This was a little too close. The airplane part landed not very far from an intersection I drive through regularly.

FAA Probes Loss of Part from DC-10 during flight.

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Blogging might be light and/or sporadic this week as my father is going into the hospital for a couple of heart procedures. The risk appears to be relatively low and we are confident in an excellent outcome.

I’ll be crossing a couple of states in order to be there with my family, however, and the travel and the opportunity to enjoy having the whole family together will push blogging down on the “to do” list.

I do have a few items queued up, however, that I might be able to get to if I find myself with time on my hands, and friends and family interested in following my father’s condition can check here for updates (as long as I’m not violating any HIPAA regulations, that is).

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According to this article from World Net Daily, Mae Magouirk has been transferred from a hospice to the University of Alabama-Birmingham hospital where “she is receiving food, fluids, cardiac care and neurological help.” (See earlier post for more about this story.)

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Shot in the Dark and Bogus Gold have posts today about another feeding tube that’s been pulled. If that sounds familiar – please note that the woman in this case, 81-year-old Mae Magouirk, is not considered terminal, is not in a persistent vegetative state or comatose, AND has a living will that says she does not want to be starved and dehydrated if she is not in such a condition.

85 year-old Mae Magourik (note: I’ve confirmed through other sources that the correct spelling of the last name is Magouirk. NW) of LaGrange, Georgia, is currently being deprived of nutrition and hydration at the request of her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy. Mrs. Margourik suffered an aortic dissection 2 weeks ago and was hospitalized. Though her doctors have said that she is not terminally ill, Ms. Gaddy declared that she held medical power of attorney for Mae, and had her transferred to the LaGrange Hospice. Later investigation revealed that Ms. Gaddy did not in fact have such power of attorney. Furthermore, Mae’s Living Will provides that nutrition and hydration are to be withheld only if she is comatose or vegetative. Mae is in neither condition. Neither is her condition terminal.


Furthermore, under Georgia law, if there is no power of attorney specifying a health care decisionmaker, such authority is given to the closest living relatives. Mae’s brother, A. B. McLeod, and sister, Lonnie Ruth Mullinax, are both still alive and capable of making such decisions. They opposed Mae’s transfer to hospice, and are fighting to save her life. But in spite of the lack of a power of attorney, and the fact that there are closer living relatives who should be given precedence by Georgia law, Ms. Gaddy sought an emergency appointment as guardian from the local probate court. The probate judge, Donald Boyd (who, I am told, is not an attorney and does not have a law degree), granted Gaddy’s request, thereby giving her the power to starve and dehydrate Margourik to death, though such an action is contrary to the provisions of the living will.

By the way, the thought crossed my mind that this might be a kind of urban legend “leaked” to get the blogosphere stoked in an effort to discredit blogging. I checked back through the many threads in different blogs on this story and found most of it was one blog repeating what another blog said (like what I did with Shot in the Dark and Bogus Gold). Since the case takes place in Georgia, I looked up the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and didn’t find any mention of the story. The April 8 issue of the LaGrange News – the local newspaper in the city where Mae Magouirk’s hospice is located – does feature the following (read the entire story):

Woman, 81, at center of feeding tube feud
Kenneth Mullinax, the patient’s nephew in Birmingham, Ala., said a hospice nurse told him that Magouirk had not received substantial nourishment since March 28. He wants a temporary feeding tube inserted until she can be evaluated for treatment at the University of Alabama Medical Center. A living will states that nourishment should be withheld only if she were in a coma or vegetative state with no hope of recovery.


Mullinax and the patient’s brother and sister – Lonnie Ruth Mullinax of Birmingham and A.B. McLeod of Anniston, Ala. – came here last Friday to arrange for a feeding tube and take her to the Birmingham hospital. That same day Gaddy received emergency guardianship in Troup County Probate Court.


At a follow-up hearing Monday, the parties reached a settlement that awarded guardianship to Gaddy provided three cardiologists – James Brennan and Thomas Gore, both of LaGrange, and Raed Aquel of Birmingham – evaluate the patient, who would receive whatever treatment two of the three recommended. A final decision had not yet been reached.


“They were all hugging necks when they left court,” said Probate Judge Donald Boyd. “I don’t know what happened.”


Boyd said Gaddy testified at the hearing that she feeds her grandmother Jello, chips of ice and “anything else she’d be willing to eat”


“I think all of Mrs. Magouirk’s family has her genuine best interests at heart, but unfortunately they disagree on what they believe would be best for her,” said Jack Kirby of LaGrange, attorney for the patient’s brother and sister.


“She (Gaddy) said, ‘I think it’s time she (her grandmother) goes home to Jesus, that’s she’s too sick and would not have a good quality of life,” Kenneth Mullinax said.

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My wife is very efficient and detail-oriented. In our home we have a metal, 2-drawer filing cabinet, one whole drawer of which holds manila folders containing medical and other personal records for everyone in the family, titles and maintenance records for our vehicles, product instruction manuals and warranties and other valuable documents that have saved our butts many times. It’s amazing how much she has managed to fit into that drawer for the benefit of four lives.

