Death and Vomiting
First of all, allow me to apologize for an unusually late post considering all of the events that have taken place over the last several hours. As most readers are likely aware, Terri Shiavo passed away this morning at her hospice in Pinellas Park, FL. There is already some dispute as to how peacefully Terri actually died. The truth of the matter is that this is information which we will probably never know.
For the past 48 hours or so, all over the Catholic press, several irate callers to radio talk shows on EWTN and other outlets have indicated that they had called Governor Bush's office, comparing him to Pontious Pilate. The reasoning behind this comparison seems to be that Governor Bush washed his hands of the Shiavo battle at the last moment and can thus be justly compared to how the procurator of Judea handled the legal case agains Jesus Christ. After a great deal of mediation on the matter, I have come to the conclusion that there is one great difference between Jeb Bush's situation and Pontious Pilate: Pilate had the legal authority to release Jesus. He had the legal authority to do the right thing and punish the people who were using Jesus as an excuse to bring about undue social unrest.
While it can be argued that Governor Bush can and should have done more for Terri on a personal level, it would seem that he pushed his legal powers to the limit in this case. He did so fully aware of the potential political consequences. Especially in light of skewed media polls which did little to acurately inform respondants as to the nature of this case, thus ensuring that no one could make a reasoned response to those polls. In layman's terms, this simply means that the political climate fostered by the media was set against Terri and against the Schindler family and ensured that Governor Bush might have to suffer dire political consequences for siding with the Schindler family in this case. In spite of that reality, Governor Bush or his representatives in state government attempted to use ever legal avenue left open to them by a judicial system that was obviously corrupted by the culture of death. Frankly, Jeb Bush put his ass on the line. Catholics would do well to remember that if the man ever chooses to run for higher office.
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Anyone who knows me knows that I just love McDonald’s. I’ve enjoyed McDonald’s since I was a child and, as far as fast food places go, I’ve always believed that, with the notable exception of Chick-fil-a, McDonald’s has the best fast food chicken sandwich. After my experience yesterday however, I seriously question whether I’ll be taking in any Mickey D’s for a very long time.
Nicole and I had to have our truck examined, as it is severely ill. While we were waiting on this to take place, we stopped at a McDonald’s in Florence, KY where I had a craving for a chicken sandwich. I ordered two small McChicken sandwiches from the dollar menu, along with medium fries and a medium iced tea. This was the first thing I had eaten all day long. About an hour after eating, Nicole and I were sitting at the mechanic’s waiting on the truck and I commented to her that I felt what I call “bushwhacked.” This is an Oatneyism which denotes sudden and unusual fatigue, the cause of which is not immediately certain.
Upon returning home, I felt the sudden need to go to bed. I also noticed that I was becoming unusually hot and had developed a fever of nearly 101 degrees. Other than that however, I had no unusual symptoms that would indicate that I was catching some sort of a bug. I began to drink lots of fluids and had the sudden urge to empty my stomach via reverse flow. An urge which had not previously made itself known. Immediately upon the exercise of this self-stomach-pumping, my fever began to break. I took a cool bath, drank some green tea and then some ginger tea, took some Excedrin for a headache, and retired to bed.
I woke up this morning feeling fine; able to hold down just about anything I would want to eat. I also had no fever this morning. Considering that the sandwiches from McDonald’s were the only food I had eaten, it would seem that I contracted some sort of mild food poisoning and my body was merely trying to flush out the filth. My advice would be to eat at McDonald’s very sparingly indeed, and avoid McChicken sandwiches.
