Stem cell vote set for Congress this week

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Stem cells will be at the top of the agenda for the U.S. Senate when it returns on Tuesday with supporters of the research hoping they can change the president’s mind on the issue and opponents hoping to have a say about their stand.

The Senate will consider two bills, one virtually identical to a bill vetoed by President George W. Bush last year that would have expanded and encouraged federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.

The other is a compromise measure worked out by Republicans Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Norm Coleman of Minnesota. It would encourage stem cell research on embryos that have naturally lost the ability to develop into fetuses, such as those that have died “naturally” during fertility treatments.

The compromise bill also would support the creation of a bank of stem cells taken from amniotic fluid and placentas — two recently discovered potential sources.

This bill replaces last year’s alternative sponsored by Kansas Republican Sam Brownback, which would ban human embryonic stem cell research and encourage research using other types of stem cells.

The House of Representatives passed a bill in January that would expand federal funding of stem cell research, which is now restricted by Bush to batches available as of August 2001. But the bill does not have enough supporters to override a second presidential veto.

Even when the Democrates are in power and some of this stuff has a chance to pass we still are doomed to fail thanks to Bush having the power to veto congress. I never liked that factor of our government, why one man should have the power to overrule the decision of a hundred.

But with every step we get closer, and maybe someday soon we will be able to  research and get the full benefit from the use of Stem Cells. Until then… we just have to hope that the next president will have a basic understanding of science that doesn’t come from the bible.

Source: Reuters

Storm in US over chocolate Jesus

A New York gallery has angered a US Catholic group with its decision to exhibit a milk chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ. The six-foot (1.8m) sculpture, entitled “My Sweet Lord”, depicts Jesus Christ naked on the cross.

Catholic League head Bill Donohue called it “one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever”.

The sculpture, by artist Cosimo Cavallaro, will be displayed from Monday at Manhattan’s Lab Gallery.

I think the best part is the people who are causing an uproar about this probably bashed the Muslim  community for getting in an uproar about the Mohammad cartoons.

I f someone can explain the next point to me, I’d be very glad:

The Catholic League, which describes itself as the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organisation, also criticised the timing of the exhibition.

“The fact that they chose Holy Week shows this is calculated, and the timing is deliberate,” Mr Donohue said.

He called for a boycott of the gallery and the hotel which houses it.

Why does there need to be a Catholic civil rights organization? More importantly why does there need to be more than one! I have a feeling they focus less on “Catholic civil rights” and more on preventing the religion from looking bad or from people “offending” it in anyway. The day a group with those goals can be called a civil rights organization is the day logic dies.

‘Overwhelming response’

The gallery’s creative director, Matt Semler, said the gallery was considering its options in the wake of angry e-mails and telephone calls.

“We’re obviously surprised by the overwhelming response and offence people have taken,” he said. “We are certainly in the process of trying to figure out what we’re going to do next.”

Mr Semler said the timing of the exhibition was coincidental.

Mr Cavallaro, the Canadian-born artist, is known for using food ingredients in his art, on one occasion painting a hotel room in mozzarella cheese.

He used 200 pounds (90 kg) of chocolate to make the sculpture which, unusually, depicts Jesus without a loincloth.

It sounds like an impressive piece of art, and something that would be breathtaking to see. Molding something that large out of chocolate is an awesome feat.

That is, unless you are catholic… then your civil rights have been violated.

Source: BBC News

Religious right launches rival to ‘un-American’ Wikipedia

DINOSAURS. They may not exist, but they’re just launched their own online encyclopaedia. Conservapedia claims to be ‘a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American.’ Rather than having anything as mundane as posting rules, Conservapedia has Commandments. The first Commandment is ‘ Everything you post must be true and verifiable.’ Strange that, I always thought it was ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’ But Conservapedia is ‘the encyclopedia you can trust’ – apart from knowing how to spell ‘encyclopaedia’, obviously – so I must be mistaken. Oooh, hang on, Commandment Five says that American spelling of words must be used. And as everyone knows, both Jesus and his dad were born in the USA.

Coming back to Conservapedia’s First Commandment, it will be interesting to see exactly how any reference to the Bible will be verified as fact. Obviously, as a new site, many subjects have yet to appear, or are in need of expansion. This is the full article on Iraq, for example:

A Middle-Eastern country, currently occupied by U.S. Troops.

We feel sure that all God-fearing INQUIRER readers will step up to the plate and fill in a few of these gaps for them. If you don’t, the turrists will have won.

Somehow, “we all expected it” just doesn’t make this sit well in my mind. The Conservatives have declared that, if they find it offensive they will counter it with something that their children can look at and gather unbiased, truth.

Let’s take a look at some of Conservapedia’s unbiased and honest encyclopedia , as we compare it to Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia on abortion, we’ll review the first paragraph of each article:

“An abortion is the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death. This can occur spontaneously as a miscarriage, or be artificially induced by chemical, surgical or other means. Commonly, “abortion” refers to an induced procedure at any point during pregnancy; medically, it is defined as miscarriage or induced termination before twenty weeks’ gestation, which is considered nonviable.”

