October 2003 Archives

Thanks to alicia (who is 82% good) for this link.

Catholics United for the Faith's tract "All Hallows Eve" (requires Adobe Reader)

Dear Mr. Riddle's poetry selection today is To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell, which put me in mind of this poem

You, Andrew Marvell
Archibald MacLeish

And here face down beneath the sun
And here upon earth's noonward height
To feel the always coming on
The always rising of the night:

To feel creep up the curving east
The earthy chill of dusk and slow
Upon those under lands the vast
And ever climbing shadow grow

And strange at Ecbatan the trees
Take leaf by leaf the evening strange
The flooding dark about their knees
The mountains over Persia change

And now at Kermanshah the gate
Dark empty and the withered grass
And through the twilight now the late
Few travelers in the westward pass

And Baghdad darken and the bridge
Across the silent river gone
And through Arabia the edge
Of evening widen and steal on

And deepen on Palmyra's street
The wheel rut in the ruined stone
And Lebanon fade out and Crete
high through the clouds and overblown

And over Sicily the air
Still flashing with the landward gulls
And loom and slowly disappear
The sails above the shadowy hulls

And Spain go under and the shore
Of Africa the gilded sand
And evening vanish and no more
The low pale light across that land

Nor now the long light on the sea:
And here face downward in the sun
To feel how swift how secretly
The shadow of the night comes on . . .

I finished Hambet's fireman coat last night. I did cut the boots, but I'm not worrying about finishing them -- Hambet is too little for them just now. He can just wear his snow boots and a pair of black jeans.

If he wears the costume, that is! When I brought it out for him to try on, he said, "no!" and ran off! He's been refusing to try it on since.

The fireman coat is made of yellow vinyl with black contrast banding. (The pattern is Butterick 3244.)

I had such a time with the vinyl! It's got a felt backing, kind of like a vinyl tablecloth, and I'm sure the fabric was intended for upholstery. It was very cumbersome to sew. Most vexing was that I couldn't sew the applique stripes onto the costume -- it just kept getting knotted up into the machine! I think it just wouldn't feed properly, that the felt back of the top layer, when laid on top of the vinyl of the second layer, made the whole thing too slippery. I made a 911 call to my mother and another one to a lady around here who is an experienced seamstress. They were both out. So I clicked around Mothering With Grace, read about someone else's costume woes, and then remembered.... the glue gun.

I used the glue gun for the applique stripes and for the fastening tabs. So far it seems to be holding together. My mom called me back this evening and suggested sandwiching the vinyl between layers of tissue paper. Maybe sometime I'll go back and try it. The glue should hold up through tomorrow night, though -- especially if Hambet won't wear the costume! I cut it plenty big, so he can be a fireman next year too.

except for the fact that Angel had to have sex with Eve. Ick. OK, now isn't Angel supposed to be spending all of eternity pining over his Onw True Love Buffy? I know, it was a mystical spell and all, blah, blah, blah, but I didn't like it. So there.

They did improve his hair. It is back to first season Angel hair. But you win some, you lose some because he spent way too much time without his shirt on. Gak.

In the meantime, the story had some cute elements. The whole thing with the Archduke was kind of funny, but I do not think the cute one liners make up for the fact that they will not get into the story yet. Everyone is just kind of hanging around, and Angel's character has been kind of , well, disgusting. I really hope they get on the ball soon. Even then, I think it is stime to hang it up. I cannot look at David Boreanaz anymore.

Here is what Victor has to say about it.

...Are we compromising our religious beliefs and principles by letting our children, even if innocently, dabble in something that has its origins in evil? As Catholic families, what is our obligation to be consistent and true to our faith?...[more...]

Thanks Karen for the link.

I got an email yesterday saying our homeschooling group is having an All Saint's Party on Saturday in Fonda. Ack, I so do not have any costumes ready because I did not know there would be a party this year until yesterday. Anybody have any ideas for quick, cheap and easy saint costume ideas. I have a ten year old girl whose favourite saint is St. Agnes and eight year old boy and four year old boy. I am going to spare the baby and adults.

I like the idea of sewing, but I'm not very good at it. There's part of me that whispers, "you're not good at it because you don't sew very often" but there's another part of me that's whispering, "you're not good at it because you're doing everything the hard way" -- kind of like trying to cook with dull knives and a cheap pan: possible, but unnecessarily difficult.

