I’m all for murdering babies…

…or so Bush’s personal morality would label me. I have tried very hard post-Katrina not to have hardly any political content on this blog. This is yesterday’s news, but I’m posting today because I was debating writing this at all; I don’t need to drive away the small (and dedicated–bless you) readership I have for something as banal as political differences. However, this move by the Bush administration to veto stem cell legislation passed by both the House and Senate, including a good number of Republicans, has sweeping ramifications on medicine, science and the public good.

The legislation allowed for couples undergoing IVF to donate unused embryos to science rather than have them discarded. Bush’s veto means that they now must be discarded because he personally does not “support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others.” But it’s OK to throw the same frozen embryo in a medical waste can. (I’ll pause to let you read that again to make sure) Using it to benefit others is “murder,” while flushing it down the toilet “crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect.”

This is the same “stay the course” ideology¹ that has been the scourge of this administration, leaving most shaking their heads in almost embarrassment for the man’s blindness, but even pissing off members of his own party with his stubbornness (Harriet Myers, this very veto, privatizing social security). The reason I have more of a beef with this decision and why I’m breaking “political silence” on this blog is because it’s a decision that has everything to do with science and medicine that he based on religious dogma, ignoring almost all of the scientific and medical community. Even if you are the staunchest pro-life conservative, common friggin’ sense tells you that if they are to be discarded anyway, you might as well have the embryos advance science! It’s like the person who chooses not to be an organ donor not because of honest religious conviction, but because he doesn’t like the idea of someone cutting him up after he’s dead. (ignoring the fact that any mortician will have tubes coming out of him like Re-Animator to get him ready for his funeral)

A blastocyst (embryo of a few days’ duration before any real differentiation occurs) from which embryonic stem cells are harvested is not a person; therefore, it follows logically that it cannot be killed or murdered. To believe that life begins at conception with a soul, one must believe that millions of souls are used up every year in embryos concieved through normal intercourse that, for any large number of natural reasons, do not undergo successful implantation to arrest the next menstrual cycle, a new life, full of infinite possibilities, drowned in a sea of menstrual blood. Sorry to be graphic, but nature can be a bitch.

There were a lot of “famous” causes and celebrities supporting this now defunct legislation–and good for them–but Michael J. Fox will not be cured of his Parkinson’s disease by stem cells that would have been allowed to go forward from this legislation. Scientific research is a slow, arduous process for the most part. It is because of this that any delays, setbacks, etc. have a huge impact in future outcomes. Ask any PhD student who has had to add a year or two of their life to getting their dissertation done because of research setbacks (precisely why I didn’t keep going down that road), and you get an idea. Now take those stakes, and add the potential of saving human lives, advancing cures for diseases on a worldwide scale, millions and millions of dollars in potential research funding and matched private funds, and the mind reels at just how severely this pooch was screwed.

Enough scientists have said that the current stem cell lines (always quoted at 60-70, the amount that existed at the end of the Clinton administration, but researchers using them today have not been able to verify the existence of more than 24) are already showing signs of potential mutation and genetic decay. Private research will go ahead with their own agenda, of course, but there is too much financial pressure at stake for them to coordinate in a way that basic, federally funded research would allow. Moreover, other countries are leaving us way behind in this area.

I have faith that the next president, regardless of party affiliation, will reverse this insane decision at the first reasonable opportunity. I don’t have a lot of faith, however, that by then we will be irreparably behind as a nation, and also sadly behind in preventing needless suffering.
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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all. I hope as many readers as possible are spending Christmas with their families/loved ones and not at work. Hannukah starts today, happy happy to those celebrating the Festival of Lights.

To spread some holiday cynicism cheer, I’ll post an email from a long time ago. I think it’s apropos given the domestic spying program that’s being unleashed on us. I know, because black helicopters fly over my house all the time. That’s why I wear the tin hat.

You’d better watch out,
You’d better not cry,
You’d better not pout;
I’m telling you why.
Santa Claus is tapping
Your phone.

He’s bugging your room,
He’s reading your mail,
He’s keeping a file
And running a tail.
Santa Claus is tapping
Your phone.

