Dan Savage: In Defense of Dignity

Anyone who reads this and remained unmoved is a cad.

Suddenly, the doctor was at the door to my mother's room again. He waved me out into the hall. He needed a medical directive. Immediately. Her vital signs were tanking. If we were going to put a tube in her, and put her on machines that could breathe for her, it had to be now. Right now. So it fell to me to walk back into my mother's room...(and) tell her she was going to die..."

The piece to which I've linked is Savage's exhortation to the voters of Washington State to vote in favor of a proposition to allow assisted suicide for the terminally ill, a so-called "death with dignity" initiative. He just watched his mother die of pulminary fibrosis a couple of months ago, so he's in a position to know what he's talking about.

And the Catholic Church and other life-at-all-costs organizations are fighting it. This line captures all my libertarian sensibilities perfectly:

"The proper response to religious opposition to choice or love or death can be reduced to a series of bumper stickers: Don't approve of abortion? Don't have one. Don't approve of gay marriage? Don't have one. Don't approve of physician-assisted suicide? For Christ's sake, don't have one. But don't tell me I can't have one—each one—because it offends your God.

"Fuck your God."

Or, if you like, fuck your idea of what you think God wants.

This is especially heart-wrenching to me because of my own mother's situation. She's in a nursing home, in stable health, but with a degenerative condition that will never allow for improvement. And I think about how she will die constantly. How will I react when/if I am someday put into this position? How long will I be able to "hold it together" to make the decisions that can only be made once and had best be made correctly?

I don't know.

All I know is, my heart goes out to Savage and his family.

HT: Pharyngula
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Update: Savage has more here. Reader reactions and their own heart-rending stories here.

Rachael Ray strokes an ear of corn

Sometimes, this stuff writes itself:



HT: Ed Brayton.

Breakin'--for Jesus?

And you thought The Lawrence Welk Show was creepy:


http://view.break.com/575834 - Watch more free videos

Olbermann: Special Comment on Palin

PZ Myers pwns a homophobic preacher.

Hilarious. A snippet of a quote can't do it justice. Just go here.

Dear Sarah: Apologize, you loose-lipped nobody!

That from Margo Howard, Abigail Van Buren's daughter and heir to the "Dear Abby" advice column. Money quote from The New Republic:

"To live on the same street and to have served on a board with Billy Ayers, part of the Weather Underground when Obama was in grade school and now a professor, is not my idea of "palling around with." I think this hockey mom/moose skinner fits perfectly into the class war she is helping perpetuate, even though she has none.

"It would have far more factual validity for Obama, or a surrogate, to publicize the fact that Track, the kid who joined the Army, did so because a judge told him it was that or jail due to his dealing drugs. I have a strong hunch, however, the Obama people would never get into that."

Bill Maher on Sarah Palin and her witchdoctor

Money quote:

"If there was a video of Barak Obama standing in front of his congregation being healed by a black witch doctor, this election would be over."

Howl

A podcast featuring a recording of the late Allen Ginsberg reading Howl.

Rolling Stone on John McCain

A typically, marvelously comprehensive article. And it should be no surprise that the McCain camp wanted no part of talking to the press. But the money quote is this:

"In some respects, I'm not sure that's the kind of character I want sitting in the Oval Office. I'm not sure that much time in a prisoner-of-war status doesn't do something to you. Doesn't do something to you psychologically, doesn't do something to you that might make you a little more volatile, a little less apt to listen to reason, a little more inclined to be volcanic in your temperament."

That's Larry Wilkerson, US Army Colonel (ret.), former chief of staff of Secretary of State Colin Powell.

And there are plenty of anecdotes that McCain didn't change nearly as much as you thought after getting out. The opening piece speaks of McCain revealing he was looking for a trip to Rio on Navy business...because he stood a better chance of getting laid. And it also speaks of a time when he was arrested as a teenager for cursing out two girls who had laughed in his face at his attempts as a pickup artist. THAT should make the Sarah Palin nomination all the more apparent as the prop that it is.

Oh, and read about his "heroics" on the USS Forestall, too

Vote.

Olbermann: WPITW!

Yeah, my man crush again...

Political candidate: Kill teh gayz!

From Sudbury, Ontario:

Police are investigating whether an independent federal candidate committed a hate crime by telling high school students homosexuals should be executed.

David Popescu was invited to participate in a federal candidates' discussion at Sudbury Secondary School on Tuesday. He made the comment after a student asked his opinion of gay marriage...

"We are actively conducting a criminal investigation in this matter," deputy police chief Frank Elsner said.

Nice to see someone in this world is sane enough to cut to the chase. And one gay person absolutely hit it out of the yard:

"I think sometimes violence and hatred towards gays and lesbians gets dressed up in sort of a religious guise and is somehow tolerated. I just don't think it should be tolerated at all."

Exactly. It's bigotry, no matter what "holy" book you think is sacrosanct.

HT: Pharyngula.

Quote of the day.

"Cell phones have no place in a movie theater, and anyone who uses one there should be required to wear a badge saying, 'I am an inconsiderate moron.' The time is coming when theater chains will be forced to take action against audience misbehavior, because it is alienating so much of its customer base. With big pictures, perhaps some multiplex screens could be set aside for the civilized."
--Roger Ebert

New Bike City: It's shipped!

What? A blog post on bikes? Who'd'a thunk it?

The Moots is on the way. Woot!

More to come.

Quote of the Day

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
-- Douglas Adams

Palin the thug

From the Anchorage Daily News:

(Troopergate) becomes about one thing and one thing only, revenge. Not public good, but settling a score.

That newspaper is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Talk about a no-spin zone.

Four more years

Sarah Palin is the female equivalent of this guy...only dumber.

Maureen Dowd: Tribute to Paul Newman

Lovely:

(W)e lost an American icon who stood for traits that have been in short supply...: shrewdness, humility, decency, generosity, class.

Olbermann: Lay off Ifill!

Keith, loosen up a little. Seriously, we're all friends here; let us know how you really feel...

Speigel article on Bush

Pour yourself a tall beverage and get comfortable reading this. It's long, but it's good. Money quote:

Also on display is the end of arrogance. The Americans are now paying the price for their pride.

McCain in Des Moines

A press conference with the Des Moines Register's editorial board.



HT: Sullivan.