So today I'm trying to cut the fireman costume. Difficulty #1 is that I am using vinyl, and I don't want to stick pins in it (I usually use millions of pins) because I don't want to poke all these holes in the vinyl.

Difficulty #2 is that it's a multi-sized pattern, and I am cutting one of the smaller sizes. I don't want to cut right on that cutting line, because what if I want to use the pattern again in a larger size? So I'm alternating between folding the pattern back and tracing the cutting lines directly on the fabric. It is such a hassle. There has got to be a better way. Is this the kind of situation where tracing paper is called for? (I have never used that before; when my mom taught me to sew we used tailor's chalk, which rubbed right off.)

I get really frustrated when I try to sew for myself. I have to do extensive alterations to my pattern -- sizing up and grading, shortening, ease -- enough to make practically a new pattern. Then I wind up getting confused when I cut, plus I have the multi-size pattern issue. Is there a good way to handle this? Is there a way to just trace my mutant pattern onto a new sheet of paper or something?

The Transcript

KING: True, you have a girlfriend?

SCHIAVO: Yes. And I am very fortunate...

KING: Does it hurt the situation, do you think, as the way the public might look at you?

SCHIAVO: From their side, I'm sure. But you know something? I'm fortunate to have two women in my life that I love very much. My girlfriend right now has done more for Terri than her own mother did. She shopped for her. She washed her clothes.

KING: How do you feel about all this? In your gut, how do you feel? You could have walked away, Michael.

SCHIAVO: I could have. But I love my wife. And I'm going to follow her wish. And nothing's going to stop me.

KING: In fact, if she stayed in that state, let's say, you could get a divorce, couldn't you, easily?

SCHIAVO: I could have.

KING: And marry this girlfriend if you choose to?

SCHIAVO: I could.

KING: And I don't think anybody would be mad at you. Right? Who would be mad at you?

(CROSSTALK)

SCHIAVO: This is between Terri and myself. I'm not asking anybody to be mad at me. I'm not asking anybody to agree with me.

KING: But I mean, but one might say putting it bluntly, who needs this?

Thank you Mr Luse for the link.

if I invented a giant hamster wheel to put my kids in when they seem like they need to burn some sreious energy, it would sell? Very AP, don't you think?

I cannot find a transcript online yet since the show ended a few minutes ago, so I am doing this from memory. When Michael Schiavo was asked about his girlfriend he said something like "I am very fortunate to have two women in my
life who I love." I feel sick.
Update:I had nightmares over this last night. I only watched it briefly out of curiosity. When I hear or know someone who for whatever reason feels they have the right to play God with people's lives, I often wonder what it is about them that makes them feel so much more special than anyone else. I mean, was he like so much more divinely hotter looking, or smarter or sumthin' sumthin'? Well, maybe to himself, I dunno. He looked creepy to me. He looked like one of those men that would be online behind you at Starbucks making slightly off colored jokes in his girlfriend's ear within ear shot as if to say "guess what, we have sex!" and that I would give dirty looks to for invading my hearing zone, and would give me "oh lighten up already looks in return." Dontcha hate it when that happens? Anyway, a bit of digression there.

In that snippit I tried to quote (again, working from memory here), Larry asked him something like "You could have divorced Terri and married your new girlfriend. No one would blame you in this situation. Why haven't you?"
Slime Boy:"Because I made a promise to her to let her die."

Woohoo, I normally like a guy who promises to give me the world, and rings and love, and you know, happy stuff. Oh but this guy promised "death".

And oh how noble! He gets his girlfriend but he is a loyal and loving husband because he will not divorce his poor wife because she needs to die. America is buying this crap?

Death stuff aside, if my husband had a girlfriend, and said to me "I cannot divorce you because I promised to support you..." or some other BS like that, well the benefit is women not imprisoned in Hospice Care homes can use their boots...

I am just so, you know, ugh! I just cannot believe the stuff he said and how people think this is noble. This world has gone stark raving mad.

Sorry how this blog was supreme rant and lacked any kind of form whatsoever. As I am writing this my husband is telling me to stop bidding on ebay and my boys are throwing toys at each other. Another day...

