This morning before the news of the Pope's death, Hugh Hewitt wrote: "With Reagan and Solzhenitsyn, John Paul II represents the three forces of opposition to communism that shattered the evil empire, the Soviet Union --the American-led West, the Eastern European resistance, and the Russian dissident movement. They also represented the three spheres of opposition: political, artistic and spiritual. Each man came into the field of his greatness later in life, and each has endured hard circumstances in their later years. I hope Solzhenitisyn is able to and inclined to write about his colleagues in the struggle that triumphed."

I am not a Catholic, but there is no denying the huge impact for good that Pope John Paul II made on the world.

UPDATE: I relied on what turned out to be a premature report of the Pope's death when I made this post. None the less it appears his time on earth is coming to an end.

Remember Sandy Burger, the Clinton White House Official who it was claimed removed the only copies of top secret documents "by accident" from the National Archives by hiding them in his socks? He claimed the documents were later misplaced or thrown out.

At the time the story was treated as one of those wild accusations coming out of what Hillary calls the "vast right wing conspiracy".

Now we learn due to his plea bargain that he intentionally removed the only copies in existence of these documents, and then personally shredded them with scissors in his office.

The liberal Washington Post leads off their story today this way: "Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a former White House national security adviser, plans to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, and will acknowledge intentionally removing and destroying copies of a classified document about the Clinton administration's record on terrorism."

As Bill at INDC Journal writes: "So, let me get this straight: Sandy Berger intentionally destroyed the only copies of top secret documents about this country's historical knowledge of looming terrorism threats for clearly political purposes, even though a bipartisan Congressional commission was requesting and utilizing all such documents in an effort to formulate recommendations about how to protect America from another terrorist attack.

"In my world, that's not a "$10,000 fine ... three-year suspension of his national security clearance" offense, it's in the parking lot of the ballpark of treason. Former NSA or not, this man should suffer a permanent revocation of any security clearance, and probably sample the cuisine at a federal prison. "

Ed at Captain's Quarters writes: "He should face obstruction of justice and contempt of Congress just for this action alone, both felonies. The Post, meanwhile, insists on calling these "copies". They were not exact copies; each memo started off as a copy of an original draft by Richard Clarke, but the memos had handwritten notes from each recipient as comments, requests for revision, and suggestions for possible action. Each document was unique, and their destruction by Mr. Scissors means that we will never know what some did with Clarke's information. All we know is that it must have reflected badly on Berger, Clinton, or both. Otherwise, why would Berger destroy them?

"This is a travesty. If a lower-level cleared worker had done a fraction of what Berger did in this case, he would face years in prison. Berger gets off with a fine that any of his well-connected friends will wind up underwriting, a gracious gesture of gratitude for pulling their chestnuts out of the fire."

Indeed. Clinton's buddy Sandy Burger has obstructed justice, and the joke is on us.

"The Nazis believed that killing was the highest form of treatment for disability." - Joe Ford a disabled Harvard student writing in The Harvard Crimson.

"Misery can only be removed from the world by painless extermination of the miserable." - a Nazi writer quoted by Robert J. Lifton in The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

Joe Ford knows about the attitudes towards the disabled in today's society. He was born with severe cerebral palsy, and someone in the delivery room removed his endotracheal tube during resuscitation in his first hour of life. "This was a quality-of-life decision: I was simply taking too long to breathe on my own, and the person who pulled the tube believed I would be severely disabled if I lived, since lack of oxygen causes cerebral palsy. (I was saved by my family doctor inserting another tube as quickly as possible.) The point of this is not that I ended up at Harvard and Schiavo did not, as some people would undoubtedly conclude. The point is that society already believes to some degree that it is acceptable to murder disabled people."

"The reason for this public support of removal from ordinary sustenance, I believe, is not that most people understand or care about Terri Schiavo. Like many others with disabilities, I believe that the American public, to one degree or another, holds that disabled people are better off dead. To put it in a simpler way, many Americans are bigots. A close examination of the facts of the Schiavo case reveals not a case of difficult decisions but a basic test of this country’s decency."

