The Indigestible

There’s an ethical debate apparently going on about the deeper philosophical implications in cloning meat animals. There are concerns about, for instance, humane treatment of clones and of meat animals in general.

Barbara Glenn, chief of animal biotechnology at the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), agreed on the importance of animal welfare. “Does the animal matter? The answer is a resounding ‘yes,’ ” said Glenn.

It just doesn’t matter so much that killing it and eating it is out of the question, it seems.

I’ll have my hypocrisy medium-well, please.

WASHINGTON, DC — President George W. Bush declared victory today in his Administration’s push to ouster former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein from the world’s stage.

“I’m pleased to be able to stand before you today and declare a decisive blow against tyranny in the Middle East,” Mr. Bush said at this morning’s regular press briefing. “Last week, as you all know, free and democratic elections were held in Iraq for the first time in more than two decades. And the Iraqi people have spoken as one. Saddam Hussein is no longer the leader of the Iraqi people.”

The results came as no surprise to the Bush Administration, which has long declared a confident faith in the election’s outcome.

“We were there with the UN from the beginning,” Secretary of Defense Eric Shinseki said. “When the Iraqi ambassador suggested peacekeeping forces could help ensure the fairness of the elections, help prevent poll fraud, we were pleased to help out.”

Shinseki, whose position was gained immediately after the post-9/11 events in Afghanistan forced Donald Rumsfeld to resign in disgrace, spoke from the Rose Garden after the President’s address. “I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. But the credit belongs with the Iraqi people, not with anything I or this Administration have done.”

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The GOP and the fanatics are at odds about nonheterosexual Republicans.

“The big-tent strategy could ultimately spell doom for the Republican Party,” said Tom McClusky, chief lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a Christian advocacy group. “All a big-tent strategy seems to be doing is attracting a bunch of clowns.”

Yes. Clowns such as Tom McClusky, chief lobbyist for the Family Research Council.

If the Shoe Fits…

Being a child of the 1970s (born in ’67), The Muppet Show was a staple in my television fare.* A while back I came across the first season of that show on DVD and scooped it up. Some of it is dated, to be sure, and quite a lot of it is corny, but darn it, it’s still fun to watch.

There’s a skit in the first season involving some talking houses; in the course of the conversation — which for reasons I don’t fully remember touched on religion — one of the houses used the term “fanatic” to describe what we would today call an “evangelical”.

You know what? It’s time to bring back the word “fanatic” and begin using it pretty much everywhere. Whether Islamic fundamentalist/extremist, Hassidic, Evangelical, Southern Baptist, Jehovah’s Witness or any of the long, long list of the religiously insane, the term fanatic seems to fit them all.

I’m aware of the negative connotations of the word; that’s why I’m proposing its use.

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Pam @ House Blend passes on a lovely story about courts. A branch of the Sea Scouts — Boy Scouts with water wings, it seems — in California has been denied use of public berthing facilities because of the BSA’s openly discriminatory stance against gays and atheists.

The case was tossed out of court; apparently bigotry is still offensive to some judges.

That’s not my point. My point is: What is the slogan for the Sea Scouts?

Feel free to post some ideas of your own; here’s mine:

The Sea Scouts: Turning Boys to Seamen.

Human Rights

Il Duce pontificated while signing his bill into law — the one that blocks accused terrorists from having legal counsel or gaining access to the evidence against them.

“With the bill I’m about to sign, the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the murder of nearly 3,000 innocent people will face justice,” Bush said.

How? How can we call it justice, George, when we won’t let them speak to an attorney, when we won’t let them see the evidence we’re supposed to have against them? This isn’t justice — it is a star chamber, and it is an insult to the traditions this nation upholds, and an insult to every man and woman you have sent to Iraq to die in the name of your sick, solipsistic quest for approval from your daddy.

He made sure — of course — to invoke 11 September; it’s all he’s got left; it’s all he’s ever had.

Bush signed the bill in the White House East Room, at a table with a sign positioned on the front that said “Protecting America.” He said he signed it in memory of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

There’s been a lot of breast-beating done since that day, the most odious of which tends to invoke the memories of the victims of the attacks in the name of this or that. “I’m sure that so-and-so, were he alive today, would support this decision to do such-and-such.”

I wonder how many of those dead people would have approved of this suspension of civil liberties. Even the accused terrorists are merely accused; to damn them without defense or possibilty thereof assumes that the US government is somehow inerrant and omniscient.

I have one word to say to anyone who believes this to be plausible: Katrina.

“We will answer brutal murder with patient justice,” Bush said. “Those who kill the innocent will be held to account.”

Yes, George, they will, in 2007, when the opposition congress begins impeachment proceedings.

