Lots to bitch about

There needs to be blogging. There has been a distinct lack of blogging lately. Thus, I have much to bitch about.

Begin:

1. I lied. It's not spring yet. It's still fucking SNOWING! Tomorrow is Easter and the pond is still frozen. Maybe I'll go ice skating, just so I can tell my kids I skated on Easter Sunday. There are no flowers blooming.

2. The whole Terri Schiavo thing. I have several problems with this case, which I shall divide into two categories:
a- Shit the media has done to piss me off, and
b- Shit the government/president has done to piss me off.

Regarding the first category, "Shit the media has done to piss me off," my principle beef is with the half-assed coverage. This story has been smothering the airwaves for days, but despite the 24/7 coverage, most media outlets still only manage to report a fraction of the facts. They like to show clips of Terri's brother sounding affectionate and optimistic, saying things like "we just want to try to help her before we take out the feeding tube. Why don't they try some physical therapy?" What they neglect to report is that Mrs. Shiavo underwent intensive physical therapy for 2 1/2 years after the onset of her vegetative condition. She was taken to the best experts in the country, who all concluded that she showed NOT ONE SIGN OF IMPROVEMENT.

The media tell us that doctors' opinions are split as to whether or not she's actually in a Persistant Vegetative State. What they don't tell you is that EVERY SINGLE doctor appointed by a court has concluded that she IS in a PVS, and the ONLY doctors who disagree with that assessment are all members of the political extremist Right-To-Life organization, and were hired by Schiavo's family, who have been fighting to keep her on artificial life support for 15 years, in accordance with that organization's code of ethics.

Terri's husband has been living with another woman for some years. (After all, his wife has been a vegetable for 15 years, and 40% of her brain is actually LIQUID, so we don't blame him for wanting a little comfort and some semblance of a life.) Terri's parents and brother want him to divorce Terri, thereby abandoning his legal rights to make decisions regarding her condition, and giving them power to keep her "alive" forever. They claim that the only reason he hasn't divorced her is because he wants to keep the $750 thousand dollar settlement which he was awarded when Terri went all broccoli. What they don't tell you is that settlement is GONE. It's all been spent on Terri's care. When she finally shits the bed, her husband gets bubkis. But wait, there's more. Not only have Terri's parents accused her husband of trying to "kill" her for money, but in fact several organizations, including the Right-To-Life, have attempted to bribe the hubby to put the feeding tube BACK IN! He's turned down millions of dollars in favor of ending his wife's suffering, but the news networks don't like to tell us that.

Finally, the "news" networks (I use that term liberally) have allowed the Schaivos to use them for their own personal gain and glory. The decision to remeove people from artificial life support happens thousands of times every day in America, but most of us don't have the resources to hire personal publicity agents to get our story spread all over the media. Fox and CNN and MSNBC and all of those idiots have allowed themselves to be sucked into one family's personal quarrel, rather than reporting real news which is happening all over the globe every second of the day. Shame on all of you, you spineless money-grubbing pussbags.

Regarding the government, I am specifically pissed at W and Congress (big surprise there). Congress, like the media, has allowed their agenda to be dictated by the Schaivos and the media. Right to die issues have always been considered the domain of state government, and is thus the reason why the Shaivos had no recourse in federal courts. Congress met, OUT OF SESSION, to come back and pass a new law which puts the Shaivos case in the federal arena. The hypocrisy of this incenses me. Eight years ago during the Clinton years the Republicans NEVER would have voted in favor of federalizing a states' rights issue. The claim for DECADES of the Republican party has been that the central, federal government should have LESS authority. This was the party of "small government." But lo, that was before they CONTROLLED the federal government. Now they're all about diminishing states' rights, the back-peddling fuckwads.

But the fun doesn't stop there. I've spent the past week watching the same soundbite of W over and over. You know the one, where he's giving his speech before Congress, saying that "It's always better to err on the side of life." Yeah. This from the man who as governor of Texas executed more criminals than every other state combined, and who passed a law in Texas that permitted doctors to remove children from life-support equipment over the objections of the parents if the parents did not have adequate insurance coverage!!!!! So when he says, "It's always better to err on the side of life," what he really means is "as long as the person in question isn't black (as most death-row criminals in Texas are) or costing me any money." And all the braindead, candle-burning, crucifix-toting automatons in front of the capitol building THINK HE'S WONDERFUL. I hate this country I hate this country I hate this country I hate this country I hate this country I hate the country I hate the country.

3. My parents. (Did you forget that I'm bitching about everything here, not just the Terri Schaivo case?) They send me mixed messages. They tell me they expect one thing, I do it, and they yell at me for not doing something else, which I was apparently supposed to learn about throuh telepathy, then blame me for being imperceptive. I shit you not. At the moment, though, they feed me and put a roof over my head, so I humbly acknowledge the five lights and slink off to a corner to mope (not letting them see me mope, of course, because I'm not allowed to be sad or express any unpleasant emotions because that indicates I'm ungrateful for their help and they yell some more and cry and tell me how much I've hurt THEIR feelings). Then I bitch about it to you because I have no other outlet. Not even rowing, which is driving me to the brink of suicide.

4. Brown's lake is still frozen over. I can't borrow Richard's scull and hit the water until it fucking THAWS, whenever the fuck that will happen.

Other bits in the news:

The Pope is dying; may already be dead. All they show on the TV now is the back of his head. I've got a theory that he's already dead, and what we're seeing is his body which has been convincingly propped up. I think they're waiting to announce his death on Easter Sunday, so they can say it's a sign that he died on the holiest day of the year and speed up the cannonization process. In any case, the cardinals are already circling the Vatican, flapping about like great ruddy buzzards. Let's hope the new pope doesn't tell the nice people of Spain that it's a sin to use a condom to prevent the spread of HIV. I guess AIDS, like pregnancy, is all a part of God's Great Plan.

The Episcopal church of Scotland announced this week that being a practicing homosexual will not prevent you from becoming a priest. Leave it to the Scots to be the only people making any sense in this mad mad mad mad mad mad mad mad world. Thank you, Scotland; thank you.

(editor's note: I have no idea why the font size is out of wack. It won't le me change it for some reason. One more thing to bitch about, I suppose.)