And from Conservapedia:

“Abortion is the induced termination of a pregnancy. The father of medicine, Hippocrates, expressly prohibited abortion in his ethical Oath long before Christianity. Today abortion is a billion-dollar industry in the United States and Western Europe except for Ireland, Malta, Poland and Portugal, where it is generally illegal.”

As you can see, Conservapedia offers a much “safer” view on conservative principals. You notice, right away, that the first thing that Conservapedia does is go head right to Opinion, not facts.

Hippocrates says! Conservapedia points out, where the Wikipedia article states complete truth as to what Abortion is.

We have entered a brand new era! Wikiignorence!

Source: The inquirer 

Pope speaks out against designer babies

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Benedict on Saturday condemned genetic engineering and other scientific practices that allow people to select so-called “designer babies” by screening them for defects.

In a speech to the Pontifical Academy for Life, a Church body of experts, the Pope also attacked artificial insemination and the widespread use of medical tests that can detect diseases and inherited disorders in embryos.

“In developed countries, there is a growing interest for the most sophisticated biotechnological research to introduce subtle and extensive eugenics methods in the obsessive search for the ‘perfect child’,” the Pope said.

He said the right to life was increasingly under attack in the world, citing pressures to legalize abortion in Latin America, and euthanasia in the richest countries.

He also spoke out against civil unions as an alternative to marriage, his latest criticism of a bill approved this month by the Italian government granting rights to unwed and gay couples.

Turning that bill into law now appears a more remote possibility, as it was dropped from a government program submitted by Romano Prodi to his allies to allow him to stay on as prime minister and end the latest political crisis.

This kind of garbage is what stands in the way of human progress. It halted our progress during the middle ages (poor Galileo) and they are attempting to do the same in modern times.

Hopefully the ignorant masses won’t fall for it this time, but I have very little hope in humanity.

Source: Reuters

Atheists under attack in America

CNN runs a story on how Atheists are under attack in America, but during the discussion at the end of the show prove their point on a different level by having the panelists ruthlessly and hatefully attack people who lack faith in any higher power.

It is a sickening display and far worse than I’ve seen of any atheist, including myself who and I am admittedly a ruthless bastard, attack Christians or any religious group.

In the aftermath, Debbie Schlussel posts her response to the anger the segment generated on her blog.

It’s a sick look at the mind of a paranoid, heartless person consumed by the ignorance of her faith.

I’m surprised these atheists would be so obedient to a higher power that told them to e-mail me since, after all, the one thing they’re supposed to have in common is a lack of belief in a higher power. Well, no-one ever said atheists are consistent or immune from hypocrisy.

I don’t mind receiving the atheist hate mail, since I know that in a few years, many of these same people will either be Muslim extremists (redundant) or helping the country fall further in its fight against the creep of Islamic imposition on America . . . or both.

Look at famous atheists and what happened to them. Adam Gadahn a/k/a Azzam Al-Amriki–now a top Al-Qaeda video “personality”–was raised by his hippie Jewish father and equally bizarre gentile mother as an atheist. And look how he turned out. Ditto for hippie-spawn John Walker Lindh.

Those two people are enemies of America, and many of those who think like them are of equally weak mind. If you don’t believe in anything, you’ll fall for virtually nothing. That’s why Europe is so quickly turning Islamist–because atheism dominates and Christianity is rapidly dying there. Over there, the number one cause for which atheists are suddenly finding “god” is Islam.

Over here, as I pointed out on CNN, atheists are on the attack against religion and G-d only when Christians and Jews are involved, not when Muslims and Islam are. A Christian prayer at a public school graduation or football game? Send in the ACLU lawyers. A Muslim prayer at a high school football game in Dearbornistan? Suddenly, when the “Religion of Peace” is involved, atheists boast extreme tolerance and display ultimate deference. No lawsuits. Ever. And the Muslim prayers continue.

So to you hate-filled atheists a/k/a future Muslim extremists (redundant), your e-mails have no effect on me. Ditto for your creative obscenities which don’t impress upon me the civility of the atheo-fascisti set

It’s a sad day for this county.

Ancient boy’s skeleton sparks evolution debate …

Deep in the dusty, unlit corridors of Kenya’s national museum, locked away in a plain-looking cabinet, is one of mankind’s oldest relics: Turkana Boy, as he is known, the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric human ever found.

But his first public display later this year is at the heart of a growing storm — one pitting scientists against Kenya’s powerful and popular evangelical Christian movement. The debate over evolution vs. creationism — once largely confined to the United States — has arrived in a country known as the cradle of mankind.

Already this article comes off insulting because it implies that the United State’s second major export, after war, is ignorance. Although I can see that is some what grounded in fact, there are plenty of creationists who don’t live in the United States. But the next part is the best;

“I did not evolve from Turkana Boy or anything like it,” says Bishop Boniface Adoyo, head of Kenya’s 35 evangelical denominations, which he claims have 10 million followers. “These sorts of silly views are killing our faith.”

