The circus continues in Pinellas Park. I would not be surprised if there was some sort of attempt at a last-ditch armed assault by right-wing nut jobs as the sands in Ms. Schiavo's hourglass get scarcer and scarcer.

Right wing extremist radio personality Hal Turner now has a very ominous message replacing the usual screeds and agitprop (Hate site: NSFW):

Web site updates temporarily offline.
I am traveling to do something important.

Will there be an Easter Assault on the hospice? This is the $64,000 question. It has already been established that State Troopers who were asked by Jeb Bush to participate in a seizure operation refused, stating that they would only act if directed by the courts to do so. So it seems like the only possibility for further action would come from the lunatic fringe.

The lunatic fringe has already stomped on another person's right to attend to their dying loved one in the same hospice. According to, of all sources, the Faux News Channel, a woman was prevented from seeing her grandfather before he died because of the gantlet of protestors she had to run to get to him.

Meanwhile the chorus of people who are saying "enough already" about the endless court battles with the aim of keeping Terri Schiavo's body up and running is growing, and now includes conservatives alongside liberals and moderates. Read what Neil Boortz has to say. And also what Libertarian writer Cathy Young has to say. This is turning the stomachs of people who would be inclined normally to give the benefit of the doubt to conservatives.

The science is starting to come out too. Here's something from a Court TV debate. Bioethicist Bill Allen said this about Terri Schiavo's neurological functionality:

[T]he EEG tests on the part of her brain cavity where the cortex should be was flatline....There was EEG for her brain stem; she is not brain-dead by whole brain criteria. But the part of an EEG that reflects higher cortical activity was flatline.

I know I have mentioned my sympathies to those who view this as a disabilities rights issue. However, if it is indeed true that there is no electrical activity in the tattered remnants of Ms. Schiavo's brain's cortical region, she is beyond being merely "disabled." The lights are on, but no-one's home. The arguments for the upkeep of Ms. Schiavo's body begin to resemble the argument between the pet shop keeper and the disgruntled parrot owner in the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch.

I am not saying this to be cold or make light of a tragic situation. I'm just pointing out the absurdity of it all. Let her go. She's earned her rest.

A note at 8pm, 3/27...
I'm so ignorant about Floridian geography that I didn't know that my friend Tom Reed in Orlando doesn't live anywhere near Pinellas Park. Found out the good news this evening when he called. "They're sufficiently far away from us to where the news broadcasts from the hospice come over The Bird" was his response. TV Lingo translation: The Bird = Satellite. As in they're far enough away to where the TV station he works at doesn't bother to send a news truck there. Good. The farther away you are, my bro, the safer you are. I'd rather you be in a Blue State than be stuck in Florida with the Alligators and the reptilian Repugnican politicians. California would be nice for selfish reasons, but we've got problems of our own. I hear Seattle's a geek paradise...maybe there's an opening at some Seattle TV station for a talented engineer. Florida. [shudder]