And a lot of conservatives are pissed.

Let me just say as a blue-state conservative I really don't get this whole deal, and I think it's one of the more objectionable parts of the current conservative platform.

These embryos -- correct me if I'm wrong -- are slated to be destroyed anyway, right? They won't be kept in cold storage forever. Or else the stem cells come from aborted fetuses which are dead already, right?

So-- ignoring the somewhat trivial fact that one in 100,000 might become a "snowflake baby" -- what is the problem here? I realize that symbolism has some value, but isn't this elevating symbolism over an awful lot of important stuff?

I don't buy the slippery-slope argument, as I almost never do. If the fear is that using embryos slated to be destroyed anyway will encourage the creation of more embryos-- well, just make that illegal. If the fear is that this will encourage women to get pregnant and then have abortions just to sell the stem-cell-rich fetus -- well, that's just not going to happen, with such a surplus of free aborted fetuses on the market, but let's assume the ridiculous and say it is: then make abortion-for-selling-the-dead-fetus illegal.

I don't see how on earth it's necessary to protect against these rather unlikely possibilities by denying federal funding for medical experiments on stem-cells coming from embryos or fetuses which are already dead, or will be soon enough.

An Endorsement of Euthanasia/Abortion/The Taking of Human Life: This is just nonsense. If a man is murdered, do we reject using his organs to help someone who needs them, just because his life was taken illegally?

Of course we don't. We use those organs (assuming he's an organ donor) and no one takes that as an enorsement of murder, or that society is somehow benefitting from murder.

Young organs are healthy organs, so I'm guessing most (or at least many) transplanted organs come from victims of sudden violent death. The fact that we use the organs of the dead to help the living is hardly some sort of expression of our society's approval of deadly car crashes.

Symbolism And Tenuous Indirect Effects: When the left argues against making it murder to kill the fetus of a pregnant woman while attacking her, we quite rightly laugh at them for their extremism, as they're elevating the very tenuous and indirect statement that may make about life or abortion over the common-sense reality that if a woman has a baby in her womb, and you kill it, you're a murderer and should be punished as such.

Isn't the right doing the opposite here? Yes, I suppose this could "erode" our respect for life, in a very indirect and slight manner. But if you approve of that sort of thinking, then you have to admit that, coming from a pro-choice point of view, NARAL has a point-- making it murder to kill a fetus "erodes" our commitment to reproductive choices and blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda.

In both cases I think those most animated about these issues are making a big deal over a trivial issue in order to advance/protect the issue they really care about. And in both cases, the policy fight about this trivial issue chosen to serve as a tripwire for the protection of the other more important issue seems kind of crazy, and cruel, to those of us (and we're many) who don't really care too much about "symbolism" or "erosions" or very attenuated indirect effects.

It sounds crazy and cruel to not charge a man with murder after he's killed a pregnant woman's baby, whatever that may say indirectly about abortion.

And it sounds equally crazy and cruel to not experiment with a promising medical technology, which hurts no fetuses (they're already dead) and "kills" embryos slated to be "killed" anyway, just because that, too, indirectly says something about abortion and issues of life generally.

Both of these do say something about the general issue of life. Trouble is, neither says nearly enough about the issue to justify the proposed policy.

Maverick Didn't Come Here To Lose: Fat Kid's annoyed that now the liberal MSM will fall in love with "maverick" Frist, and yeah, that's annoying. And tediously predictable.

We all know the MSM is very hot for funding stem-cell research... partly just because they know conservatives are against it.

They're annoying kneejerkedly-liberal partisan-hack nincompoops.

That said, I still don't get why we can't use dead things to help living people.

Posted by: Ace at 08:53 AM | Comments (142)
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I'm usually not big on internet quizzes, and, well, I'm not really big on this one either, but at least it's... okay.

It'll tell ya which sort of high school dork you were, as if that memory were not already seared painfully into your subconscious.

I came up Punk/Rebel, which is semi-true as far as it goes, but not really accurate, either. When you don't fit into one of the classic Breakfast Club archetypes, I guess the quiz just decides you're a "Punk/Rebel."

