The Long, Growing Arm of the Federal Government

I have disagreements with Andrew Sullivan, but I do agree with him here:

CONSERVATISM COME UNDONE: So it is now the federal government's role to micro-manage baseball and to prevent a single Florida woman who is trapped in a living hell from dying with dignity. We're getting to the point when conservatism has become a political philosophy that believes that government - at the most distant level - has the right to intervene in almost anything to achieve the right solution. Today's conservatism is becoming yesterday's liberalism.

Additional rhetoric from the Orlando Sentinal: Politicians rush to write laws to run your life

The problem is that legislators cannot pass a law that basically says: "Feed Terri Schiavo."

They tried that in 2003, and the courts tossed it out as blatantly unconstitutional.

To pass a bill that has any chance of being applied in Terri's case, the politicians have to come up with one that applies to all of us.

And so legislators are working on measures that could force family members to maintain a relative in a vegetative state if they could not produce some kind of directive from that relative stating wishes to the contrary. Another proposal has vague wording about an "interested party" being allowed to intervene.

This is a frightening intrusion into the most personal and gut-wrenching decisions a family can make.

[...]

Terri Schiavo is the Trojan horse religious conservatives are using to pass laws that would open the door wider for such intervention.

Copyright © 2005, Orlando Sentinel

Related thoughts from the Chicago Tribune: The steroids hearing should be out at first

It was said of one member of Congress that the most dangerous place in Washington was between him and a television camera. The same is true, though, of many of his colleagues, past and present. So anyone who values life and limb would not want to block the cameras' view of the House Government Reform Committee when it convenes a hearing today on Major League Baseball's steroid problem.

We're at war in Iraq, at war in Afghanistan, threatened by Al Qaeda, mired in budget deficits, faced with gargantuan liabilities in Social Security and Medicare, struggling to sustain the fighting capacity of our military forces--and what does this committee think warrants its urgent attention? Whether a handful of overpaid entertainers are taking forbidden pills to improve their performance.

The hearing rests on two well-worn premises that ought to offend the conservative sensibilities of Republicans, who control this committee and Congress. The first is that absolutely everything is a federal responsibility. The second is that the private sector needs incessant guidance from government.

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

My emphasis.

Have a wonderful weekend...hopefully free from the meddling bastards in Washington, D.C.

Posted by Drizzten at March 18, 2005 05:08 PM