ever since the schiavo case has exploded to just about every corner of the world i have taken steps to avoid this happening to me. now, whenever i encounter someone i immediately tell them i want to die if i'm ever to be a vegetable. i do not want my struggles to be the subject of political and social debate on 24 hours cable news networks. now, you blog know as well that i do not want to be vegetable, you have the right to pull the plug. i was going to make a living will but the little amount of possessions i have is totally pathetic. it's better that my will consist of telling people i want to be done with me if i am to become in the same state as schiavo.

the schiavo case has gotten insane in the country that iself appears to be spinning into insanity. basically the parents asked the president to be a put a tube in her daughter's stomach. and tonight; when everyone was peacefully sleeping, george w. bush, the president of the united states took time off from his vacation flew to DC and, said "yes, put the tube back in." he didn't do it in front of a camera but secretly behind closed doors and then flew quickly out of DC as cable news network swarmed around this monumental night and what it means.

the implication of this is rather frightening in a country made of 300 million people and only one president. the president, head of the state stuck his ass into family politics. now, every american can justifully claim they have a right to ask the president for help if they are fighting with family or whoever. now two brothers fighting over a right who should marry the girl they are both in love can ask bush to resolve the conflict? and the fact bush got involved is even more frightening. for years now, various courts said terri schiavo has a right to die0 and in the past indirectly confirmed that. because there isn't actual proof in writing and signature that these are her wishes on how she ought to die, is the reason you know the name terri schiavo to begin with.

so tonight, 203 american legislators said let terri live and 58 said this shouldn't be our business, and let the families deal with in the court. but the beauty of politics is that if your number of votes is bigger than the other, you are in the majority and win the debate at hand. and so because of the 203-58 vote and bush's endorsement of it, terri schiavo will continue to linger against her alleged wishes to die. my question is how many of these 203 supporters of schiavo's vegetative state actually give a shit and whether they are not trying to push forth a neo-conservative agenda using poor schiavo as the reference point. i'd like to know how many of these republicans could careless how this ends up getting resolved by the family. this is their opportunity to push something greater and have americans absorb it.

tonight the us government overstepped its boundaries when it directly stepped into a family dispute. they should've walked away and refused to even begin debate on this personal matter. bush is supposed to be the modern day epitome of freedom and liberty and starting wars to bring down overbearing governments, such as the case against the big bad saddam in iraq. we were told saddam was an evil leader oppressing the iraqi people where they held no freedoms at all. and so a war was had.

however, as bush is the freedom cheerleader in the middle east, his own nation is going the opposite direction with tonight's developments. the arm reach of the government is reaching unprecent levels. sure, ban on gay marriage applies to the whole population and makes more sense as to what a government can do, but dealing on a personal basis? i wonder in how many cases saddam directly intervened in disputes between private iraqi citizens? even i have my reservations of the overbearing saddam we were told about.

but to be honest, no one should know about this case; the president or everyday people. and neither should the media be talking about it. but the media is weird like that, a story that makes it big in the states is going to be picked up by the world media. last week i learned scott peterson is supposed to die by lethal injection (but will likely die of age) and this is something that happened in california courtroom. how is it that i even am learning about this?

now the same thing with mrs. schiavo and i think this represents something awfully sad about our culture. we hardly give a shit about each other, too selfish about our own existence and only to start pay attention to major miseries like this one. other's people troubles, struggles, "faults" become our fix. and thankfully the round-the-clock coverage of cnn and now fox news* i am a junkie for this sorta shit. i wonder how scott peterson feels tonight knowing a portion of the world watched his life go to waste when we learned that he killed his pregnant wife. you can be a celebrity too if you shock and awe us with the death of your sexy wife or if you're brain dead. only in america.

only in america and then the rest of the world when everyone gets interested in the fascinating private lives of us citizens.

now poor schiavo cant even defend herself when her face and story flashes on every television, computer monitors in the united states and other parts of the world. maybe that's even worse than the US government getting involved in the middle of this. we'll never have mrs. schiavo's take on all this and her response to millions of people stupidly interested in this case (i put myself into this as well because by blogging about it at 2am). millions of people are watching the story revolving around a brain dead person and what to do next.

but weirdness of america is not something that is permanent. i firmly believe the intelligence of americans, collectively, is second to none. it looks weird at this time, but i don't think i am getting the full story if my views of americans are based on what i learn on cnn or foxnews. they're just a little strange at this point in time: a funny president who thinks everything is going right (iraq, economy, world peace, yada yada yada) and he thinks he's made no errors since 9/11. then there's the religious right and who are no longer the wacky fringe social group. and together these two factors have made america appear less rational than they really are.

and the media cover these stories like schiavo and i've made my views already known about bush and the media. so as long as bush's presidency continues to fuck up, the media isn't going to get any better and we'll continue to hear about the scott peterson's and terri schiavo's to distract the americans from the real problems: iraq is a money pit for american taxpayers but the supposedly rich iraqi oils have not meant cheap gas prices at pump! in fact, they've gone up in recent times!

that's irony for you: bush went into war under the notion of peace and freedom for iraqis but really it was about the oil for the fuel thristy americans. he even got the lies wrong! now funding iraq rebuilding is getting more expensive and fuel is going up at the same time.

in certain ways, you can't help but relish the brilliance of bush's ability to completely and utterly fuck the americans and yet get re-elected.

so to distract americans from realizing how the paradox of the pillar of bush's presidency--freedom for all--is a complete fuck up in more than one way, the schiavos and petersons will not go away.

*(more on that another time) ... thanks to preview month i learned of the evilness of foxnews liberals speak of.

dr. bush image from the good folks at alternet.org