He hears you in the bedroom,
Surveills you out of doors,
And if that doesn’t get the goods,
Then he’ll use provocateurs.

So–you mustn’t assume
That you are secure.
On Christmas Eve
He’ll kick in your door.
Santa Claus is tapping
Your phone.

[Supposedly written for and sung at a US Department of Justice,
Office of Legal Counsel Christmas party during the Carter
administration.]

Merry Christmas!! :^)

Kansas Blinded US With Non-Science

The Kansas board of education voted 6-4 (all who voted ‘yes’ were Republicans, but not all Rebublicans voted ‘yes’) to uphold mythology over science. In support of Intelligent Design [sic], Kansas students will be subjected to religion in science class. One insidious problem is that ID on paper looks innocent, perhaps even more educationally inclusive by saying there are problems with some Darwinian concepts and that not all is explained by his theories. Fine. It goes a step further–and this is the main problem–that there must have been intervention of a higher power for things to have turned out so complex yet so functional.

Please tell me how this is different than just a mere few hundred years ago when people had no idea what made the rain fall, so it was a rain god. Don’t know what makes the sun rise in the east and set in the west? 500 years ago it was God Almighty, 2500 years ago it was Apollo and his Sun Chariot with the new shiny Dorian rims. I have no problem introducing the concept of God or Allah or Quetzoquatl into the classroom, just make it history, philosophy, social anthropology–ANYTHING but science!! I understand different areas of the country have different social “norms,” and they need to be respected, honestly, but there has to be a line drawn. Gravity is the same everywhere; F=ma in any school district. Evolution is not a law, but it upholds orders of magnitude more scientific rigor than mystic speculation about a higher power. I can look at a flower and ponder the existance of God in making such beauty and diversity, but I can’t even test it, study it or challenge it.

The scariest quote in a CNN article is the following:

The challenged concepts cited include the basic Darwinian theory that all life had a common origin and the theory that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life.
In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

So if God says, “Star, stay!” (I promise on a stack of ID textbooks that this is a true quote/story from a cousin that went to Oral Roberts University for a year), then Kepler’s laws and other physical phenomena are immediately thrown out the window. I repsect someone’s right to beleive that, as outlandish as it seems to me, but again, what everyone seems to forget is that this is science, not mythology or philosophy. The biggest fear isn’t that the schools are required to introduce the possibility of God into the classroom as science, but that there are no limits as to how far it can go, no limits to the length of time, energy, or money spent in such curriculum. Sure they still have to teach Darwinian theory, but what’s going to stop them from spending a day or two on it then moving on to the “real” story and spend three times as long on Genesis? The last time I checked, Moses wasn’t subject to peer review.

What kills me is that the only people pushing ID are Republicans, most of whom are Chrisitan fundamentalists. These are the same people that foam at the mouth with the idea of homosexuality, calling it immoral, derived from Satan. Let me tell you something that you can easily see for yourself by watching TLC or the Discovery channel: nature is beautiful and complex, yes, but she is also a cruel, vengeful bitch. Praying mantis females bite the heads off of their male partners during the act of copulation, their death throes finishing the act of fertilization. Male lions recently overtaking a pride will actively kill the cubs of previous male lion’s offspring while the lioness watches, obviously wating to fight to the death but realizing there is no chance she can win; better to live and procreate more (the basic drive of all life) than waste it in a moment of futile honor. Don’t even get me started on the “design” involved in human suffering, with congenital illnesses, etc.

But guess what else? Most higher mammals routinely engage in homosexual acts. Bonobo monkeys regularly masturbate, engage in oral sex, and sodomize each other just for pleasure…obviously there is no procreative purpose in any of these. So when a monkey is blowing another monkey or a dog down the street takes it in the ass from another, bigger dog just for fun, I have to ask, where are the Intelligent Design proponents looking for God in these places? Perhaps the dog spent too much time watching Hollywood filth that turned him gay because it wasn’t natural and a lifestyle choice…yeah, that’s it.

Speaking of Hollywood, I wonder what movie will be made years from now about today akin to Inherit the Wind? History sure does like to repeat itself.

