Jonah Goldberg weighs in on the Veterans’ Administration’s Necronomicon Ex-Mortis:
I just watched Tammy Duckworth try her best to defend the V.A. "death book" on Fox News Sunday. The Iraq War veteran was severely wounded as an army aviator, losing both her legs, and is currently an assistant secretary at the V.A. The administration sent her out to defend the book and to push back against Jim Towey, who first raised the issue. While she admirably held her own, her talking points were often very, very lame (she kept insinuating that Towey’s bitter his $5 book isn’t free of charge to vets). The upshot was she defended this irretrievably gross book on the merits and attacked the messenger to boot.
Here is reality weighing in, once again, on how wrong Jonah Goldberg is:
On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace repeatedly cropped quotes from a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) document to falsely suggest that the Obama administration is pressuring veterans to end their lives prematurely and to accuse Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth of lying about it. In fact, contrary to Wallace’s false assertions, the document he referred to does not require doctors to direct veterans to what conservatives have labeled the "Death Book for Veterans."
Here is a vet weighing in on Jonah’s "messenger", Jim Towey:
Really, if the document was really trying to get veterans to pull the plug on themselves, then first suggesting to them that their life should be prolonged at all costs is a pretty stupid way to do it.
In light of the absolutely ridiculous argument Towey makes in his op-ed, I’d like to point out something Towey isn’t telling you. In 1996, Towey founded an organization known as "Aging with Dignity" which still exists today. The following year, Aging with Dignity released a document titled "Five Wishes". Five wishes is the same type of document as the VA’s "Your Life, Your Choices", only 41 pages shorter and not legally sound as a living will in 10 states. That’s right. All you need, according to Jim Towey, to make your end of life decisions is five questions and twelve pages, because wrestling over end of life shouldn’t take up more than two minutes of your time. That is, if you are lucky enough to live in one of the 40 states in which it is acceptable.
Here is something else that Jim Towey isn’t telling you: He wants to kill the "Your Life, Your Choices" pamphlet because he has been trying to sell his own "Five Questions" document to the VA for use in VHA medical centers:
Here is a suggestion for Jonah Goldberg that is shorter than Towey’s book and $5 cheaper:






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Did he really say “very, very lame” about a woman WHO LOST HER LEGS??? Wotta jerk.
It’s people like Jonah and his fellow travelers that have rendered the good ol’ medical concept of ‘brain dead’ completely unsuitable in determining health status…
You flatter Jonah a little to suppose that he has that much control over the English language. Most likely it sailed right over his head.
Ya know…
…late on a Sunday night, after one too many vodka tonics, I read some of the utter nonsense that Lucianne’s aborted abortion calls insight and I just wish I could meet this douchebag on a quiet, dark street one night.
I know, I know; violence isn’t the answer, we have better ideas, he’s a victim of nepotism, kum-bye-frickin-ah and so forth…
But sweet Jesus, it would be oh so satisfying to introduce his fat, dumb-ass face to my open hand.
Oh forget it. I’m going to bed. I’m sure I’ll regret this in the morning.
Gee, before the flip I was sure your shorter was GFY
hey, how did his right-wing meet-up in Atlanta go?
Jonah Goldberg once again proving that conservatives create their own reality. In medical parlance, people who do that are called psychotics.
Is it me or does that photograph smell faintly of Scotch egg?
Not the picture I wanted to see when I hopped onto the site this morning. Then again, I NEVER want to see any of the rightwingnutters out in full force. What a vile, repulsive, little man–emphasis on little. Jonah, I have a deal to make with you. When you go fight in the war against terror and get both legs blown off, then you can comment on veteran affairs in a total dipshit kind of way. Until that time, STFU.
Mebbe Jonah is saving himself for the great untold story of why we have more contractors – private mercenaries, paid more than our volunteer army and with better benefits – than we have actual enlisted soldiers in the field. Or mebbe he’s working the story on how many non US citizens are in the volunteer army?
Mebbe not.
Jonah, in his way, is a bit of a miracle: a stopped clock that isn’t even right once a day.
Jonah, you tub of goo, go fug yourself.
OMG, what happened to his face?
Irretrievably Gross…uh, yes…unshaven, unkempt hair, loosened tie and jacket with jeans. I’m glad I can’t see what is on his feet. Or his feet. And yet, all of that would be acceptable if he were a funny, intellectual, caring human being.
But sadly, he is just another one of the offspring who saw no need to study, think or examine life because they knew there was a free ride awaiting them.
How sad to go through life so numb and dumb. How sad for the rest of us that numb and dumb gets the big bucks and the rest of us bang our heads against the wall for free.
He’s just trying to prove you CAN go through life fat and stupid.
I’m late to this “party”, but the fact that Jonah the Yellow Elephant is not too embarrassed to take on Duckworth – it goes beyond saying that words fail. What a burden for his offspring.