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Heritage Foundation Has Catalog of Family, Society and Religion Research

The Heritage Foundation has a great web page with the latest in Family, Education, Religion Cultural Research. (HT: Hugh Hewitt ).

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Terri Schiavo's Brother Corrects Columnist's Lies

Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo's brother, responds to a Boston Globe article by Cathy Young that is filled with lies inaccuracies:

I want to know how you’ve researched Terri’s case, and how you’ve obtained this information. Could it be that you’ve gathered your ‘facts’ from the other opinion pieces similar to the one you’ve written about Terri?

If you are referring to autopsy that ostensibly proved that Terri was PVS, then you are entirely wrong. The Independent Medical Examiner who performed the autopsy, Dr. Jon Thogmartin, went to great lengths to caution those reviewing Terri’s autopsy that a post-mortem, forensic examination could neither confirm nor refute a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state. This is because PVS is a clinical diagnosis based on the behaviors of a living patient and not forensic pathology.

Moreover, Dr. Stephen Nelson – a consulting pathologist who assisted Dr. Thogmartin with the autopsy report – admitted that, while Terri’s symptoms were consistent with PVS, he could not rule out the possibility that Terri was in a minimally conscious state.

And there are numerous pathologists and physicians that have responded to the autopsy finding as being misleading and ambiguous. This information could have been and still can be easily provided to you.

I wonder if you were you aware that – as indicated in Terri’s medical records – she was talking when given rehabilitation in the months following her injury? This completely refutes the PVS diagnosis.

Be very afraid. There are powerful political forces in our country that have a vicious death agenda.

HT: The Corner

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What Is Wrong With People?

Michael Schiavo has been honored for his superb guardianship skills.

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The Terri Schiavo Autopsy

Carrie Kirkland reported on the Metro Source news wire on 6/16/2005:

Schiavo Autopsy Leaves Many Questions Unanswered

(Largo, Florida) - Here's what we now know: Medical science backs Michael Schiavo's claim that Terri Schiavo had no chance of recovering. The autopsy report released by the Pinellas County Medical Examiner says Terri's brain was only half the size of a normal human brain, and she was blind when she died. What's not been proven is what caused a perfectly healthy 26 year old woman to pass out all those years ago. The medical examiner says Terri didn't collapse from a heart attack, and there's nothing to support claims that she suffered from bullemia or any other eating disorder. In fact, Dr. Jon Thogmartin says Terri was in good health prior to her collapse. So what was it that caused Terri to suddenly hit the floor in the kitchen of her home back in 1990? That remains a mystery, and Terri's parents want answers. David Gibbs, the lawyer for Bob and Mary Schinlder, says Michael Schiavo was the only person home when Terri collapsed at 4:30 AM, and it's troubling that he waited until 5:40 to call for help. Gibbs says in an emergency situation, every moment counts. Governor Bush is reviewing the autopsy report to decide whether further action should be taken.

Carrie Kirkland, Largo Florida

From K. J. Lopez at The Corner:

Her parents and younger siblings were happy to care for her. They had the resources. There was no written indication of what she wanted. She was alive...Nothing that came out today changes that, so far as I can tell...The medical examiner said today that the video interaction everyone saw of Terri Schiavo and her parents wasn't impossible. It seems what we learned today is that she was clearly in a very bad way and that, in fact, she was not going to get better—something there were questions about. So many of us have had to live through the horrendous pain of watching a loved one die, as their organs fail one by one, for instance. That's the natural death (no machines, just basic nourishment) her family would have opted for, as the autopsy seems to indicate would have eventually happened (vs. the rehab they were holding onto hope for). But that she died of court-ordered dehydration is a sad thing, in my humble opinion, and all the more reason people should think about these things now.

Ms. Lopez posts an email from a reader that she received:

Keep spinnin', dearie. Your wild-eyed histeria was amusing two months ago, and you should provide an equal amount of entertainment over the next few days, as well...

to which K-Lo responds:

They remind me of Peggy Noonan's "In Love with Death" column. Like Peggy, I don't get it. Entertainment? Agree or disagree, this was a tough, terrible case. I do not understand the glee, the certainty leading to leaning toward death...; as Peggy put it "They seem to have fallen half in love with death." (This is not true of everyone who wanted her feeding tube pulled, of course, but it's out there, and often.)

