January 31, 2006

I knew this would happen

Like 6 or so years ago, when being militant seemed worthwhile, I was all, "If this Bush dude gets elected, we're going to go to war, industry will ruin everything for everyone, and the Supreme Court will become a conservative taskforce." Now, this from the BBC:

Judge Alito, 55, replaces Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often held the swing vote on key issues.

Now, this, from me:

FUCK.

To relieve my brain strain, I've been trying to think of the worst joke someone could make...and I have found it. Ahem:

Is the caviar in a precarious position? Because I believe Roe is about to be overturned.

I am a demigod of wit. Except, not.

Posted by Chris at January 31, 2006 05:45 PM
Comments

Yeah, here's someone else who hates Bush (via the Koufax Awards.

Posted by: Fatboy at January 31, 2006 06:40 PM


Nice joke there, Chris.

On the upside, Bush did promise to start implementing math and science standards last night, and his goal of reducing Middle Eastern oil dependance is quite impressive. Granted, it's a pipe dream, but he's trying.

But yeah, overall a very bad day. Personally, I don't think Roe will be overturned, but then again, that's just my barely informed opinion. I'm more worried about this PATRIOT act crap being upheld by this new court.

Posted by: Rick at February 1, 2006 11:33 AM


I listened to the State of the Union address last night, too (well, most of it, I missed the first few minutes putting my daughter to bed and laying down with her for a bit). This is the first one I've really watched, since normally I'd just watch the Discovery Channel or something. Is it always so divided between the parties? It really struck me how different the reactions were between the Democrats and the Republicans, where the Republicans would give standing ovations, and the Democrats wouldn't even clap, and the Democrats giving that standing ovation when he made that comment about Social Security reform not being passed.

I agree that it would be great if those new math and science standards got passed, especially the funding, but it does worry me how people like Bush try to control science. Here's one of his comments that bothered me:

"Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research, human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling or patenting human embryos."

Maybe, instead of trying to ban all of this stuff outright, he ought to try understanding what it is and the potential applications it offers. If researchers ever figure out how to take one of my cells, clone it somehow to start a stem cell line, and use those cells to treat some disease I might get, like say Alzheimers or cancer, I'm all for it. And what about that part about human-animal hybrids? Is he against giving people organ transplants from other animals? How about genetic hybrids, like mice containing human chromosone 21 to provide a model for studying Down syndrome? So, at one point of his speach he asks Congress for more money to be spent on science, and then in another part he asks them to restrict very promising scientific research. What the hell?

What scares me most isn't so much that Bush is president, it's the masses of uneducated, ignorant Bible thumpers that voted him into office, and the type of influence they have at all levels of government.

Hey Rick, do you have blockquotes disabled? I tried to use a blockquote tag for the Bush quote, but it got erased.

Posted by: Fatboy at February 1, 2006 12:55 PM


Blockquotes are now enabled (I have a whitelist for HTML tags on this site - I never used blockquotes much so I never had them on the list before).

Posted by: Rick at February 1, 2006 01:14 PM


Those hybrid mice remind me of an article I read recently that talked about how much scientists have learned while studying mice. While humans are more complex than mice, it's interesting to see what happens when scientists are given enough access to an animal. The theory being if given access to embryos, we could make headway into solutions for humans.

A few treatments, preventions and cures in mice:

  • Heart Attack, damage reversible 1996
  • Cancer, cured 1997
  • Baldness, cured 1998
  • Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, incubation prolonged indefinitely 1999
  • Sickle Cell Disease, cured 2001
  • Blindness from Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis, symptoms reversed 2002
  • Type 1 Diabetes, cured 2003
  • Parkinson’s Disease, cured 2003
  • Multiple Sclerosis, symptoms reversed 2003
  • Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease, progression halted 2004
  • Phenylketonuria (PKU), cured 2005
  • Hemophilia Type B, symptoms reversed 2005
  • West Nile Virus, cured 2005
  • Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), cured 2005
  • Diabetic Blindness, prevented 2005

Full article with references can be found atSeed Magazine's website.

Posted by: Rick at February 1, 2006 01:25 PM


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