I heard Bush on the news this morning, using terms like murder and destruction of life, when talking about stem cell research. Does he even understand what those terms mean?
It got me to thinking about the many inconsistencies in his policies of “life”. As I’ve said before, I don’t understand how anyone can keep a straight face while calling this president “pro-life” as his policies across the spectrum are some of the most anti-life I’ve seen since.
But even if we narrow the focus just to pregnancy and embroys and fetal life, there is still incredible hypocrisy. Why is it okay to create these embryos, and then leave them frozen until they lose viability, but not to use these embryos for research that may save countless lives?
If destroying embroys is wrong, then why is creating more embryos than can be implanted okay?
If the life in these embroys is so precious, then why are they allowed to sit in freezers?
It seems to me that the problem is not the destruction of embryos for stem cell research, but the creation of embryos that will be abandoned. If it’s wrong to take an embryo and use it to develop a treatment to save lives, then it is also wrong to take an embryo and leave it in cold storage until it is no longer viable.
If embryonic life is so valuable, then should we not place a moratorium upon creating it through artificial means because of the extra embryos created and then abandoned?
I find it unlikely, however, that Bush will come out in favor of such a policy. Fertility treatment is big business–and available only to the rich.
Happy Armed Forces Day. Though I’m not sure that Happy is quite the right term.
1607 soldiers have died in Iraq. 12,348 have been wounded in Iraq (according to the DOD). 180 soldiers have died in Afghanistan.
Baltimore Sun Digital memorial. View names by name, state, and in chronological order.
Digital Memorial for those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraq Coalition casualties.
Here’s a shocker. I’m not a Republican.
ADDENDUM the First: Check out what Teresa at Making Light has to say:
I already knew two reasons not to take it seriously: (1.) Greg Benford is one of its easiest-to-get results, but when Greg Benford took it, it told him he was Arthur C. Clarke;
(more…)
The Indiana House voted late Thursday to approve a bill mandating the historic (Daylight Savings) time change.
I hate Daylight Savings time. Hate it, hate it, hate it.
Indiana is moving in the wrong direction, they should be pushing the rest of is to get rod of daylight savings time, not joining the crowd!
Grrr….
So the big news today is that the GOP is going to try and “bully” Senator Byrd out of his seat in the next election.
And then there’s the Ku Klux Klan. Critics rarely pass on a chance to recall Byrd’s 1940s ties to the hate group. One columnist recently referred to him as ”the Imperial Wizard of the U.S. Senate.” Hostile bloggers call him ”Sheets.”
So Byrd has publicly apologized for actions taken more than 60 years ago, and publicly stated how he realized he had made a mistake, yet the GOP is going to insist that is the standard we should use to judge his character, while Bush took illegal drugs, drove drunk, skipped out on his guard duty, and has refused to even acknowledge his mistakes no less apologize for them, but we are not supposed to judge him upon those actions taken in the past. “What I’m going to tell people is that 20-30 years ago I made mistakes.”
I don’t get it. We’re supposed to forgive and forget every single mistake the Bush has made, both in office and out, yet at the same time we are to be outraged by actions that Byrd took 60 years ago and has since then publicly renounced?
I don’t think so.
Listen to the Fresh Air interview with Senator Byrd.
Coming in from all over the place, apparently our legislators have decided to make English the official language of West Virginia.
As my friend Del (a WV native) said:
I hope this means the natives will finally learn to speak it.
Score one for the forces of jingoism!
ADDENDUM the First According to the Charleston Gazette, this language amendment won’t cause problems in the state. Well, no. We don’t have a lot of non-English speakers here. But that really isn’t the point of the bill, is it? The point of the bill isn’t to save money by not having to write alternative language versions of state publications.
Two excellent articles in the NY Times on American soldiers.
The first is a photo essay on battlefield medicine and the care that those soldiers who are wounded in Iraq recieve. I strongly suggest that you take the time to view the pictures.
The second article is on how creditors are treating reservists who are being placed on active duty and shipped overseas.
Though statistics are scarce, court records and interviews with military and civilian lawyers suggest that Americans heading off to war are sometimes facing distracting and demoralizing demands from financial companies trying to collect on obligations that, by law, they cannot enforce.
The article discusses the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act:
The law, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, protects all active-duty military families from foreclosures, evictions and other financial consequences of military service. The Supreme Court has ruled that its provisions must “be liberally construed to protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take up the burdens of the nation.”
I have to wonder whether those who would evict the wife of a soldier serving in Iraq, or foreclose on the house of a reservist called to active duty are the same people driving around with the “Support Our Troops” magnets on their cars.
Anti-government protesters have overrun the presidential palace, the White House, in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek.
This is where my cousin spent his time in the Peace Corps, until he came home this fall.
I wonder whether he is surprised by the unrest.
Headline from today’s Charleston Gazette reads, “Capito vs. Byrd?”
I hope she goes for it. It’ll be the easiest way EVER to get her out of Congress!
Run Shelley! Run!
According to the radio, as of today, 5 March 2005, 1500 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
Baltimore Sun Digital memorial. View names by name, state, and in chronological order.
Digital Memorial for those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I’m not going to comment on this, only link to it and let you read for yourself.
So, apropros of nothing in one of Pericat‘s posts, I wondered whether countries other than Canada had flags with plants.
Belize has a tree, although it’s not the focal point
British Indian Ocean Territory has a tree, though I have no idea where they’re located
Lebanon has a nice tree in the center of their flag.
Norfolk Island also has a tree in the center of their flag.
So, from what I found, it looks like only Canada, Lebanon, and Norfolk Island have flags that feature plant matter. Of those three, I have to say that I think the flag of our great enemy to the North, Canada, is the most attractive.
I love the internet.
All flags in alphabetical order
Flags of the World
Secondly, I’m listening to The Splendid Table and she just had on Russian Anya Von Bremzen, to discuss blini, which are (I believe) a traditional Russian pancake, made from a sponge (no, not THAT type of sponge). What caught my fancy was something about traditional Russian blini made for Shrove Tuesday, and how Russian grandmothers would sneak their sponges out to the woods, to absorb th powers of the full moon.
Firstly, I was listening to the State of the State speech, followed by the Republican response. Can ANY West Virginian politicians speak normally? Everyone who spoke seemed to mumble or lisp or have some weird extra-strong accent.