Michelle Malkin read the 39 page autopsy report:

You do not need a medical examiner's license to see that the report raises many more questions than it answers, though from the (once again) misleading media coverage, we are led to believe that the matters of Terri's life and murder are resolved. They are not...But on page 4 of the M.E.'s summary, what the report actually says with regard to possible strangulation is this: "Autopsy examination of her neck structures 15 years after her initial collapse did not detect any signs of remote trauma, but, with such a delay, the exam was unlikely to show any residual neck findings." ...Schiavo won $1 million in damages on the grounds that Schiavo's obstetrician had failed to diagnose bulimia...Unquestioning journalists ran dozens of stories echoing the claim: "Eating disorder is real issue in Schiavo case," "Terri's life a lesson in dangers of bulimia," "The lost lesson of Schiavo case: the dangers of eating disorders," etc...The autopsy report spends three-and-a-half pages debunking Schiavo's claim, as well as the related claim that she had a heart attack (or, more medically precise, myocardial infarction). But if mentioned at all, the news reports I have seen have downplayed and buried these astonishing revelations (revelations which bear directly on Schiavo's credibility regarding his claim that Terri would have wanted to die)...In Michael Schiavo's favor, the autopsy report also casts doubt on the Schindler family's long-held view that a 1991 bone scan indicated traumatic injury. The report notes that Terri had severe osteoporosis and that the bone scan findings might have also reflected "the aftermath of remote intense CPR, infection, bone turnover, artifact or intense physical therapy...However, the report notes this caveat: "Without the orginal bone scan and radiographs from that period, no other conclusions can [be] reasonably made."...For God's sake. Terri Schiavo, a profoundly disabled woman who was not terminally ill and who had an army of family members ready to care for her for the rest of her natural life, succumbed to forced dehydration at the hands of her spouse-in-name-only. This is something to gloat about?

And from Andrew McCarthy at National Review:

There were two questions of critical import: Was Terri Schiavo in a persistent vegetative state (PVS), and had she really evinced a desire not to live if she were ever in such a state? These questions were fundamental because the Supreme Court has recognized PVS as a point at which sustenance may permissibly be denied, and said that this decision may permissibly be communicated, but not made, by a surrogate. This is crucial because a person in a PVS is not dead. If she is to die, she must be killed. I know that is a terribly impolite way of putting it...matters. But that’s what has to happen: We have to kill her, or her life may go on for years...During the debate over Terri Schiavo, while she was being starved and dehydrated for two weeks, those supporting federal intervention made two contentions. First, that the proof that she was actually in a PVS was not strong enough and was suspect because basic tests that could easily have settled doubts were being resisted. Second, that the evidence that Terri had actually expressed a considered preference on the momentous decision of whether to end her life was appallingly thin...All that mattered was that Terri Schiavo’s life was not one that they thought worth living. Whether or not it had technically been reduced to a PVS was beside the point. Whether or not Terri had even thought about, much less made a knowing and intelligent judgment about, the choice between life and death was beside the point.

From Captain Ed:

Still unknown is what caused Schiavo, 41, to lose consciousness on a winter morning in 1990. Her heart beat ineffectively for nearly an hour, depriving her brain of blood flow and oxygen. A study of her organs, fluids, bones and cells, as well as voluminous medical records, failed to support strangulation, beatings, a drug overdose, complications of an eating disorder or a rare molecular heart defect. All had been offered as theories over the past 15 years. Thogmartin said the cause will probably never be known...The most hysterical charges involving Terri's husband were proven false, including the notion that he had injected Terri with insulin at some point to kill her...The most hysterical charges involving Terri's husband were proven false,including the notion that he had injected Terri with insulin at some point to kill her...An autopsy cannot determine the existence of PVS, as the coroner went out of his way to remind everyone. Dr. Thogmartin's careful analysis could find no evidence that Terri had been abused, relying on contemporaneous medical records as well as his autopsy, but could determine no cause for her collapse. That's unfortunate, as the lack of finality on that point will mean that speculation will endure forever...And most of all, as the coroner affirmed yesterday, Terri was not dying.

I agree with Captain Ed as to the essential problem with this case:

Despite all of this, Florida decided that it would deliberately kill Terri on the basis of her husband's wishes, without any living will or formal indication of her state of mind. As Rick Santorum said yesterday, such a ruling should have been allowed to receive a de novo hearing in federal court for a review, just as any death-penalty case would get. Without that, essentially Terri's fate rested on two men, Michael Schiavo and Judge George Greer, who refused to release the case to another court at any point in order to get a new hearing on the merits in front of another judge. And when the state decides to kill someone who isn't dying on their own -- as opposed to stopping artificial breathing/cardiac support for those who lack any ability to survive without it -- it should have more substantial oversight before doing so, and it should have more to rely on than an estranged husband's belated recollection of a superficial, general conversation as its basis.

