Stand in the Trenches

This from Blogs for Terri: A call to impeach Judge Greer, or as my husband calls him, Pontius Pilate.

Greer has steadfastly refused to allow any evidence of past abuse into the court records and has ruled, albeit contrary to Florida Statutes, that Schiavo’s self-serving hearsay constituted “clear and convincing” evidence that Terri would want to die, basing his 2000 order of death on Schiavo’s testimony.

Something is deeply wrong with Judge Greer. If anyone ever deserved impeachment, he certainly does.

Here's the online petition if you'd like to sign it.

And this is good, too: Blogs for Terri is planning to place another ad, this time in USA Today. Please help if you can by pledging.

Maybe all these efforts - the blogging and petitions and ads, but mostly the prayers - can prevent Terri's slow and painful death by dehydration and starvation.

Maybe we can avoid the awful propect of a judge forcing her loving parents to stand by, helplessly; a third millenium Mary and John at the foot of the cross.

Good Friday is approaching; will Terri still be alive? Or will Pontius Pilate have caused her death by then?

Please keep praying. It's not just about Terri. It's a test of our culture; do we have what it takes to defeat the culture of death?

"I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life." (Deut 30:19)

Good article on World Net Daily (h/t Spirit Daily):

McCullough [spokesman for Terri Schiavo's parents Robert and Mary Schindler] said the Schindlers want to get TV cameras in their daughter's room at the Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., where she lives, to document that she is not "comatose," as often has been reported.

McCullough points out, however, that Michael Schiavo keeps tight control of the vistors list and has barred filming and photographing.

"Someone needs to go to Michael and [attorney George] Felos and say, 'What do you have to hide?" McCullough said.

Previously Michael Schiavo's team has invoked privacy considerations, but McCullough sees contradictions in that stance.

"They say she's like a vegetable or plant with no concept of anything, but then they argue she might be embarrassed," said McCullough. "Then when they want to rush to have the tube removed, they say, "Oh, she's languishing there and is in pain with each day that goes by."

You can't have it both ways, Messrs. Felos and Schiavo.

Theresa of Kiihnworld is in big trouble with me now.

I just went to her site and found a link to this silly thing, so I proceeded to waste four minutes of time watching those same four precious minutes tick away.

Thanks a lot, Theresa!

And just for that, here's an equally silly thing for you.

My 5-1/2 year old daughter was reading Henry Huggins.

"Mom," she says, "I'm having trouble with this word."

"Oh? Which word, hon?"

"This one", she says, pointing to "ichthyophthirius".

"Oh my gosh, sweetie, I'M having trouble with that word!"

Thankfully, most of the rest of the words in that book aren't quite that difficult. But it's really there, and here's what it means, if you're wondering.

UPDATE: I realized after posting this that the book was actually Henry Huggins, not Henry and Ribsy, as I first thought.

Just a notice here that I will continue to blog for Terri Schiavo, but I will also begin blogging about some other topics again as well. I'm post-dating this so it will stay at the top of the blog. UPDATE: I changed my mind. I'll just link to this post regularly.

Please check Hyscience and Blogs for Terri, as well as Terri's Fight (which, from the looks of it right now, is about to be upgraded to handle all the traffic) for updates.

Be sure to read the story of how the St. Petersburg Times initially refused to accept the full-page Blogs for Terri ad (to which I contributed) unless changes were made. They're now saying it wasn't "censorship", and the sales manager seemed particularly concerned that bloggers might use that term in describing the incident. Interesting.

Read the whole thing.

My mom just told me she heard on the radio that another stay had been ordered for Terri, until March 18. This seemed like good news.

Until I went to Blogs for Terri and read the actual court order. It's clear that Judge Greer has actually issued a death sentence.

Bascially, he's annoyed that the order of February 2000 to starve Terri to death hasn't been carried out because of all the stays issued since then. He says the process isn't working.

What, because Terri isn't dead yet? I'd say that means the process is working.

He says he refuses to issue any more stays, and that what he's doing now is simply giving a date certain for Terri's starvation to begin, in order to allow time to arrange Terri's "last rites and other similar matters."

How considerate of him.

Unless the appellate courts issue a stay, he orders Michael Schiavo to begin Terri's starvation on March 18, 2005.

He's issued a death sentence.

I know I haven't blogged about much else lately, but I really can't stop thinking about this poor woman. Today at 5:00, the stay against starving her to death will end.

I haven't heard anything so far today about any progress being made to save her life. Terri's Fight (her family's website) is still down. However, the Paypal link at Blogs for Terri is up, so you can make a donation very easily.

We'll just keep praying.

One last thing: Some good thoughts about the power and purpose of the blogosphere here, at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

Some bloggers (sorry, no time to search out the links here) are speculating that perhaps Terri could recover, given therapy and time.

While that would be wonderful, and akin to the almost miraculous recovery of this woman, it really doesn't affect her right to live.

Even if we had perfect knowledge, with 100% certainty, that she would never improve one whit over her current condition, Terri still would not deserve to be starved to death.

As many bloggers also are pointing out, it is illegal to starve an animal to death (as it should be), and people would be outraged at even the suggestion of withholding food and water to cause a dog or horse to die.

Terri is deserving of no less.

Waiting till tomorrow to hear what the outcome will be for Terri Schiavo. I'm hopeful that a solution will be found to save her from death by starvation at the hand of her husband.

In the meantime, here are some excellent posts:

This is Rich offers some thoughts on the spiritual nature of this battle. I couldn't agree more.

As Rich noted, Terri's Fight is down; too many hits. Another sign that word about Terri is spreading: sitemeter stats for Blogs for Terri.

Hyscience has the info if you want to make a call to President Bush.

Here's a brief example of how MSM has totally misrepresented this case. Another reason we need bloggers.

Finally, a first person account of someone who recovered from PVS (which, by the way, is not Terri's condition; she actually is in better shape than that).

