Posted on 04/11/2005 2:46:41 PM PDT by CHARLITE
For decades, neuroscientists have recognized that the brain has three distinct systems. One is derived from primitive reptiles that were adept at survival strategies. Another includes the limbic system – often called the “seat of emotions.” The third includes the neocortex and prefrontal lobes (comprising the right and left hemispheres of the brain) that account for thinking, verbal abilities and other “higher” functions. My theory is that Terri’s putative husband Michael, his attorney George J. Felos, and Judge George Greer – who ruled for years against Terri’s right to life – have highly developed reptilian brains and prefrontal lobes, but that they are sorely lacking in anything resembling a normal limbic system.
What exactly is the limbic system? Located just below the neocortex, it is the part of the brain that governs – among other emotions – affection, feelings, and most of all empathy
What is empathy? Simply, it is the ability to feel what others are feeling. It is not sympathy, which is feeling sorry for someone or that something happened. Empathy, on the other hand, is the ability to put oneself in the place of another person and actually experience the feelings they are experiencing – be they joy, anxiety, fear or pain.
Persuasive research over the past several decades, conducted by the most prestigious science institutions both in America and abroad, has relied on PET and more recently fMRI scans that visualize brain activity to demonstrate that structural and functional abnormalities in several brain regions (the limbic system, the amygadala, the hippocampus, et al) account for a lack of empathy.
People who lack empathy are called sociopaths, a euphemistic version of what was once called psychopaths. Like all cold-blooded killers, they are literally incapable of feeling what another person feels. While they may be expert at affecting what amounts to a parody of normality and integrity, charm and intellect, underneath their guises is a total inability to “feel your pain.”
Calling a Spade a Spade
You can call it bad character or you can say, as liberals and retro psychotherapists do, that the unfeeling person – like the terrorists who murdered nearly 3,000 innocent Americans on September 11, 2001 – are “victims” of their upbringings or circumstances.
I say that no matter the source of the behavior, people lacking the kind of empathy that allows them to kill without remorse – for instance, to starve a healthy woman to death – are no different than other 21st Century terrorists and deserve the same consequences: indictment, conviction and imprisonment.
While antidepressant, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic drugs have successfully treated millions of people with biologically driven mental illnesses – there is NO CURE for sociopaths!
Does this describe the likes of Schiavo, Felos and Greer? You decide.
From what I observed, all of them are reptilian in their icy coldness, and malevolent fakers when they use the “higher centers” of their brains to dissemble and pretend that they “feel” what they clearly don’t feel at all.
They all knew exactly what starvation would entail for Terri, who at the time of her court-ordered death sentence was vibrantly healthy, save for her limited mental function. To name but a few horrifying symptoms that she probably experienced were:
Skin rashes that they knew she couldn’t scratch as well as irritation of all of her tissues, particularly of the tongue, mouth and vagina
Shrinking of her vital organs like the heart and lungs
Uncontrollable diarrhea and/or painful contractions of her intestines
Frightening weakness that she never felt before
Swelling from fluid under her skin
Immune deficiency
Psychotic thinking
And these merchants of death were also aware that the dehydration they ordered – depriving Terri of water – would entail:
Unbearable, unquenchable thirst
Muscle weakness and therefore painful cramps
Nausea and vomiting
Deep rapid breathing and/or, to Terri, a frightening increased heart rate
Dried out skin in her nose as well as the pain of cracked lips
The shutdown of her kidneys
Loss of consciousness.
Snakes Don’t Care
Ostensibly unmoved by her plight were the triumvirate of reptiles. Terri’s money-hungry husband had already collected a million dollars in a malpractice settlement about his claim that doctors failed to diagnose her so-called but still-undocumented bulimia, and he now stands to receive $1.2 million as the heir to the remainder of the that judgment. Then there was his seemingly euthanasia-infatuated attorney and the idealogue judge.
All of them were unmoved by Terri’s agonizingly slow death because they claimed she would have chosen that fate for herself. Never mind the absence of a signed Living Will or videotape of her wishes.
During the nearly two weeks that Terri suffered after her feeding tube was removed, empathic people throughout the world had a heightened awareness of their own hunger pangs and thirst, and the merciful availability of the food and drink at their fingertips. But the reptiles didn’t.
When Michael Schiavo – who has obviously been busy following the money – decided that “for better or worse, through sickness and health, ‘til death do us part” was inconvenient, he chose not to divorce Terri nor to seek an annulment of their marriage, but opted instead for bigamy and to father two children.
