Gay Porn and Vegetables - Not what you think

The following post is heavy with personal beliefs and is edited to my taste. Opinions vary...
Item one: American Idol Sues!
There is a gay adult film ripping off American Idol, called American Porn Star. This is not the news bit, as pornographic films have been parodying new and classic movies for years. What makes this funny to me is that the producers are going after the adult film version's backers. Best of all, the attack is lead by Ryan Seacrest. It seems Seacrest is upset because there is a look-alike in the "light hearted romp" and instead of a microphone, the host has, a, well, use your imagination...
Anyway, attorney Scott Zolke, who represents both the bosses of American Idol and Seacrest, had this to say, "American Idol has become an immensely popular television show. So the value of the American Idol look is something that we cannot allow to get tarnished."

I want to repeat what he just said, because that is the best part of this whole thing for me.

"...the value of the American Idol look is something that we cannot allow to get tarnished."

Who cares if this show is tarnished or not? It's tripe. Pure and simple. People don't care who gets the recording contract and becomes the next Zamfir. They watch because they want to see the embarrassing singing and the tirade of a bitter British has-been. Anybody that honsetly believes that this show has serious merit should really check out the higher channels on the remote. This show is nothing more than the first half of the season of Simon Cowl belittling retards that think they can sing. How William Hung ever got popular I'll never know, and it's all Cowl's fault. In fact, I shouldn't even know who in the world William Hung is. Why the hell do I know his name? He's a little Asian dude that sings really badly. For that reason alone, he became famous. I'm a chubby guy with Tourette's Syndrome and a hangnail. Where's my TV show? Come on Fox and CBS. I'll make you a bazillion dollars by playing myself. I'm comedy gold I tells ya!

Item two: Terry Schiavo

Alright, sit back down. I haven't even started yet.

While it is indeed sad that this woman had passed away, it's not the end of the world. She had a cardiac arrest back in 1990, possibly due to bulimia and had never recovered from it. She could not think, feel, reason or communicate. And sadly, never would again. 1990. That was 15 years ago. 15 years of living your life as a vegetable is a pretty sad existence. I value quality of life very much and I don't want to end up at the end of a tube for my only means of sustenance. If I can't feed myself because my mental capacity is not there, then why live? What purpose would I serve in this world? None. Pure and simple.

This following paragraph is courtesy of the New York Times:
The Vatican issued a statement calling Ms. Schiavo's death a "violation of the sacred nature of life" that had "shocked consciences." Pope John Paul II, whose own health is failing, said last year that providing food and water, even by artificial means, was "moral and obligatory."

The Pope is a wise man. Very knowledgeable, compassionate and well educated. But I'm not catholic and I don't follow the Pope's line of reasoning here. "Moral and obligatory" that's what the Pope said. That means, that regardless if the person was in constant pain and couldn't feed themselves, or if they are brain-dead and cannot complete basic functions necessary to maintain life, then why bother? Honestly? And for 15 years? That's just not stupid, it's horrible.

I'm willing to bet that most of the people out there that are putting down Terry's husband Michael don't know the whole story. And I'm willing to bet that most of the people that read this blog don't either. That's why I'm here. To set you all straight. Except Adam, who can't even drive straight... ;-)

Terry Schindler was a heavy-set teen, around 250 pounds. She loved animals, so much so that she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. A shy girl, she enrolled into the local community college, and lost almost 100 pounds by the time she started classes. With this newfound freedom, she meet her first boyfriend ever, Michael Schiavo. This was in 1982. They married in 1984, and even though money was tight for the newly-weds, they did the best they could. They lived at first in the basement of her parent's house, later moving to Florida where her folks had a condo there. Terry had dropped out of college, but got a job doing clerical work for an insurance company while her husband worked as a food and beverage manager at a local restaurant.

Desperate to have children, the coupled tried hard to conceive. By this point, around 1987, Terry was down to 110 pounds. She enjoyed showing off her Florida-tanned body in bikinis and pretty dresses never letting it known that she was bulimic. On February 25, 1990, Terry fell down in the couple's apartment in the early hours of the day. She suffered a cardiac arrest, believed to have been brought on by a potassium imbalance due to her eating disorder. By the time the EMT's revived her, she had suffered severe brain damage.

Michael, like the rest of the family, was devastated. He did everything he could to help his beautiful loving wife. He took her to neurology experts in California and Florida, hoping they could provide answers. He hired an assistant for Terry to take her to museums, beauty shops, different places, all in the hope that this would stimulate her brain into bring her back to her former self. But it was no use. Her cerebral cortex had all but disappeared. Michael even changed professions to become a critical-care nurse, just so he could care for Terry on a more permanent basis. That's how much love he had for his wife.

So, it's been 15 years. 15 years of caring, and emotion and heartache at hearing over and over from every doctor that she would never recover. Now, Terry's family, being the devout Catholics they are, know in their heart, that a brain-dead daughter is better than a dead daughter, so they fought Michael’s very tough choice to remove Terry's feeding tube. They even got the President of the freakin' United States to cut short a small vacation, so he could fly back to Washington D.C. and in case he needed to sign some legislation. The President was on vacation and they got him to come back to save one woman's life. A 15-year brain-dead woman. That was impressive.

I can't speak for Michael Schiavo. I've never had to make the decision to remove life-support or exclude food and water from a person with no means of supporting themselves. I'm sure it was hard choice but one I believe he rightly made. If anyone out there that should be shamed it is her parents and family, for keeping her alive all these years, just to see her life-less, glassy eyes stare back at them for 15 years.

Now, I know there's a flip side to this. There always is. Michael had been living with another woman for a few years, and even had two children with her. Maybe he just wanted a quick out and didn't want to deal with divorce and all that messy stuff. Maybe he was just being selfish and didn't want her alive anymore. To that, I say "Ney Ney". He still loved Terry. In fact, he cradled her head and wept openly in her finally moments while his brother and hospital staff looked on. Her family was not present because Michael feared for a 'potentially hostile altercation" and asked them not to be there. Granted, not the most compassionate thing to do, bar a dying woman's family from being with her as she passed away, but I can't blame him for asking it. He wanted to be with her as she left him, left everybody forever. I know this must have been tough for him to do.

Anyway, didn't mean to get all preachy. Just something that has been on my mind lately. I'm sure the American media will drag Michael Schiavo over the coals for this, and it's an unfortunate thing, but it was inevitable. People are always going to side with saving a vegetable over an intelligent and compassionate choice of letting them go. And that, dear readers, is a damn shame.

Patrick (and I'm sure some others as well) and I disagree on this. We're both getting our information the same way everybody else is, the media. So I guess it depends on who we read that we get whatever spin was given. I'm sure we'll never know the truth in the matter, and in the end it doesn't matter. A beautiful girl died, whether through an eating disorder or foul play (as some suspect). I've given you my thoughts on this and I'm sure everybody has their own opinion on the matter. I've got comments open, so if you want to yell and go on a tirade, let 'em loose.