Delay Pulled the Plug in His Own Past

Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Elliot arrived yesterday to spend Spring Break here in SF. Apparently, Fort Lauderdale was all booked up. The bonus for them is that they get some quality time with Maya. The bonuses for us include having the extra hands to take Maya at any given moment, the inevitable fine dining we'll get to experience, and the chance to get out of the apartment often to return more fully to our daily urban lives. Nanna and Poppy (their chosen and verified Grandparental nicknames) feel as though Maya's grown considerably since they saw her last, which we concer upon but appreciate having verfied. Last night Maya slept for 6 hours before waking up for her 3am feeding. She loves being out in the stroller. Her colon operates like a well-oiled factory staffed by kind and attentive robots. Her grunting has taken on an almost operatic character, running the gamut of emotions like a scat-singing diva (pun intended). In short, we've had a very good week and Maya's four-week Birthday on this Easter Sunday looks sunny and promising.

The LATimes published a piece this morning that adds extra personal insult to the injurious posturing Tom Delay offered up in the Terri Schiavo case. Surprisingly, Delay's own father had to be taken off life support by his family back in 1988 after a terrible injury using some sort of hillbilly dumbwaiter he'd built on the family's lakefront property. The hypocrisy is never admitted to by Delay's people, but the report includes an amazing interview with Delay's mother who's living in a nursing home in Houston. Add in the fact that Delay's family also filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of some of the parts used in this hideous-sounding contraption and you've got yet another reason why The Hammer's one of the most hypocritical weasels in Washington. Couple that with the medical text ("Transplant") written by Bill Frist wherein he calls for removing life support from anencephalic babies and the harvesting of their organs and you've got some necessary backstory to understand just how contrived and contradictory their full-throated "culture of life" arguments truly are.

Great, GREAT Tourney games yesterday. The Illini came back from 15 points down with 4:04 remaining and eight with 1:03 left in regulation to beat a stunned Arizona in overtime 90-89. Personally, I was more crushed by West Virginia losing to an equally resilient Louisville in overtime - those Mountaineers and the home-state pride shown in their big-eared darling, Kevin Pittsnogle, won me over just in time to rip my heart out. Big time fun to look forward to in the Wisconsin-North Carolina match-up today. I don't care nearly as much about Kentucky-Michigan State. But the chance of having three Big 10 teams in the Final Four might quiet some of those nay-sayers that get their annual "they're collectively overrated" swerve on. Once we find all our eggs here, you can bet I'll be watching. This truly is the best sporting event of the year. And all credit due to the Women's Tourney, as well. Da Gopher Ladies lost to Baylor last night, but there's still some great ball to be seen on that side of the gender breakdown.

Maya's grunting her way to a crescendo. Must be a large poop on the way. Or maybe she's just gearing up for "Meet the Press." Yet another of Tim Russert's "wassup wit Faith in America?" guilt-fests on deck for today. He's just about the most Catholic guy in the public eye these days. What with the Pope out of commission and all.