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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 7, 2005 / 27 Adar II, 5765

All wet on Schiavo story

By Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Conventional wisdom is clear: Washington's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case hurt the GOP big-time. A Time Magazine poll found that three-quarters of the public thought Congress was wrong to intervene after a hospice, under court order, pulled the disabled woman's feeding tube, while 70 percent disapproved of President Bush's role in the saga.

Funny. A new Zogby International poll shows that, when asked questions that go to the heart of the Schiavo matter, the public is very much in sync with the failed attempt by Congress and Bush to save the woman's life.

Zogby, in a poll commissioned by the Christian Defense Coalition, found that by a two-to-one margin — 44 percent versus 24 percent — likely voters believe the law should assume a patient wants to live and be kept alive with the help of a feeding tube, if a patient — like Schiavo — left no written statement on end-of-life care. Should hearsay be admissible (as happened with Schiavo), when courts decide if a feeding tube should be removed? Some 57 percent said no; 31 percent said yes. If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, not on life support and without a written end-of-life directive, should he or she be denied food and water? Among those polled, 80 percent said no.

The poll is not clear-cut. A majority of those questioned said elected officials should not intervene when the courts deny rights to the disabled and that elected officials shouldn't intervene to protect a disabled person's right to live, despite conflicting testimony. On the other hand, a razor-thin majority, 44 percent, agreed that the feds should intervene if a state court denies food and water to a disabled person; 43 percent disagreed.

The bottom line: The conventional wisdom is off. It may well be that other polls showed voters disapproving of what Washington did, because they didn't know Schiavo left no written directive, that there was conflicting testimony on her end-of-life wishes or that her husband had two children with another woman.

Conventional wisdom is also wrong in defining this case as a GOP issue. Not one Democratic senator voted against the measure to send the case to federal courts. As the Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Fund noted, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and Hillary Clinton each had a choice to vote against the bill, "and they didn't."

Also, lefties Jesse Jackson, Nat Hentoff and Ralph Nader opposed removing the feeding tube. Ditto disability advocates. It's a bedrock issue: You don't deny food and water to a disabled woman unless you know for sure that she wants you to.

My favorite post-Schiavo spin is that the Democrats are the party that wants to keep the government out of family life. Sure, that works — if you forget that the Democrats want to take teenagers' birth control and abortion decisions away from parents, Democrats want taxpayers to pay for said birth control and abortions, and Democrats made spousal abuse a federal crime.

You remember the alleged GOP memo that talked up how the Schiavo story was "a great political issue" that would hurts the Dems and help the GOP with its "pro-life base." ABC's Web site dubbed it the "GOP Talking Points on Terri Schiavo."

It turns out, as The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported, "no one seems to know who wrote it." The Post's Mike Allen explained that the Post merely reported that the memo was "distributed to Republican senators," but he believed the document to be "authentic" and "used to attempt to influence Republican senators." How convenient that a memo, its authorship unknown, that misspelled Terri Schiavo's name and that said things only a moron would be dumb enough to put on paper, made it into ABC's and The Washington Post's hands.

The kicker: A story that was supposed to be about the GOP running roughshod over a woman's end-of-life wishes isn't about her known wishes and isn't about the GOP, but about both parties.

Polls showed that Americans opposed what Washington did, but a more in-depth poll suggests most voters strongly support the sentiments that drove Washington to intervene. The Democratic Party wants government out of family matters — unless they involve children. And the memo that was supposed to show how craven the GOP is instead shows how gullible the media can be.

Other than that, the convention wisdom is solid.

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© 2005, Creators Syndicate

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