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This is just too good to pass up. Da’ Beeb tells us that there’s going to be an animated version of the life of John Paul II coming out soon. (Ironically, it will possess more animation than JPII himself did over the last decade or so of his life.)

What’s next, Jesus goes animé?*

Bear in mind that this is the same “Holy Father” whose picture Sinéad O’Connor once tore in half on SNL, resulting in an outcry that … well, that wouldn’t have been matched had she done the same thing with a picture of Jesus Christ, I’m fairly sure. I guess irreverence is relative, huh?

The show, to be called “The Friend of All Humanity”, is said to be the first cartoon version of a Pope’s life, ignoring, one supposes, illuminated manuscripts. And the title … couldn’t possibly be more exclusionary, since by its very nature it automatically evicts women and nonheterosexuals from the human race — as we know that JPII was absolutely no friend to either contraception or the GLBT movement.

The Beeb goes on to give details, the kind of stuff you just cannot make up:

The story is narrated by two white doves and animated versions of his personal diary and fountain pen.

A talking pen! A wordy book! (Well, all right, maybe I’ll give ’em that one.) But why stop there? How about a verbose ring or a singing funny hat?

I guess a storytelling drool-wiping cloth would have been a little too declassé.

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Those of you who linked to my commentary on North Korea last week — whether to enjoy a bit of Bush-bashing, or possibly to revel in some Bush-bashing — might have noticed my addendum to the article, written as an afterthought perhaps an hour after the original post (and one reason I decided to add asides to TI, so I wouldn’t have to do that so much any more):

Watch China. We can’t do shit there. That will leave it up to Japan, South Korea and China to handle this. I’m willing to bet that the Chinese response will be well-received, and improve that nation’s status in the eyes of most of the rest of the world. Except, of course, in the US. By being unable to react, Bush has left the door open to the possibility of a sino-nipponese alliance; the entire politics of dealing with Asia will be utterly different by 2010.

Okay, well, I can’t crow too loudly, because this is one of those times when being right is not all it’s cracked up to be. For starters the WA Post is reporting that China is being asked by the UN to help wrangle Mr. Kim.

One day after passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution punishing North Korea for its apparent test of a nuclear weapon, senior U.S. diplomats said yesterday that China must help enforce it and use economic leverage to compel Pyongyang to return to disarmament talks.

China is reluctant to play ball. The Chinese government doesn’t want to enforce shipping sanctions because they don’t want to annoy Kim any further, which I suppose makes some sense, but not very much — until you remember that China and NKor are, more or less, allied nations.

For how much longer is anyone’s guess; if Kim starts getting too crazy, if he begins seriously threatening China, he will not last.

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Early in this movie there’s a conversation between Gregory Peck, who plays a Southern small-town lawyer, and his young daughter Jean Louise, played by Mary Badham. She asks to see his watch, then mentions that according to her brother Jem, the watch will one day belong to him.

“What are you gonna give me?” she asks — and the rest of the film stands as an answer to the question.

The answer: A sense of dignity; a presence of quiet, unwavering acceptance; a living illustration of courage; a willingness to do what is right regardless of what others may think.

The daughter’s preferred name — rather than Jean Louise — is Scout.

The father, Atticus Finch, is charged with defending a black man in the 1930s in Alabama against a rape charge leveled by a white woman.

The movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, earned Peck an Oscar — and the novel of the same name earned its author, Harper Lee, a Pulitzer when it was published.

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Small plane crashes into NYC building.

Hey, Mr. “tough on terror” Republican: How, exactly, have we become safer from airborne attack since 11 September 2001?

Baltimore. Fort Worth. Charlotte. El Paso. Milwaukee. Seattle. Boston. Denver. Louisville. DC. Nashville. Las Vegas. Portland. Oklahoma City. Tucson. Albuquerque. Long Beach. Atlanta. Fresno. Sacramento. New Orleans. Cleveland. Kansas City. Mesa. Virginia Beach. Oakland. Miami. Tulsa. Honolulu. Minneapolis. Colorado Springs. Arlington (TX).

What do these 34 cities have in common?

Each has a population equal to or less than the number of civilian Iraqis estimated killed since the US invaded that nation in 2003. That’s 200,000 human lives snuffed out per year in the name of … of what? Defeating terrorism? Eliminating nonexistent, nonconventional weapons? Ousting a “madman” from power?

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Saturn has a pearl necklace, according to JPL.

A denial of wrongdoing from Mark Foley is expected at any time, to be followed by denials of any awareness of any wrongdoing (including reports or denials of wrongdoing) by various Republican lawmakers, to be concluded by a confession of guilt from John Mark Karr.