Updated Update:
Hey Victor, I think my Starbucks guy and your "I want my new truck" guy are one in the same.

for Jeanetta and myself and anyone else in Upstate NY.Once those temps hit like "Today's High is 32 degrees" Pansy Moss does not leave home.

The weather is so different here than it was 4 hours south in New Jersey. Summer does not hit until like the very end of June, and the first week of September it is Fall. But I have to say, autumn up here is breathtaking. All I can say is "just friggin beautiful"!

Our farm is located in the Mohawk Valley, about 15 miles west of the North American Martyrs Shrine where Bl. Kateri was baptised and St. Isaac Jogues was martyred. His body was thrown in the Mohawk River, so I think that makes the river Holy Water?? Not sure. I also live not far from where Bl. Kateri was born.

It is funny, because when you are originally from downstate NY, the City to be more specific, it is like an entirely different country. People leave NY City and travel the world to seek out beautiful places without realising how lovely it is a few hours northwest.

Got the old computer fired up, managed to log in, email's up too. I may still be scarce this week, though, because I might attempt sewing a Halloween costume for Hambet (fireman) although I'm not sure what we're going to do with our little fireman once he's got his gear on. Probably the usual: take pictures for the relatives, wait around for trick-or-treaters, realize around 8:30 that none are going to come, feast on the candy ourselves.

My parents tell that when they were small,all summer long they were left to their own devices to roam the streets and the play grounds of The City at a very young age. When I was 5, I started walking to school on my own in a not so great section of Trenton. I am 10 years older than my oldest brother, and by the time it was time for him to get to school, he was shuttled back and forth by car at a much shorter distance in a suburban area. What changed between then and now? I certainly would never allow a five year old of mine to walk to school by themselves when we lived in Albany. But while I am keeping them safe, my kids seem to be real pinheads when it comes to having any street smarts.

So what came first, did people decide sheltering kids more was a more responsible trend in parenting, or did things just get worse? Maybe a little of both, but more so of the second option. When my parents were children, there was not the horrible dangers we see of the drug culture. My mother also talks about growing up in Harlem when all the neighbors would watch out for each others kids. The flip side is my parents tell me when their parents went to work for summer vacation they would simply drop the kids off at the playground all day. I cannot imagine anyone doing something like that today.

While I think we could all agree leaving kids on the playground to fend for themselves , or even letting 5 year olds walk to school on their own is not idyllic, my brothers and my children seem to lack a great deal of simple street smarts. I am really worried about them. When we go to the Mall, for example, my oldest does not have a sense in what is going on around her. Frankly, I do not know how to teach lessons of basic survival skills in public. It seems to me it is something you learn from experience. However, I am not sure I want to throw my children into situations that teach certain experiences.

I know, I worry a lot about how my children will turn out. But I keep feeling we live in such deceptive times where it is hard to gauge right from wrong, and so much of my job as a Mom is contemplating what the real right thing to do is.

I am planning to take the computer into the shop tomorrow. If I can't figure out how to hook the old one back up, that means I won't have any kind of e-access for about a week, including email, in whice case I'll see you all next week.

Yesterday our friend Iris came over and joined us for an excursion to the pumpkin patch. Hambet had fun running all around Pumpkinland and choosing his Very Own Pumpkin. Iris found a Long Island Cheese pumpkin for herself and another exotic pumpkin for me -- mine is kind of a pale green color, like the color that used to be called "seafoam green" in the Crayola box. (I forgot what this variety is called.) We also hit the farm's market on the way out and came away with yummy Jonathan apples and some fruit butters and Damson plum preserves.

We rented The Matrix Reloaded and viewed it while Hambet snoozed on the couch. This was the first time my dh and I had seen the movie; my dh's verdict: "That is the most stylish train wreck of a movie I've ever seen." I thought all the scenes in Zion were pretty boring -- memo to science fiction movie writers, any scene that begins but we have to consult the Council! is inherently boring and should be cut. But the stunts were astounding, and I'm still digesting the philosophy parts. I will need to reread Old Oligarch's posts.

