Goodie! They're letting Terry Schiavo kick!

Okay, now I'm gonna say what everybody else weighing in on this poor woman's case is thinking. I don't know her, I don't like her, I don't give a shit about her.

If we could just look at her as a person, one who maybe wanted to be kept on life support and maybe didn't, and if her family put half the effort into trying to figure out what she'd have wanted that they put into their legal battles, then me and the talking point guys on the news and Dubya's brother and the right-wingers in Congress, we'd all be totally apathetic. The House Government Reform Committee would be too busy investigating Sammy Sosa to get involved.

But thanks to the extremist Christian fundamentalists in this God-forsaken country, Terri's been stripped of her humanity and turned into a cheap political symbol. So much as I resent the hell out of it, now I have to care about this woman. Passionately. That's why I'm thrilled they've taken the feeding tube out, and whatever objections I might have about her death (and I have a couple) have to be sublimated to the greater good — keeping at bay the hypocrites and Pharisees who preach a "culture of life" and then cut health care benefits for children living below the poverty line and send soldiers into Iraq without body armor. They're all about less government interference in our private lives until it comes to shoving the Bible down our throats, and then they're all into the Bible until the Word of God cuts into their profit margins.

It occurs to me that perhaps cheering someone's death isn't the ideal way to make a political point. I think it's largely a backlash against the Democrats' disheartening inability to grow a backbone since the Clinton impeachment hearings, which feel like a whole 'nother lifetime ago. Senior Democrat on the Government Reform Committee and wussy nice-guy Henry Waxman had this to say about the Dark Side and their flagrant abuse of power: "Congress is turning the Schiavo family's personal tragedy into a national political farce." Perfectly reasonable, but then again, perfectly reasonable debate doesn't change the hearts and minds of the Red State morons electing our leaders. "National political farce" — get out of your ivory tower, Henry! Take this golden opportunity to do what I just did: call the Republicans a bunch of child-murderers! Use Tom DeLay's name and the epithet "Osama-lover" in the same sentence!

At this rate, I'm surprised that I'm not in Congress...