resident Bush vetoed a stem cell bill, again. He said, “If this legislation became law, it would compel American taxpayers, for the first time in our history, to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos. I will not allow our nation to cross this moral line.” This is the second time he’s vetoed a stem cell bill.
     We do have some alternatives to embryonic stem cells, but quite frankly, using them is a long ways off, yet, and they’re just not as good as the real thing. There are hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos going to waste in the US, which could be used to provide thousands of new lines of stem cells. The real moral problem here is not that we might “destroy new human lives” by using these embryos, but that we aren’t taking advantage of these unused cells to save human lives. It’s ridiculous that we allow people to suffer and die of disease because a certain sect of people have built up a cult-belief around human embryos.
     It continues to baffle me that we don’t put more of our time, energy, and money into improving the world, and helping people. We have the knowledge to fight diseases, and we’re stopped from using it. We have the knowledge to stop global warming, and (at least, mostly) replace petroleum as a fuel source, and we just don’t. We don’t even bother to find working solutions to some of our social problems. I just don’t fucking get it. We have, in our hands, the ability to save ourselves, and we don’t do it. It’s like tossing a drowning man a life preserver, and having the guy go, “Eh, fuck it, I’ll just drown.” It just blows my mind.
     Today, by way of example, is World Refugee Day. From the article: “People are… fleeing war and persecution. Even when we have plenty of early warning, the international community has repeatedly failed to prevent conflicts. Instead, agencies like mine are left to deal with the human consequences,” Antonio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said in a press release. “Prevention is possible, more effective and cheaper. But it requires wisdom, political and diplomatic effort and an investment in eliminating the root causes, including the social and economic ones.” We could be preventing this before it becomes a problem, but we don’t. Apparently because, as far as I can tell, the world is chock-full of lazy, stupid, assholes. Great.
     Speaking of stupid, the Catholic church continues to assist us in our desperate time of need by using its mighty power and influence to put out a trite and banal list of “commandments” against road rage. Thanks, guys. That was helpful.
     Meanwhile, getting off the topic of how stupid and self-destructive the human race is before I start feeling the need to develop a drinking problem, we discover that I am part of a vast, left-wing conspiracy. (What I want to know is why the hell I haven’t been getting my newsletters? Is there a place where I have to sign up for that? ) Apparently, according to the (usually) fine people over at Crooks&Liars, a certain group of reporters have their panties in a knot over liberal bloggers, claiming that our progressive cooties are getting all over some candidates and politicians, and infecting them with good ideas, or something.
     Oh, and check this out. Oddly enough, the Preznit is using signing statements to break the law. Here’s another great article about the President’s signing statements. Basically, what’s going on is that Congress is passing a bill which might say something like, “No more kidnapping people to foreign countries and torturing them, Preznit Fucko, okay?” which President Bush then agrees with and signs into law. And adds a “signing statement” to. Which might, or might not, read something like, “Neener neener! I’ll do what I want cuz I are President!” and may, or may not, be in crayon. (Just sayin’.)
     Here’s a local issue (via StupidEvilBastard.com, which is my favorite name EVAR for a website): Ticket Taxes. Basically, Michigan is going broke, and one of the ways our brilliant governor wants to solve the problem is by adding another luxury tax. Les suggests an alternative, a “salvation tax” on churches. I’m all for it.
     And finally, because everyone else is doing it:

Mingle² - Online Dating

     (Picture credit: OrionBioSolutions.com. Pretty, isn’t it?)

Playing the Popularity Game:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 9:40 pm and is filed under Controversies, Medicine, Politics, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.