SCOTUS Interruptus

Many times I write about political issues and don’t apologize or hide my left-leaning stance on most issues, but this has to be one of the craziest things I’ve read from the right or the left regarding today’s nomination of “Scalito”:

“Perhaps the most encouraging early indication that Judge Alito will make a great justice is that liberal[s]…have been lining up all day to scream that the sky is falling. Any nominee who so worries the radical left is worthy of serious consideration.”
– James C. Dobson, Focus on the Family

Anybody who uses the reactions of a group of “radicals” (his own term) to any degree as a basis for judging the qualifications of a lifetime post to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is an idiot. Period.

My favorite quote regarding the anticipation of the nomination was that old Jim Crowe-loving Trent Lott–you know, the one who lost his leadership position when he made comments about “we would’ve been better off without all these problems” referring to Strom Thurmond’s segregationist presidential platform–when he said, “I want the President to look across the country and find the best man, woman or minority that he can find.” Like Blacks and Hispanics and other minorities aren’t classified as men and women? Like men and women obviously mean white/Caucasian? What about White Jewish? Uh oh…I see a “Does not compute” meltdown happening…

Current events wrapup

I have been refraining from posting anything political because there was already a lot of posts lately, particularly w/Katrina, Rita, FEMA, etc. However, there’s only so much self-restraint I can maintain, and I’m afraid I’ve reached my limit.

The indictment of Delay last week was utter joy to watch unfold. Seeing his smug ass with his “videotaped” response, I could only think that as he would say things like “partisan bullying” or “political vendetta” with respect to Delay being victimized (I almost choke when I type it), that if I were in the room, I’d move away from him as far as possible so as not to get hit with any lightning when it came down. That hypocritical thug single-handedly redistricted gerrymandered Texas by who-knows-what kind of Sopranos-horse-in-bed tactics. The fact that he had to step down (a rule the puppetmastered ethics committee agreed to dissolve, just for Delay, until they were pressured to retain it) isn’t even a huge blow, because Hastert has no problem having Delay call shots from his “real” office away from the leadership office. I can’t wait for “The Hammer” to appreciate other, not-so-subtle nuances to his nickname when he’s in prison… When the second indictment was announced yesterday, I think I had to smoke a cigarette after I heard it.

My father is an attorney. When all of Cronygate (my term) was happening right after Katrina (Brown most notably, but also Chertoff to a degree and a few other federal appointments that came to light as a result of insider buddy-buddy politics), I had started a post called “I nominate my father to replace Mike Brown.” After all, Brown’s most qualifying line-item on his resume (that was true, anyway) is that he is an attorney. Unfortunately, Dad knows nothing about horses, so my draft just fizzled at that point…

I was bracing for whom Bush was going to nominate this week. My worst fears would be realized in a judge that would make Scalia look like a socialist. The candidate, Hariet Miers, Bush’s personal attorney in the White House seemed an afterthought, a “Beats me what to do for dinner…you want to just order pizza?” kind-of lazy, sure-thing choice. This administration has always valued loyalty above all else. Well, I’ll restate Chuck Schumer’s words: “It could have been a lot worse.”

Law.com in an article from almost a year ago says she’s meticulous to a fault and basically got her job because she failed at other levels of Bush’s support staff:

“There’s a stalemate there,” says one person familiar with the chief of staff’s office. “The process can’t move forward because you have to get every conceivable piece of background before you can move onto the next level. People are talking about a focus on process that is so intense it gets in the way of substance.”

“She failed in Card’s office for two reasons,” the official says. “First, because she can’t make a decision, and second, because she can’t delegate, she can’t let anything go. And having failed for those two reasons, they move her to be the counsel for the president, which requires exactly those two talents.”

I don’t know, call me a fuddy-duddy, but with absolutely ZERO judicial experience–not even at a county level–it just goes against everything I’d think would be valuable to have in a near permanent position for the highest court in the land. Hell, near as I can tell, she hasn’t even argued a case before the Supreme Court, unlike Roberts who was 1) scarily brilliant, 2) had a somewhat short (for a chief justice) but distinguished judicial CV which shed much light before hearings began, and 3) clearly put himself on the line and said he was NOT an idealogue, that he would be his own justice. I can think of nothing more predictable than Ms. Miers being Mr. Bush’s justice, in spite of the constitutional gap between branches. Don’t think for one solitary second that Bush doesn’t know exactly how she’d vote on important issues. When Bush gave his press conference today, he said he never asked her about views on abortion. If Bush is telling the truth (not a good assumption), it’s because there was no need–her stance on key issues is already a known quantity from a longstanding relationship. And if the CIA leak scandal continues to develop as it has been, that relationship is convenient, given the attorney-client privilege, now on top of executive privilege.