Go to Hyscience and Blogs for Terri for all the info, but basically:

A state circuit judge Wednesday extended until 5 p.m. Friday the stay keeping Terri Schiavo's feeding tube intact, saying he needed time to consider more arguments from her parents from her parents that she should undergo new medical tests and that her husband should be dismissed as her guardian.

Meanwhile the Florida Department of Children & Families moved to intervene in the legal battle over the life of the brain-damaged woman.

In addition, "Jeb Bush told reporters he was seeking a means to intervene in the case".

Thank God!

One last thing: According to Blogs for Terri, a PayPal button will be up on the site sometime soon. That's good. It seemed a little incongruous to be driving to the Post Office today to actually mail a letter to send money for a blog-related fundraiser conducted over the Internet.

Anyway, please consider a pledge. You may have to try several times, as the servers are taking a huge hit over at their site.

UPDATE: Didn't want to leave the impression that Terri's out of the woods. The stay only lasts till 5:00 Friday, so unless a permanent solution is found -- such as ending Michael Schiavo's custody of Terri and transferring it to her parents -- she still is in danger of being starved to death.

But obviously this delay is good. It's to be hoped that over the next two days, justice and mercy both will be served, and Terri will no longer ever have to worry about being starved to death, nor will her parents have to spend one more day worrying about their daughter's care.

Very moving post here (h/t Charlie Sykes); a blogger writes about his own brain-injured son:

In February 1991 our son Ryan suffered a severe brain injury. He was in the hospital for 6 months, and has never regained the ability to walk or talk. He cannot answer Yes or No by any means. He is totally dependent on our care. When he came home from the hospital, he had a feeding tube to his stomach just like Terri Schiavo does now....

In short, Ryan's pretty close to the level of functioning of Terri Schiavo, as far as I can tell from the news reports about her. And now her husband, Michael Schiavo, is very close to having her feeding tube removed and having her starved to death....

Right now the chess game in the courts continues. And when Terri Schiavo is put to death, you all will feel bad about it for a while, but it will slowly fade from memory as you move on to other things. But for us, a haunting question will remain: When Will They Be Coming For Ryan?

Of course, it brings this to mind:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

--Pastor Martin Niemoeller

(A thank you to Charlie Sykes for staying on the Terri Schiavo story, and for the link here, as well.)

Today there will be a hearing at 2:45 ET in the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

Check here during the day: Terri's Fight.

Also, check Hyscience and Blogs for Terri for updates (and for more background if you're just learning about Terri).

Here's a quote from the Schindler family statement:

Recent advances in neurological testing may be better suited to determining Terri Schiavo’s true cognizant state and the Schindlers would like them to be made available so that no doubt about their daughter’s condition remains.

The family believes that Michael Schiavo will welcome this new opportunity to resolve unanswered questions about Terri’s neurological state before any further action to remove her food and fluids is carried out.

Remember, Terri is not being kept alive by machines; she's not actually dying. This isn't about the "right to die" so much as it is about the right to live.

MSM has peddled many falsehoods about Terri, which you can read more about here, and here. Those posts have links to additional sources.

Pray that the courts will have the wisdom and mercy to make the right decision. Pray for Terri's parents, too. They've had a heavy cross to carry all these years.

Amidst all the mostly bad news about Terri Schiavo (which I have to admit is weighing on me pretty heavily), there is some good news:

A worthy new blogger has joined the blogosphere!

He's smart, a good writer, and an untiring activist for conservative causes. He's a huge defender of the Second Amendment, and very convincing in his arguments for it. He's also a hunter, fisherman, and outdoors enthusiast, as well as a husband and father (to a wonderful wife and daughter!).

He spent almost two decades living in Paraguay, so has a great deal of personal experience of what it's like to live without many rights and freedoms, under a dictator.

How do I know all this?

Because he's my brother! (Well, one of my brothers, technically, but so far the only one who's a blogger.)

And where's this brand new blog? Right here: Teeth of the Constitution.

Please stop by and check it out. I think he picked out an excellent template for his main theme. And he's already got some substantial posts up.

Congrats, Paul, and welcome to the blogosphere!

Welcome, Hugh Hewitt visitors.

For more information about Terri, including the most recent updates on an almost hourly basis, check Hyscience and Blogs for Terri.

In brief: Terri Schiavo is a Florida woman who suffered brain damage after a collapse in her home in 1990, and since then has been severely disabled.

Her husband, Michael, wants her to die. That's blunt, but there’s no other way to say it, because he has refused all other options such as divorce (so he can marry the woman he’s already had two children with), and financial offers from Terri’s parents.

He insists that Terri wouldn’t want to live this way (a dubious, unsupported claim), and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers, trying to get the right to kill her by starvation and dehydration. The money is coming from a medical malpractice award related to Terri’s early care; it was supposed to be spent on Terri’s care and therapy, but Michael has refused to allow any rehabilitation for her at all, even such basic medical care as antibiotics for a minor infection.

She’s not dying; she’s living, and yet she’s been housed in a hospice.

She’s not a “vegetable” (in a Persistent Vegetative State). She responds to stimuli, in particular, to her mother and father. She laughs. She verbalizes, and even speaks a few words. She is clearly very disabled, but she is also conscious, sentient, and aware.

She’s not kept alive by machines; she simply receives her food three times a day via a tube, instead of via fork and spoon.

She has parents who love her dearly and have offered Michael anything he wants so they could take custody of her. They want no money from Michael.

But he refuses to allow them to care for her.

Please read more about this case in some of my previous posts, but especially at the links above in this post. Then, please consider joining the effort to save Terri's life, via the links above.

It's not just about Terri. It's about a the murder of a woman by court order; it's about the right to life for disabled people; it's about all of us, eventually.

UPDATE: Fixed the link to Terri's Fight; it's .org, not .com. Sorry about that, and h/t to my brother for giving me the heads up.

