THIS MODERN WORLD

Got this from Kos. You’ve probably read by now that Cindy Sheehan was forcibly ejected from the SOTU for wearing a shirt that said “2,245 Dead – How Many More??”

But check this out:

The wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young said she was ejected during President Bush’s State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt that said, “Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom,” a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Beverly Young said she was sitting in the front row of the House gallery Tuesday night when she was approached by someone who told her she needed to leave, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

After reluctantly agreeing, she said, she argued with several officers in an outside hallway.

“They said I was protesting,” she said in a telephone interview with the newspaper Tuesday. “I said, ‘Read my shirt, it is not a protest.’ They said, ‘We consider that a protest.’ I said, ‘Then you are an idiot.'”

Like a lot of you, I found the “human-animal hybrid” line peculiar, to say the least. But apparently it’s actually something people are talking about:

Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras—a hybrid creature that’s part human, part animal.

Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.

And at Stanford University in California an experiment might be done later this year to create mice with human brains.

And doesn’t that last image just make you want to run screaming out of the room?

More here.

…okay, cheap laughs aside, here’s a more informed perspective than mine:

It’s pure political calculus. He throws away the mad scientist and pig-man vote, and wins the religious ignoramus vote…and we know which one has the majority here.

But guess what? Creating chimeras is legitimate and useful scientific research; it’s really happening. Of course, it isn’t with the intent of creating monstrous half-animal/half-human slaves or something evil like that, and scientists are well aware (or should be well aware) of the ethical concerns, and it’s the topic of ongoing debate. Let’s consider one recent example of such an experiment.

Down syndrome is a very common genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra chromosome 21. That kind of genetic insult causes a constellation of problems: mild to moderate mental retardation, heart defects, and weakened immune systems, and various superficial abnormalities. It’s also a viable defect, and produces walking, talking, interacting human beings who are loved by their friends and families, who would really like to be able to do something about those lifespan-reducing health problems. We would love to have an animal model of Down syndrome, so that, for example, we could figure out exactly what gene overdose is causing the immune system problems or the heart defects, and develop better treatments for them.

So what scientists have been doing is inserting human genes into mice, to produce similar genetic overdoses in their development. As I reported before, there have been partial insertions, but now a team of researchers has inserted a complete human chromosome 21 into mouse embryonic stem cells, and from those generated a line of aneuploid mice that have many of the symptoms of Down syndrome, including the heart defects. They also have problems in spatial learning and memory that have been traced back to defects in long-term potentiation in the central nervous system.

These mice are a tool to help us understand a debilitating human problem.

George W. Bush would like to make them illegal.

More.

Is anybody having any trouble with the images posted in this blog (the scan from the New Haven Register, or the cover of the new book, below)? We’ve disabled image hotlinking (because the Freepi keep stealing bandwidth, oddly), and it works okay on two out of the three browsers I have on my system, but on an old copy of explorer the images won’t come up, even after clearing the cache. I don’t care, if the problem is just specific to one browser on my desktop — just want to make sure no one else is having the same problem.

An’ we be on th’ offensive in Iraq, wi’ a clear plan fer victory. First, we be helpin’ Iraqis build an inclusive government, so that old resentments be eased, an’ th’ insurgency marginalized. Second, we be continuin’ reconstruction efforts, an’ helpin’ th’ Iraqi government t’ swashbuckle corruption an’ build a modern economy, so all Iraqis can experience th’ benefits o’ freedom. Third, we be strikin’ terrorist targets while we train Iraqi forces that be increasingly capable o’ defeatin’ th’ enemy. Iraqis be showin’ the’r courage ever’ tide, an’ we be proud t’ be the’r allies in th’ cause o’ freedom.

Our work in Iraq be difficult, on accoun’ o’ our enemy be brutal. But that brutality has nay stopped th’ dramatic progress o’ a new democracy. In less than three voyages, that nation has gone from dictatorship, t’ liberation, t’ sovereignty, t’ a constitution, t’ national elections. At th’ same time, our coalition be relentless in shuttin’ off terrorist infiltration, clearin’ ou’ insurgent strongholds, an’ turnin’ o’er territory t’ Iraqi security forces. I be confident in our plan fer victory ? I be confident in th’ will o’ th’ Iraqi swabbies ? I be confident in th’ skill an’ spirit o’ our military. Swabbie citizens, we be in this swashbuckle t’ win, an’ we be winnin’.

Complete pirate translation of speech here.

Because it’s comments week, and I can.