Hypocrisy: the bitter pill

It really feels unplesant to come across information like this. You might've heard about the incident where a ten-year old boy was arrested for trying to cross the Schiavo protest lines with a bottle of water. What a dramatic statement. Just the sort of thing that gets right-wing activists all fired up about "jack-booted thugs." He's become something of a poster boy for Fox News, naturally. Never mind the fact that, had the kid succeeded in his mission, Schiavo would have drowned. She's incapable of swallowing.

But, as usual, it turns out that the story isn't that simple. No, it's much uglier. The boy, Joshua Heldreth, is the son of one Scott Heldreth. And while Heldreth the elder might be a proud crusader these days, he doesn't have the sort of history you expect from right-wing Christian activists. Or maybe he does, and that's the problem.

How did Scott Heldreth come to join the front lines of reactionary fundamentalism? He had a conversion while in prison, doing time for two counts of raping a minor. And now he's a follower of Randall Terry, supporter of Schiavo's "right to life" and founder of anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, whose members have (among other things) stolen fetuses from abortion clinics in order to hurl them at clients, and killed a doctor who performs abortions.

Yep, these are your "culture of life" warriors, and Bush's most ardent supporters (aside from robber barons like Ken Lay, that is). How about this moniker: The Coalition of the Chilling.