Via
Atrios, I saw that Congressman Dave Weldon (R-FL)
wrote a letter to the newspaper Florida Today, taking issue with some statements the paper had made in an
editorial on the Schiavo matter. What did Weldon have to say?
Did the editors interview registered nurse Carla Iyer, who personally treated Terri for a year and a half?
She said in a sworn court affidavit that Terri "was alert and oriented. Terri spoke on a regular basis saying things like 'mommy' and 'help me" and 'hi' when I came into her room."
Iyer says Terri would sit up in the nurse's station from time to time and laugh at stories they told. She felt pain and would indicate so. Carla fed her by mouth and not by tube. Does this sound like a woman in persistent vegetative state for the past 15 years? (Emphasis added.)
I was pretty dumbfounded to read this. I mean, I know that Republican mendacity knows no bounds, but this - like Tom DeLay's absurd lie that Terri Schiavo "laughs and talks" - just really has my head spinning.
Florida judge George Greer, one of the main judges in the Schiavo matter, called Iyer's affidavit "incredible," elaborating as follows:
Ms. Iyer details what amounts to a 15-month cover-up which would include the staff of Palm Garden of Lago Convalescent Center, the Guardian of the Person, the Guardian ad Litem, the medical professionals, the police and, believe it or not, Mr. and Mrs. Schindler. Her affidavit clearly states that she would "call them (Mr. and Mrs. Schindler) anyway because I thought they should know about their daughter." ... It is impossible to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Schindler would not have subpoenaed Ms. Iyer for the January 2000 evidentiary hearing had she contacted them as her affidavit alleges. (Emphasis added.)
While we here in the reality-based community sadly shake our heads at Iyer's obvious fictions, fools like Weldon (and conservatarian bloggers - just Google "Carla Iyer" and you'll see what I mean) parrot her lies. It's only the latest - but to me, most glaring - example of the right wing living in a truly alternate universe.
So my question (aimed especially at students of human psychology, but of course open to all) is this: What happens to these people when their carefully-constructed yet utterly false world collides with reality? What happens when the cognitive dissonance - the gap between what you believe and what is real - becomes simply too great to bear? Perhaps these walls will never come crashing down, but I believe they will, some day. So again I ask, what happens then?