According to this article by Deroy Murdock in National Review, however, my wife is more wasteful than the federal government, which somehow keeps the entire Social Security Trust Fund for generations of Americans stored in the locked bottom drawer of a gray filing cabinet in…Fort Knox? No, Parkersburg, West Virginia.

That drawer, inside an office of the U.S. Bureau of Public Debt, contains $1.76 trillion worth of special-issue U.S. Treasury bonds. Each of these, 225 pieces of paper in all, is contained in one of two white, loose-leaf notebooks that hold plastic page covers. Despite the protective plastic, these certificates have no more financial value than the ink with which they are printed.

Well, at least the drawer is locked. And the plastic page covers are a nice touch. I’d feel better, however, if there were also a sign outside the office that reads “Beware of the Leopard!”

“The paper is symbolic,” Bureau of Public Debt spokesman Pete Hollenbach explained in a February 26 Associated Press dispatch. As a 2004 Congressional Budget Office report observed, the trust fund is an “accounting mechanism” with “no economic resources.”

Well, our money is purely symbolic, too, right? Certainly there must be some assets out there accumulating on our behalf…right?

The key reason these notes have no value is that the money that should be behind them — the excess payroll taxes not devoted to today’s retirees — instead gets spent by Congress on everything from farm subsidies to national parks to armored Humvees.

In fiscal year 2004, Cato Institute scholar Michael Tanner reports, the Treasury collected $570.7 billion in payroll taxes and credited Social Security with $89 billion in interest. Social Security recipients received $501.6 billion in benefits. This $158.1 billion balance — which could have funded personal-retirement accounts — instead flowed into general revenues. Congress spent that amount no differently than income-tax proceeds. In corporate America, this misallocation of funds is punishable by law. In Washington, it’s the law.

I think this is a great approach and obviously a real space-saver. I think we as citizens should do the same. Instead of paying Social Security taxes with real money, we simply give the government I.O.U.s and tell them to call us when it needs the money. Oh, wait…I think that’s what we’ve already done.

(HT: Amy Ridenour).

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Over the last several weeks you may or may not have been following the Minuteman Projects story about citizen volunteers preparing to patrol the Arizona-Mexico border. If you’ve been following the story only through the mainstream media (somehow this phrase always makes me think of the natural effects of a college kegger) then you might picture this group as Bubbas in a pick-up trucks hauling long ropes.

If so then you need to read this first person account of the first weekend’s action by a flying “Bubba” that was posted by LaShawn Barber today.

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Bogus Gold recommended this post today about whether one man (or woman for that matter) can make a difference. I read the essay and was so taken with it that I went on to read many more offerings by the same blogger. As a result, Varifrank has been added to the Night Lights blogroll. A meager honor, to be sure, but all I can bestow. Aside from this, perhaps:



Varifrank offers exquisite writing of such skill and scope that it would have discouraged me from ever typing again – if it hadn’t also inspired me to elevate my own game. In simpler words, this is really good stuff. Go read it.

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I spent too much time reading other blogs this evening and checking for updates on Terri Schiavo’s case and while I feel very well informed, I’m in a mood where I might write some things I’ll regret. Instead, allow me to point you toward a couple of blogs that I think might still make you glad you visited here today.

I’m making an effort not to focus on one or two issues over and over in this big, wide world, but here are some good takes on topics that have already been discussed here a couple of times. First – and try to keep your eyes from glazing over at least until the end of this paragraph – Social Security. The Policy Guy has a series of short (2-3 paragraphs each) posts that each outline a different issue facing Social Security. Taken as a whole or bit by bit these provide a pretty painless way to get up to speed on this topic. Then if these posts whet your appetite for meatier fare and a rollicking debate check out the following post from Jay Reding and the series of related comments that follow here. You might also check out his post here where he describes individual account retirement plans that are already successful in the U.S.

I always look forward to my daily visit to The Bleat by James Lileks for his off-hand but thoughtful style and humor. He didn’t let me down today with his own take on the Terri Schiavo case (read it here). And while it is very difficult to find much humor in this topic, Sisyphus at Nihilist in Golfpants has a risky but bracing look at the absurdities of the situation with his “Top 11 Reasons to Kill Terri Schiavo.”

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Last month the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that the world’s richest countries, including the U.S., had agreed to pursue a 100% write-off of $70 billion of debt owed by the poorest countries to institutions such as the World Bank. The undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury said this 100% write-off is something the Bush administration has supported for some time.



About $800 million came from money the U.S. contributed in 1996. The question all this raised in my mind wasn’t whether we were robbed, or if it was right to forgive the debt, but rather why the U.S. made such a loan in the first place.



The Preamble to the Constitution, states “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure Blessing…” In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution states, “The congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.” Now, the difference between “promoting” and “providing” for the general welfare is a topic for another day, but one thing is clear: the welfare the government is supposed to be concerned about is that of the United States. That does not mean that citizens of the U.S. can’t, or shouldn’t, contribute to the welfare of those outside our borders – only that it is beyond the government’s authority to use tax dollars to do so, whether it’s the World Bank, the International Red Cross or even tsunami relief.

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The StarTribune had this article in today’s edition, headline: “Local Officials Blogging for Readers”. It’s about local government entities (no, not the NARN) using blogs.

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