Obama's stem-cell research order means the Republican Dark Ages are finally over
The War on Science is finally over. Science won.
The key to Obama's executive order lifting limits on federal funding for stem-cell research, which he signed this morning:
This Order is an important step in advancing the cause of science in America. But let’s be clear: promoting science isn’t just about providing resources – it is also about protecting free and open inquiry. It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda – and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.
By doing this, we will ensure America’s continued global leadership in scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs. That is essential not only for our economic prosperity, but for the progress of all humanity.
This is part of Obama's broader vision of how government engages with science, as the WaPo's Rob Stein reported this morning. It's an approach that has drawn the approval of traditional conservatives like Nancy Reagan.
However, the religious-right nutcases will never be mollified, because apparently all human embryos are sacred vials of life that must be preserved all costs. (No word yet on what to do about that evil "periods" thing.) As Howie notes, this includes Rep. Eric Cantor.
Likewise Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, cited by MSNBC's Tamron Hall in the clip above:
I believe it is unethical to use human life, even young embryonic life, to advance science. While such research is unfortunately legal, taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for experiments that require the destruction of human life.
Rep. Jim Langerin, D-R.I., gave a succinct and powerful response to this nonsense:
Well, as a pro-life Democrat, I say, what could be more pro-life than research that would extend and improve the quality of life for millions of people who are struggling with some of life's most challenging chronic conditions and diseases. You know, why should a child who has diabetes have to endure a lifetime of painful shots and tests? Why should someone who, especially a child who may have a juvenile form of cancer, whose life may very well be cut short, not know the promise of a full and rewarding life? By supporting stem-cell research, and finding treatments and cures that may be offered, we are doing just that -- extending and improving quality of life for millions of people. And that, I say, we have a moral obligation to support.
thank you President Obama. seeing positive movement with stem cell research companies.
Thank you President Obama. It's refreshing to have a president who is compassionate, and also respectful of science!
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
when a man with a brain is in charge.
NOBODY 2012
...that the President kills the unborn.
They won't mention that the last president sent the "born" off to be killed in his unnecessary war.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
... won't be happy even if someone respects the poor little embryos.
Because then they'll be complaining about Nadya Suleman living on welfare to take care of her fourteen little darlings.
The truth is 'all life is sacred ... until we can come up with a reason to condemn you to hell.'
That will make sense to them. If intelligence and logic worked on them, well, they wouldn't be the imbeciles that they are. The fact is that anyone who believes that a dozen undifferentiated cells constitute a human life isn't worth the trouble anyway. Screw them. As for the "taxpayer money" argument, again, tough titty. I don't like my taxpayer money wasted on all their "faith-based" horseshit, or their illegal, immoral war, but oh well. We don't get to choose what every penny of taxes is spent on.
Should mean ALL life, from cradle to grave, not just pre-cradle. Yet some of the biggest proponents of birth-at-any-cost, even the life of the mother, are big death penalty advocates. Just goes to show you that for them, "pro-life" is life-selective. I'm glad stem cell research can now proceed and make medical advances into diabetes and other diseases and conditions that continue to make people already here suffer.
the President made the wingnuts cry!!
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Hello Progress!
Isn't it nice to have a president who can think, and reason and speak, instead of a lamebrain who bullshitted his way through eight years? How many people died because stem-cell research was treated by the religious right and the neo-cons as blasphemy?
The Bush administration was truly a revival of the Dark Ages.
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
I am not only thrilled by this but that with this president, science isn't a dirty word. I wonder how far we have fallen behind in the scientific community during the bush days. Hopefully there will be some money for scientific research in all sorts of fields.
While the right will scream that these embryos are human life, they have no problem with sending a soldier off to die in a war created with lies.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Noodle noodling?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs5HQqElIx4
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Why is this a surprise to us? I don't agree with the man, but then again, I knew what his stand was on stem cell research long before he was elected President. I'll grieve for the lost children, and he will have to find his own way to reconcile with his decision.
Murb
Maybe stem cell research will help curtail various forms of mental illness...too late for you.
it's not fair to disparage someone's religious beliefs. Murb is allowed his/her beliefs.
In America we recognize and protect everyone's freedoms and beliefs.
They do not have the right to impose their beliefs on everyone else.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
...that has nothing to do with one's religious beliefs. I'm sick of people hiding behind religion as they lie.
ya need to calm down there, spunky.
I'm on your side.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY0j10HUQ_o&fe...
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I realize that its a wide spread belief that somehow its wrong to criticize someone's religious beliefs but I've never understood it. To me it illustrates the hypocrisy in most people's spiritual life. They don't really take their religion seriously as actual truth, its more a social convention that is easier to go along with than to really think about deeply. I on the other hand do take religious questions seriously, I think they are important, in fact there aren't any other issues that are more important, and hence its quite legitimate to criticize someone's religious faith.