Today it's a cool, overcast day. Dh is mowing the lawn for the last time this year. Hambet is acting all cuddly and contrite, as well he should, for his behavior at Mass was probably the most abominable it's been in his entire life. I might try baking quick Sally Lunn bread so we can have something to smear those yummy preserves on.

Pressed for time, so please allow me to direct you to Thrown Back(including this great reflection on the value of Terri's life), Catholic Light, and Apologia for the latest.

UPDATE: Some great new links from Terrisfight.org:

Dr Jane Orient's statement on behalf of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (emphasis added):

“Terri Schindler-Schiavo has won a temporary stay from execution by a method too cruel to be used for convicted criminals. And yet her husband’s attorney is trying to spin it into a “death with dignity issue” with his comments on Tuesday.

“He says it’s cruel to begin rehydration. The opposite is true – dehydration is a
cruel, painful death. It is unconscionable that the state would have allowed removal of her feeding tube in the first place—it’s nothing less than state-sponsored euthanasia...."

Florida agency for protecting the rights of the disabled to investigate allegations of abuse

Heart attack? or trauma? Greta Van Sustern interviews a forensic pathologist on Terri's case. (Some have speculated that Terri had an eating disorder that led to a potassium deficiency; he does not address this possibility.)

than to attempt to comment on the brainiest blogs in the parish and remove all doubt.

Which Dr. Seuss character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Which Dr. Seuss character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

This is actually one of the few Dr Seuss books I've never read.

Thanks to Karen Marie for this quiz.

Unsaid by Dana Gioia

Thanks to Robert Bove of Spinsters for the link.

Dear Mr. Luse brings us Wesley J. Smith's article from the October First Things:

...according to the California Supreme Court, Robert Wendland enjoyed full constitutional rights when he was an auto-parts salesman. But he lost at least some of these protections during the sixteen months of his unconsciousness—only to regain them when he awakened. Or to put it another way, the court declared that unconscious people have lesser rights and their lives are entitled to fewer legal protections than conscious people—a radical decision that may mark the beginning of a personhood theory of constitutional jurisprudence in the United States...

...human non-persons with cognitive disabilities are beginning to be looked upon by some as a natural resource to be plundered for their body parts. There is even an effort underway by some in bioethics and transplant medicine to redefine death itself to include a diagnosis of permanent unconsciousness toward the end of gaining access to the organs of unconscious people for the purposes of transplantation....

I once knew a nurse who, as a conscientious objector, did not care for the heart-transplant patients we sometimes cared for on our floor. I am appreciating her position more and more.

Scott leaves this comment on one of our older posts on Terri:

Well I have only recently become familiar with this case however i am split on my thoughts. I Feel for all people involved with this situation. and pray for their grief. I have expressed in the past to my spouse that i would not want to live like teri's condition or any condition where i was unable to continue to feed myself or take care of myself and have never felt the need to discuss this with my parents this legislative ruling shows not only should i do that but perhaps put in some sort of order with the state clerk. Listening to her brother they have not had medical records or acess to doctors reports in the past 10 yrs perhaps there is more then they know at this point. May god allow the one that i entrust with my wishes make the decsion for me and not a body of lawmakers or any other party that thinks they have my best intrest in mind but rather the one that i share my deepest most inner thoguhts to on this subject and may he allow the others to grieve properly for their loss

with Victor that last night's Angel rocked. Victor does give a much more in depth review than I feel like giving at the moment. I would like to say that I was getting very dissappointed very quickly with the last few episodes and started thinking "oh, they should have just canceled the darn show." But here was a decent episode in the same Angel tradition.

I cannot help myself though, David Boreanaz needs to do something with himself. I was so relieved to see the "partial nudity" was James Marsters bare thighs and no part of David. Maybe a hair cut (puh-leeze I mean I know it is more up to date, but it ain't workin'), hit the gym, and button up the shirts and we'll be a'ight. He is just not sexy anymore...

Mark Shea highlights some of the current articles who state is was "unconstitutional" for the Governor, or anyone to intervene in allowing Terri to starve to death. OK, no matter what you think about the immoral "Right to Die" stance, in my opinion, it is stupid that anyone should starve to death in American today. It is despicable to force someone to starve to death. Even if it were Terri's last wish (yeah right) like her husband claimed to "die with dignity", the law has a right to jump in and say "well, tough cookies, people are not put to death from starvation on this country."

