terror network.

I won't rehash many details, but I can give you a few highlights:

1) The networks reported that at least one additional group of
5 middle eastern men had been confronted on the morning of the 11th at a New
York airport trying to board a plane with boxcutters. When questioned,
they left the airport. They have never been identified so far as we
know.

Questions - Why haven't the networks spent some time investigating the
whereabouts of this terror team instead of trying to impeach Bush because of
contrived questions over the exact source of Saddam's uranium?
The government arrested hundreds of muslims in the days following
9/11. Were these men among the detained? Is it possible they are in custody
now? If not, then we have at least one suicide team roaming free awaiting
orders.

If any of you made recordings of news reports on the 11th or shortly thereafter,
now would be a good time to watch them. You will be surprised at the details
you may have forgotten.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - FAA utopia

The commercial airliner is an Al Gore dream. There is no smoking. There is 100% gun control. You are by obliged by law to do everything the cabin crew tell you to do. If the stewardess is rude to you, tough. If you’re rude to her, there’ll be officers waiting to arrest you when you land. The justification for all this is a familiar one - that in return for surrendering individual liberties, we’ll all be collectively better off. That was the deal: do as you’re told, and the Federal Aviation Administration will look after you.

Last Tuesday morning, the FAA failed spectacularly to honour their end of the bargain – as I’m sure the terrorists knew they would. By all accounts, they travelled widely during the long preparations for their mission, and they must have seen that an airline cabin is the one place where, thanks to the FAA, you can virtually guarantee you’ll meet no resistance. Indeed, in their FAA-mandated coerciveness the average coach-class cabin is the nearest the western world gets to the condition of those terrorists’ home states.

Mark Steyn - September 22, 2001

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

If the Clinton era was characterised by anything, it was public passivity – sometimes because people were content (the economy), sometimes because they were ambivalent (abortion), sometimes because they just didn’t want to know about it (his sex life), sometimes because they were scrupulously non-judgmental to the point of ennui (altogether now: “Everybody does it”).

Mark Steyn - September 22, 2001

Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.

C. S. Lewis

Rathergate two year anniversary

Very few commentators have noted that today is the two year anniversary of the Rathergate scandal. As I noted last year on the one year anniversary:

For those who don't remember the sequence of events, the exposure of the CBS' perfidy began within hours after the broadcast. At 8:59:43 PM Pacific Time on September 8th, Buckhead posted the following at Free Republic (see post #47):

The world has not been the same since:

That post was the 21st century's "shot heard 'round the world." After 12 days of stonewalling CBS would grudgingly backtrack on the documents.

In a series of separate posts last year, I noted the influence of Rathergate on various media and political issues.

As I noted at the time:

Rathergate was more than a 12 day scandal that forced Dan Rather off of the air.

Rathergate was about more than George Bush or John Kerry or media bias or MSM/DNC monopoly or one Presidential campaign. Rathergate was all of those things and much more.

Rathergate is about every milestone that every blogger celebrates, every story that the blogosphere breaks, every fact that the MSM/DNC can no longer surpress and every failure that afflicts the MSM/DNC until the end of its days. The legacy of Rathergate will survive long after Dan Rather is gone.

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.

Ayn Rand

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

How can people who say we don't have enough troops in Iraq advocate that we intervene militarily in Darfur?

Thomas Sowell

Guest blogging thank you - Jerri Lynn "Sue Bob" Ward

I wish to thank Jerri Lynn Ward a/k/a "Sue Bob" for guest-blogging for me during the Labor Day weekend.

I learned a great deal upon returning from my trip and reading her blog posts.

I was unaware that Jerri Lynn has a second blog devoted to "Advance Directive" issues. I fear that these issues will become more commonplace in the coming years as (1) our population ages, (2) Social Security's insolvency becomes obvious to everyone and (3)government administrators look for ways to "ease the burden" on the increasingly government run health care and retirement systems by treating the ill and infirm as disposable.

Jerri Lynn also quoted at length from "White Gold", a book detailing some of Islam's lengthy history of forced conversion. I haven't read the book, but it sounds like the story it tells is crucial in countering the MSM/DNC's attempts to reduce the 1400 year history of this "religion" to a mere pawn in the MSM/DNC's war against George Bush. As any lengthy, objective study of Islam will reveal, Islamic actions cannot be interpreted solely in the context of America's next election, the latest MSM/DNC poll or in terms of how the latest terrorist attack can be blamed on George Bush.

A big thank you to Jerri Lynn for bringing her knowledge and experience to my page for the weekend.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

To complain that a free economy favors the rich is like
complaining that free speech favors the eloquent.

Joe Sobran

Forced Conversion & White Gold

Mark Steyn has a terrific piece up today about the forced "conversions" of the Fox newsmen. In it, he references a book of fiction written by the creator of Sherlock Holmes:

Don't bet on it. In my forthcoming book, I devote a few pages to a thriller
I read as a boy -- an old potboiler by Sherlock Holmes' creator, Arthur Conan
Doyle. In 1895 Sir Arthur had taken his sick wife to Egypt for her health, and,
not wishing to waste the local color, produced a slim novel called The Tragedy
of the Korosko, about a party of Anglo-American-French tourists taken hostage by
the Mahdists, the jihadi of the day. Much of the story finds the characters in
the same predicament as Centanni and Wiig: The kidnappers are offering them a
choice between Islam or death.

