First off, let me clarify my position on the whole "sanctity of life" thing. I am a Christian, have been for the bulk of my life, but I guess, in general, I don't have the "normal" Christian view on this issue. I believe first trimester abortions should remain legal and for crackwhores and other irresponsible parents, heck I'd be okay with the government forcing them to get abortions. That said, I am definitely against abortions past the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy in all cases except maybe if the mother's life is at stake (life not health). Now, if someone is riddled with cancer, in extreme pain and told they have no chance of recovering I think they should be well within their rights to mash a handful of barbituates into their apple sauce and die peacefully in their sleep. So while I do believe that life is a gift from God, I do also believe there are times when it's best if we let people make their own decisions on these matters since it's between them and God and we really don't have any business butting in.

Okay, so now that we're clear about that, where do I stand on the Terry Schiavo case? I think that at best her husband is an insensitive heartless bastard for his treatment of her parents. At worst he is a heartless and manipulative murderer. I totally agree with Ace that he is her husband now in name only. Without documented evidence of her wishes how can we simply trust the word of a man who has denied her such simple treatments as antibiotics for a urinary tract infection, an MRI and physical therapy? A man who is now living with and has two children by another woman? When it comes to something like this we have to err on the side of life because once Terri is dead nothing will bring her back.

On a related note, I find it interesting that the same people who are advocating that we starve this woman to death are probably the same people who threw a tantrum a few weeks back when a tiger that was running loose in the valley was shot to death because animal control said it was too big for them to control through tranquilizers. They are probably also the same people who will be outside of San Quentin protesting when they finally zap Scott Peterson (800 years from now, knowing how these things work in my lovely state of California).

Liberals are bizarre creatures. I don't know what else to say.