What kind of society are we coming to where this can be justified?

OK, I have to find something lighthearted and meaningless to blog about. I am disgusted about the attitude I am reading and am even reading Catholics who support this. My gag reflex needs to calm down.

Maybe he could resign as guardian, Terri's parents take up the guardianship, they get Terri into rehab, and then sue him for the rehab money that got spent on lawyers. How delicious!

With a spoon!

World Net Daily has picked up the story.

UPDATE 10:00 AM: ABC radio news is reporting that Michael Schiavo "reportedly" is considering giving up the legal fight. Give it up, Michael! Just divorce Terri and go marry your children's mother. And tell the goon squad to lay off the elderly priest, okay?

Maybe he could resign as guardian, Terri's parents take up the guardianship, they get Terri into rehab, and then sue him for the rehab money that got spent on lawyers. How delicious!

I got this in the from of an email from a list I am on, and I cannot speak for the veracity of a forwarded email, I am sure extra prayers never hurt.

Lord have mercy...
Please protect Terri.
St. Michael the Archangel protect us in battle...

While many have heard that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube has been re-inserted, her life is in eminent danger. Michael Schiavo is still her legal guardian. The would-be murderer is responsible for guarding his own victim! In addition when Terri was moved from hospice, he immediately blocked visitation rights at the hospital for her parents, siblings and family priest - the only source of Terri's comfort, love and joy. An emergency motion ordered visitation restored for the family but it was not received in the attorney's offices until 5:15PM today. By the time the family was able to get down to the hospital, her husband had removed her from the hospital and taken to an "undisclosed location" - we are told perhaps back to hospice.

In any case, the family has not been informed - they do not know her medical condition or whether the feeding tube has been reinstated or not. An IV was inserted at approximately 9:30 last night. This is a woman starved for 7 days with no food or water yet Michael has the audacity to remove her from the hospital care!

It is an outrage that Michael Schiavo and his attorney feel they can spit in the face of the governor, the Fl House and Senate - and trample Terri's rights with absolutely no regard for her health, happines or wishes.

Complaints have been filed through the Department of Health and Human Services yet nothing is being done to protect Terri from physical harm or to assure her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Please take a moment and file your complaint with the Office of Civil Rights. Click here for the form: Discrimination Complaint Form or go to: http://hhs.gov/ocr/discrimhowtofile.html
You can also file your complaint by email at OCRcomplaint@hhs.gov or call the District Office in Atlanta: Roosevelt Freeman, 404 562-7886. Tell them to immediately act and remove her care/custody from Michael.

In addition, please contact your US Congressman and ask him to investigate why the Department of Justice is not protecting Terri's civil rights as a disabled American and further request that the Department of Health and Human Services Civil Rights Office act at once to protect her.

Go to our website to read the formal letters of complaint filed by Children of God for Life, the family and medical personnel through Delegate Robert Marshall with Attorney General Ashcroft, the House Judiciary Committee and President Bush, asking for immediate federal intervention. You should read the facts to help explain the problem to your Congressmen. www.cogforlife.org/schiavo.htm

We will keep the site updated daily with new developments until Terri is safe and her rights guaranteed by the US Constitution and the State of Florida are upheld!
God bless,
Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director
Children of God for LIfe

Pete Vere has better details.... This seriously just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Laura-lady has some interesting comments on Halloween:

I suspect that the commercial success of the holiday has very little to do with the neo-pagan emergence. Yes, we are becoming more superstitious as a society but that is really just a reaction to the atheistic tendencies of the past few decades. We are on a eternal flux between materialism and superstition and the pendulum is just swinging back the other way. This is hardly the first time that a vast number of people have been interested in the more silly and harmless looking aspects of the occult.

No, I think that the popularity of Halloween has to do with something entirely different. It has to do with the Culture of Death. Because one of the curious aspects of the Culture of Death is that it makes Death a forbidden subject ...We ignore the mortality of others so that we can ignore our own....

Good news! Dear Lord, please let her live.
Thank you Mighty One for the link and good news!

Thanks to the Mighty Barrister for this great news!

Now let's pray that Michael Schiavo's bid for an injunction fails....

