Michael, this is as amazing as grace. Well done. You can't tell the players without a program. So for anyone without a program just read this parody. Pray for Terri and our leaders.

Everything I've wanted to say. We should pray, as Guy says. Good parody. 5's

Pray for what? If God had any intention of pulling Terri Schiavo out of her persistent vegetative state, God should have done so years ago. Maybe God shouldn't have put Terri Schiavo in a persistent vegetative state to start with. Maybe God has absolutely nothing to do with this.

Man made me in his own image. Don't blame me for the red state fundamentalism - they've twisted my words; I'm a die hard blue stater. Oh, Jesus is alive and well and living in Greenwich Village and Dubya made a deal with the devil.

"Tallahassee pig" and "Seems like nothing good comes from the courts." Powerful stuff, Michael.

Here's the real deal. Oregon is the only state in the US that allows physician assisted suicide. The US supreme court is going to rule on challenges made to this law this fall. If the Schiavo case tells us anything it should be that we need to look very closely at that law in the great state of Oregon. Whether you wish to believe this or not only God has the right to take a human life and that time to take that life was determined before time began for each of us. Nothing we as humans can do will or can change this simple fact.

I learned recently that an overwhelming amount of Christians are in favor of pulling the feeding tube on Ms Schiavo. I puzzled over this and prayed. I got an answer. God makes no restrictions on man as to self will. We are the only creatures on this earth that have free will. You may recall a simular case some years ago that invovled a brain dead female named Karen Quinlan. She was being kept alive by a respirator and was completely comotose. The decision was made to pull the plug and it was. Ms Quinlan lived another ten years after the plug was pulled. Put this link into your browser for more info on this case:

http://www.who2.com/karenannquinlan.html

I believe that God was trying to tell us something then and He is now trying to tell us something with this case. It is a wake up call to where man's laws can lead us down a very slippery slope. Ms Schiavo will not die in vain. She is teaching us all, as an instrument of God just where we are headed with physician assisted suicide. No one but the individual concerned should be able to make the determination of just how far efforts should be extended to keep us alive. The existing laws keep us from intervening in this process for Ms Schiavo. Now it becomes a moral issue as to whether we should follow man's laws or God's laws. I am so glad I do not have to make this decision. And I also believe that what is in the hearts of those with the power to drive these decisions will ultimately determine how they are judged by their Creator.

I would believe that most of the Christians who are in favor of the feeding tube removal are convicted of the fact that Ms Schiavo's purpose is to wake the rest of us up. We do not know what is in the hearts of our leaders who are making the life and death decisions here. If they see it for the greater good that it is God's will then I would agree with their decisions. If not and it is for their own personal or political gain they will be judged as such.

To JJ -- Yes, I really took off the gloves with this one. To all the rest, thanks for your comments. Guy, glad to hear from you again, it's been awhile. -- MM

Hey, "True Believer," here's the REAL deal. Terri Shiavo is not my "instrument." I am not trying to "tell" you anything with this "case." Go ahead and try to make sense out of the senselessness--that's what you humans seem to have to do--but do me a favor and leave me out of it.

Oh, by the way, did you notice that Indonesia was hit by another earthquake? Hundreds more dead? I doubt it--you're all too preoccupied with this circus in Florida.

Whatever gets you through the night, Adagio.

To "are you there, Margaret": the murder of Terri Schiavo and the earthquake in Indonesia are BOTH tragedies, imo. -- MM

Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

Strong statement. This isn't about justice being served - it is a power struggle.

It looks as if my comment saying that we are all instruments of God, whether or not we think so, has been pulled. It was to "Are you there, Margaret?" I also wrote the beginning of St. Francis' Prayer..."Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace..."

Adagio--That one is hard for me to believe. I certainly did not see anything appropriate about what you said. 2Eagle -- you are dead right, no pun intended. There certainly is a war between the judicial branch and the other two. Today a judge on the 5th circuit court of appeal accused Bush and congress of overstepping their constitutional boundaries, and yet it is the judicial branch that has done that the most. Reminds me of U.S. vs Term Limits, when the Senile Court felt so threatened by the majority of voters in 30 states, they overturned all congressional term limits with what I thought was a rather lame excuse (about creating an additional requirement). I think the real reason was they felt their sense of supremacy threatened and moved to reclaim it -- as is the case with the battle for Terri's life. You make a good point in implying that what this really is is a battle over who really runs the country, and the courts appear to be winning. There are things the other two branches of government, both in Florida and at the Federal level, could do to limit the power and jurisdiciton of the courts, but so far they've been too squeamish to invoke any of those prerogatives, even when someone's life is at stake. That is part of the reason I called Jebya and other Republicans cowards in the song.

