A Fatal Incuriosity (MAUREEN DOWD BLAMES NURSING HOME/HOSPITAL DEATHS ON BUSH)

The New York Times ^ | 9/14/05 | Maureen Dowd

[paulat]

September 14, 2005 A Fatal Incuriosity By MAUREEN DOWD

I hate spending time in hospitals and nursing homes. I find them to be some of the most depressing places on earth.

Maybe that's why the stories of the sick and elderly who died, 45 in a New Orleans hospital and 34 in St. Rita's nursing home in the devastated St. Bernard Parish outside New Orleans, haunt me so.

You're already vulnerable and alone when suddenly you're beset by nature and betrayed by your government.

[SNIP]

[Busywhiskers]

I blame Maureen Dowd for lowering the average IQ of the entire nation.

[lOKKI]

Here is the only link between the Nursing Home Deaths and Bush in the article:

As Louisiana's death toll spiked to 423 yesterday, the state charged St. Rita's owners with multiple counts of negligent homicide, accusing them of not responding to warnings about the hurricane. "In effect," State Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. said, "I think that their inactions resulted in the death of these people."

President Bush continued to try to spin his own inaction yesterday...

This is a pretty cheap college-freshman way of linking two independent ideas.....stapling them together by the repeated use of a single word.

[RedMonqey]

Goebbels and Hitler would be sooooo proud.

[COUNTrecount]

Notice: I don't see the usual NYT blog comment link on this column. What I mean is that there's usually a link for readers to post comments. Maybe I'm missing it.

E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com

Give her a holler.

[paulat]

I saw the email address...there used to be a posting link, too.

[finnigan2]

Though the NYT is a liberal rag which tolerates the likes of Krugman, even they must be concerned with the continued deterioration of MoDo's mental state. Someone commented here last week that management has recently moved her column from the Sunday edition to the less read Saturday paper - which means that someone on the top floor is concerned enough to give her a hint that all is not well with her writing.
To read a Noonan or Steyn column is to be immediately struck by the intelligence, thought, wit and insight that go into their writing, as compared to the gin soaked ramblings that MoDo churns out and hands in each week.
Steyn refers to her as, "the New York Times elderly schoolgirl". The description is too kind but apt.

[auboy]

She actually gets paid for this dribble? She needs to have someone put this load into an audio book and play it back to her.

[Chode]

I hate spending time in hospitals and nursing homes. I find them to be some of the most depressing places on earth because i know i'll spend the last years of my ALONE in one of them.

Maybe that's why the stories of the sick and elderly who died, 45 in a New Orleans hospital and 34 in St. Rita's nursing home in the devastated St. Bernard Parish outside New Orleans, haunt me so. You're already vulnerable and alone when suddenly you're beset by nature and betrayed by your own wretched personality that's doomed you to a life of childless lonely emptiness!!!

BBBWWWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!!!

[techcor]

Mmmmm. The reason I always check out MoDowd posts. It's certainly not to read anything that bitter idiot writes.

[Irish Queen]

I am involved with a nursing home ministry. We provide worship services for several facilities in Northern Nevada. It is some of the most satisfying volunteer work I've ever done.

An important part of the ministry is to greet folks by name, hold their hands, look them in the eyes and really listen to them. I loves to sing with these precious senior saints. And I am so blessed to see their faces light up when I sing a familiar gospel song or hymn to them. It's also my privilege to be able to present the gospel message in a 15-20 lesson as a part of the worship service.

Whenever someone asks me such things as "Are you a nun?", "What denomination are you?" or "Are you a minister?" I always answer, "I'm merely a Christian."

Why am I telling you this? Simple - those of us who work with the elderly receive more blessings than we receive.

[Sender]

In 3 years, Bush will be back in Texas, but she'll still be Maureen Dowd...with no one to roast.

[an amused spectator]

Helping the Dowdster fix the blame (courtesy of FR's own Registered!)

[Sender]

God bless all of you who take care of the elderly. I hope that someone will come and visit me when I'm in that predicament.

[dynachrome]

I say no to removing the no cussing rule. I find the invective is much more inventive.

[Disambiguator]

Maureen Dowd and Mark Morford should collaborate on some writing projects. The results would be breathtaking!

[FreedomCalls]

IMMUTABLE LAWS OF DOWD

1. Anyone in the Bush administration never deserves credit.

2. Offering constructive solutions to problems, instead of whining endlessly about them, is a sign of weakness.

3. The People Magazine principle: all political phenomena can be explained with reference solely to caricatures of the personalities involved ("Dubya" is stupid; "Poppy" is an aristocrat; Cheney is macho-man; etc.). Any reference to the common good or even to old-fashioned politicking is, like, so passe.

4. It is much better to be cute than coherent.

5. Maureen knows best. Her long years as a columnist (doing basically what your great-aunt Tillie does in the nursing home bull sessions, but getting paid for it) have given her deep insight into foreign relations, politics, welfare, the Constitution, and all other topics. To disagree with Maureen in any way is not only a sign of being wrong, it's a hallmark of pure evil...or at least membership in the NRA, which is pretty much the same thing.

6. It is usually possible and always desirable to name-drop and name-call in the same sentence.

7. The particulars of my consumer-driven, shamefully self-involved life reveal universal truths.

[FreedomCalls]

I accidently left out that credit for the IMMUTABLE LAWS OF DOWD should of course go to Oxblog.

[Lizavetta]

After reading the Molly Ivins post, I don't know which of these two harpies is worse

I am convinced that at some time, somewhere, Molly put the moves on George and he rejected her. Nothing else could explain the vitriol she has towards him.

[FreedomCalls]

Yup. That story turns out to have been completely fabricated.

Thread on it here:

Politician caught in tearful lie
Parish prez fabricates claim about feds leaving coworker's mom to die