Unfortunately we are failing the test. Read the entire article, and pray for our country.

UPDATE: Apparently this touched a raw nerve with many who would dehumanize others so they can justify in their own minds killing the unwanted. I am sorry for such folk, but will not provide a platform for them to spout their bigotry. Therefore comments on this post are closed.

Hugh Hewitt linked to a great article at The Mudville Gazette on why liberals seem so scared of Christians. He calls this "the Boogeyman of Jesusland" and I have noted it myself all over the Main Stream Media. I think for example this helps expalin why liberals were so scared of and willing to trash James Watt.

"It's an invocation of a liberal boogeyman, you see. Republican Senators pander to a right-wing, Christian, ultra-conservative base - Jesusland. Jesusland was last invoked in strength in the aftermath of the Democrat's November meltdown, a handy excuse for missing the mark, for failing to resonate with voters. Quality of candidates and platforms meant nothing - moral values were the hinge on which the elections turned. Iraq meant nothing to the average voter. The New York Times even went so far as to claim that gay marriage was the only issue that really mattered to GI's deployed there. The drooling fanatics of Jesusland, you see, are running this country. In fact, they are running it into the ground."

Greyhawk goes into much detail looking at reality versus the bogyman, and looking at what true Christians believe. He concludes:

"So where are the real Christians? If you aren't one of them, rest assured that although not a majority there are some within a few hundred yards of you. And Christians everywhere in America are busy this weekend praying. For America, for the world, and for peace for Terri Schiavo and her family. Yes, even for Michael.

"And celebrating a season of rebirth, and redemption."

Read the whole thing.

Ed Morrissey of Captian's Quarters has an excellent post today "Hijacking Terri" talking about how Randall Terry who calls himself the family spokesman is refusing to honor the family wishes and is creating a crisis outside the hospice where Terri is being killed.

The circus atmosphere has gotten to the point where the Communist Youth Brigades stole the microphones from Randall in order to get their message out.

"The emotions have run away with the argument, to the point where conservatives have now started to argue for the executive to outgun the judiciary and impose its will regardless of the law.

"It's time to put the signs down, and start praying for Terri. We need to fix the system, not trash it completely, and we need to stop giving air time to the most radical elements on both sides so we can determine the best way to do so."

Amen.

John Fund draws some interesting parallels between Terri Schiavo and Elian Gonzalez.

"On Thursday, April 20, [2000] the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals--the same court that rejected the pleas of Terri Schiavo's parents last week--turned down the Justice Department's request to order Elian removed from the home of his Miami relatives. Moreover, the court expressed serious doubts about the Justice Department's reading of both the law and its own regulations, adding that Elian had made a "substantial case on the merits" of his claim."

"clearly many of the people who approved of dramatic federal intervention to return Elian to Cuba took a completely different tack when it came to the argument over saving Terri Schiavo. Rep. Frank makes a compelling argument that Congress took an extraordinary step when it met in special session to create a procedure whereby the federal courts could decide whether Ms. Schiavo's rights were being violated. He may have a point when he accuses Republicans of "trying to command judicial activism and dictate outcomes when they don't like" rulings. But where were Mr. Frank and other liberals when the Clinton administration decided to sidestep a federal appeals court and order an armed raid against Elian Gonzalez? While Mr. Frank allowed that the use of assault rifles in the Elian raid was "excessive" and "frightening," he also defended the Justice Department's view that "of course [agents] had to use force."

"According to some reports, Gov. Jeb Bush considered seizing Mrs. Schiavo, à la Elian, and taking her to a hospital so she could be fed. But he did not do so. "I've consistently said that I can't go beyond what my powers are, and I'm not going to do it," the governor says. Janet Reno and the Clinton administration showed no such restraint when it came to Elian Gonzalez."

Read the whole article, and keep on praying.

