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Let’s get this straight…

So, I noticed today on Facebook that there are a few groups with titles like: “Missourians Against Human Cloning (Vote NO on Amendment 2)” and “Say “No” to the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.” For those that don’t know, here’s the actual wording from the Amendment regarding cloning:

2(1) No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being.

38(d).6.(2) ‘Clone or attempt to clone a human being’ means to implant in a uterus or attempt to implant in a uterus anything other than the product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a human male for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy that could result in the creation of a human fetus, or the birth of a human being.

For some reason beyond my comprehension, there are actually people in the state that somehow thinks this provides a constitutional means of protecting human cloning. No, really…you read it correctly…it completely abolishes the idea of human cloning. Why? Because in order for you to clone a person, you need to implant the embryo into a uterus for development. Does that also disallow somatic transfer (i.e. transfer of DNA from one cell to another). Yes. Because you have to implant it in a uterus. You cannot “grow” a human (or any other mammal) outside of a uterus.

So, if someone could please explain to me how people are seeing this as “constitutional protection” for human cloning, I’d be very happy to hear it…’cause it makes no sense to me. There are over 900 members in these two groups on Facebook, and it’s beyond me as to why this is so confusing. And they keep re-quoting the wording from the Amendment…like that’s some kind of defense. They only re-quote it because they don’t understand what it says and hope you won’t either.

One of the other arguments against it is that, with passing Amendment 2, you’ll target “underpriviledged women” so that they can sell their eggs for research purposes. Hmmm…let’s see…is that mentioned and outlawed?

2(4) No person may, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell human blastocysts or eggs for stem cell research or stem cell therapies and cures.

Yes, yes it’s outlawed! Oh, and even the following:

2(2) No human blastocyst may be produced by fertilization solely for the purpose of stem cell research.

So, let’s review: Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2 strictly outlaws cloning. Amendment 2 does not allow cloning. If you say that Amendment 2 allows human cloning, or provides a market for the sale of human embryos, you are lying.

It’s that simple.

Here’s more information on all the ballot measures we’ll be faced with on November 7th.

Posted on

Let's get this straight…

So, I noticed today on Facebook that there are a few groups with titles like: “Missourians Against Human Cloning (Vote NO on Amendment 2)” and “Say “No” to the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.” For those that don’t know, here’s the actual wording from the Amendment regarding cloning:

2(1) No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being.

38(d).6.(2) ‘Clone or attempt to clone a human being’ means to implant in a uterus or attempt to implant in a uterus anything other than the product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a human male for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy that could result in the creation of a human fetus, or the birth of a human being.

For some reason beyond my comprehension, there are actually people in the state that somehow thinks this provides a constitutional means of protecting human cloning. No, really…you read it correctly…it completely abolishes the idea of human cloning. Why? Because in order for you to clone a person, you need to implant the embryo into a uterus for development. Does that also disallow somatic transfer (i.e. transfer of DNA from one cell to another). Yes. Because you have to implant it in a uterus. You cannot “grow” a human (or any other mammal) outside of a uterus.

So, if someone could please explain to me how people are seeing this as “constitutional protection” for human cloning, I’d be very happy to hear it…’cause it makes no sense to me. There are over 900 members in these two groups on Facebook, and it’s beyond me as to why this is so confusing. And they keep re-quoting the wording from the Amendment…like that’s some kind of defense. They only re-quote it because they don’t understand what it says and hope you won’t either.

One of the other arguments against it is that, with passing Amendment 2, you’ll target “underpriviledged women” so that they can sell their eggs for research purposes. Hmmm…let’s see…is that mentioned and outlawed?

2(4) No person may, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell human blastocysts or eggs for stem cell research or stem cell therapies and cures.

Yes, yes it’s outlawed! Oh, and even the following:

2(2) No human blastocyst may be produced by fertilization solely for the purpose of stem cell research.

So, let’s review: Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2 strictly outlaws cloning. Amendment 2 does not allow cloning. If you say that Amendment 2 allows human cloning, or provides a market for the sale of human embryos, you are lying.

It’s that simple.

Here’s more information on all the ballot measures we’ll be faced with on November 7th.

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You know it’s bad when…

So, Dr. Macarthur sent me this link from Washington Monthly titled “Time For Us To Go.” In light of the Rep. Mark Foley scandal, amongst other things, even die-hard conservatives are saying that it’s time to give up congress and get some more liberals in there. It is interesting to hear their perspectives, especially pointing out the benefits of having some checks and balances between the White House and Capitol Hill. There’s also quite a bit of historical perspective, comparing Republicans of today with those of yesterday.

