"The bizarre passion of the pull-the-tube people"
Peggy Noonan regains form today as she takes notice of the "in love with death" crowd's feverish clamor in support of starving and dehydrating Terri Schiavo. Here's a sample, selected because it mentions the demonic countenance of the most foul individual in American politics:
"Why are they so committed to this woman's death?" There are short and long answers to that question. The long answer demands an examination of how seemingly iron-clad American and Western values have been inverted, and how this particular case stands up as a test of that inversion in the minds of the culture of death crowd. So, let's try the short answer. These are the people who also hope that the person out on the ledge jumps, who want to watch the plunge and steal a thrill from the agony of the jumper and the "naivete" of those who care and don't want the person to do it.
While that short answer neglects all of the profound challenges laying siege to the values of our civilization, it gets right down to the immediate essence of a horrible slob like James Carville and the benighted crazies at Democratic Underground that he cultivates. Not to suggest that the culture of death brigades are restricted to that sad realm.
Everyone who has written in defense of Mrs. Schiavo's right to live has received e-mail blasts full of attacks that appear to have been dictated by the unstable and typed by the unhinged. On Democratic Underground they crowed about having "kicked the sh-- out of the fascists." On Tuesday James Carville's face was swept with a sneer so convulsive you could see his gums as he damned the Republicans trying to help Mrs. Schiavo. It would have seemed demonic if he weren't a buffoon.That's my boldface emphasis, added to draw attention to Carville's name.
Why are they so committed to this woman's death?
They seem to have fallen half in love with death.
What does Terri Schiavo's life symbolize to them? What does the idea that she might continue to live suggest to them?
"Why are they so committed to this woman's death?" There are short and long answers to that question. The long answer demands an examination of how seemingly iron-clad American and Western values have been inverted, and how this particular case stands up as a test of that inversion in the minds of the culture of death crowd. So, let's try the short answer. These are the people who also hope that the person out on the ledge jumps, who want to watch the plunge and steal a thrill from the agony of the jumper and the "naivete" of those who care and don't want the person to do it.
While that short answer neglects all of the profound challenges laying siege to the values of our civilization, it gets right down to the immediate essence of a horrible slob like James Carville and the benighted crazies at Democratic Underground that he cultivates. Not to suggest that the culture of death brigades are restricted to that sad realm.
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