Joseph A. Hayden (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bearlawnyc) wrote,@ 2004-10-12 14:25:00 |
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Catholic Stem SELLS
If I thought I was a recovering kathlick BEFORE (haydennet.com/religion), after reading today how the Catholic Church is lobbying against Kerry, I am even more resolute. Despite Kerry's being a lifelong Catholic and, like most American Catholics, pro choice, but also for stem cell research and not with his panties in a twist over gay marriage from his home state, I hand in my holy water for good.
Actually I have been a born again agnostic for a while now, but I still have quite a bone to pick with the institution where the leadership dresses up in jewelry and big white dresses. I think they should be campaigning for more child molester therapy or preferably chemical castration options for a significant number of their representatives.
The Repubs didn't talk much about saving the unborn this last convention, but they sure talked about killing a lot - the killing of Americans for political gain and to instill more fear in the over-excited public, and the killing of terrorists to prove how tough they (the Repubs) are. My lament is that now has Edwards and Kerry saying "kill" every day. Damn populism! The churches are still optimistic that they can overturn progressive science and quality of life/privacy laws, like protecting a woman's right to choose, if they keep voting for the candidates who silently want what they do and who will appoint regressive judges to the Supreme Court.
My good friend Steve has a brother who was recently in a serious plane accident. His brother's friends have set up a web site for him that I encourage you all to visit -- www.tonyalbanesefund.com. In addition to some very serious burns, Tony is paralyzed and so, of course, Steve has taken it upon himself to make the advocacy for stem cell research his mission, which is only more poignant with the very recent and huge loss of Christopher Reeve, an amazing man who taught a lot of us about le joie de vivre.
I'm embarrassed for South Park for making fun of Chris Reeve's advocacy for stem cell research in the past, but that show is not watched for its moral lessons anyway. Chris Reeve had just finished directing a new movie I saw advertised, so when I was reading the foreign language newspapers yesterday I was a little perturbed by them calling him "only" a Hollywood actor. He had directed several films and even starred in a remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window subsequent to his quadriplegia, so his post-accident life was full with his wife, four kids and his die-hard advocacy. He did not give up, even when he contemplating doing so.
Dumbya uses his wife, an offspring of many generations of Democrats until he brainwashed her with his riches, to obfuscate the fact that he is only throwing a bone to medical research in lieu of reversing his draconian fundie pandering to not take stem cell research seriously. A man with a heart like Kerry would encourage serious, full-fledged, time-is-of-the-essence research into what could be a windfall for curing many of our most debilitating diseases and conditions. These include multiple sclerosis, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and, of course, paralysis, as stem cells are the only cells of the body which are pre-specialized and could be used to replace nerves and other critical parts of the anatomy naturally that do not automatically regenerate, like most other cells do.
No wonder Repub widow Nancy Reagan sanctioned her feminine but hetero-married son's speech at the Democratic Convention about that topic on the coattails of her husband's funeral, even though his legacy was used by Dumbya to invoke a supposedly good time gone by. How ironic that Reagan suffered at least a decade for something his cronies do not support curing.
For those who do not understand the importance to human pain and suffering that could be relieved and the quality of life that could be increased for countless individuals, don't let your religions blind you. If it was your loved one who was kept in pain to atrophy and die a miserable death, you might think twice about the controversy.
If I thought I was a recovering kathlick BEFORE (haydennet.com/religion), after reading today how the Catholic Church is lobbying against Kerry, I am even more resolute. Despite Kerry's being a lifelong Catholic and, like most American Catholics, pro choice, but also for stem cell research and not with his panties in a twist over gay marriage from his home state, I hand in my holy water for good.
Actually I have been a born again agnostic for a while now, but I still have quite a bone to pick with the institution where the leadership dresses up in jewelry and big white dresses. I think they should be campaigning for more child molester therapy or preferably chemical castration options for a significant number of their representatives.
The Repubs didn't talk much about saving the unborn this last convention, but they sure talked about killing a lot - the killing of Americans for political gain and to instill more fear in the over-excited public, and the killing of terrorists to prove how tough they (the Repubs) are. My lament is that now has Edwards and Kerry saying "kill" every day. Damn populism! The churches are still optimistic that they can overturn progressive science and quality of life/privacy laws, like protecting a woman's right to choose, if they keep voting for the candidates who silently want what they do and who will appoint regressive judges to the Supreme Court.
My good friend Steve has a brother who was recently in a serious plane accident. His brother's friends have set up a web site for him that I encourage you all to visit -- www.tonyalbanesefund.com. In addition to some very serious burns, Tony is paralyzed and so, of course, Steve has taken it upon himself to make the advocacy for stem cell research his mission, which is only more poignant with the very recent and huge loss of Christopher Reeve, an amazing man who taught a lot of us about le joie de vivre.
I'm embarrassed for South Park for making fun of Chris Reeve's advocacy for stem cell research in the past, but that show is not watched for its moral lessons anyway. Chris Reeve had just finished directing a new movie I saw advertised, so when I was reading the foreign language newspapers yesterday I was a little perturbed by them calling him "only" a Hollywood actor. He had directed several films and even starred in a remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window subsequent to his quadriplegia, so his post-accident life was full with his wife, four kids and his die-hard advocacy. He did not give up, even when he contemplating doing so.
Dumbya uses his wife, an offspring of many generations of Democrats until he brainwashed her with his riches, to obfuscate the fact that he is only throwing a bone to medical research in lieu of reversing his draconian fundie pandering to not take stem cell research seriously. A man with a heart like Kerry would encourage serious, full-fledged, time-is-of-the-essence research into what could be a windfall for curing many of our most debilitating diseases and conditions. These include multiple sclerosis, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia and, of course, paralysis, as stem cells are the only cells of the body which are pre-specialized and could be used to replace nerves and other critical parts of the anatomy naturally that do not automatically regenerate, like most other cells do.
No wonder Repub widow Nancy Reagan sanctioned her feminine but hetero-married son's speech at the Democratic Convention about that topic on the coattails of her husband's funeral, even though his legacy was used by Dumbya to invoke a supposedly good time gone by. How ironic that Reagan suffered at least a decade for something his cronies do not support curing.
For those who do not understand the importance to human pain and suffering that could be relieved and the quality of life that could be increased for countless individuals, don't let your religions blind you. If it was your loved one who was kept in pain to atrophy and die a miserable death, you might think twice about the controversy.