Previous posts related to Terri Schiavo are here.

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DittoPod Index - June 14, 2005

This is a brief description of the topics covered on Rush's program today. The time noted indicates where in the podcast (mp3 file) the topic begins.

Hour 1 - Rush Limbaugh Program

1:08 - Annenburg survey that many Americans think Rush is a journalist/reporters wanted Rush's comments
4:51 - Rush gives his take on the Michael Jackson trial/Rush admires the jury for their decision/thought the prosecution's case was poor
19:07 - Gitmo: journalist admits that journalists do not pick sides in the war/disconnect that journalists are Americans but do not side with the country/Rush says that Harry Reid and his ilk are the ones humiliating this country
21:45 - Rush speculates that Republican Christians might want to go to Gitmo so they can freely practice their religion/Gitmo may be a great vacation spot for oppressed Christians in the US
23:11 - Duncan Hunter shows the media actual meals served at Gitmo which are excellent food/Gitmo food superior to what our active military gets to eat/Gitmo interrogations revealed who 20th hijacker is/12 of those released from Gitmo have returned to battle to kill Americans
28:46 - Time Magazine reporter reports on TV about the behavior of the 20th hijacker at Gitmo/one tactic was to have a female interragator with the detainee/20th hijacker is being treated more humanely that Terri Schiavo was treated/why didn't the MSM report how well the Gitmo detainees are being fed

Hour 2 - Rush Limbaugh Program

1:40 - If we need to close Gitmo because of national embarrassment then the US Senate should be closed too
2:13 - Time Magazine reporter is compared by a caller to what Jane Fonda did/Rush says that the media's template for this war is the Viet Name war template
5:22 - Time reporter describes the 20th hijacker as oddly innocent, that he doesn't know where Cuba is or what dinosaurs are/Rush says the reporter is excusing what the 20th hijacker has done/more example of the disconnect between the reality of the war against us and the way the media reports it
8:20 - Time reporter claims that the media doesn't feel sorry for the Gitmo terrorists/Rush says this arrogance is driving a wedge between the media and average Americans
9:53 - Congressman Rangle says that he's sure that all American who is fighting is worried about themselves because of what we're doing to detainees at Gitmo/a caller tells Rush that absolutely does not agree with Rangle and asks where the apology is to us for the horrors inflicted on Americans by the enemy
15:35 - What's really galling is that people like Rangle don't understand the enemy even after 911
16:15 - Gallup poll shows that public confidence in the press has fallen to all time low
17:48 - Rush calls for a 90 day cease fire in Iraq by the MSM and weak Republicans' efforts against the war
20:24 - Caller says that President Bush should be daily hammering home the fact that we are still at war
21:24 - Reason Gitmo detainees are not taken to US territory is so they remain ineligible for the rights of people on US soil
22:22 - Caller states that the last time he was embarrassed by the government was when Clinton was carrying on with Monical
23:14 - Putin said that African countries used to practice cannibalism and that the comparison between Russia and Africa was not fair
24:41 - Caller says that Dutch captured enemies during World War II and were put on Bonaire/prisoners liked it so much that after the war they bought the island
26:06 - American kids are supposedly going to school hungry while the terrorists trying to kill our kids are living like kings
27:07 - New poll that majority of Americans think that the action Iraq will lead to a freer Middle East
29:42 - When most media outlets do a poll it needs to be considered an editorial by that outlet
30:22 - A contractor say that there were discussion with Kofi Annan regarding Cotecna's involvement with the Oil for Food program
33:30 - Breaking News: a helicopter with 7 on board crashed near Wall Street, pontoons deployed, all 7 people were rescured