Though I only agree with about half the points made in this parody (e.g., John Ellis Bush isn't a coward, he's much worse, but we've been over that), this is probably the best parody of a very tough song to do. (There aren't a whole lot of words that rhyme with "bridge," and you got around it.) I tried it with "Ode to Philly Joe," but this is much better.

MM...sorry, I was just upholding your stance.."Adagio--That one is hard for me to believe. I certainly did not see anything appropriate about what you said." What don't you believe? God, St. Francis, my comment pulled. What was innapropriate with what I said?

MM - I am so surprised at you removing Adagio's previous comment. You of all people who say "Live free or die" involved in censorship? Or were you just singling her out? And why did you not also remove what True Believer said? I see no difference between the two comments.

Thank you,Pat Reoughtact .

Can the insensitve athiests stop claiming they're God. No one's falling for it. Now I agree Bush, both of them were cowards, there are more important things in life than a carrer. This is how the Houlocuast happened. People refused to stop it, Bush had the chance to make a stand for all human life and he didn't do it and now we've lost an innocent women to partisan squalbling. Both Bush's had the legal authority to call in the national gaurd and give Terri water and food. I want an answer from all of those who wanted Terri to die: Now I see where your comming from there was a low chance of her comming back, But there WAS a chance, and even if there wasn't how is it humane to starve her? I can see having a respirator turrned off or having life support stopped but all Terri was getting was food, everything else she could allegedly do herself. To those who wanted her saved: Tale comfort in the fact that she is heaven now.

Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

Hey MAW we gotta take that clock in for repairs!

Adagio -- my apologies!!! I meant "I did not see anything INapproproate". I probably was typing too fast.-- MM

Pat -- I had nothing to do with Adagio's statement being removed, and I totally disagree with whoever did it. The typo is my responsibility, I should be more careful about my editing so I don't post the opposite of what I intend to say by missing a couple of letters like I did in my previous post. But I would never report a comment as inappropriate just because I don't agree with it. Sorry for the misunderstanding. To Big G, I believe Bush did have the power of executive order, and obviously he failed to use it. Just like the Repubs in Congress could limit the power of the courts, but they do not.-- MM

MM...ok..:D I make enough typos myself.

saw it all play out. google for the Impeach Judge Greer links. Jeb Bush is considering impeaching Judge Greer. The Petition lays out the violations of the law that J. Greer made before, during and even after Terri was murdered via state sponsored homicide.

(ABC3O) You inspired quite a bit of commentary here, Michael. I've quite a bit of thought on the subject matter, but not the hours it would take to type it all out... I will say though that after this case I made it perfectly clear to all what my wishes are should I wind up as Terri did.

(ABC3) The problem with topical parodies is that they lose...topicality. It's a shame, but I couldn't understand the subject matter of the parody until I read the comments underneath. For what it's worth, this was a very well-done parody, keeping the meters and rhyme schemes intact.

as agrimofee said and thanks to god for making an appearance i still don't believe though.nicely written parody(thats what we are here for isn't it ?)555

(ABC3O) Agri's lucky he unerstood the comments. I just got lost, period.

(ABC3-O) wow - don't understand it, or recall the controversy, although when ISN'T Jeb controversial? - but kudos for inspiring such an action-packed thread - and the pacing and ideas seemed to fit the OS beautifully - 555

ABC3 - Once again, thine Charnstar hast been lost among yonder political jazz...

I agree with Stuart, sorry, but I don't recall this at all

(ABC3O) I concur with Agri's point about topicality, Michael...and not being American, I was totally lost in the detail of this...but I can still see how very well written it is, and for that alone it deserves the full ballot. 555

Im with Matthuias and Stu, but this stillw as good 5s

(ABC) Heavy-duty indeed.