I strongly am in favor of a woman’s right to choose. I glad that Bush nominated a woman to fill a woman’s seat (nominating O’Connor being one of the few great things Reagan did). I think the court could stand to have two more, but I wouldn’t select solely based on that. Unless Miers paints a detailed self-portrait during the confirmation hearings–regardless of where she stands on what issue–I can’t possibly see EITHER party confirming this nomination. In fact the most vocal criticism has come from the right wingers. It should be interesting!

Who’s in Charge? Karl Rove! (again)

In the New York Times last week, this gem was reported regarding Bush’s rebuilding plan:

Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush’s chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort, which reaches across many agencies of government and includes the direct involvement of Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development.

Excuse me? KKKarl Rove? Didn’t Mike “helluva job Brownie” Brown resign (read: shitcanned) for not only screwing up (because if that were the real reason, they’d have known by the weekend that he spent most of the time pissing himself like a chihuahua in sub-zero temperatures), but for failing to have adequate qualifications for the job. Hell, at least Brown is an attorney. He has not one, but two degrees. Rove was a college dropout, which if you’re Bill Gates, won’t get held against you, but for the highest echelons of federal government, you’d think that might be a sticking point. Quite frankly, it’s not that Rove isn’t degreed, it’s that he’s a hellspawned creature with few peers in his level of evil.

This whole “push” to come before the American people and outline a plan, etc. is all a sham. I’m sure Bush wants to help, he’s not a bad guy. But it’s clear there are wizards behind the curtain, as always. I heard his speech, and it actually wasn’t bad–for a pep talk. As far as to where the money is going to come from, well, all you have to do is look at the very socioeconmic group he is proporting to help. Only two things will come from this, perhaps both: 1) Government programs to help the poor, needy, etc. everywhere else will be disembowled, financially, and/or 2) our deficit will skyrocket. Not a cent of tax will be raised, and perhaps more will be cut. Voodoo economics, anyone?

Shouldn’t Karl Rove be doing something more relevant to his abilities and performance, like languishing in a federal prison for leaking Victoria Plame’s (aka Mrs. Joe Wilson) undercover CIA status? What happened to that? As far as I’m concerned, he should be having to use cigarettes for currency to decide how many boyfriends he can put off for the night. True, federal prison isn’t like state penitentiaries, but all I have is my experience. Anyway…

In reading about this, I also found out that in a super-secret meeting of the Legion of Doom, Rove spoke the following “off the record” (among others):

“The only mistake we made with Katrina was not overriding the local government…”
“Joe Wilson and I attend the same church but Joe goes to the wacky mass…”

The “wacky” mass…that must be the one where you give each other a sign of peace before communion instead of “Fuck you,” where you put money in the collection plate instead of taking it out with interest, and where the priest has the temerity to use wine in place of real blood, like “in the Reagan years.” Yeah, I hate those masses, they’re so … liberal.

Social responsibility

I need to study for a Cell Biology exam tomorrow. I sit at my computer (missing biochemistry so that I can study, no less) writing this not so much because of procrastination, but because other things are on my mind that need to get out. I’ve talked about feeling helpless before, and if I were still working at UH, I’d have taken vacation days to help out at the hospitals, the ‘dome or at other relief organizations there, like the Star of Hope Shelter. I really don’t want to blog about Katrina or the devastation I see on TV, the ineptitude of our federal response or any polarizing, political diatribes. I want to write about my med school experiences, my life here, and the things that make me, well, me.

But one of the things that makes who I am, one of the reasons I chose medicine is because I do feel a sense of social responsibility. Helping others in and of itself is not a life calling for me, but without it, one can’t really be a decent physician by any standard. So to my classmates, friends, family, and anonymous people that read this and wonder if this site is going to turn into a political blog, I assure you it’s not. I DO want to get back to all the things that go on here, for better for worse, but they just so pale in comparison to other things. Please bear with me, but this is, after all, who I am.

