{"id":638,"date":"2005-03-31T14:15:06","date_gmt":"2005-03-31T21:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/wp2\/uncategorized\/john-leo-lies\/"},"modified":"2005-03-31T14:15:06","modified_gmt":"2005-03-31T21:15:06","slug":"john-leo-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/letters-to-the-editor\/john-leo-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"John Leo Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"

USNews.com: John Leo: A regrettable limit on life (4\/4\/05)<\/a><\/p>\n

Think of the Terri Schiavo case as another red-versus-blue issue. Congress, Republican-dominated and therefore mostly red, asked the federal courts to take a fresh look. The federal judiciary, in its customary imperial blue, contemptuously<\/b> told Congress to take a hike. It wouldn’t delay the execution<\/b> for even a few days. For that, you need to be a convicted cop killer. …<\/p>\n

Terri Schiavo, who is severely damaged, but not in pain or dying, not brain dead, and in no position to protest her own execution<\/b> on grounds that other people consider it best for her. …<\/p>\n

She has never been given a PET scan, one of the most sophisticated tests used to diagnose PVS, apparently because her husband refused to allow it. The killing<\/b> of Schiavo is a scandal successfully redefined as unexceptional and therefore moral.<\/p>\n

Somebody needs to represent the brain-dead and John Leo is certainly qualified.<\/p>\n

I read Leo in part because it’s good for me, just like a small amount of arsenic or a few leeches might be. If Leo is one of the deep thinkers, they are indeed a shallow bunch. His regular appearance is ample proof the “liberal media” hasn’t been very effective in shutting out the Radical Right (we’re just not as effective as fascists as they will be). Of course, you might argue that Leo is a straw man, a liberal writing as stupidly as possible to make all conservatives look bad. It’s working.<\/p>\n

In what I am sure won’t be the last Schiavo column, even though she is now dead, Leo does it all. He misrepresents, distorts, and distracts. Just one of his lies: calling the judiciary ‘blue’ when conservatives have appointed more judges than liberals. The fascist end-game involves destroying the third branch of government — from within or without doesn’t matter to them.<\/p>\n

While the vast majority of those surveyed — on the left and the right — said “keep the government out of Schiavo’s fate,” Leo says it is another Red vs Blue issue (and you know who the good guys are). That’s a bald-faced lie told to split people and exploit that split. Typical behavior for Leo and his ilk.<\/p>\n

Leo knows little about the facts of Schiavo’s condition and less about medicine. Either he has gone out of his way to stay ignorant or he’s denying the truth.<\/p>\n

If Leo is a sincere disability advocate, where has he been? How often has he spoken out on behalf of people in irreversible comas or persistent vegetative states?<\/p>\n

The silver lining to Terri’s cloud is that many people are taking the time to talk with their loved ones about how they want to be treated if they should ever end up in such a condition. Don’t just talk — put it in writing. mjh<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

USNews.com: John Leo: A regrettable limit on life (4\/4\/05) Think of the Terri Schiavo case as another red-versus-blue issue. Congress, Republican-dominated and therefore mostly red, asked the federal courts to take a fresh look. The federal judiciary, in its customary imperial blue, contemptuously told Congress to take a hike. It wouldn’t delay the execution for … Continue reading John Leo Lies<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}