Huckabee’s “Daily Show” Interview

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Mike Huckabee Extended Interview Pt. 1
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Mike Huckabee was on the Daily Show last week and I finally got to watch the episode this past Sunday (as we were in Kansas City for the rest of the weekend…had a great time!). The interview ran long, so the episode didn’t contain the whole thing. With the wonders of the interwebs, however, it has all been posted to their website!

Huckabee and Stewart had a lengthy discussion on the issue of abortion. While I disagree with Huckabee, I can at the very least appreciate this interview as a thought-provoking and well-mannered discussion on a complicated issue.

I will take issue with one specific part of Huckabee’s argument here, however. Around the 3:20 mark in the video above, Huckabee defines the point at which “life” begins. “I believe life begins at conception. 23 chromosomes from a male and 23 from a female female create a DNA schedule that’s never existed before…biologically and scientifically it’s irrefutable that that’s when life begins.” Now, one could make a philosophical argument about what exactly life means and what it looks like, but I will instead refute the whole “biologically and scientifically it’s irrefutable” part of his argument… Just because two halves of DNA have been put together to make chromosomes, you do not have “life.” Even if you have one cell, you do not have “life.” Even if you have a group of cells, you do not have “life.” [Note: Huckabee goes on to address whether we consider it “human life” or not, but doesn’t elaborate much on that] As Wikipedia states, in order to be considered “alive,” one must meet certain criteria, including homeostasis, organization, metabolism, adaptation, growth, response to stimuli and reproduction. You could say that a cell is capable of doing those things (and yes, indeed, a cell is capable of doing those things!), BUT it’s only capable of doing those things in the controlled environment of a uterus. That’s the ONLY place. Other single-celled organisms, like bacteria, are capable of doing it in all kinds of places (that’s the very important “adaptation” part of the definition of life).

As another example, I work with cell culture systems, which essentially means that I grow cells in a flask that I give specially-made growth factors and nutrients to keep them “alive,” before I allow them to “die” and see how that happened. So, yes, from a technical standpoint, they have “life” (otherwise, you can’t get “death”). However, these are just cells. If I took them out of that flask, they would not survive. They would never be productive. They would never grow into an organism. This is the problem with Huckabee’s (and the Pro-Life movement’s) argument, in my opinion. If you took sperm and egg and did not implant them into a uterus, you would never get a child. Even if you took a fetus out of the mother, it would not survive on its own. That’s, at least, where the difference lies for me. Obviously there are many that disagree with that interpretation, but that’s usually where I put “the beginning of life:” the point at which an individual can survive (perhaps with help from an incubator) outside of the mother. That point is somewhere around the end of the second trimester, or early third trimester, if I remember correctly. And this is why I generally go against late-term abortions (and so do many Pro-Choice individuals).

I do, however, agree with the future implications that Huckabee puts forward, especially talking about “value of life” as a whole. He sees it as a slippery slope. He uses the example of people in nursing homes, as your children would refer to you as an “inconvenience” or as an “interruption,” the same things that are frequently said of the possibility of having children when they aren’t desired. Jon Stewart eventually goes on to try and reframe the argument as a sovereignty issue for the Pro-Choice camp (i.e. you don’t have control over your body…the government does). Both of these two points are valid and discussed at length in the interview.

For those that care, here’s Part 2 and Part 3 of the extended interview. The whole thing is something like 15 minutes long across the three parts.

The whole thing is a complicated issue and neither side will ever fully agree on it, I’m afraid. But, interviews like this hopefully foster greater understanding between both sides, as the issue is discussed intelligently and reasonably (unlike many other discussions around the internet…).

I laughed so hard I cried…

…but I can’t tell you about it because it would be a HIPAA violation, so you’ll just have to trust me that my job is quite often rather hilarious.  Other than that, not a lot going on right now.  I need to keep the camera out more often so I have more blog fodder!

Best Day of the Year

Happy April Fool’s Day! I’ll probably post more stuff here as I find it, but Thinkgeek.com is always a good place to start. The USB Pet Rock is excellent (video above), as well as the Ultimate Assassin’s Weapon Ice Mold and, last but not least, Squeez Bacon (check that one out…preferably, not immediately after eating…).

Also, apparently, there’s already a Star Trek sequel in the works, set for a 2011 release… 😛

And, the Google Gmail Autopilot will automatically write e-mails for you… “The easiest e-mail could possibly be,” indeed… 🙂

Battle Royale

The “media” has apparently been all over this supposed “battle” between Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’sMad Money,” and Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show.” The whole thing started last week with Jon Stewart lambasting the financial news network for not seeing this crisis coming, while they were telling their viewers to “buy, buy, buy” a variety of stocks, including the companies that would fold in the coming weeks.

Well, the “media” made with it and ran, calling it a battle between Cramer (whom Stewart referred to, yes, but certainly didn’t focus on) and Stewart, culminating in Cramer coming on the “Daily Show” Thursday night for a looooooong interview…with Stewart, in the end, beating the crap out of Cramer.

Honestly, Jon Stewart is the best interviewer on television, as he can get away with asking almost anything and making his guests look like idiots. I really felt sorry for Jim Cramer. It’s an excellent interview and shines new light on the issue. You all should watch it!

Note: The video above is part 2 of 3 (the most interesting part, I think), but the whole interview is really good.

A typical Monday night…

As we were watching “House” Monday night, we got to wondering:

If being “disinhibited” (or “uninhibited,” for that matter) is redundant…

…is “inhibited” dundant?

New Star Trek Trailer (?)

SciFi Wire had this little highlight on a YouTube mashup featuring what the new Star Trek movie won’t be. Personally, I can only barely tolerate most of Will Ferrell‘s recent movies (I think I made it 20 min. into “Anchorman” and couldn’t continue…soooooo unfunny… “Old School,” on the other hand, was glorious), but there are all kinds of people “featured” in this clip (including Colbert and Stewart, making this automatically hilarious).

Great Moments in Presidential Speeches

Update: From David Letterman’s “Great Moments” re-cap on January 16, 2009:

I ran across this page at Rawstory.com and decided to replicate it here, although I already have a similar page up in my Quotes section of the blog. Needless to say, I’m trying to help celebrate the end of the Bush Presidency… w00t, January 20th! Can’t get here soon enough!

———————————————————————–

“They misunderestimated me,”
— Bentonville, Arkansas, November 6, 2000

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on … shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again,”
— Nashville, Tennessee, September 17, 2002

“I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office,”
— to Israeli journalists in Washington in an interview published May 12, 2008.

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we,”
— Washington, August 5, 2004

“For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times,”
— Tokyo, February 18, 2002

“I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep on the soil of a friend,”
— on the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington, June 29, 2005

“Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech,”
— Washington April 16, 2008 to Pope Benedict XVI.

“I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office,”
— Washington, June 26, 2008

“I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully,”
— Saginaw, Michigan, September 29, 2000

“Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country,”
— Poplar Bluff, Missouri, September 6, 2004

“It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber,”
— Washington, April 10, 2002

“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
— Florence, South Carolina, January 11, 2000

“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test,”
— Townsend, Tennessee, February 21, 2001

“My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended… The tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free,”
— USS Abraham Lincoln at sea off the coast of San Diego, California, May 1, 2003

“I’m the decider, and I decide what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense,”
— Washington, April 18, 2006

And because it’s amusing…

Katie visited Ted Drewes while she was in town recently…and it’s on YouTube… She doesn’t know what Crab Rangoon is… And we also get to find out why they “call it a concrete”…