Power Line brought my attention to "The Politics of the Schiavo Case" by Jeffrey Bell & Frank Cannon in the latest edition of The Weekly Standard.

Bell and Cannon make some very interesting points:

"It was a substantive policy victory for forces opposed to the right to life (it doesn't seem accurate, in this instance, to describe these forces as "pro-choice"), but it may be a victory they come to regret. For one thing, in content it was far more an extension of the implications of legalized abortion than of assisted suicide.

"Of the whole array of anti-life agenda items, assisted suicide receives the greatest level of support in public opinion polling, undoubtedly because it is seen as the least coercive. But in the end game of the Terri Schiavo case, the longstanding assertion by her husband that Terri would welcome what was being done to her seemed at most a formality. The courts all but made explicit that the killing was not really about her wishes but only about those of her husband and legal guardian. The implication that Terri's fate was to be the choice of the husband, and of him alone, followed the form of abortion law, which puts the choice in the hands of the mother, and of no one else.

"This matters because abortion, not assisted suicide, is the mother of all American social issues. We say American, and not Russian or Chinese or British, because it is the American founding document that guarantees the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and asserts as its only authority that of the Creator--the authority of Nature and of Nature's God. If you had to pick one reason that there is a pro-life movement in America and not Europe, it is the nature of our founding."

This observation of course is based on the Declaration.

Bell and Cannon then conclude by showing how this impacts the upcoming battles in the US Senate over President Bush's judicial nominations:

"For President Bush and the social conservatives who comprise the central rampart of his base, the courts' naked assertion of judicial supremacy in deciding the fate of Terri Schiavo represents an important moment. This is because the premise of the Democratic filibuster of the president's conservative judicial nominees is that the Roe v. Wade decision must never again be called into question.

"The judicial confirmation debate will now unavoidably be about whether democratic decision-making on abortion should continue to be prohibited by our courts and (effectively) by the American legal profession. From the beginning, those who believed Roe would corrupt the rule of law feared that state sanction of private killing would put all public order and all private restraint in doubt. The fate of Terri Schiavo makes clear that those fears were utterly on target."

As the death of Terri Schiavo grows near, let us not only continue to pray for Terri, her family, and our country, but also vow to do whatever it takes to reform the judicial system in our country.

Ed Morrissey of Captian's Quarters today writes on the calls of some for Jeb Bush to take Terri Schiavo by force and defy the courts. This would be an attempt to do right by doing wrong and would not help Terri, her family, the rule of law, or our country.

I find myself in agreement with his thoughts:

"But we have to draw a line here, and that line is the law."

"We cannot allow our passions for Terri and the Schindlers to overload our respect for the law which protects us from an overpowerful executive branch. Reverend Mahoney calls for little less than an armed coup d'etat in Florida, one in which Bush would make both the legislature and the judiciary completely irrelevant by the use of force. I cannot imagine a more dangerous and terrible outcome from this tragedy than that, especially since in the end it will have only the effect of momentarily delaying Terri's torturous death.

"It's time to cool the passions and start praying for mercy."

Amen.

Marianne M. Jennings has written one of the most powerful and moving pieces I have ever read on the Terri Schiavo situation. She does so from a unique perspective.

"Our daughter, Claire, has had a feeding tube for 10 years, and my mother is closing in on one year with hers. I am generationally sandwiched between feeding tube patients. Like Terri Schiavo, no one is really sure how much breaks through my daughter's or mother's neurological remnants. Also like Mrs. Schiavo, neither needs a respirator. To the clinical, the three are in a "vegetative state." The inexperienced callously refer to them as clumps of flesh that hover in a puzzling state for inexplicable reasons.

"But those of us who live with and care for these magnificent souls question the analyses hurled about as cherished life hangs in the balance. I offer my lessons from a decade of exposure to the "vegetative state.""

Marianne concludes:

"I fear for the clinical callousness of this tube removal. We turn our backs on the closest thing this world has to offer when it comes to angels. This removal is a giant leap backwards as mankind denies its spirituality and harms the helpless. I worry about the precedent for our Claire and my mom, but I fear for us."

