I'M LIVING ON THE BIZARRO PLANET

I was taking a break from posting pictures on a family website, and I read Open Book's post. It's one of those situations that has you slack-jawed and saying "wha----?"

In a story about a Floridian

A fourth-generation rancher who said he ran out of money to buy feed for his livestock has been charged with 120 felony counts of animal cruelty

This is happening in FLORIDA? It's OK to starve a human being, but not animals, because, God forbid, they'll suffer. Which, we have been assured, that particular human (well, kind of - the people who want her to die don't really think she is a human in the true sense of the word, whatever that means) won't suffer, because, without higher level thought, she just won't experience pain. But the animals would, even though they don't have those high level thoughts.

It reminds me of a time in my childhood when I visited a dentist. Although I had pretty good teeth, this time I needed a filling. Well, I was told that I wouldn't need Novocaine, because it wouldn't hurt. And, then, the dentist proceeded to drill.

It hurt like hell.

I fussed and carried on, but the dentist refused to stop and give me that shot. Because he KNEW that it didn't hurt. All my tears and yelling didn't affect him at all, because, after all, he had absolute certainty that I was in no real pain.

Fortunately, in addition to being a real baby about pain, I'm also outrageously LOUD. When I started screaming, it must have sent chills up and down his spine. The phrase "wake the dead" comes to mind.

Even though he KNEW I was just being a baby, he finally broke down and injected the pain meds, just to shut me up.

We need to holler and scream about Terri Schiavo. We need to make such a fuss, that they'll do anything to shut us up, even, if necessary, to stop starving her.