Either way, here are some of the blurbs…they’re worth a skim. At the very least, the conservative voices writing these articles are “fiscal” or “economic conservatives,” i.e. ones I can respect…so they aren’t messing with the “church and state” border very much.

Let’s quit while we’re behind
By Christopher Buckley

Bring on Pelosi
By Bruce Bartlett

And we thought Clinton had no self-control
By Joe Scarborough

Give divided government a chance
By William A. Niskanen

Restrain this White House
By Bruce Fein

Ideologie has taken over
By Jeffrey Hart

The show must not go on
By Richard A. Viguerie

P.S. If you don’t vote in November, I may have to hunt you down…

Posted on

You know it's bad when…

So, Dr. Macarthur sent me this link from Washington Monthly titled “Time For Us To Go.” In light of the Rep. Mark Foley scandal, amongst other things, even die-hard conservatives are saying that it’s time to give up congress and get some more liberals in there. It is interesting to hear their perspectives, especially pointing out the benefits of having some checks and balances between the White House and Capitol Hill. There’s also quite a bit of historical perspective, comparing Republicans of today with those of yesterday.

Either way, here are some of the blurbs…they’re worth a skim. At the very least, the conservative voices writing these articles are “fiscal” or “economic conservatives,” i.e. ones I can respect…so they aren’t messing with the “church and state” border very much.

Let’s quit while we’re behind
By Christopher Buckley

Bring on Pelosi
By Bruce Bartlett

And we thought Clinton had no self-control
By Joe Scarborough

Give divided government a chance
By William A. Niskanen

Restrain this White House
By Bruce Fein

Ideologie has taken over
By Jeffrey Hart

The show must not go on
By Richard A. Viguerie

P.S. If you don’t vote in November, I may have to hunt you down…

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Fooling around…

“We’re like the Cleavers…except we’re religious…and we like to fool around.”

Rev. Eric Camden; “7th Heaven”

Yes…that kind of “fool around”… What a show… I certainly never thought it’d last 11 seasons…and I certainly never thought I’d hear a pastor say such things…

Keep in mind, he was also in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and became a non-corporeal life form…

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Yep…

…you’ll all see the exciting and kinda scary news on Andy’s blog, I’m sure, but aside from that, I got a sunburn today. Yes, it’s late September and I was wearing suncreen, but I still somehow managed to get a sunburn. Grrr to being pale and poor.

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Scion xA

Scion xA

Well, time to buy another car… Now that Brooke has a job, we can afford to replace her 1995 Nissan Altima with something a tad bit more reliable, and something that gets better mileage. Well, up until tonight, she was dead set on getting a 2007 Toyota Yaris. The draw to these cars is that they are said to get at least 30 mpg in city driving conditions and approach 40 mpg on the highway. Obviously, it’s a very small car, but it’s relatively cheap and, being a Toyota, it is reliable and has high resale value.

We went to Lou Fusz Toyota tonight because they had a Yaris sedan that we could test-drive, with automatic transmission (neither of us know how to drive a manual…more on that shortly…). They didn’t have a hatchback (which is what Brooke wanted) and they probably wouldn’t have one for 4 – 8 weeks because they’re in such high demand. The sedans are easier to come by, so we figured that we’d better test-drive one while we could. Brooke liked it, overall, and it had all the features we wanted, but no amenities like power locks/windows.

I asked the salesman about the Scion xA (’cause they sell both), as far as value goes. Essentially, we found out that the base model Yaris, without manual transmission, is $12,500. The sedan we test-drove, with an automatic transmission, was more like $13,500. That’s just for the automatic, not including things like power windows and locks, and various other amenities (seats, shocks, etc.). However, if we looked at an xA, you get a four door car (rather than two), automatic transmission, power locks, windows, nicer interior, better stereo system, and anti-lock breaks…for about $600 more.