This morning I tried to call the office of Senator Jim King, the President of the Florida Senate. It took me a few tries to even connect, and then at around 9:45 I got a recorded message that began with a little speech to the effect of, If you are calling concerning Terri Schiavo, the bill was passed by the committee this morning and will go to the Senate Floor at 6:45. The message box was still full, so I couldn't leave a message thanking Senator King.

This afternoon I received an email from Earl Appleby, a forwarded message from "Central Command":

URGENT!!! SENATE AND TERRI'S LAW

The bill is being pushed back because of language. We need to keep the pressure on. Here are the contact details for Florida's Senate.

But even if the bill passes, there's more trouble ahead: George Felos, Michael Schiavo's lawyer, has already filed for an injunction just in case the bill does pass and Governor Bush does sign it. Judge "Do you dare to question my decisions?" Greer is scheduled to hear that case this afternoon.

Meanwhile, here's a nice reflection from Wesley J. Smith:

Will Terri live or die? That can't be known. But this much is clear: The Schiavo case has changed everything. Our government leaders have been put on notice that tremendous numbers of people in this country are determined to halt the erosion of the sanctity/equality of life ethic in the practice of medicine. The routine practice of dehydrating the cognitively disabled who need a feeding tube--which occurs to the conscious and unconscious alike in all 50 states--is going to receive a badly needed review. The bioethics movement, which has been leading us down this treacherous slope, can no longer expect to pontificate from on high in medical matters of life and death and expect the people to just meekly go along.

In a sense, the Schiavo case is a miracle. Because so many people around the country and the world have come to love her, root for her, and yes, pray for her, our country has been given a rare opportunity to look at where we are heading as a culture and reinvigorate a simple moral maxim: When in doubt, choose life.

My husband is a driver for FedEx. He is currently what you call a "swing" courier. He is responsible for knowing all the other routes and filling in when others are out. It is good because it is a higher paid position and he is pretty far up in seniority in this position so he gets pretty good vacations. The downside is his schedule changes each week and we never know what it is. We have been doing this for years, but we are sick of it. My husband works many days where he leaves at 5 something in the morning and comes home 8 at night.

A new day route has opened up for bid and it will benefit us because it is in our new area. We can count on when he comes and goes and he can come home for lunch. Please say a little prayer that he gets this route. Thanks in advance.

... between the ages of 18 and 62 who is not legally disabled will have to meet the new regulations. People enrolled in college or job-training programs would be exempt...

Jacqueline Gonzalez, who lives in Troy's Griswold Heights apartments, said she won't leave her 8-month-old to perform community service. The mother of three said she won't leave a child with a baby sitter until he or she is old enough to tell her if anything bad happens in her absence.

"If I had a baby sitter, I'd be out there working," she said. "My whole family is in New York City. ... I am not going unless they are ready to provide child care for my kids."...

So what does Pansy Moss think?

It is dumb to make residents put children in daycare or with a sitter to do things for example, volunteer at a hospital. I mean, if the idea is to "pay" for public housing, well, much public housing is substandard to begin with. Volunteer/community service should be done in the neighborhood and the complex. Perhaps repairs, gardens, something that will directly benefit the residents and not leave mothers looking for baby sitters. This will do more to help "pay" for the cost of living in their residence, in my opinion.

One of the things I cannot stand about the ghetto is what makes the ghetto a ghetto is not the economic level of the people, but the lack of pride in themselves and their surroundings. One does not have to be economically upper class to have class (nor does having money automatically mean someone carries themselves with class either). While economics is clearly a factor, there are many people who earn small incomes who sweep their walkways, clean up there areas, bathe their children and recycle their cans. I often wish people realised they are worth more regardless of where they live or how much they make.

One thing I also have no understanding about when it comes to issues such as these is many of these public housing residents are single Moms and their children. To those of us enlightened pro-lifers, it is no secret that Planned Parenthood targets lower income minority communities, yet the results of contraception and abortion campaigns are usually single parent homes. On the, average, single parent families earn a lot less income than traditional families making it necessary to use social services. After many programs such a PP encourage single families, these families are punished for trying to survive. This makes no sense to me, but what do I know?

Details here, at Thrown Back.

The Florida House passed Terri's Bill 68-23 last night.