People have a right to whatever delusional fantasy (religion) they have an unhealthy emotional need to believe in, but if what they believe is not grounded in credible scientific evidence and rationality, if it is pure lunacy as all religions are, then such beliefs SHOULD be disparged, ridiculed and condemned.
For example, if I insist that no effort should be made to treat cancer patients because the invisible blue elephants who live inside the doorknob on my front door said so, and that we must obey them, are you going to label me a whacked-out nutcase (like all religious believers), or will you recognize and protect my belief and insist that it not be disparged? What if I say that all aircraft should be grounded because clouds are made of rocks?
As long as adult religious believers do not harm others (such as brainwashing innocent children into their sick delusional belief systems) and keep their superstition out of public policy, they are free to believe what they want. They are also entitled to adequate psychiatric care and hospitalization if they so desire or if their delusional state renders them unable to fend for themselves.
For example, there is no such thing as an "unborn child." I defy anyone to find this term in any of the scientific literature. Labeling an embryo an "unborn child" is the same as calling a pile of wood "an unbuilt piano." Religious people are all nutcases and their silly beliefs should never be respected.
lolololol, most of those embryos still die. The ones they don't use die! Do you understand? They go in the trash as useless waste, this is like not using organs for transplants. dio
I've never understood the stem cell thing at all. I don't agree with the pro-life view on abortion but at least its not completely nonsensical. Murb, if they didn't use the embryos for research then they FLUSH THEM DOWN THE DRAIN!!! No lives that might have existed otherwise were saved by Bush's insane prohibition on research. So why are you grieving for these non existent lost children?
and I am also certain you have not lost a single night of sleep over the real children killed in Iraq.
While you are entitled to your religious "beliefs," I have little respect for your guilt based "grief" for the "children."
Surprisingly enough, real people other than your "children" suffer and die every day of diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimers, and your moral opposition to stem cell based scientific research sets back the day when we can find a cure for these miserable, wretched diseases.
Perhaps you will also grieve for my father, who had Parkinson's for twelve years and finally passed away because of it two years ago at 71 years old, young by today's standards. It took him from involved and active public citizen to helpless invalid in that time. And perhaps you should also count the wretched misery that the families of Parkinson's sufferers have to endure as well.
There are two sides to the story, Murb, and I am not moved by your condescending definition of spirituality and your attempt to impose your moral standards on legitimate scientific research that helps people. You would do well to take a look at the bigger picture and find your own way to reconcile the fact that imposing these moral standards has unnecessarily prolonged the suffering of others who pray for someone to cure them of diseases that have permanently compromised their lives.
If imposing your moral standards is more important than your empathy for the suffering of others with incurable diseases, then you need a lot of prayer, pal.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
Booooggeerrrrssssssss.
don't get any on ya murb
What is your conceptual, continuity?
would it be possible to obtain some of Rush Limbaugh's stem cells.
I'm planning on building an idiot.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
... of value because they are undifferentiated.
Limbaugh's cells are all set to 'idiot' anyway, so you don't need a stem cell, just any epithelial shedding will do.
Rep. Jim Langerin as a regular on talk tv and radio to communicate the democratic agenda.
When the Republicians see the bill from Medicare/Medicade/Social Security they will be moving towards Euthanasia bills. Talk about profligate spending.
you mean government is now gonna subsidize my profligate?
Awwwesome!!
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
I'm glad to see that I have so far been proven wrong and that Obana isn't just another Christofascist taking orders from Corporate traitors. It's good seeing that he's reversing some of the treasons the Bush regime has committed against us.
Science won a decisive battle, but I'm afraid the flat-earthers are not giving up that easily.
is only pro-life when it means preserving embryos that the mothers (and fathers) in this country won't be able to feed, due in part to the economic policies the religious wrong espouse, of course!
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
I was hoping he'd turn around and give the pens he used to sign the executive order to some C2 quadraplegics, like Brook Ellison, or perhaps even some war veterans who are paralized from the neck down. Christopher Reeves wasn't the only quadraplegic in the world.
Yep, I am gonna have to give that 1 a "Shew". I am still blown away by the pure stupidity of the Bush years.
Mitt Romney carrys a picture of a 4 year old girl from Seattle in his wallet, she used to be a frozen embryo but now is a little girl. He forgot to mention that she was the lucky one all her other bothers and sisters ended up in the Bio-waste trash bin with out even being able to contribute to society. I just gave that my own spin. Mitt wants us to think every artificially developed embryo is going to be implanted into "mommies" belly some day. THEY GO In THE TRASH, it was just foolish republican gibberish crap all those years.
I am still mad tho.
