The Clone, The Clown, The Rich and The Rain

Four news items struck me this morning.

Monkey cloning hit the news today. That story begins: "For years, scientists have been trying to develop a technique to clone primates. Now researchers in the US say they have successfully cloned embryos from rhesus monkeys. The scientists extracted stem cells from the cloned embryos, and developed them into heart and nerve cells. They say they hope the work will help pave the way for therapeutic human cloning, and dismiss concerns about the ethics of the work."

The ethics, always the ethics before hope for humanity. The Bible-thumpers have successfully stopped valuable research into finding ways of enriching the lives of people suffering each day from disorders and diseases which could be helped through stem-cell research. Apparently their view of 'ethics' is to see as much human suffering as possible. God would surely enjoy that.

The clown is Indiana Rep. Mike Pence of the rural eastern-most section of the state. I heard him live on C-Span yesterday, using White House rhetoric, chastising the Democrats for 'tying the hands of the military' as he attempted to persuade the members to vote no on the newest attempt to limit the Bush War. Also dripping from his Bush-toady mouth were idiotic phrases like 'winning the war' and 'victory for democracy in Iraq.' The poor man. Hopefully the once dark-red state of Indiana which turned a much lighter shade in 2006, will send this clown back to the circus.

Warren Buffet is a pain in the ass of other uber-wealthy Americans. He bothers their conscience, assuming there is one. The 2nd richest man in America told the senate conference that Congress should keep the estate tax rather than repeal it and help a few rich Americans like him. "I think we need to ... take a little more out of the hides of guys like me."

Whoa! Imagine that: a wealthy American thinking of other, less fortunate citizens of his country. Both he and Bill Gates put those other American billionaires to shame in their words and actions. Gosh, what ever happened to good old American narcissism?

The Rain fell on Atlanta last night, answering the 'prayers' of those who stood on the statehouse steps earlier in the week. The city received 13/100 of an inch. "Our prayers were answered," said one woman enjoying the sprinkling. Odd, though, that this prayed-for rain brought much destruction with it in the form of tornadoes just north of Georgia. Video shown on CBS this morning showed the Atlanta sprinkles as well as entire neighborhoods in ruin in Tennessee from the same storm. You would think that God would be a bit more accurate in answering prayers!