A Few Thoughts upon Returning to My Computer

Hey, everybody. I just got home, and while I thank you for all of the hits over the weekend, I think that I should let you know that I usually head out of town to visit family and friends on the weekends. Unless something really interesting happens that has me borrowing a friend's computer for a quick blog, save the miniscule wear on your mouse and skip these digs for the weekend.

Now that I am back home, I'll let loose with some thoughts that occurred to me while I was away. Sadly, most of them are about Terri Schiavo. This case is unpleasant for all involved, except maybe for the grandstanders. Unfortunately, it is also the case where three areas of interest for me (science, philosophy, and politics) collide and form a chaotic boundary of opinions that I feel the need to map out.

Instapundit.com has another excellent compendium of links on the case and the political ramifications of recent events. It is starting to seem like my prediction of the Republican Party break-up is starting to occur. Rather than the libertarian republicans leaving, however, it seems that the social conservatives are expelling their erstwhile allies. The last few elections since 2000 have made the christian right well accustomed to holding the reins of power. All of the talk of how the social conservative constituency carried the 2004 election for Bush seems to have gone to their heads. The longer this goes on, the more clear it becomes that we are seeing another cycle of power and corruption.

More directly to Terri, it seems that she has been forgotten in all of the bruhaha. I don't necessarily mean Terri as she is now. What is left probably can not even maintain the concept of "I", as in "I am thirsty," "I am hungry," "I love you, Mom and Dad." What I do think more on is that no one outside of her family and friends really know what Terri was like before the brain damage. I find it interesting that we have not seen any pictures of Terri from before all of this. It is not like the Peterson case where every story had a picture or video of her. It is strange that Michael has not done this, and not in the least strange that her parents have not. Showing those pictures would drive home the point of how much she has lost of herself. Pictures from before, compared to how she is now, would create a lot of empathy in people to make them say, "I can see why someone would not want to live like that." The parents' strategy is to show that hope for rehabilitation has not been lost, but comparing then and now would make clear just how long the road to recovery would be.