This on Hyscience: Judge Greer just issued a stay until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow.

This is good news, albeit temporary.

While we wait to see what happens tomorrow, here's a perfect example of the kind of nonsense that MSM is perpetrating about Terri. Look at this quote from this article:

Her husband has said she never wanted to be kept alive artificially.

Is being fed an artificial means of life support? If that's the case, I guess we all are being kept alive artificially. Gosh, when are we ever going to learn to live on our own, without all that nonsense of food and water?

The difference between Terri and most of the rest of us, in terms of getting nutrition, is that she gets hers through a tube three times a day, while we are able to shovel it in ourselves via a spoon and fork.

This is the email I sent to Hugh Hewitt this afternoon.

Dear Mr. Hewitt,

As one of the smaller bloggers, I’m wondering, where are the big blogs on the case of Terri Schiavo?

There are many of us bloggers, here at Blogs for Terri. LaShawn Barber is on it, as is Wittenburg Gate. But we’re still having a great deal of difficulty breaking through the rest of the blogosphere and MSM.

Please excuse this nervy statement from a small-fry blogger, but, Mr Hewitt, we need you on this, too!

I’m sure you’re aware of her situation; today, unless a court rules otherwise, or Governor Bush or President Bush step in with Executive Orders, Michael Schiavo will once again attempt to starve his wife to death.

MSM has been successful in telling half-truths or outright falsehoods about Terri. She is not in a persistent vegetative state, as you can see from videos here. She is not in a coma. She is not being kept alive by machines; she’s being kept alive by being fed, like all of us; it’s just that her feeding is through a tube three times a day. She sits up, she even has stood up. She responds, she’s sentient, she’s conscious; she’s just severely disabled (and possibly at the hands of the very man who now is trying to prevent her from being fed.)

Please, consider blogging about this. Not much time is left.

Respectfully yours,

Mary-Eileen Swart
Stand in the Trenches

This may be a very sad day; unless Judge Greer signs a proposed stay, Terri Schiavo will most likely be starved to death, beginning this afternoon.

Check Hyscience and Blogs for Terri for updates this afternoon. Terri's parents are scheduled to make a statement in front of the hospice in Florida this afternoon at 1:00, though I can't tell whether it's EST or CST. (I think eastern, though, judging from another post on when Judge Greer is supposed to decide on the stay.)

If you can, please consider making a pledge to a fund to place a full page ad in the Sunday St. Petersburg Times, in an attempt to break through the MSM barriers to the truth about Terri. I made a pledge, and I hope you will, too.

I feel like we bloggers for Terri are in some kind of blog ghetto. I still haven't seen the big bloggers address this. Hugh Hewitt, where are you? LaShawn Barber is on it, which is good, but from her latest post, perhaps it's too late.

Remember, this is not just about Terri, it's about the Culture of Death taking one more step toward the Duty to Die, toward forced euthanasia, toward the destruction of all remaining respect for human life.

Via Hyscience:

Today, the 2nd DCA denied the Schindlers' motion to withhold their mandate, which is expected to be issued tomorrow morning, Tuesday - February 22, 2005.


Upon learning of this, attorney George Felos contacted the Schindlers' attorney to inform him that he intended to instruct the staff at Hospice to remove Terri Schiavo's food and fluids at 1.00pm ET on Tuesday, February 22.

Read more...

Today is the day the Judge Greer will decide if Terri should live or die. Please pray for her, and for her parents.

And pray, also, for Judge Greer, that he will rule wisely, and for Michael Schiavo, for a conversion of heart. Yes, that would take a miracle, but with God all things are possible.

Also, please read these posts (hat tip Hyscience, which would be a good site to check during the day):

Here's some info on what is meant by "Persistent Vegetative State".

A look at the creepy mindset of George Felos, attorney for Michael Schiavo.

Check Blogs for Terri today, too, for updates on what happens in Judge Greer's court.

While at Scrappleface today, I was clued in to this news about the archeology professor who has been caught in the act of fossil fabricating.

It's funny (and I mean weird funny, not ha-ha funny) how many such fabrications, frauds, and fakeries have been perpetrated in the name of evolutionary theory.

Here's a good summary of the most well-known of them. Oddly enough, I found the link on this site, which I went to today just to see what he was saying about the German fraud. I'd linked to him back in this post, commenting on his reverence for some old bones but not the God who made them.

Anyway, we've got dead peppered moths glued to trees, and parts of different skeletons glued together to make a supposed "missing link", and stuff that a German professor just plain made up. Evolutionists insist that none of this matters; that the good science outweighs the fakeries. Unfortuntately, kids' textbooks still preach the frauds.

What is the real agenda here?

You must read Scrappleface today (thanks to the reader who commented on the previous post here). It's wince-inducing, because it's so true.

Also, please go to Wittenburg Gate today for "Bloggers' Best for Terri Schiavo". I submitted my previous post for inclusion, but there are many posts that are far better, and you really should read them.

The fight for Terri's life is not just about one woman's life, of course. It's about the value of every human life, whether disabled or not, and the power of the courts, and the bonds of love between parent and child.

It's also about the refusal of MSM to deal with the truth of this story. There's a near blackout of information on the case; those stories that do mention it have a "right to die" and "living will" context. Have you ever read an MSM story about Terri that didn't refer to her as being in a "persistent vegetative state", which clearly isn't true? Or one that told the truth about Michael Schiavo's nasty behavior toward Terri's parents, or his lawyer's connection to the "Right To Die" movement?

I don't know if bloggers will be able to make a difference in this case, but it's certainly worth making the effort.

Today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel had this article (AP byline Kevin O'Hanlon):

The [Nebraska] state Supreme Court granted clemency Friday to a dog sentenced to death for fighting with a neighbor's pet.