Hour 3 - Rush Limbaugh Program

4:33 - Sony will add CD copy protection to all their CD's/the Millenium Act is main reason behind Rush's podcasts containing no music
5:40 - Senators of both political parties are traveling on business and not paying for it
8:30 - Steve Job's commencement speech at Stanford: told the graduates that dropping out of college was one of the smartest things he ever did
13:08 - Caller is excited about upcoming elections/the 7 Senator dwarfs have jazzed him to become more politically involved/Rush agrees that in a political sense Gitmo, etc. will backfire on the liberals
16:16 - Article about George Lackoff saying that liberals must speak from the heart and not from polls
19:10 - VP Cheney said on TV that Howard Dean is "over the top."
20:21 - Dean says that Fox News has a conservative bias/Rush asks how that's the case since many liberals appear on Fox News
25:42 - Caller says he flew missions to/from Abu Ghraib prison when it was under siege in May of 2004/this is an example of a US humanitarian mission that came under fire
27:50 - Washington Post today writes that McCain and Jeb Bush ticket makes the most sense for 2008 ticket/Democrats fear such a ticket
31:00 - Caller says that Fox News is not fair when putting Alan Colmes up against Hannity/challenges Rush as to how he can advocate for moral values when Rush has been divorced three times and has been a drug addict
34:19 - Caller tells Rush that he gives a commencement speech every day/her son returned to college after he started to listen to Rush

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Mae Magouirk-Judge Boyd's Letter

Blogs for Terri has posted the entire text of Judge Boyd's explanation of his decisions in the Mae Magouirk case.

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Georgia Woman Condition Improving

Mae Magouirk's condition is improving. She is being fed and hydrated. Story is here. (HT: Mrs. Greyhawk at  Mudville Gazette)

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Schiavo Judge Orders DCF to Release Records that Could Prove Abuse

(Largo, FL)  --  Pinellas Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer has issued a ruling which orders Florida's Department of Children and Families to release part of the documents that could prove Terri Schiavo was abused before she died.  The ruling gives DCF until the close of business Monday to release some of the information, but the identities of those making the accusations will not be released.  The ruling states that the names, birthdates, and social security numbers of those who work for the Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park where Terri died will remain confidential.  Because the Schindler's names are already widley known, their's will not be kept from the public.

Carrie Kirkland/Pinellas Park
(The source for this story is Metro Source. The phone number for Metro Source is 1-888-601-news.)

Judiciary Overreach or Politics in Right to Die Story

From the Corner comes this dreaded post of

"a non-terminally ill/non-PVS woman is being starved to death, against her wishes as voiced in her living will"

The information comes from this Fr. Rob Johansen article.

UPDATE: JustOneMinute has lots more information on this case that more than muddies the waters. The nephew may be a Democratic aide. A Ken Mullinax (name of the nephew) has been  a 2004 press spokesman for a Democratic candidate for the Third District in Alabama.  Information to be had at Blogs for Terri here and here, Glenn Reynolds, Jane Galt, the LaGrange paper, a 16 minute interview of Ken mullinax on the Glenn Beck program, and Straight Up with Sherri (along with an interesting comment).

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Washington Post Lets the Spinning Wheel Spin

Hindrocket at Powerline describes the current state of play in the Schiavo/GOP Talking Points Memo. Turns out that the memo was written by a staffer in Senator Mel Martinez's office. Martinez accepted this staffer's resignation immediately as the Washington Post reports. Powerline is right though, that there are plenty of questions still unanswered about the ABC/Washington Post's original reporting on this story:

"In fact, if the current AP account is correct, the amazingly inept "talking points memo," which got the number of the Senate bill wrong, misspelled Terri Schiavo's name, and contained a number of other typographical errors, did not come from "Republican officials" or "party leaders," but rather from an anonymous, unknown staffer. Senator Martinez himself--forget about members of his staff--is a freshman senator, in office for three months, not a "party leader" or "Republican officials." (The plural in the Post's original article is interesting.) Also, the reporting by ABC and the Post suggested that the memo was widely or universally distributed among Republican senators, while a survey reported by the Washington Tmes indicated that none of the 55 Republican senators had seen it. So, if the current AP story is correct, it confirms that ABC and the Post misreported the story--in the Post's case, in an article that was picked up by dozens of other newspapers off the paper's wire service.

The latest story also confirms how absurd it was for ABC, the Post, and other news outlets to label the anonymous memo a "GOP talking points memo." We have no idea who the unidentified Martinez staffer is, but he apparently was not authorized to speak for his boss, and most certainly was not empowered to speak for the leadership of the Republican party. We'll try to track him down and get his story, but in the meantime, this story serves as an object lesson in how the mainstream media can take a dopey, one-page memo by an unknown staffer and use it to discredit the entire Republican party."

The Big Trunk at Powerline has more in this post along with links for information at Michelle Malkin's blog here.

UPDATE: Captain's Quarters thinks  that Senator Martinez should not have accepted this staffer's resignation, but should have insisted on firing him instead.

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