He’s calling on his flock to boycott the exhibition and has demanded the museum relegate the fossil collection to a back room — along with some kind of notice saying evolution is not a fact but merely one of a number of theories.

At least we now know that this kind of attack on science isn’t only limited to the US. But they are not frightened from any threats.

The museum, which attracts around 100,000 visitors a year, is taking no chances.

Turkana Boy will be displayed in a private room, with limited access and behind a glass screen with 24-hour closed-circuit TV. Security guards will be at the entrance.

“There are issues about the security,” said Dr. Emma Mbua, the head of paleontology at the museum. “These fossils are irreplaceable and we wouldn’t want anything to happen to them.”

Insurance coverage could run into millions of dollars, she added.

Mbua, a Protestant, is a little taken aback at the controversy but has no problems reconciling her own faith to the scientific evidence.

“Evolution is a fact,” adds Mbua, who has run the department for the last five years.

They aren’t going to back down to please any group, they aren’t going to pull any punches. These are scientists standing up for science. It’s what we need more in the United States, if we had a larger group of such men maybe we wouldn’t be falling behind in technology.

Source: CNN

Richard Dawkins – What if you’re wrong?

300 million year old rock

The summer before my senior year of college I worked as a park ranger guiding hikes in one of the most beautiful state parks in the country. Its central feature was a 256-foot waterfall that plunged down through a gorgeous natural amphitheater, cutting through bands of limestone and sandstone and collecting in a deep pool, the perfect hangout for summer swimming. My favorite program was the hike to the base of the falls. Layers of rock are like chapters in a history book and this canyon, carved so deeply, told an ancient story. Standing at the bottom, calling out over the roar of the falls, I got to teach the exciting conclusion, “The layers of slate and shale beneath our feet tell us that 300 million years ago, this deciduous forest was a tropical jungle.”

“What book d’ya get that out of?” came the reply one day. And thus it began, for this waterfall was not only located in ancient rock, it was also in the heart of the Bible-belt. I had heard there were people who believed the Earth was only 6,000 years old, but I never thought I would actually meet any. That summer, and every other summer I worked teaching science to the public, I met a lot of them. Though most objectors would just walk away from the program, some mothers would cover their children’s ears to protect them from the “blasphemous park ranger.” One man, after I patiently explained how we know the age of rocks, finally just threw up his hands, exclaimed, “The Devil made that rock look that old to turn you away from God,” and led his family back up the trail.

An article that is both funny and sad…. a very good read and a good analysis of what could happen if Intelligent Design becomes more widely accepted, and we being to embrace religion in our everyday American lifestyle.

Religion is destructive, harmful, and counter-productive. That message needs to reach a wider audience… or our world may become the bleak future described above.

Source: CSICOP 

HOW OLD IS THE GRAND CANYON? PARK SERVICE WON’T SA…

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’”

In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics, remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees, providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making distinctions between science and religion when speaking to park visitors about geologic issues.

Absolutely insane, I don’t understand why the rangers aren’t fighting this. It’s one of the most insane things I’ve ever heard.

Ironically, in 2005, two years after the Grand Canyon creationist controversy erupted, NPS approved a new directive on “Interpretation and Education (Director’s Order #6) which reinforces the posture that materials on the “history of the Earth must be based on the best scientific evidence available, as found in scholarly sources that have stood the test of scientific peer review and criticism [and] Interpretive and educational programs must refrain from appearing to endorse religious beliefs explaining natural processes.”

“As one park geologist said, this is equivalent of Yellowstone National Park selling a book entitled Geysers of Old Faithful: Nostrils of Satan,” Ruch added, pointing to the fact that previous NPS leadership ignored strong protests from both its own scientists and leading geological societies against the agency approval of the creationist book. “We sincerely hope that the new Director of the Park Service now has the autonomy to do her job.”

At least there is a small minority who are fighting. I feel like vomiting.

Source: Peer.org 

Man burns self in Christmas break protest A man d…

A man doused himself with flammable liquid and set himself afire, apparently to protest a school district’s decision to change the names of winter and spring breaks to Christmas and Easter vacation.

The man suffered first degree burns on his shoulders and arms on Friday, Fire Department Capt. Garth Milam said.

He had a sign that read “(expletive) the religious establishment and KHSD,” said Kern County Sheriff’s Deputy John Leyendecker. On Thursday, the Kern High School Board of Trustees had voted to change the names of the holiday breaks.

The man, whose name was not released, also set fire to a Christmas tree and flags in a public area, Milam said.

He stood with an American flag around his shoulders and poured the liquid over himself. The flaming tree ignited the liquid.

Sheriff’s Deputy Lance Ferguson said he and a parole agent sprayed him with fire extinguishers.

“The man stood there like this,” Ferguson said, holding his arms across his chest and his head bent down, “Saying no, no, no.”

 

Now this is one dedicated Atheist!

I know most people out there are just saying “Who cares they are just names!” But it’s important that we keep a vigilant stand against a single religion becoming prominent in our public schools. Because in the end Public Schools are Government run and separation of Church and State are absolute.

I don’t suggest going this far, however.

Source: MSNBC