The high court ruled unanimously that Murphy, an Alaskan malamute-shepherd mix belonging to Doug and Lorele Dittoe, should not be killed for causing "relatively minor injury" to the other dog after slipping out of the couple's fenced-in yard in 2001.

Murphy had been deemed dangerous by the county sheriff, and a judge ordered her destroyed.

The Supreme Court of Nebraska took what was basically a dog pound case? And they ruled in favor of life for the dog.

That's fine... but where is a similar ruling for Terri Schiavo? Is her life not more valuable? After all, she is a conscious, sentient human being, who can speak. Is she of less worth than a dog simply because she's severely disabled, or because her "husband" wants her dead?

"We conclude that the order for the destruction of the dog was not reasonable," wrote high court Judge John Wright. "The county court ... abused its discretion." The Dittoes adopted Murphy in 1994 from a friend who found her malnourished and lying in a ditch. After she fought with neighborhood dogs several times, the couple took her to a trainer and put up a six-foot fence. But she got out again when a gate was accidentally left open.

At a hearing before the high court last fall, the Dittoes' lawyer, Mark Fahleson, said authorities trying to kill the dog were demonstrating "a bloodthirsty vengeance once thought reserved for only the most cold-blooded of human killers."

You mean like the cold-blooded vengeance that Michael Schiavo is demonstrating toward Terri?

Read this article about Terri (h/t Hyscience).

Then pray that on Monday, Judge George W. Greer's court will do justice for Terri with at least as much mercy as was shown a Nebraska dog.

Via Instapundit (in sort of a round-about way), found this post titled "Nanny State Nonsense" over at Tomfoolery of the Highest Order.

In her years in city government, Council Member Gale Brewer has sat through plenty of interminable hearings and tedious debates. When she goes to the movies, though, the Upper West Side Democrat wishes she didn't have to endure the preliminaries.

That's why Ms. Brewer introduced a bill yesterday that would require movie theaters to advertise the actual start time of a movie, rather than the time the previews are supposed to begin.

And from the original New York Sun article:

A representative in Connecticut's state legislature, Andrew Fleischmann, introduced a similar bill in Hartford last month. His bill would require theaters to include two times: one when the trailers begin, and one when the movie starts. He calls it a matter of truth in advertising....

"Look," Mr. Fleischmann said yesterday during a brief phone interview, "I'm the chair of the education committee and there are far weightier issues that come before government. But I have never introduced a bill that has touched such a nerve. People go to the movies for a few hours of escapism and they are annoyed."

Well, gosh, if people are annoyed, we better pass a law. You know, sometimes my husband annoys me, when he says he's about to leave work to come home for dinner but then he stops at Home Depot or Menards and shows up two hours later. I'm annoyed! That's not truth in advertising!

Council Member Brewer said she was open to negotiation on her idea. She conceded that she did not know how much revenues theaters receive from what Loews called the "pre-feature content," and she said she assumed the theater-owners would cry financial ruin. As written, the proposed law designates fines of between $500 and $1,000 for each violation. It was unclear yesterday exactly how violations would be tallied.

I think I'll contact my local legislators to see if I can slap a fine on my husband for each incident.

Really, this is ridiculous. Have people lost all ability to think for themselves? Wouldn't it be possible for people annoyed by commercials to just, say, show up a few minutes late? Or how about show up on time, put your coat on a seat, and wander to the lobby until the ads are over? Do we really need a law?

When we took our Fabulous Driving Vacation to New York and D.C. last summer, we noticed that the further east we drove, the worse the Nanny State became.

They had million-dollar electronic billboards flashing really important messages like "Drive Carefully!"

Or, "Buckle Up!" And "No Tailgating!"

Really? I thought I could defy all common sense and traffic laws and drive like a maniac however I wanted. Thank God those billboards set me straight. What a fantastic use of taxpayer dollars.

We figured sooner or later we'd see signs admonishing us to "Cover your mouth when you cough!" and "Don't Forget to Floss!"

I am so glad I live in the Midwest.

UPDATE: My husband has a rebuttal below! I am so glad I married him; he makes me laugh far more often than he annoys me. Now if we can just find a 12-Step Program for his hardware addiction...

"... Those who want Terri Schiavo to live and those who want her dead."

That quote, from This Is Rich, is pretty blunt, but probably true.

Terri's husband, Michael, is in the second category; he's wanted Terri dead for a long, long time now.

Another one in the second category is Michael's lawyer, George Felos, a euthanasia activist. He's taken $397,249.99 (scroll to the bottom of the page) in legal fees to try to make sure Terri dies, all of it out of the Medical Expenses Trust Fund that was awarded to Terri by a jury in 1992.

In the other category, those who want her to live, are all the bloggers on Terri's Blogroll, as well as many others, like Rich, quoted above.

Why do I want Terri to live?

Because she is not in a PVS or being kept alive by machines; she smiles, vocalizes, responds to her mother and father. If I was in that situation, I wouldn't want to be starved to death.

Because Terri's parents want to be able to take care of her. I'm a parent, and I would want the same thing for one of my children (God forbid).

Because Terri is a Catholic whose husband has refused to allow her to receive Holy Communion. I'm a Catholic, and for him to refuse the sacraments to her is flat out wrong; I have sympathy for her.

Because she's a human being.

Because if she is starved to death with the state's approval, we are one step further down the path that will lead to the particular hell found in the Netherlands today, where children are euthanized.

Terri Schiavo may only have a few days left to live before her husband, Michael, removes her feeding tube.

Unless a judge issues a stay, her parents may be powerless to help her.

Michael Schiavo has been merciless in dealing with Terri. And he's spent hundreds of thousands of dollars -- from Terri's medical fund -- on lawyers fees.

Why? So that he can let Terri starve to death.

There are many myths about Terri being perpetuated by MSM, including that she is a "vegetable" (in a Persistent Vegetative State), and that she is being kept alive by machines. Not true. Here's another good link with factual information about Terri. And one more, here, written by a priest who's gotten to know the family.