So, we test-drove an xA that they had and Brooke liked it more. Honestly, the car had a smoother ride to it, the seats were more comfortable, the display was a little better, and there’s more room, due to the four doors. That, and the mileage ratings are almost equivalent to a Yaris (slightly worse…but what’s 1 mpg?). Also, Scions are tending to get higher re-sale value than a comparable Toyota…if you look around online, you’ll see that frequently, you can buy a new xA for the price of a used xA…usually because people have done some “upgrades” to theirs, but still…

Long story short, we put a down-payment down and they’re going to get us an xA. It’ll take about four weeks to get here (maybe a little less) and we’ll have the opportunity to test-drive it and decide for sure, so we’re not obligated to buy it…but we 90% will… The one pictured above is similar to the one we’re getting, minus the wheels and “spoiler”…

Hopefully it comes sooner so I can drive my Elantra again… 😛

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You Asked…

I finally started working on Wednesday of this week in Jefferson County at the Hillsboro Treatment Center. In short, once I’m settled into the groove, I’ll be given one of three “cottages” with 8-12 boys that I’ll work with. As a youth specialist, my job is to mostly keep the boys (who are referred to a “clients”) in line and in control of themselves and the group. So far, the group I’ve been observing is really good about self-regulating their behaviors and can keep themselves on-task and focused much better than I expected. Of course, I’ve been bombarded with all kinds of questions from how old I am to if I’d punch someone back if they punched me (which was a little tricky to answer!). I haven’t gone to the official training yet, but I’m going next month and hopefully I’ll be assigned a permanent group and shift by then and have some sort of routine worked out. There are three possible schedules – 8am to 4pm, 4pm to 12am, and 12am to 8am. I’ve been working the 8-4 shift this week and next, and the timing is ideal to get to see Andy, but it’s a more exhausting shift since the clients are awake and going the whole 8 hours. The others I think would be fine for a bit of a break, but would get pretty boring since the boys are sleeping for a majority of them.

So, since I’ve had some Facebook requests for how my job was going, I thought I’d just let everybody know this way, and we’re seeing Mom and Dad tomorrow anyway, so that’ll get the word around pretty quickly, too!

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Net Neutrality

So, I was flipping through ArsTechnica yesterday and saw their article about a survey being run around the Senate Commerce Committee regarding Net Neutrality. From the article:

The poll also found that many Americans have no idea what net neutrality is, or why they should care; only 7 percent said that they had even heard or seen anything about net neutrality. When pollsters introduced the concept to poll takers, they described it solely as “enhancing Internet neutrality by barring high speed internet providers from offering specialized services like faster speed and increased security for a fee.” When presented this way, 19 percent of respondents said that net neutrality was more important to them than “delivering the benefits of new TV and video choice,” which received a 66 percent backing.

Now, since I know the majority of you don’t know what Net Neutrality is, let me give you the Wikipedia definition:

The phrase Network Neutrality was coined by Columbia University law professor Tim Wu to describe networks that don’t favor some classes of application (for example the World Wide Web) over others (such as online gaming or Voice over IP).

You can read the full article for further information, and there are plenty of news articles around, but here’s the key: Net Neutrality is essential for keeping the internet as it stands today. The legislation is built to allow internet providers to allot certain speeds to certain services.

Let me explain this as simply as I can. The internet is finite: there’s only so much of it. Right now, if I want, I’ve got access to 100% of the internet. If the internet was not “neutral,” as it is now, then companies like AT&T and Verizon could say: “hmmmm…let’s just allow Andy to use 20% of the internet and use the other 80% for whatever we want, like telephone and television services.” Or even better, “hey, why don’t we have Amazon and eBay pay extra so they can each have 10% of the internet, while forcing everyone else to use and share 20% between themselves.” Why is this bad? Well, because my internet will be slower, and any new companies would be forced to use that limited amount of it until they could afford the premium to venture into the rest of the ‘Net.

Essentially, using the “Information Superhighway” metaphor, it’s like letting big companies with their semis full of products drive across the country on I-70 with no speed limit, but forcing the entire US population to drive along Route 66 (including all the stoplights).

Net neutrality is an important issue. Perhaps not as important as gay rights and an illegitimate war, but important just the same. You need to vote in November so that the internet stays the way it is, rather than favoring the large corporations, thus stifling any and all creativity and competition.

I leave you with a quote from the guy running the Senate Commerce Committee, Ted Stevens:

“They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck. It’s a series of tubes.”

Seriously…this is they guy “leading the charge,” so to speak.

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Oh, politics…

Mom called with a bumper sticker she saw on the way home:

“Somewhere in Texas, there’s a village missing their idiot.”

This, of course, inspired me to look for more of the like, plenty of which can be found at the end of a simple Google search:

“‘God’ is not spelled G.O.P.”

“Nobody died when Clinton lied.”

“My child is an honor student.? My President is a moron.”

“Annoy a Conservative.? Think for yourself!”

“One nation, under surveillance.”

“Don’t blame me, I voted with the majority.”

“Re-Defeat Bush in 2004!”

“If you can read this, you’re not the President.”

“My border collie is smarter than your President.”

“Osama still has his job.? Do you still have yours?”