Anyways, a guy noticed our bumper sticker and asked "Is that the stem cell thing?"
"Yes it is," I replied.
"I don't know what to think of that," said the guy. "Is that a Democrat thing or a Republican thing? 'Cause I'm really a moderate Democrat. Are you a Democrat or a Republican?"
"I'm none of the above," I responded, sensing that is was inexpedient to explain the virtues of monarchy.
"Well, which is it? The Republicans are against it, aren't they?"
"There are a lot of rich Republicans who want cloning because they think they can make more money off it. Really, it's a question of life, not political parties. People are on both sides in both parties," I answered, it an atypical burst of mental agility.
"Well, I don't know what to think. There are a lot of things out there like diabetes and cancer that could be cured," said the guy.
"Well, first of all, that's a lie, too. What they propose hasn't cured anything. There are stem cell cures, but they come from adult stem cells. What this is about is creating and killing other human beings for experiments," I say, with Mrs. Curmudgeon, not visible to the guy, raising her eyebrows.
"Well, I don't like that; I'm against abortion. But I'd never tell a woman she couldn't have one. That's her own business, between her and God."
"Well, you're mistaken....." Had he not been walking away, and had my mental wheels been turning quicker, and had the Littlest Curmudgeon within arm's reach, I'd have asked the guy if it would just be between me and God if I killed Littlest.
But I missed my chance.
And it's a pity, too. I guess I don't have enought day-to-day contact with many fellows of the non-Catholic Joe-Six-Pack variety. I lose track of the way they think in short, network-news-informed bursts. I forget how easy it is to manipulate their TV-addled minds. Here was a guy, who (if you could keep him focused on one line of thought for more than 30 seconds without fancy moving graphics) could be convinced of the wickedness of Jim Stowers' scheme, and could probably also be convinced that abortion is a societal evil instead of a private matter, to boot.
I have to give credit to whatever attorney came up with the idea of duping every Joe Six Pack in the state of Missouri with the dirty lawyer's trick of redefining the term "clone" to use it in the opposite sense, in their legislation, of what it means in real life. I would have thought there'd be something unethical in doing such a thing. There are consumer protection and truth in advertising laws for buying and selling stuff, aren't there? Why don't they have the same sort of thing here in a plebiscite? Anyways, the lawyers and the public relations shills and their evil friends apparently have their fingers on the pulse of the TV-addled, run-of-the-mill Missouri voter in a way that me and my friends simply don't. I would never have thought people so gullible; it never would have occurred to me to run a constitutional amendment through the system with such a bold-faced lie. But it's happening, and there's a good chance they'll get away with it. My guy in the parking lot is a perfect illustration of their success.
Where do you get your information from? What exactly did they try to cure, who did the experiments and if they, who ever they are, did not do the experiments, who did or did not? I acknowledge your opinion, but am mystified by your lack of facts.
ReplyDeleteWell first of all, the Internet is a terrible source to get facts since any schmuck with a computer and some HTML knowlege can put up an impressive looking site and lie through their teeth. But, in things I've read (newspapers, magaizines), there has not been one case of cures being provided by embronic stem cells.They are too unpredictiable and cause tumors more often than not. The reseach thus far has been a failure. And Crummy's right, the proponets of this are trying to use weasle words to mislead the voters. Hopefully they don't get away with it. It's dangerous and very scummy.
ReplyDeleteChumly,
ReplyDeleteAgreeing with Crummy's Mom, the Internet is not a good source of facts. However, there are public organizations which say that Adult Stem Cell treatment has sucesfully treated 72 different illnesses. Embryonic Stem Cells have not be sucessfully at treating any diseases.
Hence, while all of the advertising and campaigning shows children and smiling people, they still use words like "may" and "could" in front of their claims that killing people will help treat disease.
And even if their claims were right, we'd just be turning a physical malady into a social disease. Sounds like a great solution!
One source of that number above:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stemcellresearch.org/facts/treatments.htm
Here's a quote from a Time.com article followed by link to the full article. It's a few years old.
ReplyDelete"The first major hurdle is that while embryonic stem cells can develop into just about any type of tissue, scientists have little control over which one. Both the insulin-producing cells and heart cells, for example, came about by spontaneous differentiation. Scientists had to let the cells grow on their own, then pick out the ones they wanted."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,170824-2,00.html
Thanks Ian, and thanks Mom (who knew?). I've been occupied with domestic and commercial chores today, but I just emailed one of my friends (who assembled the adult stem cell therapy information in convenient, persuasive form) to email it to me.
ReplyDeleteI agree, of course, with Ian (and even Mom) that you don't want to rely on some guy who knows HTML and does a fancy website, but is Time magazine a reliable source? Doesn't Ted Turner own it, or a lot of it? I suppose it is reliable on this issue, because you know they'd loathe to say anything negative about a pro-death cause, unless it simply couldn't be avoided.
Ted sold everything several years ago. It's now owned by the big moster corp. known as Time Warner. I think he still sits on the board but has no real power. There were rumors a year or two ago that he wanted to require many of his assets (such as his beloved Atlanta Braves) but nothing ever came about that.
ReplyDeleteIs it someone at the Polsinelli law firm?
ReplyDeleteThis is an article from June, but it tells an interesting story. Would like to see it updated:
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/06/26/story1.html?page=1
"Ten law firms in Missouri, Chicago and elsewhere have received at least $745,000 total for work on the coalition's behalf. The Kansas City office of Polsinelli Shalton Welte Suelthaus PC topped the list, taking in $339,000 through May 17. The firm also performed pro bono work on the initiative's behalf. Husch & Eppenberger LLC in St. Louis received the second-largest amount for legal work, $152,000. "
Here's a very conservative list of the therapies and cures derived from adult stem cells:
ReplyDelete1. Brain Cancer
2. Retinoblastoma
3. Ovarian Cancer
4. Merkel Cell Cancer
5. Testicular Cancer
6. Lymphoma
7. Acute Lymphobolastic Leukemia
8. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia
9. Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
10. Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia
11. Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy with Dysproteinemia
12. Multiple Myeloma
13. Myelodysplasia
14. Breast Cancer
15. Neuroblastoma
16. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
17. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
18. Renal Cell Carcinoma
19. Various Solid Tumors
20. Soft Tissue Sarcoma
21. Scleromyxedema
22. Multiple Sclerosis
23. Crohn’s Disease
24. Rheumatoid Arthritis
25. Juvenile Arthritis
26. Systemic Lupus
27. Polychondritis
28. Systemic Vasculitis
29. Sjogren’s Syndrome
30. Behcet’s Disease
31. Myasthenia
32. Red Cell Aplasia
33. Autoimmune Cytopenia
34. X-Linked Lymphoproliferative Syndrome
35. X-Linked Hyperimmunoglobuline-M Syndrome
36. Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome-X1
37. Sickle Cell Anemia
38. Sideroblastic Anemia
39. Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia
40. Aplastic Anemia
41. Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia
42. Chronic Epstein-Barr Infection
43. Fanconi’s Anemia
44. Diamond Blackfan Anemia
45. Thalassemia
46. Stroke
47. Osteogenesis Imperfecta
48. Sandhoff Disease
49. Corneal Regeneration
50. Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis
51. Primary Amyloidosis
52. Limb Gangrene
53. Surface Wound Healing
54. Heart Damage
55. Parkinson’s Disease
56. Spinal Cord Injury
plus many more
"Is that a Democrat thing or a Republican thing? 'Cause I'm really a moderate Democrat. Are you a Democrat or a Republican?"
ReplyDeleteMaybe the correct response here is, "Really, the elite of both parties support it, so you can be sure it is evil."