I posted before about Terri (and by the way, here's an article that may answer the question I posed then), as have many other bloggers.

Now, Hyscience and Pro-Life Blogs are leading the effort for the blogosphere to step up in an organized fashion to force attention on Terri's plight, as well as to encourage MSM to be honest about it.

Blogicus makes the case. So does La Shawn Barber. I've joined Terri's Blogroll, and I encourage any pro-life bloggers to do the same. And say a prayer for Terri, too.

Thank you to all of you who posted a birthday greeting / sympathy message about my Birthday Misadventures! You are all so nice.

And if you're wondering why I haven't posted for a couple days, it's not because I was over-celebrating my birthday, nor because I was traumatized by the hit-and-run incident.

No, I've just been up to my eyeballs in ... life.

And today all I can manage is this little post here, and a post over at the Badger Blog Alliance, here.

Regular blogging will resume eventually. In the meantime, be sure to stop by Attila's place and enter the "Pillage Challenge"! I did, and the mugs are way cool. Go see for yourself.

Yes, today is my birthday, and this morning I thought I'd put up a little self-serving birthday post, a blatant and even slightly pathetic invitation for my blogger friends to post a Happy Birthday message for me. (And you can do that on your birthday, too, if you have a blog!)

But I never had a chance to write that post -- and instead I now have to post about how we got rear-ended by a hit-and-run driver on the way to my aunt's house for lunch.

We were stopped at a light. The kids and I were having a nice little chat, when suddenly there was this horrible jarring impact and awful noise.

For the first moment you only experience it, you can't comprehend it, and then the realization, "We just got hit by a car!" Immediately after my head bounced back against the head rest, I whipped around to see if the kids were all OK. They were, thank God, but they instantly burst into tears from the shock of it.

While looking back, I saw the guy in the big grey van behind us. I turned forward again and realized the light was green so I prepared to pull over. However, the guy who hit us didn't pull over, but instead sped up the on-ramp to the expressway at that intersection.

"It's a hit and run!" I said in disbelief, and proceeded to up the ramp myself, honking like mad, but the guy only went faster.

My 14-yo Nancy-Drew-fan daughter instantly went into detective mode and began repeating the guy's license plate aloud.

Obviously I wasn't about to start a high-speed chase, so I pulled over, checked again that the kids were OK, and called 911 to report it.

Next we had a trip to the local police station. My kids, who have never been inside a station before and who I hope never are again, were pretty wide-eyed during the 45 minutes we were there reporting the incident (especially when they heard a call for a "prisoner count" over the PA system.) The officer very courteously took all our information.

Now here's the amazing part: At the time, I thought for sure the back end of the van would be completely smashed up. The impact was enough to send cups flying out of cupholders, and toss little items out of a dashboard "cubby" onto the floor. Besides, we'd all gotten a fairly decent jolt forward and back. But the only damage that the officer and I noticed was that the bumper had a few scratches.

Or so I thought, until I got home and discovered that the right rear quarter panel was ajar and pushed forward slightly. Still, nothing major. I guess they really do design bumpers better these days; it seemed to absorb most of the impact without tranferring it to the rest of the car body.

And so,thank goodness, this ended up being nothing more than a bad fender-bender. Which, in the grand scheme of things, is really nothing at all.

But still, I sure could use a drink. Guess I picked the wrong thing to give up for Lent....

Last night at dinner we had the most wonderful chat with the kids, and it reminded me of this book.

Somehow last night we got onto the topic of what it's like to be expecting a baby, and then the kids asked which one of them kicked and turned the most while still in the womb.

So we told them how sometimes I'd feel a little foot pushing out, and I'd rub it gently, and then -- it would disappear again. Other times, we'd feel a hard, round head -- or is that a little baby butt?, we'd wonder. Gently pat again; head? butt? At which point 7-yo son pipes up, "And then I headbutted you, right?" As you can imagine, he got big laughs for that.

Nice to have conversations like that with the kids.

We celebrated Mardi Gras yesterday. It wasn't quite like it is in New Orleans (thank God; a lot less messy and definitely more family-friendly here) but we had a good time nonetheless.

I made a pot of jambalaya, with chicken, shrimp, and sausage. The kids each tried a bit of it, but then switched to hot dogs. I don't usually make a "kids' meal" like that, but in this case, I catered to their less adventurous tastebuds. (Which is a nice way of saying I caved in so as not to hear round of "too spicy" complaints.)

We put green, gold, and purple beads from the dress-up box on the table as a sort of centerpiece, along with a heart-shaped dish of chocolate heart-shaped Hershey's kisses (getting a jump on Valentine's Day), and a couple of purple candles.

And for dessert, paczki! Oh my gosh, are they good. They're a Polish tradition for Fat Tuesday; like jelly doughnuts, but better. I learned about paczki a few years ago, thanks to a dear friend of mine. Her parents emigrated from Poland, and she keeps up the Polish traditions - including the language - with her own children.

We definitely made it a Fat Tuesday yesterday. And we sat around and talked about the wonderful traditions-with-a-lower-case-"t" of the Church, like Mardi Gras. The kids noted that the popular culture has kept the partying but forgotten the reason. Catholic culture reminds us that first we feast, then we fast.

So today, we fast. Went to Mass and were given ashes on our forehead, just a vaguely cross-shaped smudge, and the somber reminder: "Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

What a good reminder of mortality.

Progress for America, the group that produced the "Ashley's Story" ad last fall, is running a new commercial titled "The Right Thing" promoting Social Security reform. The ad will run for the next 10 days on CNN and FOX.

This group also recently ran the ad “Courage”, on the same topic.

Courage is exactly the word for it. President Bush is the most courageous politician in recent memory for having the guts to touch the dreaded “third rail”, especially considering that he could just ignore the issue and pass it on to the next guy (or gal), as his predecessors have.