Read the whole article, and please continue to pray for Terri, her family, and our country.

Hugh Hewitt today read on his radio program the affidavit of Dr. William Chesire a Board Certified Neurologist. Dr. Chesire examined Terri Schiavo on 1 March 2005. He discloses that to the best of his knowledge he was the first Neurologist to examine Terri Schiavo in nearly three years! He points out that studies have shown that there is a very high rate of false initial diagnosis of Persistent Vegetative State (PVS), and that scientific knowledge in this field has significantly expanded since Terri was diagnosed three years ago.

In particular since that time doctors have become aware of a different diagnosis that should be applied to some patients like Terri called "minimally conscious state". Like many other neurologists he says that a proper diagnosis must include PET or fMRI studies, which have never been done on Terri, apparently because her estranged husband has not permitted these tests to be done. He then goes into great detail why he feels that the original diagnosis of PVS is false.

He concludes "Based on this evidence, I believe that, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, there is a greater likelyhood that Terri is in a minimally conscious state than in a persistent vegetative state. This distinction makes an enormous difference in making ethical decisions on Terri's behalf. If Terri is sufficiently aware of her surroundings that she can feel pleasure and suffer, if she is capable of understanding to some degree how she is being treated, then in my judgement it would be wrong to bring about her death by withdrawing food and water."

"When serious doubts exist as to whether a cognitively impaired person is or is not consiously aware, even if these doubts cannot be conclusively resolved, it is better to err on the side of protecting vulnerable life."

Power Line tonight comments that one reason so many have come to similar conclusions as this Doctor is that we have seen the video tapes of Terri reacting to those around her, and just can't believe she is not alive and at least somewhat aware inside her crippled body. They quote Groucho Marx "Who You Gonna Believe, Me Or Your Lying Eyes?" to explain the reaction of those who will not look at the evidence.

There may be very little hope left for Terri, but please still continue to pray for her, and the judges and politicians who could help if they wished to.

We are in day 5 of the court ordered torturing of Terri Schiavo to death. Soon we may have the answer to her estranged husband's question quoted above. Please continue to pray for Terri and our country, and help in the ways suggested by Focus on the Family and Terri's family.

In defiance of the law passed by Congress and signed by the President, the Federal District Court in Florida (Judge appointed by Clinton) and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals have both refused to hear the case on the merits and grant an emergency halt to the dehydration and starving of Terri Schiavo to death. An appeal has been made to the Supreme Court. If there ever was more dramatic evidence of that fact that our Court system is out of control and totally unresponsive to the will of the people as expressed by our elected representatives, I have not heard of it.

No matter what happens to Terri we must get the courts under control. This will start with President Bush's nominations to the Court of Appeals and the Senate Democrat's attempt to impose an unconstitutional supermajority requirement on their approval. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile keep praying.

This evening we are entering the 4th day of the court ordered torturing of Terri Schiavo to death. She may only have a few days left to live, and everyone should pray for her and our country. Terri will be in a better place if she dies, but our country will no longer be able to claim:

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

Our founding fathers believed "their Creator" gave us "unalienable Rights" and "that among these are Life". Our God given Right to Life is the most fundamental of all our human rights.

They further said:

"That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed."

The whole purpose of Government is securing these Rights, the first of which is Life. The government of the State of Florida and to a lesser degree the United States have failed in this most fundamental duty.

But so what one might ask. The founding fathers had an answer:

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

This is not some radical call for "revolution now" or such nonsense. After all we must consider:

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shown, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed."

However when our government abuses the Rights of the innocent, it does so at great peril. Eventually "If This Goes On -" our government will lose all the respect of the citizens. Then we will find:

"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."

I pray our country never reaches that point. The current path is not hopeful, however.

So let us pray for Terri and our country. Let us also work to right the wrongs starting by calling those in Florida who could help but will not. Be respectful but strongly urge them to change their minds.