Monday, January 6, 2014

Oh, God. Here we go again.

Once again, a right-wing politician has decided to insert himself into a private family tragedy.

About two weeks ago, a young lady named Jahi McMath went into an Oakland hospital for a routine tonsillectomy and somehow ended up losing so much blood that her brain ceased all functioning. Horrible. Just horrible. But while her parents have had to go through the agonizing process of coming to terms with the loss of their daughter, shameless con man Mike Huckabee has decided to turn this tragedy into a political soapbox for his "pro-life" views.


(via)

Mike Huckabee Compares Oakland Hospital To Nazi Concentration Camps


Because of course he fucking did!

I mean, once you've gotten used to the idea of the Affordable care Act as Nazi-style tyranny, it's a pretty easy leap to seeing a hospital as Auschwitz.

Apparently, the similarity between the hospital in Oakland and concentration camps in 1930';s Europe is based on the hospital's plan to remove the already brain-dead girl from machines keeping her heart and lungs functioning artificially. Which is pretty much the same thing, now that I think about it.


Here are some of his comments:
(source)

The decision of a judge in CA has given the family of 8 year old Jahi McMath until January 7 to prove that she is worth at least attempting to save.


Except that she can't possibly be saved because she is completely brain-dead. Which is tragic enough without some scam-artist pretending that she could be saved but someone just doesn't want to.

 The hospital says she’s brain dead and insisted that her life support be discontinued just a couple of days before Christmas.


But what would the hospital know? They're just a bunch of "doctors" and "scientists" and "medical professionals." I'm a former minister and current asshole talk-show host!

Her family has fought in court to prevent the hospital from acting without the family’s permission. I’m not a neurologist and wouldn’t pretend to know the level if any of Jahi’s brain function.


But I'm sure as hell not going to let that stop me from pretending that I know what the fuck I'm talking about and weighing in with my half-assed opinion!

I’m not a neurologist and wouldn’t pretend to know the level if any of Jahi’s brain function. But I am a parent and grandparent


Oh, by all means, then. Proceed, governor!

But I am a parent and grandparent, and I would fight with all within me to hold on to any hope to protect the life of a member of my family


Regardless of whether she was already dead.

 And I would probably not be overly confident of the opinion of the hospital that said my daughter’s brain was dead because they also said the surgery that put her in that condition was routine and low risk.


Well, I'm fairly certain that they didn't say NO risk. It was surgery, after all. And no matter how badly the surgeon might have botched the operation, I'm sure they can read a brain scan. And there isn't going to be another doctor who comes in like Billy Crystal in the Princess Bride and says "lucky for you, she's only MOSTLY dead!"


 “The road that starts that way in deciding that some lives have less value and are unworthy of protection, that leads to a culture that tolerates the undeserved killing of over 55 million unborn children in this country. . ."


So, you're saying that if this girl is taken off life support, next thing you know there will be abortions?

". . . It leads to China’s birth policy that limits the number of children for a family and enforces forced abortion if they deviate from the state-determined ideal.”


Um, okay, sure. With you so far. Any time a young person dies tragically, that's the same thing as China forcing women to have abortions. That pretty much goes without saying.  But what about the concentration camps?

“It’s also that culture that allowed the Nazis to to hideously justify the savage slaughter of millions of Jews, disabled people, old people and those with mental illness,”


Wow! Unless the hospital intentionally botched the operation because they actually wanted this girl to die, I really don't see a comparison here.  But I guess that's not really what's important. The important thing is that you got your name in the papers and your fat ugly face on tv so you could keep feeding your fame addiction, and if you've made the family's suffering even worse, or maybe led some of your less stable followers to make death threats against the hospital or the doctors involved, well that's a small price to pay for dragging out your 15 minutes a few more days. Hey, maybe you can find a way to turn this private family tragedy into a fundraiser, too! Then everybody wins!