The AARP doesn't like it and is going to put up a full-court press against the President, but as this letter on a Just One Minute post indicates, the AARP certainly isn't speaking for all Boomers and Seniors.

And for those of us who like to think not only of ourselves, but of our children and their children, the AARP definitely is not an ally.

Cross posted at Badger Blog Alliance.

UPDATE: I've always said that my readers are the smartest in the world. Here's more proof: read the first comment on this blog. Notice in particular this last part of the FDR quote he found:

Third, voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age. It is proposed that the federal government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans."

So FDR himself wanted voluntary plans to eventually substitute for the government plan. Isn't that interesting?

UPDATE 2: A good friend added a comment below, saying that I took FDR out of context. Al Franken, that brilliant intellectual on the left, is saying the same thing.

But even if you grant my commenter (and Al Franken) the point that FDR wasn't talking about supplanting the compulsory Social Security plan with a voluntary one, so what?

There are two main points here. First, FDR assumed that the Social Security compulsory contribution plan would be self-supporting, which it isn't anymore. I don't think we can assume he'd have been in favor of the plan the way it is now.

Second, why should we hang on to a system put in place decades ago when life expectancy was much shorter? I'm tired of paying an exorbitant tax into a system that will give me a lousy return on investment. Why can't we do better than that? That's what President Bush is trying to do: improve a system that is going to be seriously broken, sooner or later. We can quibble about the dates, but that also misses the point: why can't we do better?

Finally, in the end, I really don't care too much what FDR did or didn't want. And liberals shouldn't, either. Let's deal with present realities and future needs, and do something to improve, not discard, a system that needs improving.

According to this Chicago Tribune article, a third student newspaper is about to debut at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

The new paper, The Mendota Beacon, will be a (gasp) conservative publication. The liberals on campus appear to be headed into a self-righteous tizzy. Says the editor of The Badger Herald, one of the other student papers,

"I'm skeptical of a newspaper that openly comes out and says, 'We are going to lean to the right.' I'm going to be a little leery about what kind of news that will come from that."

Really? You mean like the rest of us are leery about all the news that comes from MSM? In this case, the conservative paper is honestly admitting its leaning, while MSM cloaks its left-leaning bias in the mantle of objectivity. Thanks to the blogosphere, they can't get away with that anymore.

Here's what Steven Schwerbel, graphic designer for the Beacon, has to say, according to the Tribune:

"I think we are being more honest about where we are coming from," said Schwerbel, 22. "We do have a bias and we are acknowledging that. Everyone has a bias and I don't think that you can get around that."

Exactly.

This is good news for Madison students. A university should have an open exchange of ideas, rather than lockstep political correctness. Considering the results of the mock election at UW-Madison last fall, I think the students are ready for a discussion of conservative ideas.

But I wonder about the faculty.

Cross-posted at Badger Blog Alliance.

This is funny: Googlefight. (Hat tip Kiihnworld; thanks, Theresa!)

So, in honor of Paul McCartney's appearance at the Super Bowl, here's a link to a Googlefight between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones: you'll have to click for yourself to see who wins.

Here's another good one. Go, Dubya!!!

There's another amusing Google-game I know of. ("Of which I know?") But that, like the story of when I first saw "Cast Away", is also a post for another day...

A few thoughts here, though I admit I'm only blogging because I feel bad for not posting since Friday. Just what I need: a hobby that induces feelings of guilt.

Anyway....

1) How much did the halftime show cost? This article says the sponsorship went for $15 million. So, that's roughly a million dollars per minute. But, how much did it actually cost to produce, I wonder? Husband and I agree that Paul McCartney looks and sounds pretty darn good -- though we do have a minute's discussion of whether he's lip-synching.

Anyway, the whole show is an amazing spectacle, with the music, huge runways coming off the stage that double as giant screens, fireworks, audience sing-a-longs. Wow.

And this time, we watched as a family, and didn't worry about any wardrobe malfunction, crotch grabbing, inappropriate dance moves, etc. Instead, the kids got to see one of the Beatles they've heard their parents talk about so often.

2) How did they get that stage set up so fast? I wish I could have seen that; it would be more interesting than the game.

3) Best commercial so far: The Fed Ex spot that ran down the list of every stupid Super Bowl ad cliche: dancing animals, groin kick, celebrity (Burt Reynolds), talking animal, product message (optional)(!), bonus ending. Very clever.

And they got us, too, because we were just starting to say, cynically, "oh boy, here we go with the stupid talking animal ad"... and then realized that it was a sendup of those ads. Ha.

I like Fed Ex, mostly because of the movie "Cast Away", which is one of my favorites. I should post about what happened the first time I saw that movie in the theater... but that's a post for another day.

Wild Wisconsin asked Todd Stelzel, candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, for his thoughts on home schooling (in the post here on Badger Blog Alliance).

Here’s Mr. Stelzel's answer:

I am in favor of school choice. Home schooling is one of those choices. It is another option for parents and students. However, guidelines for home schooling need to be improved. For example, accurate records of student progress must be maintained and evidence of curriculum development demonstrated by the home school instructor, since this is what is required of the public school teacher.

As a homeschooling parent for the past 10 years, I respectfully disagree that “guidelines for home schooling need to be improved”. The system as we have it today has been in place since 1984, and has been used successfully by thousands of families. There is no need to change a system that has worked so well for so many homeschoolers.

Again and again, home schoolers have demonstrated that they succeed in academics, work, and college.

A system that works well for homeschoolers to educate their children also, in turn, works well for the state, by preparing young people to assume their roles in society. According to this article, homeschooled children are perhaps even better prepared to assume their roles as civic-minded adults.

Under current state law, home schoolers are required to keep a record of attendance, and must sign a statement attesting that they will provide 875 hours of instruction in the six curriculum areas required, in addition to any other subjects they want to teach.

