The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The clouds grow darker...the makings of a lynch mob
It is not enough to express outrage at ABC's Rather-like attempt to manipulate the "news" in order to form a lynch mob. There is an entire cultural phenomenon to consider here: Mark Steyn makes a convincing argument that declining birth rates threaten western civilization. This is not mere hyperbole. Herb Meyer also speaks of such things in his excellent video The Siege of Western Civilization. We are in trouble because people have gotten too selfish. We are not concerned for those who will come after us, we only are concerned for ourselves. And the dark clouds are approaching.
It is appropriate to consider these things, to consider our "culture of death" and its consequences for us all demographically, as we examine the Schiavo matter. Apart from the hypocrisy considering that this is possibly the first time since the early 1960's that I have heard Democrats espousing States Rights over Federalism (which is analogous to labor unions voting in force for the right to work...), this case also illustrates how far we have fallen as a society. The lynch mobs have indeed not vanished with the insignificance of the KKK (despite Senator Byrd's undying attempt to "keep hope alive"...). The lynch mobs are now on national television, espousing the right of a husband whose wife has become "inconvenient" to kill her, even though she does have brain function, and can swallow on her own; despite the fact that there are people who are willing to pay to keep her alive; despite the fact that this "husband" has a $10 million offer in his pocket to allow just that. But yet the latter day SS is in full gear. The NY Times leads the charge. What have we come to?
And there are eerie parallels to the Nazis. It starts with "convenient wording", but it doesn't stop there. First euthanasia, then what? Sure, it is no stretch for the party that espouses "the more abortions the better" to be the same lynch mob calling for the starvation of this woman. And I am not saying that I do not comprehend the points of view of both sides of both debates. But look where this is taking us. (Strangely though, this is the same party that screams bloody murder and calls "barbaric" the State putting a serial killer to death. Is it because murderers also are helping rid the world of more people?)
The solution to this is for better men than me. On one level it is difficult for a "originalist" like myself to justify federal intervention in state jurisdictions. But as even many of the people today who are in effect crying "off with her head" certainly remember their pleas for the feds to intervene during the civil rights crisis of the 60's. Amazing that these same people have gone from invoking Constitutional guarantees to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for their fellow segregated southerners (and rightfully so...), have now removed "life" completely from that equation. How sad for us all.
It is appropriate to consider these things, to consider our "culture of death" and its consequences for us all demographically, as we examine the Schiavo matter. Apart from the hypocrisy considering that this is possibly the first time since the early 1960's that I have heard Democrats espousing States Rights over Federalism (which is analogous to labor unions voting in force for the right to work...), this case also illustrates how far we have fallen as a society. The lynch mobs have indeed not vanished with the insignificance of the KKK (despite Senator Byrd's undying attempt to "keep hope alive"...). The lynch mobs are now on national television, espousing the right of a husband whose wife has become "inconvenient" to kill her, even though she does have brain function, and can swallow on her own; despite the fact that there are people who are willing to pay to keep her alive; despite the fact that this "husband" has a $10 million offer in his pocket to allow just that. But yet the latter day SS is in full gear. The NY Times leads the charge. What have we come to?
And there are eerie parallels to the Nazis. It starts with "convenient wording", but it doesn't stop there. First euthanasia, then what? Sure, it is no stretch for the party that espouses "the more abortions the better" to be the same lynch mob calling for the starvation of this woman. And I am not saying that I do not comprehend the points of view of both sides of both debates. But look where this is taking us. (Strangely though, this is the same party that screams bloody murder and calls "barbaric" the State putting a serial killer to death. Is it because murderers also are helping rid the world of more people?)
The solution to this is for better men than me. On one level it is difficult for a "originalist" like myself to justify federal intervention in state jurisdictions. But as even many of the people today who are in effect crying "off with her head" certainly remember their pleas for the feds to intervene during the civil rights crisis of the 60's. Amazing that these same people have gone from invoking Constitutional guarantees to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for their fellow segregated southerners (and rightfully so...), have now removed "life" completely from that equation. How sad for us all.
