Healthcare Reform and Stephen Hawking: A Reality Check

Investor’s Business Daily is in some hotwater… the blogosphere is a buzz is with a discussion of the IBD’s blunder that range from describing the quote as “Dumbass” to accusing the IBD of ‘lying‘. The original quote taken from the IBD read:

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

The editorial has subsequently been ‘corrected’ and now contains the following disclaimer above:

Editor’s Note: This version corrects the original editorial which implied that physicist Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge, did not live in the UK.

I must admit that this is not entirely honest. The take-home message of this editorial was not that Hawking lived in England, but that he is a poster child against nationalized healthcare. As it turns, Hawking was born and raised in the UK, and has in fact come out in support of the UK’s National Health Service.

Obama Administration Undermines Israel Again; Ignorant of History

The Obama administration recently complained to Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, concerning the eviction of two Palestinian families in “East Jerusalem”. The administration officially condemned the eviction, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling the evictions both “deeply regrettable” and “provocative.” Thus far, the media coverage has focused on the fact that Palestinian families were evicted, and that the properties were immediately occupied by Jews. The media coverage has further noted that the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of the evictions, as the properties were forcibly taken from Jews in the past.

There is a complicated legal history regarding ownership of these properties. The properties have changed hands multiple times over the years following conflicts in the region. The evicted Palestinian families fled Jerusalem in 1948 during the War of Independence. The Jordanian government and the United Nations settled the families in these houses following the capture of East Jerusalem during that same war. Israel recaptured East Jerusalem in 1967 during the Six-day war, following which the courts permitted the Arab families to stay with a ‘protected tenant status,’ of course even protected tenants must abide by the terms of their lease, and pay their rent.

Shameless Atheist Exploitation of Gym Massacre

There’s really no other way to describe this. I won’t make much of an effort to describe the massacre at a Pittsburgh gym, as I’m sure it’s been done to death, and that’s not what this post is about. For the sake of completeness, I will post a summary of the tragic events (Source):

Obama: Behind the Curve on Stem Cells

President Barack Obama issued a directive on Thursday of last week (7/30) that called for federal agencies to enact his administration’s new rules regarding federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells. Recall that earlier this year Obama removed an eight-year-old restriction on federally funded embryonic stem cell research by signing an executive order that he called “an important step in advancing the cause of science in America.”

Completely bogus.

Ethical considerations aside, lifting the ban on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, the operative words being federally funded, (there was never any ban on doing research with embryonic stem cells) is at best unnecessary, and at worst a major setback for people who could potentially benefit from stem cell based therapies that actually work, and don’t result in growth of tumors.

Dennis Prager on NPR’s All Things Considered

Prager generally makes an effort to let his listeners know when he’ll be doing other media appearances; he is a frequent guest on Hannity, for example. The Reactionary Researcher generally makes an effort to view and/or listen to any such appearances of Prager’s.

In a rare event for both NPR and Prager, NPR actually had a conservative on All Things Considered, and it was Prager. Prager was on opposite Arianna Huffington in a short (6:51) one segment broadcast. The topic of the day was Obama’s Healthcare plan, and I would suspect that most of my readers will know who came down on which side.

Why I’m not an Atheist

I think this question deserves to be addressed.

I was an atheist.

For a good portion of my life – and much to grandmother’s dismay – I was a professed agnostic/atheist for the vast majority of my life.My grandmother was  a devout Catholic, and one of her great wishes in life, was that I be baptized.

I’m sorry I never had an opportunity to fulfill that wish of hers.

No… that’s not correct. I’m sorry I didn’t utilize the time and opportunity I did have to fulfill that wish.

I simply couldn’t; I either didn’t believe in God, or didn’t understand what I believed about God.

Ad Hominem Attacks from the Culture Wars

I guess it’s pick on Ed Brayton time for me again.

I’ve mentioned Brayton’s blog a couple of times in the past; you can view those posts here and here. I accused Brayton of being intellectually dishonest in these entries. Perhaps I shouldn’t bother; it seems to be par for the course for many liberals. In any case, I keep my on that blog, and it seems like nearly every time I read it, I come across something outrageous.

Yesterday was no different. Brayton’s post, entitled The Worldnutdaily’s Uncle Tom, is pretty self-explanatory, and the ad hominem nature of this post should be clear to pretty much anyone. The post is short enough, where it can be quoted in it’s entirety:

What else could you possibly call a black writer who savages the NAACP, calling them “one of the most radical socialist organizations in America” and part of the “totalitarian cult of liberalism”?

The article in question is a piece by Ellis Washington published on WorldNetDaily entitled Unhappy 100th birthday, NAALCP. Note how Brayton finds it completey unnecessary to actually address what Washington is saying, and casually dismisses him and his article in an ad hominem manner.

The Foolishness of the Black Caucus Highlights the Foolishness of the Black Caucus

First things first… the first “foolishness” I’m referring to was just reported at CNSNews.com, one of my favorite news sites. The title of the report, pretty much says it all: Black Caucus Members Agree With President Obama’s Criticism of Cambridge Police, Call Harvard Professor’s Arrest ‘Racial Profiling’. The members of the black caucus either haven’t read the facts of the case, or are so blinded by race-based issues – neither of which would surprise me – that they are unable to arrive at the only reasonable conclusion any reasonably intelligent person could arrive at; the police were right and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a personal friend of President Barack Obama was wrong – dead wrong.

I’ll review the facts of the case briefly in just a moment, however for those of you who are interested, you can view the officer’s report of the incident here, and it is worth noting that Sergeant James Crowley, the ‘racist’ cop who arrested Gates, is an expert on racial profiling, and actually taught a class on how to avoid racial profiling. Even more devastating to Gates case, is the fact that a black police officer, who was present at the time of Gates’ arrest fully supports Crowley’s decision to arrest Gates.

US Funds Intifada Against Israel

Following his turn around regarding Israel and a series of harsh policy demands, the Obama administration further undermined the nation of Israel today by funding the intifada (Source):

The United States has transferred $200 million in aid for the Palestinian people, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.

The money was part of the assistance package announced at an international donors conference in March.

Clinton, who spoke after returning from a visit to India and Thailand, said the money had been transferred directly to the Palestinian Authority.

That the Palestinian Authority at best maintains ties to terrorist organizations, and at worst is a front for a terrorist operation, is a well documented fact.

And we just donated $200 million to them.

Stem Cell Breakthrough will Likely Eliminate need to Harvest Embryos

A major breakthrough in stem cell science has taken place; scientists have regenerated a living mouse from non-embryonic induce pluripotent stem cells (iPS). I’ve written about iPS before, and their development represents a significant development, as they eliminate the need to harvest embryos to generate pluripotent (cells that have the potential to become any type of cell in an organism) stem cells. Thus far, iPS have been produced from both mouse (2006) and human (2007) cells. In these cases, pluripotency was induced by making genetic alterations to the adult cell, but recent developments have shown that pluripotency can be induced in adult cells by introducing recombinant proteins. This in fact eliminates some of the concerns levied against iPS.