Lastly, it is precisely stories like this that infuriate me the most. I can see myself as one of these doctors 5-6+ years from now, getting permission to leave one’s residency/job to help out temporarily in a national crisis. These doctors are in Mississippi, just 100 miles away in a state-of-the-art government facility, but are just standing there, waiting for someone from the government to actually deploy them. The reports from these physicians paint a completely different picture than what Homeland Security/FEMA would have you believe, that “it takes time to mobilize assets when dealing with a crisis of this magnitude:”

Dr. Jeffrey Guy, a trauma surgeon at Vanderbilt University who has been in contact with the mobile hospital doctors, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, “There are entire hospitals that are contacting me, saying, ‘We need to take on patients,” ‘ but they can’t get through the bureaucracy. The crime of this story is, you’ve got millions of dollars in assets and it’s not deployed,” he said. “We mount a better response in a Third World country.”

How much more evidence is needed to show that Homeland Security is and has always been a mistake? This is the first test of Homeland Security in a major situation, and it has failed so miserably that no band-aids, no firing this person or that person will fix it. Unfortunately, it won’t happen in this administration.

NYT Op-ed pieces for yesterday

Some memorable articles:

• United States of Shame
• Do You Know What It Means To Lose New Orleans? (Anne Rice)
• Fallujah Floods the Superdome
• The Bursting Point

Pride is a deadly sin, literally

Pride heads the list of the seven deadly sins (the others being Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Wrath, Greed, and Sloth). These sins are “deadly” because in common belief, they 1) form the basis of all other sins, and 2) are a one-way ticket to punishment/antonement in the afterlife. However, there is another consequence of Pride, at least with respect to Katrina’s victims: deadly decisions made by a dead-wrong administration. Thousands have died or become gravely ill just because of pride on the part of politicians. Just a day’s delay meant hundreds of lives; in fact, every minute could possibly mean a life.

There is pride in not accepting help (at least not openly) from other nations. I understand if Iran or North Korea would pledge $500 million dollars that the US would have to say no, seeing as how “tainted” that money would be, but Canada? Germany? Australia? Hell, even poverty-ridden El Salvador offered to send in troops. When El Salvador says, “Oh shit, you guys need help,” to the greatest superpower in the world because of its ineptitude, you know you’ve hit rock bottom as a nation.

Pride is George Bush not speaking out against FEMA or Homeland Security, not canceling a speaking engagement to shore up political support for the war on terror the day a killer hurricane hit the gulf coast. Pride is “staying the course,” no matter how many people die or how many people tell you you’re wrong. Pride is thinking that the American way is the best way for the rest of the world, and in so doing, alienated us to the point where we are frankly lucky that other countries still want to help us at all. Pride is politicians being shown the horrors of the storm’s aftermath and the first words out of their mouth is that “things are going well,” or thanking so-and-so, making sure to get a shout out to their homies, because their prepared statements before the camera turned on were more important than what is being asked. Pride is administration officials not saying, “Our department failed,” or admitting their mistakes, or willing to point out certain shortcomings lest it have a negative impact for elections later.

Ghandi had his take on what constituted the deadly sins:

• Wealth without Work
• Pleasure without Conscience
• Science without Humanity
• Knowledge without Character
• Politics without Principle
• Commerce without Morality
• Worship without Sacrifice

Pride need not always be deadly. I feel pride in the relief workers, particularly fellow Texans and the Coast Guard, who were working from the minute they were able to help with the disaster. The policemen who stayed and risked their lives against the lawlessness, even while greiving or not knowing about all of their own families, should feel very proud. For those who have given to relief agencies, for those who have traveled in some cases thousands of miles just to help, one feels proud to count them among their fellow man. The difference is that Pride sees oneself and one’s own agenda as most important; being proud, particularly in these cases, is inescapable when shown self-sacrifice.

Where was Condi?

According to Gawker.com, Condi was well….

SHOPPING and enjoying a play while Americans were dying.

Nice.