R.I.P.

Terri Shiavo has passed away. I hope that she is at peace and that her family can find peace also.

No Action from Federal Court

Both the United States District Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals have denied Terri Schiavo's parents' request for reinsertion of her feeding tube. It has now been over one hundred hours since Terri Shiavo has had any food or water. No one would let their dog die in this manner, yet some are willing to let another human being suffer.

No one really knows what Terri would have wanted. All we have is the hearsay testimony of her husband, his brother and his brother's wife. I get frustrated when I hear that this is a "right to die" case. I do not see it that way. Terri Schiavo is a brain damaged person -- damaged but not brain dead -- and she is not on life support. The feeding tube that supplied her nutrition was no different than the bottle that is given an infant. We have no proof, other than statements made by a party with conflicting interests, that Terri did not want to be kept alive.

The choice of when to withhold treatment/sustenance after a catastrophic event is the right of every person. That is why we have living wills and durable healthcare power of attorney documents (which everyone should have). When these documents are not available and when the injured person's wishes cannot be known isn't it better to err on the side of life?

Long hiatus

I did not mean to take such a long break from posting, but sometimes life intervenes. Work has been very busy and I just have not had time to formulate any cohesive thoughts about the world around me -- at least not anything I wanted to put on the Internet!

But today's event surrounding Terri Shiavo have pulled me back to the computer. I honestly do not understand why the Court is taking the stance that it is. In most cases, I agree that that the family members need to be the ones making the decisions about end of life issues. However, in this case it does not appear that the Terri's husband is the right person to make these decisions. He has too much to gain by letting her die. He will gain what is left of the money left from the medical malpractice suits. He could easily divorce Terri and let her parents/siblings care for her and move on with his life. He claims that she told him she did not want to live in these conditions, but there is only his word that she said this.

The most suspicious thing to me is the timing of his actions. Terri was undergoing rehabilitation and getting good treatment throughout the course of the malpractice suits. It was only after the money was in the husband's hands that he mentioned Terri would have wanted to die. It was only then that rehabilitation stopped. It was only then that he cut her parents off from getting medical updates from the staff. It would do no harm to have an independent doctor evaluate Terri to see what her actual condition is -- if she is truly in a persistant vegetative state or not. But that might reveal something that the husband does not want the world to know.

So instead a woman is going to die a painful, slow death.

Inauguration Day

I just finished watching the swearing in ceremony. President Bush's speech was one of the best I have ever heard. I may not agree with everything that he says, but I know that he truly believes he is doing the right thing. I only hope that after a very bitter election season that both sides of can come together for the common good of America.

Steroid use

Is anyone surprised that Jason Giambi admitted to using steroids? This is a player who went from looking like a normal athlete to gaining big muscles to reducing his size back to the normal range. Why would anyone be surprised?

I continue to be disappointed in the baseball players' union. The union refuses to "allow" random testing of the athletes and harsher penalites if caught. The use of steroids is illegal and yet the union has the right to allow or disallow this testing? Ridiculous.

Thanksgiving dinner

As far as I am concerned Thanksgiving dinner is the best meal of the year. My husband and I are hosting at our house tomorrow. My parents and my mother-in-law will be joining us for our yearly feast. Our menu consists of turkey and gravy (of course), stuffing,butternut squash soup, peas with crispy bacon, potato casserole with carmalized onions, sweet potatoes, brocoli casserole, cranberry relish (homemade), yeast rolls (homemade), deviled eggs, my great-granmother's holiday strawberry jello salad, pumpkin pie, and fruit trifle.

We should have lots of leftovers for the weekend and beyond....

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I have a lot to be grateful for this year. I finished my graduate degree, found a full-time job in my field without having to move and uproot my family, and everyone in my family is healthy. I am grateful for all of the men and women who are willing to sacrifice their time, energy, and sometimes life to serve in the military and keep the rest of us safe.

More knitting....

I also learned how a new method for beginning my knitting projects. I was taught the "knitting on" method of casting on my stitches -- basically you begin the project by knitting a row of stiches. But while watching the DIY Network I found a show called Knitty Gritty, which was demonstrating how to begin knitting. The insructor showed how to do a "long-tail cast on" which only uses one needle with two strands of yarn. I decided to give this a try and found that it was much faster and easier than what I had been doing.

Knitting away....

I spent the weekend working on assorted craft projects I have in progress. I finished knitting a scarf, made good progress on a needlepoint pillow, and made the little bag shown on the cover of this book. The only difference between the picture and my completed project is that I used a ribbon yarn rather than a wool blend. It only took me 5 hours to do the entire project.

I also spent a lovely hour and a half in a local yarn store -- just looking at beaurtiful yarn. I finally feel that my knitting skills have advaced enough for me to use nicer yarn. It was at this store that I learned to knit four years ago. Knitting was a craft that I wanted to try but I did not know how to begin. I did not know any knitters and could not make heads or tails of the instructions in the book I found. I stopped into this store on a lark to ask if they knew of anyone willing to teach me how to knit. The owners were great -- they told me that if I came in on a Saturday afternoon they would show me the basics. So that is what I did. I spent 4 hours or so in the middle of the shop learning how to knit and purl -- which is the name of the shop as well (Knit 'n Purl). I've gone back to buy several books and needle sets since then. Now I am ready to buy some of their gorgeous yarn -- maybe some mohair or maybe some cashmere.....