By RON WORD . - With time running out for Terri Schiavo, a federal appeals court Wednesday rejected her parents' latest attempt to get the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reconnected.

"Any further action by our court or the district court would be improper," Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr. wrote. "While the members of her family and the members of Congress have acted in a way that is both fervent and sincere, the time has come for dispassionate discharge of duty."

Birch went on to scold President Bush and Congress for their attempts to intervene in the judicial process, by saying: "In resolving the Schiavo controversy, it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people — our Constitution." read on

(update) Judge Birch was appointed by George H.W. Bush

Godspeed Terri.

Rising Hegemon discovers:

... that the author of the study that appeared in the Washington Post, about how College Campus's are "more" liberal than previously thought is Robert Lichter of George Mason, funded by the Randolph Foundation..... read on

One can only imagine if a right wing blog bothered to research a WaPo article that said college campus's were more conservative, and then found out it was researched and funded by liberals. They would be calling for heads to roll.

We're trying to verify if they have sleep overs. We are pretty sure they are armed.

(hat tip RO)

via James Wolcott

...Joe Scarborough may be a nice guy off-camera, but his performance in the Schiavo case has been one of the most disgusting stretches in cable-news history--the biggest blotch on MSNBC's record since the hiring/firing of Michael Savage, and you would have thought Rick Kaplan would have learned something from the blunder of his predecessor instead of letting Scarborough lash and trash night after night...read on

James Wolcott has joined the Ghoul TV watch. Will Scarborough now vent about how columnists can be bought off like doctors ? In Bush's White House they can. Oh wait...Joe will think that I oppose his broadcasts because I mentioned George Bush.( Joe's Real Deal )

ASHEVILLE — Other than showing a “terrible lack of judgment,” Richard Alan Meywes is an ordinary guy, his attorney said Monday. The 37-year-old Reynolds High graduate belongs to no political groups,
has no criminal history, is divorced and has no children. Most of all, he doesn’t have enough money to get involved with a murder-for-hire plot, attorney Sean Devereux said.

“He doesn’t have $250, let alone $250,000,” Devereux said after Meywes’ first court appearance since his arrest Friday. “His mother said he’s been listening to too many talk shows.” ...read on

As a reader pointed out, this story is indicitive of how hate radio works.

A killer is directed to contact the nationally aired “Michael Savage Radio Show” to get a telephone number to up delivery of the bounty.

Of course whenever one mentions hate radio, Michael (Weiner) Savages's name usually comes up. I fear with the discourse against judges so over-the-top lately (here's an article on Weiner's home page Judicial Murder, Written by Nat Hentoff ), there will be many more Meywes's popping up that just might go a little further than just sending hate emails.

via Kevin Drum

A WEE ASSIGNMENT FROM THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION....From the description of an upcoming Heritage Foundation event to be held April 19:

A growing number of scientists around the world no longer believe that natural selection or chemistry, alone, can explain the origins of life. Instead, they think that the microscopic world of the cell provides evidence of purpose and design in nature — a theory based upon compelling biochemical evidence. Join us as Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, a key design theorist and philosopher of science, explains this powerful and controversial concept on the mysteries of life.

To get ready for this event, please prepare suitably relevant definitions for the following words and phrases:

• "Growing number" "Scientists" "Believe" "Theory" "Compelling" "Biochemical" "Evidence"

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Dennis Prager thinks that we really only want to die.

"One of the greatest insights of Sigmund Freud, who, his atheism notwithstanding, was perhaps the greatest mind of the 20th century, was that human beings have a Death Instinct, a death wish that is as strong as the Life Instinct. He wrote this decades before Nazism and the Communist genocides of the 20th century proved his point."

Taking a theory of Freud's and using it to validate the extermination of Jews as nothing more than Hitler exercising his death instinct is sick and twisted..

More from Sadly, No

Rick "man on dog" Santorum made an appearance in Pinellas Park today.

BAD ATTITUDES
From Chomsky’s “Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship” (1968):

If it is plausible that ideology will in general serve as a mask for self-interest, then it is a natural presumption that intellectuals, in interpreting history or formulating policy, will tend to adopt an elitist position, condemning popular movements and mass participation in decision-making, and emphasizing rather the necessity for supervision by those who possess the knowledge and understanding that is required (so they claim) to manage society and control social change.

I’m belatedly drawn to add my voice to that of the Maestro, as well as some of the most intelligent observers of politics and diplomacy, in recognizing the passing of an American of great stature, George Kennan, who died on March 17.

“He was a giant. Many people have called him the most important foreign service officer of the past half-century,” said his son-in-law, Kevin Delany of Washington. “He was a very thoughtful man with an elegant writing style.”

His thoughtful character and many accomplishments interest me because they seem to embody some of the things Chomsky talks about, while contradicting others ...Read on

Further Investigations