I wish I'd said it first:

"The world is a stage but the play is badly cast"
Oscar Wilde

"In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away."
shing xiong

"Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid."
John Wayne

"Life is a great, big canvas and you should throw all the paint you can on it."
Danny Kaye

Friday, January 19, 2007

The Christian Taliban. or WTF is Wrong With Them?



A couple of years ago, right after Bush used some "test tube babies" for a photo op, he called them "Snowflake Babies," to further his anti-science agenda regarding the use of stem cells to find cures for deadly and debilitating diseases, I wrote an article which was published. For some reason, this little article, which maybe takes three minutes to read, has caused a lot of angst among the Christian Taliban. Here is the article:

May 29, 2005

Bush and the Blastocysts

Or How to Cure the Snowflake Baby Propaganda

By Pamela A. Kraemer

Did you get to hear or read any of the comments our President is parading around the "snowflake" baby? It's like a carnival midway freak show. Well, I have some questions of my own:

1) Where did the President get the term Snowflake Baby? (Is Frank Luntz, the GOP propagandist-in-residence behind it?)

2) Does the President know the stages of cellular and fetal development?

3) Since he thinks that all frozen "embryos" (actually in this case they should be called blastocysts), should be brought to life, where is he going to find all these women who will be willing to carry, give birth to and then support a child that has no relation to them? That would roughly be in the neighborhood of 330,000 wombs. What about all of the already born, unwanted babies out there? Shouldn't they get a crack at a family first?

4) Has Mr. Bush thought about the following probabilities: These "Snowflake babies" will probably have several brothers and or sisters wandering around. Also, the legal parent(s) will be responsible for any unknown genetic problems arising from the unknown sperm and egg donors. Who will foot the medical bills when those problems arise? (Those very medical problems could possibly be cured if stem cell research was promoted and not a false religious "ethical" question.)

5) What about those unknown donors? Do they want their genetic offspring brought to birth without their permission and then raised by people of unknown background, origin, religious beliefs etc? Do Jewish donors want their genetic material to be brought to life and raised by members of the KKK?

6) Has the President, who, as far as I know, has a very limited background in medical research, given any thought to what the political and ethical backlash that his offensive statements regarding these groups of 60 cells will be?

7) Since Mr. Bush believes that using blastocysts for medical research is akin to murder, what about the thousands of implanted blastocysts that are rejected by the mother? Should her womb be brought up on charges for murder?To presume that all of these groups of cells should be brought to birth in some draconian manner is absurd. Around 30,000 blastocysts are frozen annually. That's nowhere near the number that are used for actual fertilization. Where do they go? Most of them end up, after several years in storage, being tossed out. And they're tossed out with no funeral! The cost of keeping a petrie dish of blastocysts in frozen storage is about $50 each month they are kept in limbo. So once a couple conceives once or twice, the remaining cells are left in cold storage until space has run out and there is no more room in the cylinder. To argue that these frozen cells should not be used for medical research is reasoning from the Dark Ages. To deny medical professionals laboring to discover cures for numerous diseases in which stem cell research is an important part, is limiting their ability, as scientists, to relieve the suffering of the living and their families. The president's position is logically unsane for it is based upon ignorance and ultimately a latent but real hatred of those living sentient humans who are suffering from diseases that stem cell research may cure. Mr. Bush has taken an anti-Christian position again. He wages war on real life while pretending he serves life by adopting a culture of petrie dish preservation! Mr. Bush is not pro-life at all--he's pro-birth and then he's anti-life after that! That is not a Christian position.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Yesterday, I checked my email, only to find a nasty, little email from a pro-Bush, anti-science (probably a creationist) named Kathy Webster in which she tells me off, here is her letter:

My goodness, I just came across what you wrote about Bush and Blastocytes. It is obvious that you know nothing about human development or Snowflake babies. The name came from an organization that arranges embryo adoptions. There are thousands upon thousands of couples suffering from infertility problems that would be interested in adopting these embryos. I could go on and on, but let me cut to the chase. Your whole articles was cold and void of any positive feelings. While it is absurd to state that our president hates human beings suffering from diseases, it is apparent that you must hate anybody with a differing opinion than you. Why are you so cold and hateful? You might want to think about that and then maybe consider adopting one of these snowflake babies. I think after you hold her in your arms you may have a change of heart. I pray that you find joy in the blessing of new life.

Kathy


My response wasn't very nice, I wasn't in the mood for such crap... Here is my response:

You are a dumbass. Take your medication and pray for yourself.

UPDATE!!!! KATHY HAS WRITTEN BACK:
Pamela,

Again, why the cold hateful attitude?

Have you ever held a newborn baby in your arms?

Actually, I do pray for myself and many others everyday. I will add you to the list.