But why reference a work of fiction when one can go to the book, White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam's One Million White Slaves by Giles Milton--a book, taken in part, from the memoirs of Thomas Pellow-an eleven-year old boy, captured by Muslim Pirates, and enslaved by a Muslim Sultan of Morroco in the late 1600's. Here is what he went through when forced to convert to Islam from pages 82 and 83:

One day, after Pellow had once again refused to convert, Moulay es-Sfa decided to punish his recalcitrant captive.

...

"Without making any further reply," wrote Pellow, "He committed me prisoner to one of
his own rooms, keeping me there several months in irons, and every day most severly bastinading me"

This punishment, used widely throughout Barbary, inflicted terrible pain. Almost every surviving slave account mentions it, and there were very few captives who avoided a bastinading. The ankles of the condemned slave were strapped together with rope, and he was suspended upside down so that his neck and shoulders were just resting on the ground. "Then comes another lusty, sturdy knave," wrote William Okeley, a British captive in Algiers, "and gives him as many violent blows on the soles of the feet as the council shall order."

...

Pellow's beatings were brutal affairs. They were personally administered by Moulay es-Sfa who took delight in thrashing him senseless. He would work himself into a terrible rage, "furiously screaming in the Moorish language...Turn Moor! Turn Moor! by holding your finger!" This simple signal--raising one finger to the sky--was all that was required by Christian slaves that they agreed to apostatize. To many Muslims, it was a signal that they denied the Holy Trinity.

There's really nothing new about all this, as Mark Steyn points out.

"The Anointed" Are Often Wrong

Salt has graciously allowed me to guest blog for him while he is away. I blog over at Sue Bob's Diary and Texas Advance Directives Blog.
I have been woefully negligent about posting lately, so perhaps guest blogging will motivate me.

I have, of late, been very active in opposing the Texas Futile Care Statute and "futile" care theory in general. Michelle Malkin addressed a very poignant reason why I am in opposition, the case of Haleigh Poutre:

The state of Massachusetts almost murdered her. They deemed her "virtually
brain-dead," in a "vegetative state," and not worth saving. Now, she is
"bright-eyed and smiling," responsive, and speaking a few words. Update from MassLive.com/Republican:

I don't know what the medical schools are teaching as medical ethics these days, but the situation with Haleigh Poutre clearly demonstrates that the medical profession should not have the monopoly on deciding what passes for ethics in our society. Cases like Haleigh's show how misguided they have become.

For example, a Dr. Linda sent a letter to the editor of Worldnet Daily to wit:

Just thought you'd like to know that most, if not all, medical personnel
here in Miami are endorsing and voting for Charlie Crist for governor. I'm a
physician in Miami and my colleagues, both doctors and nurses, have been strong
advocates against any public official who had the audacity to interfere in what
should have been a family medical decision. Yes, that's right. Our hospital had
a poll two weeks ago which showed that 96 percent of us are voting for Crist,
and we hold politicians accountable.

Terri Schiavo had the cognition of a bag of lettuce. We've had many
cases like hers since, but we're smarter now. We'll never let the religious
fright know. The psychochristians, like
you, have no place in the medical field. Neither do ignoramuses like the
Schindlers. If you're interested, we're having a huge celebration after Charlie
wins next week. Gallagher doesn't have a chance in hell of winning. Sorry!

What kind of physician would say something like that? Well, I find such an attitude less than uncommon. I wrote back and they actually published my letter. The letter chronicles my experiences with families who have had to fight hospitals to prevent them from turning off respirators, stopping hydration and nutrition administered by a tube and actually walking into a patient's room and turning off a perfectly functioning pacemaker from a conscious person. One quote from my letter explains the title of this post:

The present danger, to us all is that a bunch of "the anointed," as Thomas
Sowell has termed such people, who believe that their education and knowledge
should trump the social values of our society, have begun to wrest control of
the medical profession away from those who value human life. They believe that
they, alone, should make decisions about whose life is valuable enough to
receive medical treatments.

How is this permitted? It is justified by doctors who believe that some life is not worth living and it is unethical to allow it to continue through medical treatment.

Ok, so a physician thinks that way. We do have freedom of conscience in this country. The problem is that, if the patient and family disagree with the doctor, the patient has very little chance of finding other options once that patient is labeled as "futile."

We do not have a free-market health care industry. Licensing, government funding and regulations limit consumer choice--as well as limiting entry into the market by alternative providers. For the best explanation of what I mean, go here and read Dr. Gary North's explanation.

We have a system which emphasizes rationing as opposed to increasing the pie. I am convinced that the demographic that will see the full impact of degraded medical ethics combined with incentives to ration is my demographic, Baby Boomers.

Guest blogging

I have invited two guest bloggers to fill in for me over the weekend. Both of them have graciously accepted, but I am not sure that these arrangements will survive the usual "Blogger" glitches.

If you don't see any posts until mid-next week, blame "Blogger" and my inability to cut through the obstacles that Blogger has interposed in my path.

On the other hand, if it works, you should be in store for posts from one or two intelligent, exciting and funny bloggers. I won't reveal their identity in the event that the whole thing fizzles out at the beginning due to the technical difficulties.

Quote of the day - Washington Post (Plame, Wilson, etc.)

Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming -- falsely, as it turned out -- that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush's closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It's unfortunate that so many people took him seriously.

Washington Post - September 1, 2006