Right and wrongs

GWB cut short his weekend and flew in specially to vote on 'Terri's Schiavo's Bill' so this poor woman's feeding tube can be reintroduced and her half-life prolonged.

I'd like to believe GWB was moved by the sentimental image of an already ill woman slowly starving and dehydrating to death. Such a response I do understand, although it fails to account for harm prevented by withdrawing medical feeding, or the wishes of her husband, if not her parents.

However, kittens'n'puppies are not the basis of GWB's committments to fighting stem cell research, abortion, sex education or euthanasia. The challenge offered by these issues is that in more liberal ethical formulations, the dialogue is with one's personal conscience or with family, and not with the higher authority of Nature, God, President or Commander in Chief. GWB is deliberately simplifying complex issues into black/white, good/bad, right/wrong, alive/dead, human/animal, worthy/unworthy to move them under his authority. Once there, he can nurture good life in one hand while hiding and crushing bad life in the other. The Handmaid's Tale (1986) predicted just that pincer movement of religion and patriotic militarism being effected now.

Anywise, I'm away to a conference in England for the week, where people talk funny and experience each year the hot torpid season they call sum-ma. I shall report back in due course.