By law, homeschools in Wisconsin are private schools. It would be blatantly unfair as well as counterproductive to treat homeschools as public schools, since we receive absolutely no public money. We provide our own classrooms, books, materials, extracurricular activities, sports equipment, transportation to field trips and other events, and most of all, teachers (mom and dad, usually, and sometimes other teachers for, say, piano or foreign language lessons).

I would suggest Mr. Stelzel focus his energy on fixing the broken public school system, rather than trying to make successful home schools more like public schools.

Cross posted at Badger Blog Alliance.

Went to gas up the car the other day and decided to go through the car wash afterwards. While filling the tank, I heard a car honking, but it sounded distant, so I pretty much ignored it. It reminded me a little of being in New York, with the almost constant honking in traffic.

Anyway, I drove around to the car wash; there was one car already inside. I pulled up to wait for my turn. It's the kind where you drive in and sit in your car while the huge blue brushes scrub down your vehicle.

Suddenly, I saw the guy inside the car wash open his car door. He walked toward the closed garage door in front of us, wiped off some steam from the inside of the glass, and started motioning and shouting to us: "The door won't open!"

The poor guy was stuck in the car wash, and had been sitting there, honking, for probably five minutes or more!

I got out and indicated to him that I'd go tell the attendants.

So I did, and the first one said, "Oh yeah, I heard all that honking. Wondered what that was." A second attendant then went out and manually opened the door.

A woman pulled up behind me as I was getting back into my car, and I told her, "Now, you watch for me if I get stuck in there, OK?" And she laughed and said maybe she shouldn't go in until someone pulled up behind her.

Because obviously honking won't work to attract attention.

My husband predicted the Dems' response to the SOTU:

It doesn't matter what you say,
It makes no difference anyway,
Whatever it is... I'm against it!
No matter what it is or who commenced it,
I'm against it!

-- Groucho Marx (UPDATE: Didn't anybody notice that it said "Grouch Marx" for the past couple days?!? If you did, you were too polite to mention it.)

Here's a little Midi file for you so you can hum the lyrics while listening to Nancy Pelosi give the Dems' rebuttal. (Scroll half way down the page to "Horse Feathers.")

UPDATE: My husband, who could get a job as an Archival Specialist in the Marx Brothers Museum, if there is such a job, if there was such a place, sends the complete lyrics for your edification and amusement:

Your proposition may be good,
But let's have one thing understood,
Whatever it is, I'm against it
And even when you've changed it or condensed it,
I'm against it!

I'm opposed to it,
On general principles, I'm opposed to it.

It doesn't matter what you say,
It makes no difference anyway,
Whatever it is, I'm against it
And even when you've changed it or condensed it,
I'm against it!

For months before my son was born,
I used to yell from night 'til morn,
Whatever it is, I'm against it.
And I've kept yelling, since I first commenced it,
I'm against it!

UPDATE TWO, 2/9: Our good friend JAS emails me that yes, in fact, there is a Marx Brothers museum! And I have to say, it's the most entertaining website I think I've ever seen. It's even... zany. Which is the perfect kind of website for the Marx brothers, isn't it?

Well, I survived Blogger and the Battery (though I'm down to just 4% left!)

Anyway, this was a very good speech. He ticked the Dems off enough to make them "boo" a couple times (very bad form, indeed), and he had the Republicans up on their feet cheering much of the time.

He laid out a terrific agenda for Social Security. I'd love to see that happen. Also would love to see his "ownership society" ideas get put into health care reform.

And the end... well, as Stephen Green put it:

If you're not tearing up a little right now, you're not watching. Again, words fail.

Oh my gosh, the Iraqi woman is embracing the mom of a fallen soldier. President Bush looks like he's fighting tears. I am, too.

Very moving; he just introduced the Iraqi woman sitting on Laura's right. Her father was killed by Saddam; she said that Hussein's reign was the real "occupation". Exactly.

Says our stated mission in Iraq is to let the Iraqis take over their security needs. Says we've entered a new phase after their election; more training of their forces, and eventually the Coalition just has a supporting role.

Says an Iraqi said, "Tell America not to abandon us." Our commitment remains firm and unchanging; we're standing for freedom.

If I were in that room, I'd be on my feet right now.

(Camera just showed a very wooden Kerry -- is there any other kind? -- applauding. The three youngest kids are back in the room with me, and they're cracking up at that, for some reason. Why the long face, Senator?)

Running low on battery. This may really be my last post.

For crying out loud, Blogger clunked on me and hung up for the past 10 minutes or more. While waiting, I caught up on a couple emails.

But I think I just heard Bush give notice to Syria and Iran. Not like he did to Saddam ("you have 10 days to get out of Dodge"), but just a "wake up and smell the democratic coffee" kind of notice.

This may be my last post if I can't get Blogger to come up again.

In that case, see you tomorrow.

If not, I'll be baaaack....

Vodkapundit says Bush got booed, and that's bad form. He's right.

Bush is still on S.S. He's now talking about private accounts. Used the word "nest egg". That's good; smart marketing. He says it's a better deal, and here's why. Also good terms ("good deal").

Emphasizes that the money is yours and the gov. can never take it away. Gets decent applause for that.

Emphasizes conservative mix of money in these private accounts. Emphasizes other safeguards to lessen the risk.

I'm peeking over at Vodkapundit's blogging; they're having way more fun than me, especially since my 14-yo daughter just deserted me.

Vodkapundit is liveblogging this, too. He's doing a LiveDrunkGroupBarBlog. I'm doing a LiveSoberMe-and-DaughterFamilyRoomBlog.

Back to the SOTU. He's talking about his approach to immigration. Close borders to drug dealers and terrorists. (First time he said Terrorists tonight, by my count.)

On to Social Security: Talking about how many workers are needed per beneficiary. Fewer workers, more retirees. Got it.

