Even if you've heard more than enough about Terry Schiavo, it seems useful to consider why Bush's political grandstanding backfired. Over seventy percent of Americans, including solid majorities of self-described evangelicals, opposed the intervention of the White House and Congress. Those surveyed mistrusted the Bush administration's blatant disregard for local control, the rule of law, and the right to be protected from a capricious federal government.

Their responses also speak to a broader shift in how we deal with difficult end-of-life issues. For twenty years, gradually increasing majorities have agreed that for all our technological inventiveness, what some people need most is the right to die in peace.

You'd think that this belief--that the most difficult intimate decisions must be our own--would also raise support for maintaining the right to abortion. But it hasn't. In the 30 years since Roe v. Wade, support for keeping abortion legal, and without onerous restrictions, has stayed even, at most, and new onerous restrictions keep getting imposed.

The difference comes, I suspect, from the stories we tell-and those we keep

AUSTIN -- Why in the name of sanity, you may ask, should an aging, overweight spinster like myself agree to go bungee jumping with her nephew? My fellow aunts will understand immediately, however, when I explain that the nephew in question is 15, wears his baseball hat backward and has attitude.

As a veteran aunt (helped raise one set of two, am working on the next set of three), I have been enjoying my recent stint as non-parent in residence. Being an aunt is a great gig. You get to hand the kids back at the end of a week or a month, so discipline is not your problem. Veteran aunts never insist on vegetables or museums. Aunts without children of their own have an extra edge, since we're not really, exactly grown-ups. As permanent non-parents, we can still side with kids. We can Mame it up all we want. (All this may hold true for uncles as well. I'm just not well-informed on that angle.)

"April Fools!  We're not really going to wreck the bankruptcy system and turn families over to the gentle mercies of credit card companies!  We just wanted to see how extreme we could get and have the media still believe it!"

That's what I'd like to hear the United States Senate announce today, but I won't hold my breath.

When a majority of U.S. Senators, including 19 Democrats, voted to pass the bankruptcy bill, some of them may have thought that no one was watching.  Certainly consumer groups, labor, community organizations, and civil rights groups had written the bill off as virtually unstoppable.  Stopping it was not at the top of their agendas, each already overloaded with other defensive battles against the Bush onslaught.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Some days, it's hard to pick the outrage du jour, but hypocrisy is always an inviting target, and the United Nations oil-for-food scandal provides a two-fer. We have been hearing much right-wing huffing over the dreadful, terrible, awful, unprecedented, worst-ever scandal in all history. One indignant winger was livid because The New York Times devoted more coverage to the collapse of Enron than to the earth-shaking U.N. scandal.

Those throwing conniption fits over the United Nations' misdeeds (failure of oversight, according to the Volcker Report) might want to meditate a bit on the role of the U.S. government in all this before they further embarrass themselves denouncing perfidious foreigners.

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Terri Schiavo this morning.  Her loss is truly a sad day for all America and the world.  Our hearts are heavy as we witnessed Terri’s ordeal as her feeding tube was withdrawn two weeks ago, inducing her agonizing death.  Our prayers go out to her parents Bob and Mary, Michael, her husband, her family and close friends. 

I spoke to the Mr. and Mrs. Schindler yesterday and told them, “Fate has dealt you a blow, but faith in God and love will see you through.  Be prepared for her to live or die, but take comfort in knowing that you have done your best.  You may lose a daughter, but thank God for what you have left.  Don’t get bitter, get better.”  When it is real dark, faith is our beacon of light.  Job said, “my worst fears have come upon me,” but he also said, “yet will I trust God.”

Terri is not only a victim of a prolonged illness, but also an irreconcilable and bitter family feud which threw her guardianship and treatment into a legal debate.