That is fucking creepy. Back on topic, I'm glad of what President Obama has done. I find the anti-science crowd baffling.
are over I will be waiting for the job offers to come rolling in.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I don't think that part of the Republican Dark Ages is quite solved yet... :(
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk8VZgJkpeg
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
"taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for experiments that require the destruction of human life. "
So then, applying that logic, taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for Bush and Cheney's rape of Iraq, because that was an experiment to forcefully install Democracy in another country, an experiment that caused massive destruction of human life.
Just sayin'.
that if true believers like Tony Perkins get sick...they should do the right thing and refuse these heretical treatments.
What type of acceptable treatments do Moonies like Perkins believe in? Do they stuff hot pokers up their ass to drive out the evil spirits?
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
will soon write about the need to cut off most DoD funding?
Somehow, I am willing to bet that won't happen...
A couple of cigotes used to help people: Bad
A few billion dollars in research how to better kill people: Good
Their logical dissonance is deafening really...
The war against science looses a major battle!!!
Thank you Mr. President!!
for now, anyway. They'll back track it the second they get a chance, just to be assholes.
me-oww!
I'd love for this to be true, but come on, guys.
Haven't we seen enough to know better than to get this overconfident?
If BP can't destroy the environment with impunity, how can any of us be free?
nt
Edit: Nevermind, I looked it up.
I assume that's a compliment, so thanks.
:)
If BP can't destroy the environment with impunity, how can any of us be free?
If only Obama hadn't destroyed the economy in the past few weeks he wouldn't have already lost the next election and the stem cell policy he just reversed wouldn't be getting reversed back by President Palin (or Limbaugh).
Bush get cancer and turn down treatment that would save his life, but that won't happen, they don't care how they win.
Tony Perkins has no choice. If he really believes that all these embryos are human, then he must today announce a massive march of all his supporters on Washington DC to decry Obama's announcement.
Millions of microscopic human lives are at stake, Tony.
Tony..?
Funny how the pukes will murder them by the millions AFTER they are born though....
The GOP only cares about you right before you are about to be born, and right before you are about to die.
In the meantime, you are on your own...
Iraqi children belong to the "post partum" section.. thus, they are on their own and out of the concern of the GOP.
Its pretty much the same reason that the NRA defends people's right to own a grenade launcher and the ACLU defends Fred Phelps right to do the retarded shit he likes to do.
they have a 'slippery slope' mentality and it has more to do with keeping a firm grasp on power than actual agenda-setting. if the slightest piece of their agenda goes under...even peripherally...that could (although usually wont) start a slide into irrelevance. its like when youre playing chess and you have your opponent crushed...end the game because it guarantees victory, rather than getting a couple more queens on the board so you can gloat (which is whats been killing the GOP so far).
of course, the RR was going to lose anyway for the simple argument that if these embryos werent used in research, theyd be thrown in the garbage....
With respect to stem cell research, absolutely. So have at it, Rush.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
A lot of people in this thread have talked about the hypocrites who send soldiers to die while championing the rights of embryos. But what I find particularly hypocritical is that the same politicians who decry stem cell research and abortion don't seem to have the same ire against fertility clinics, which implant multiple eggs in the attempt to get a viable zygote going but then suction off the extraneous ones--in short, aborting them. Even though these are the same embryos that are so monstrous to use for growing new life-saving human tissue, why is it not then monstrous to have fertility clinics in the first place? The answer is that the pro-life movement at its base has never been about the right to life, but the right to breed unconditionally and without other recourse.
Because it's a HUGE industry, that's why.
And stem-cell research has been one of their wedge issues.
As soon as the Republicans see what kind of money is at stake with stem cell research, they'll drop their feigned morality in a heartbeat.
And you're absolutely right, it's hypocrisy of the highest order to say that the fertility industry, which routinely tosses away millions of embryos, is moral but stem-cell research is immoral.
What will solve many of these moral issues is simply creating an economic system that doesn't penalise women for having children, giving them mandatory maternity leave, a more egalitarian pay scale, and tax breaks for stay-at-home mums. As it stands, motherhood has been devalued.
"Eventually" being the key word here. When compared to its detractors, science has a very long shelf-life. The problem is countless needlessly suffer or die because self-important religious zealots, cynical politicians and, especially in regards to global climate change, industrial mercenaries bully us.
One of these days we will not have the luxury of time to wait for rational people to prevail against ideologues.
-AF
Usually when I eat an apple, I yank the stem off.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Repbulicans and Conservatives are just Pro-birth, because they don't care what happens to a person - child , adult or elderly - after birth. They hide behind this facade of "Pro-life". This should be exposed thoroughly in the media.
Maybe now they cure cancer ten after I'm dead. I'll never know.
That's the nice thing about being an obstructionist. Your contemporaries can never call you on the damage you've done to the future.
A round of applause!
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
And just like in Iraq we'll move into the insurgency phase: the lunatics are down, but I rather doubt their out.
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