He says in 2018, we'll have the first shortfall.

2027: Government will need an extra 200 billion dollars to keep S.S. afloat.

By 2042 the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt: WHOA!! There was an outcry, there's loud audible dissent!!!!

Just saw the first purple fingers being raised; all were on their feet applauding.

State of our Union: Confident and Strong.

First joke: "A lotta grey in the mirror."

Segues into: what will the state of the union be for our children, as they grow older?

First Biblical reference: Says we need to be good stewards of the good economy (stewardship the key word here).

First reference to bipartisanship: Says he appreciates bipartisan efforts to keep the budget under control (something like that).

"Taypayer dollars must be spent wisely." (Camera shows Kerry applauding politely.)

Talking about college now. (14-yo old daughter says, "You know in all these speeches, he seems to say the same things!" Good point!)

Talking about small businesses; free them from needless regulation and junk lawsuits. Camera shows Liberman weakly applauding (in my opinion, anyway).

Health care: Give families more control, more coverage. EVERYbody's on their feet, both sides of the aisle. Asks Congress for a health care agenda. Lots of points in the plan he wants. Small business coverage gets applause. Savings accounts, too.

I posted about a concern of mine over at the Badger Blog Alliance today.

It's about (at least in part) Ward 176 in Milwaukee, where 99% of the voters chose John Kerry for President. (Scroll to the ante-penultimate paragraph of this article.)

That's 573 votes for Kerry, 6 for Bush. Oh, and 1 for Nader.

Now, let's just assume that not a single one of those votes was fraudulent, and that there was no ballot-box stuffing going on.

Then the issue becomes, where's the diversity of thought? Can all those people truly have been well-informed on the issues, and they all really believed John Kerry was the best choice for President?

Only dictators regularly get 99% of the vote. Saddam Hussein got 99% of the "vote" in Iraq.

But that's not how free people in democracies usually behave.
So why did the people in Ward 176 behave that way? They're free people; they live in a democracy.

Do they know that?

I live in a very Republican area, where a lot of people (including myself) worked very hard on a volunteer basis to turn out the vote for George W. Bush. But even in this very conservative suburban area, Kerry probably pulled at least a third of the vote. I haven't done more than eyeball the results so far (and I could barely do that because the font is so small) but I think it's safe to say that Bush never got even 90% in a single ward, much less 99%.

Yet, in ward after ward in Milwaukee, Kerry pulled 90% or better of the vote.

One last thing about Ward 176: who are those six souls, those individualists, who managed to brave what must have been significant pressure in the neighborhood, in order to vote for Bush?

I bet they're a force to reckon with. I'd love to meet them.

Even that one person who voted for Nader.

God bless 'em.

I'm willing to bet that, yes, Bush was right all along (via Drudge).

Charlie Sykes posted these two queries to the Wisconsin Blogosphere:

Query One: Why no interest in Doyle's handling of school choice in the blogosphere?

I think there are a couple reasons, both of which have more to do with the nature of blogging than with the merits of the school choice issue. It boils down to time and focus.

Speaking for myself, blogging time is pretty limited; I usually can only write a couple of posts a day, so I have to pick and choose. Focusing on one issue necessarily means letting some other good ones slide. Even Glenn Reynolds can't blog about everything!

Secondly, the heat of a presidential election caused a lot of bloggers to focus on politics. Now, we Wisconsin bloggers want to keep voter fraud on the front burner, so we focus on election reform -- perhaps to the exclusion of other issues that come up (such as school choice).

Eventually, I think all bloggers will find a niche based on their own interests. At some point we might find that we have a variety of bloggers who -- if you don't mind the MSM expression -- have a self-selected "beat" (i.e., for education, you might have homeschooling blogs, school choice blogs, and public school blogs). It may just take awhile to get to that point. Jib's formation of the Badger Blog Alliance may turn out to be a step in that direction, but it's too early to tell.

Query Two: What's the next step in promoting the new -- very active -- WI Blogosphere? I'm open to suggestion. The MSM will ignore this development as long as they can, but that shouldn't deter us.

I noticed that Jib suggested an occasional panel of bloggers on your radio show; perhaps your Sunday TV show would also be an idea. (You said you're open to suggestions!) This would be one indicator that the thoughts and observations of "citizen bloggers" are just as worthy of discussion, criticism, and consideration as those of MSM representatives or other luminaries who make appearances on talk shows.

The fact that CPAC will credential bloggers as members of the press is a good sign. (Hat tip to Sean, who is one of those bloggers.) That happened at the political party conventions this summer, too, but it was treated more as a sideshow than as a significant change in the media landscape.

On an individual level, there are still lots of people who have no idea what blogs are (hard to believe, but trust me, it's true). We bloggers need to shoulder some of the responsibility for promoting the blogosphere as a valuable additional source of information. How about introducing ourselves, either in person or via email, to our legislators, local officials, community leaders, and so on? How about writing letters or op-ed pieces for newspapers, identifying ourselves as bloggers? What about giving a free mini-seminar at a local library, to educate the general public about the blogosphere? Just some thoughts.

In the end, it's probably just a matter of time before we've proven ourselves and earned our credibility. As Chrenkoff said, the "Year of the Blog" should really be considered "The Year of the Beginning of the Long March of Blog" (or as I called it, "The Blog Slog").

So it's just a matter of time, and a lot more blogging. I'm willing to stick around to see what happens.

UPDATE: (Wed. evening) Mike comments below and asks if I'm volunteering to appear on Charlie's show. No, and if he asked (highly unlikely since there are far bigger and better bloggers out there), I would say no. I barely have time to blog, much less take on extra "gigs".

By the way, Mike has a definite point of view about the BBA and Charlie Sykes, posted at his blog. I believe his worries are unfounded, however. I will try to post more about this later, including some thoughts on how I see the role of bloggers and their relationship to MSM. If, of course, I have time.