And the normal empathy that develops when people become parents didn’t appear to happen to Michael. Instead of “feeling” the pain that Terri’s parents experienced and identifying with their determination to care for their daughter “in sickness and in health,” he seemed to feel – as all reptiles do – nothing.
And in what federalist.com called “the final act of selfish cruelty, [he] arrived only minutes before her death [and] denied the Schindlers' request to remain with Terri for her final breath.”
A Voice of Morality
The website’s commentary went on to cite the words of Pope John Paul II, whose empathy for humanity and evolved morality provide stark contrast to the reptilian natures of Michael Schiavo and company. Last year, the Pope – on a feeding tube himself in his final days – ”effectively declared his `living will’ in a speech to doctors and ethicists,” saying: “The administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act." He described the denial of such care “euthanasia by omission."
As far back as 1950, Five Star General Omar Bradley stated what could be aptly applied to the Terri Schiavo case: "We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount...the world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants."
“What can we expect?” asks Christopher Flickinger in an article in TheRant.us. “For those citizens with handicaps or disabilities, you are forewarned – someone may have his eye on you. If you’re blind, deaf, mute, in a wheelchair, on crutches, use a walker or a cane, walk with a limp or have an appendage missing, you better mind your P’s and Q’s. One little slip-up, just one, and someone could deem your life unfit for living, take away your wheelchair, put you in a Hospice center and starve you to death. [The] excuse would be, “Well, they’re worthless shells of a human. Those cripples have been draining my pocketbook for years – all those ramps and elevators and special parking spots. Forget about legislation in order to fix Social Security. I’ll fix it myself by lightening our load... With this new precedent of social Darwinism sweeping the nation, there’s no end to the possibilities. In a way, we’ll pick-up were Hitler failed. Forget about a master race. We’re more interest in preserving the lives of those who can win the race. And as for everyone else, Pandora’s box is now wide open.”
In Schiavo’s case, criminal proceedings may yet ensue. According to NewsMax.com, Florida's Department of Children and Families had received 89 allegations that Schiavo had abused his wife – but Judge Greer (surprise!) ruled that DCF summaries of those allegations must remain secret to everyone except (surprise!) Michael Schiavo himself. However, The St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune have now filed lawsuits for the release of the abuse summaries.
It’s too late for Terri, but it’s not too late for American citizens to take careful note of those elected officials – overwhelmingly liberals – who through their support of abortion and now euthanasia are responsible for what has become a “culture of death” in our country, and to boot them out of office or make sure they are never elected.
Joan Swirsky is a New York-based journalist and author, and a retired RN.
Comments: joansharon@aol.com
The founders never gave a thought of the possibilty that human look-alikes would run for office. Should of had another clause in the constitution for requirement for office:
'All candidates for elective and appointive offices must be brain-scanned to determine the presence of a limbic system in their brain. Those who lack such a critical mechanism should be immediately put in a space shuttle and sent back to their own planet at their own expense.'
I am deeply offended by comparing fine upstanding reptiles to the adultorous homicidal "husband," evil creepy shyster, and blind judicial tyrant who murdered Terri.
Well, the psychopath's defense is to call the rest of us "hysterical".
Well, the psychopath's defense is to call the rest of us "hysterical".
=======
Don't forget "hersterical"... or you'll be called a sexist !!! ;-))
My theory is that Terri’s putative husband Michael, his attorney George J. Felos, and Judge George Greer – who ruled for years against Terri’s right to life – have highly developed reptilian brains and prefrontal lobes, but that they are sorely lacking in anything resembling a normal limbic system.
When will 'journos' stop misquoting the amount of money the abusive husband 'will now inherit'? ... Most of Terri's rehab money was spent to pay Felos, authorized of course by those little god's in black robes, the Floriduh rubber stamptroopers.
The more they come the more stupid they get. Now this nut thinks Greer and Michael have alligator brains.If it wasnt so pathetic it would be funny.
All this reptilian nonsense is an example of how the would-be Torquemadas are trying ever so desperately to screw up enough demonization and hatred to cause a lynching of Schiavo, Greer and Felos. That's the only conspiracy going in the Terri Schiavo case.
Many people who lack empathy are also called Scientologists. In Scientology, everything bad that happens to you is all your fault because you weren't "clear." St. Pete's is Scientology Central, and virtually everybody in that case had some connection with Scientology or one of its organizations or representatives.
That's it. I think Terri was one of their test cases, and unfortunately, they were able to pursuade most utilitarian Americans that they were right (that's the only thing that would explain the scanty showing outside the hospice).