The President of the Senate's on board now, too. I was discouraged yesterday because my email to Senator King kept bouncing back, but it looks like it's because his email was swamped with pro-Terri emails!

Meanwhile, George "I talk to dying people telepathically" Felos, Michael Schiavo's lawyer, complains that this is unconstitutional. Perhaps he missed the part of the Florida Constitution establishing the legislative branch? slept through the "separation of powers" part in high school civics?

Mahalo plenty to early birds William Luse and Mark Shea for these links.

Jeanetta links to this amazing story about a Boston woman who, in 1985, woke up from a coma to find that her husband, a physician, was trying to pull the plug on her:

At that meeting, my then-husband, who was a doctor siding with the other doctor who wanted to let me die, held that clipboard which was my lifeline up in the air in front of me. He was not going to make it easy.

The purpose was to prove that the nurses were basically hallucinating and that I was
really and truly brain-dead.

To prove I could not communicate, he then put ink on my fingers and asked while laughing, "There isn't anything you want to tell us, is there?"

In response I spelled out, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E Y-O-U!" The laughter got very nervous then. The doctors called for medication because I was obviously having a seizure....

It is appalling how much prejudiced doctors (and others) will rationalize away as "primitive brain stem activity" and "seizures."

I'm a O65-C4-E27-A50-N66 Big Five!!

I wrote this like a year ago on MWG...

Also, let me say what AP'ing means to me. It is not a checklist "I co-sleep, check, I have my trusty official 'AP Certified Mom Sling', check, I breastfeed, check..." but it is a philosophy that when you bring a baby into this world, your life changes to lovingly accommodate this person, instead of making this person try to conveniently fit into your life-like trying to put a square peg into a round hole. I don't think our contraceptive culture is very friendly to that type of nurturing. Instead after people finally decide they can have children, then they schedule them and say they are "good" because they are trained to just sit there.

...asks Elinor, in our comments box below.

The short answer: "AP" stands for "attachment parenting."

Pansy and Gorbulas

And the long answer:

Attachment parenting is an approach to raising infants and young children that places a strong emphasis on responding to a baby's needs and fostering a strong, trusting bond between the baby and his parents. Dr. William Sears and his wife Martha (the parents of eight children) are probably AP's most famous faces, but I actually started learning about the AP approach through the writing of Sheila Kippley of the Couple to Couple League. The La Leche League has been advocating this approach for years. There's also some Catholic therapist guy out there with a blog who has written a book and other articles that include information on the AP approach, which he aptly describes as "natural law parenting."

The premise of attachment parenting is that tiny infants need their parents, especially their mothers. (Yes, it does seem strange that we need a parenting book to tell us this, but these are the crazy times we live in....) It rejects the idea that babies cry to "manipulate" their parents.

Some highlights of attachment parenting include breastfeeding "on demand" (i.e., feeding the baby when he's hungry, not just when you think he should be hungry), holding and cuddling the baby when he cries (instead of leaving him to "cry it out"), using a sling or other babywearing gizmo, and sharing sleep.

St. Bloggers who are interested in the AP approach include Alicia the midwife, Davey's mommy and daddy, Dinka, M'Lynn, the Popcaks, Sparki,and Smockmomma (can't speak for the other Summas yet.) (This list was right off the top of my head; apologies in advance to anyone who should be on the list and isn't!)

Mothering with Grace is a website for Catholic moms interested in AP.

UPDATE: Add Bobbi to the list of AP St Blogger's. She also has a list of AP links.

PRESS RELEASE

Special Session Called in State Legislature
Speaker of the House, Johnnie Byrd to introduce “Terri’s Bill”

Clearwater, FL October 19, 2003: The Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, has called a special session of the Florida Legislature for Monday, October 20, 2003. At that time, Florida’s Speaker of the House will introduce “Terri’s Bill”. By Florida law, two thirds majority vote are required to have a topic entered.

Volunteers with the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation have learned that Senate President, Jim King is against this bill.

The Bill would put an immediate moratorium on all dehydration and starvation deaths currently pending in Florida.

We have come to a time when the merchants of death have created a constitutional crisis and a justice gridlock, while the rightful life of Florida’s disabled and vulnerable citizens tragically hang on Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s court ordered dehydration and starvation death.