"Higher Beings" Schiavo Countdown

TUESDAY (SEEMS LIKE MONTHS AGO) I TOOK A LOOK AT HOW The "Higher Beings" were covering the Schiavo issue. Today we thought we'd take another look, via The Blogosphere Ecosystem as the end of Schiavo's life approaches. This time we'll count down from number 10 (BoingBoing) to number 1 (Instapundit):

10. Boing Boing , which had been ignoring the BUZZ-HARSHING Schiavo issue in order to continue their non-stop fascination with "Wonderful Things," got off the dime with "Send Frist photos of your ailments for diagnosis"

Senate Majority Leader and noted jackass Bill Frist is an MD, and he says that he can tell by looking at the Schiavo videos that she's not in a persistent vegetative state. His awesome diagnostic powers demand to be tested, and the interweb provides the perfect means to discover their scope: Take a digital picture or video of your medical problem – tennis elbow, acne, runny nose, hemorrhoids, or whatever ails you - and send it to the doctor in charge of the US Senate and your health care.....

They also provided visibility and linkage for this item:

Terri Schiavo status Firefox extension, Daily Show clip
Boing Boing reader Nik says,
I wrote a Firefox extension that sits in the status bar of Firefox, and tells you at a glance the morbidity status of Terry Schiavo.
Link.

Also, the Daily Show ran a superb segment tonight poking fun at the extreme media weirdness around the Schiavo case.

Those items pretty much tell you all you need to know about Cory and the Kids at BoingBoing.
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9. Ed at Captain's Quarters continues in his previous position.

I find the forced death by dehydration of a disabled, non-terminal patient at the insistence of an estranged spouse with no support except for the hearsay of a couple of offhand comments heard by the husband and his relatives abhorrent. It smacks of euthanasia and sets a terrible precedent, apart from the inhumanity of forcing Terri's family to watch her die when they've repeatedly requested to be allowed to care for her. It's sadistic, if not to Terri, then to those who love her.

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

By which he means that the Governor simply cannot walk in and take Schiavo into protective custody.

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8. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo points readers to an image on CNN.com and quite nobly trashes the ever-degenerating CNN for a very bad editorial call: "Whatever your position on this issue, is this extreme close-up of Mrs. Schiavo compatible with preserving some measure of dignity for her? What's the editorial judgment behind this choice of images?" [Note: The image is now gone but was still there at 4:30 PST.]
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7. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Left: Acting in the crass and sleazy manner that has long been his hallmark, Atrios at Eschaton treats his like-minded readers to a photograph of one of his cats watching The Daily Show's hypersensitive coverage of the Schiavo controversy.
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6. Orin Kerr is pretty much the goto guy at The Volokh Conspiracy. He points to a long transcript of an appearance on the Hugh Hewitt show yesterday on the political implications of the case. Very much worth reading, the transcript is also a case-book study on how to have a civil conversation on a contentious issue.
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5. Michelle Malkin is the primary standard bearer for Terri among the top 10. She has item after item and link after link. An admirable performance and service.
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4. Deacon at Power Line holds that: "The federal courts prevented de novo review from occurring because they refused to stop the court-ordered termination, by de-hydration, of Terri's life. She will die before there is time for the de novo review mandated by Congress to occur. That would not be the case had the the temporary relief that was sought been granted. Thus, in my view the courts flouted the law that Congress passed."
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3. Charles at Little Green Footballs: "My opinion is that it's singularly unwise for the federal government to become involved in what should be a private matter between the families and their doctors. If I seem reluctant to write about this, it's because I am. I've had personal experience of similar situations (which will remain private), and I'm extremely uncomfortable with the idea of passing judgment on any of the people involved in this case—and extremely turned off by the media swarm." He also notes that "In an email, I've now been called a Nazi and told that I have a "kill the innocent campaign."
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2, Kos at Daily Kos has "discovered" that it is the Republican judges that are killing Terri: "The majority of judges ruling on this case have been Republicans. One of the only dissents has been a Clinton appointee. The American Taliban will rail against "activist judges", but their own kin on the bench exposed the extremism of their agenda." Oh, the HYPOCRISY!
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1. Glenn Reynolds has found out that the number 1 blog really can't "have no opinion." At Instapundit this afternoon he writes: " I do think that process, and the Constitution, matter. Trampling the Constitution in an earnest desire to do good in high-profile cases has been a hallmark of a certain sort of liberalism, and it's the sort of thing that I thought conservatives eschewed. If I were in charge of making the decision, I might well put the tube back and turn Terri Schiavo over to her family. But I'm not, and the Florida courts are, and they seem to have done a conscientious job. Maybe they came to the right decision, and maybe they didn't. But respecting their role in the system, and not rushing to overturn all the rules because we don't like the outcome, seems to me to be part of being a member of civilized society rather than a mob. As I say, I thought conservatives knew this."

That seems to me to be fair, human, reasoned and sensible. Which is why, day after day, he's Blog 1.

Posted by Vanderleun at March 25, 2004 4:08 PM