Kathy

My reply is a little more thoughtful this time:

Kathy -

You can't begin to grasp the content of the article because you didn't understand any of it. I don't have anything against you or all of your friends having implanted blastocysts and having babies. The point of the article is that your boneheaded president believes that stem cell research is somehow immoral but doesn't give a shit about the under funding of programs like No Child Left Behind and is responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi LIVING people and over 3,000 American service people. Please... I know this is difficult for you but try to get it through your head that curing diseases while using a clump of 60 to 80 fetal cells is NOT murder. But using depleted uranium and white phosphorus on innocent Iraqi civilians is a criminal act. Do your own Google search and re-read what I wrote before you fire off an ill-conceived email that makes no sense.

I have 2 children who are beautiful people. Please, get off your Bible-thumping high-horse and try to understand that medical science is trying to cure people of astronomically terrible diseases and that there is REAL suffering going on that has zero to do with you.

Pamela

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

SEEMS THE pro-blastocyst writer didn't understand the original post. (the one who doesn't want lives saved with blastocysts).

People who are preventing medical research on blastocysts are either ignorant, stupid, ill-informed, brainwashed or all of the above.

Keep speaking out Pam!
Karen--bushwacker from Michigan

Clarice Starling said...

She was/is - as I said, a dumbass. Thanks for visiting. Come back every day to find out what I've been up to.

thomas stubbs said...

I am in total agreement with your Blastocyst article. The GWB regimes lack of logic regarding such matters is embarrassing. I am presently making a poster dealing with this subject with the heading "Blastocyst--Blast 'Em Away. It's All a Matter of Timing" GWB is notewarthy for liking to kill people indirectly from his days as the executioner Governor and now the surplus genocidal actions against the Iraqi Civilian Population, the 3000+ deaths of our soldiers and of course the protracted deaths forever of the Iraqis and US soldiers from exposure to Depleted Uranium.

Clarice Starling said...

Thomas,

To say that Kathy missed the whole point of my short, little article is an under statement. She is convinced that her president is a real man of god. This sort of stuff makes me crazy.

As for your comment. Of course, you are correct.

Vince Graves said...

Geez, doesn't that Kathy lady know that that is what Africa is for? It is a huge playground for rich people to adopt to their hearts desire. Hey wait, there are little black children here who need adopting too.

Stupid me, these rich, uber Christian freaks don't care about that! Besides they only want white babies.

Clarice Starling said...

The truth is, the Reich-Wing-Bible-Thumpers don't have enough insight to understand what they are advocating. They want to control a woman's body and they believe the USA was founded on Christian principals. Nothing could be further from the truth. While they cheerlead our rights away and worry themselves to death over shit like same sex marriage... (They think that if two women or two men get married it will somehow effect their myopic little world...) the rest of us allow it to happen. I have no patience for these idiots and can't even bring myself to compromise on the issues any longer. I would like to give them the state of Kansas, fence it off and let them run it ... Sort of like what the Mormons have been doing in Utah for the last 150 years or so.

slottress said...

It is all too apparent to me that our President has no regard for human life. Has everyone forgotten the many people he allowed to be put to death in Texas? How about that Iraq war? He sends our young people over there denying them the opportunity to procreate or watch their already born children grow to maturity. How can anyone with half a brain believe that he has any regard for human life? It's all about the money that he is lining the pockets of his friends and family with, don't you realize that yet? Does a rock need to fall ontop of your head to snap you out of the denial that you live in? WAKE UP LADY!

thomas stubbs said...

To some thinking is not dangerous, and will try it because it is stimulating, but it gives people like Kathy a headache and would rather watch the 700 club in bliss.

Clarice Starling said...

Slottress & Thomas -

Kathy's only thought is for the people who cannot conceive on their own. It is her drive to create other little Christians that motivates her. It is not because she has ever been around someone dying of MS, Lou Gehrig's Disease, heart disease or diabetes. She certainly hasn't sat with a husband who is paralyzed from the neck down and is waiting for a miracle cure just so he can hold one of those "precious babies" in his limp, useless arms. Her motivation is perhaps one of the most self centered of all. If she was really a humanitarian and just wanted to feel the warmth of a baby, she would go to Harlem and adopt a black crack baby. They are warm and need love just as much as the white newborn. I am so sick to death of the meddling these people do that I could puke.

Anonymous said...

This so-called born-again President of ours is one of the most unChristian homo-sapiens to walk the earth. Jesus would not be pleased. GWB has caused the death of approx. a million human beings.
How the Christian Right excuses that away is beyond me. Bet they couldn't look Jesus in the eyes and say it's all okay,because the Great Decided, decided so.

Anonymous said...

All this blastocyst "love" and no mention of the fertility clinics where they are thrown away everyday.

Why aren't these good Christians, who think it's murder to destroy these cells, down at these clinics 24/7?

Where is their commitment? So much safer I guess to "fight for life" while sitting on their asses typing.

Again, until they protest in the streets, to shut down fertility clinics where these unwanted blastocysts are produced, I will take them for the half-wits and morons that they are.

OK...I'll take them that way anyway...I confess.

Cheers

SHRED