I clearly must have heard Newt wrong

I was flipping news channels this morning, you know, to get all that unbiased news that each channel "thinks" they provide, and Newt was on one of them. I clearly must have heard him wrong because I believe he was actually saying (in regards to the health care bill) that he was in favor of an end-of-life patient being able to bring up with their doctor the notion of ending their life. The point he was making was that it was ok to for that patient to talk to their doctor about it, but it wasn't ok for the government to bring up that conversation for the patient (this is the crazy death-panel notion they are all talking about now). However, none of that is my point, yet again. It's just the catalyst for the blog piece.

Again, my point is the pro-life movement that I think should involve all pro-life situations. It seems this would be one of those situations. If you think no one should play God with abortion, why can they with the death penalty (we all know how I feel about this as I've definitely blogged about that before). But why doesn't this fall into that same (always error on the side of life) issue. Isn't choosing to take your own life (no matter the situation) playing God as well? And if they don't want the government involved in any decision like that, why is that different then the government being involved in the abortion issue? To me, they are all the same. They are life ending choices that the government shouldn't be involved in, period.

Now, for the full disclosure, I'm not saying that I'm not in favor of choosing to end my own life in certain situations... I'm honestly not sure about that... and probably won''t be entirely sure unless I was actually IN one of those situations. I'm certainly not judging those that choose that option. The point is, I'm just still wondering why they don't see that it's all the same idea. Can't be pro-life without being pro ALL life. And yes, I realize I sound like a broken record on this one, but that at least shows my consistency. That isn't to say I don't struggle with all of the three situations, because I do. Personally, I wouldn't have an abortion. There are probably times when even though I'm against the death penalty, I could understand seeking it for someone. And, I can certainly understand wanting to choose to end your life rather than suffering when you know the end is near anyway. So, I get that there are internal struggles around these things even with as strongly as I feel about them. But if you (generically) are really pro-life, it seems that these things should only be internal struggles at certain times. Seems the real "pro-lifers" should be against ALL these things that cause death by playing God.

My real un-Americans rant

I made a status update last night on Facebook that simply read:

"thanks to President Bill Clinton for getting the job done. Safe travels home for him and the released reporters. Now if only others could get something done."

I had some "thumbs up" on that comment from folks that I know aren't politically aligned with me, and I think that's great. It shows me that there are people that are willing to put politics aside to acknowledge something good that happened, no matter who was involved in making it happen. I know that Bill Clinton didn't do this on his own. This work has been under way for some time now. But he was willing to drop everything and go pick those women up when it was requested that he was the one to do so. He also handled it very well today when he stayed on the plane in order to let it all be about the journalists and the reunion with their families. He came out later, hugged Al Gore, shook hands and talked to the family and then stood in the background while they gave a speech. Al Gore spoke, and it ended. President Clinton didn't even speak. I'm sure he will when he gets asked questions by news folks, but that reunion today, was all about the ladies, as it should have been.

Here comes my rant though. I'm at home working and changing news channels to see the coverage as well as listen to people talk on the radio... (even WBEE this morning). For those of you that are making jokes about Bill (look how far he'd go to pick up women), and those that are turning this into a huge deal about how we are cow-towing to North Korea somehow and pinning that on Obama... grow up. If you can't see how this story is about compassion for the families of these woman, and about getting these woman back where they belong, maybe you are the ones that are the "un-Americans" that you love to bash so much. What happened today is nothing but good, and if you were the families of these woman, I'm sure you'd feel that way too. Of course if all you want to do is bash people, than you'd probably never be able to admit that it was ever good unless you physically went there yourself. Enough already. Get over yourselfs and your narrow vision. Geez... even the lone Republican on the View today (Elizabeth) was capable of praising Bill and Al... and rightfully so. They deserve it. But regardless of that, these woman are home with their families... period. Can't everyone just leave it at that and be happy.