Won't these same pro-death fellow Americans be surprised when suddenly they discover that their rating has been lowered...
The organization known as Scientology is well known for making unsubstantiated claims of success with their many programs including Narconon, Criminon and Applied Scholastics, which in the end are all simply recruiting fronts for this group. Florida politicians and officials are now frequently associating with Scientologists and seeming to promote these highly questionable and controversial programs and organizations.
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D. on a book promoting Narconon procedures: "My recommendation about detoxification is to keep away from it. You don't need it. I'm not sure it does what this book describes. It's dangerous. I don't think L. Ron Hubbard has credibility in the scientific world. The author's suggestions about detoxification can be detrimental to your health."
As a Florida resident, voter and taxpayer, I strongly object to our politicians and representatives offering funding or even the air of legitimacy to Scientology, its practices, programs or front groups. These programs have never been independently tested or proven, and are all based on the writings of Scientology founder and science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard. Scientologists often rely on politicians and what they refer to as "opinion leaders" in a community in an attempt to gain credibility and support for their dangerous and unproven programs. This page is dedicated to exposing and confronting these officials and politicians, as well as serving as an educational tool for them.
If you find yourself listed on this page, you would be very well served by learning about Scientology and its front groups through the links provided here. If you are a citizen and outraged at our representative's ignorance of the reality of these recruitment fronts and unproven programs, please write or email them and tell them!
http://www.home.tampabay.rr.com/sp/FLA.html (snip)
correcting link:
http://home.tampabay.rr.com/sp/FLA.html
The funniest part is, the Tone Scale only goes up to, what, a 4? Not a whole lot of margin for error between being "clear" and being deleted from the face of the earth. And this is the official guideline of the largest, wealthiest, most powerful cult in the United States.
It's amazing, the number of people willing to turn a blind eye to this. Left unchecked, the COS is going to usher in one of the ugliest chapters in American history... you can see it coming from a mile away. Terri was just the beginning.
Thanks for the link, Fred.
Interesting comment, because one of the Nazi doctors responsible for the Holocaust, back in the early 1940's, said that the continuation of 'the work' would take place in America.
On Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard:From Excerpt from Wings Interview: The Real Harlan Ellison (page 32).Ellison: Scientology is bullshit! Man, I was there the night L. Ron Hubbard invented it, for Christ Sakes!
I was sitting in a room with L. Ron Hubbard and a bunch of other science fiction writers. L. Ron Hubbard was famous among science fiction writers because he was the first one to have an electric typewriter.
Wings: He claimed to have written Dianetics in a weekend, and nobody can deny it.
Ellison: That's true. He wrote Dianetics in one weekend, and you know how he used to write? He used to take a roll of white paper, like paper you wrap fish in. He had it on the wall, and he would roll it into the typewriter and he would begin typing. When he was done, he would tear it off and leave it as one whole long novel.
We were sitting around one night... who else was there? Alfred Bester, and Cyril Kornbluth, and Lester Del Rey, and Ron Hubbard, who was making a penny a word, and had been for years. And he said "This bullshit's got to stop!" He says, "I gotta get money." He says, "I want to get rich".
< snip >
. . . Sat down, stole a little bit from Freud, stole a little bit from Jung, a little bit from Alder, a little bit of encounter therapy, pre-Janov Primal Screaming, took all that bullshit, threw it all together, invented a few new words, because he was a science fiction writer, you know, "engrams" and "regression", all that bullshit. And then he conned John Campbell, who was crazy as a thousand battlefields. I mean, he believed any goddamned thing. He really believed blacks were inferior. I mean he really believed that. He was also very nervous when I was in his office because I was a Jew. You know, he was afraid maybe I would spring horns or something.
Anyhow, the way he conned John was that he had J. A. Winter, who was a doctor, who was a close friend of John's, and he got him to run this article on Dianetics, the new science of mental health.
Wings: Dianometry was the first article, I believe.
Ellison: Right. And science fiction fans will go for any goddamm thing.
I've read Both Ellison and Hubbard, and Ellison is, by far, the superior writer. Hubbard is a real chore -- a root canal is relaxing by comparison.
Also, you might enjoy Operation Clambake The fight against the Church of Scientology on the Net.
That scares me silly, but I think you're correct.
Today he is in jail being fed while awaiting his trial. At least a demon from hell gets a trial and meals.
More than anything an innocent Terri got from the world's greatest superpower in the 'land of the free and the home of the brave'.
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