Posted by: Ace at 08:39 AM | Comments (17)
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Lately I'm more worried about the Pakistanis than anyone else, but it's a start.

Sort of. Not sure the lack of a Visa is going to deter these people.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says all foreign students at madrassas, or religious schools, some 1,400 pupils, must leave the country.
"Any (foreigners) in the madrassas - even dual nationality holders - will leave Pakistan," Gen Musharraf said.

This is the latest in a series of measures the president has announced in a renewed clampdown on extremism.

Madrassas have been in the spotlight after one of the London bombers was reported to have studied at one.

Gen Musharraf told foreign journalists in Islamabad: "They must leave. We will not issue visas to such people.

"We will not allow madrassas to be misused for extremism, hatred being projected in our society."

I don't want to arrest the workers. I want the leaders of the banned groups. I'm not impressed by figures. We want to get all of the bigwigs

No new visas will be issued to foreigners wishing to study in the schools.

An ordinance would be adopted "in the coming days" on the new move, Gen Musharraf said.

He also told journalists that action would be taken against any of the madrassas that did not register with the authorities.

The president had previously announced all schools must register before December.

Pakistani forces have detained hundreds of clerics and suspected militants since President Musharraf announced a new crackdown on 15 July.

Via The Corner.

Posted by: Ace at 08:07 AM | Comments (7)
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This is just childish, that's what this is.

Hidden because, well, it's so juvenile it embarrasses even me.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:58 PM | Comments (12)
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Ummm, before you click on this, be aware it's 1, nudity (full frontal as regards dudes) and 2, it's not the sort of nudity you want to see.

Seriously. You know how we might kneejerkedly carp that naked-demonstration chicks are ugly, sort of ignoring the couple of cute PETA chicks who are actually kind of hot?

Well, there aren't any cute PETA chicks here.

I have no idea what any of this proves, except maybe that not all transexuals are six foot tall and slender.

The commeter called this a form of "visual rape," which I thought was over the top, until I saw the bearded 300 pound transexual with breasts somewhere between man-titties and Janice Dickenson and the 60 year old dude with testicles the approximate shape and size of bean-bag furniture.

They set out to shock the straights... well played, anti-war lunatics. Very well played.

Thanks, of a sort, to Guy, via LGF.

Posted by: Ace at 04:27 PM | Comments (54)
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And he could be out by 2020.

The arrogant liberal judge (a Regan appointee, I have to note) said he "wrestled" with the proper sentence, balancing the harm intended (mass murder) against... something else. "Cooperation," which the terrorist cut off after at time.

Wrestled with it?

Wrestled with what, exactly?

The man planned to murder scores of innocent civilians. He has absolutely nothing to mitigate his guilt. Why was he not sentenced to the absolute maxium?

What would it take to get a tough sentence out of this judge?

Oh yeah: Hugh Hewitt tells us. Montana Militiamen -- nasty pieces of work, no doubt, who conspired against the nation's banking system -- got a longer sentence (by one half a year) than this guy.

As if that isn't bad enough, this strutting peacock of a softheaded jackass then goes on to lecture us about military trials and the need to bring terrorists into civilian courts.

Uh-huh. You certainly made a point about civilian courts, though not the one you intended.

Posted by: Ace at 12:24 PM | Comments (29)
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I got most of them right, although I did have a brainfart when I answered that Leon Klinghoffer had been murdered not by "male Muslim extremists between the ages of 17 and 40," but by Dr. Charles Drew, who first separated plasma from whole blood.

Not sure how I blew that one. I guess I just never trusted the guy. I remember one time in third grade when I was asked who he was and I said "Dr. Charles Drew is a cryptofascist subversive and sexual deviant who'll be the first one with his back against the wall when Jim Morrison rises from the dead to lead the New Revolution."*

I ended up in Special Ed for three weeks making construction-paper puppets of Cookie Monster. Best three weeks of my whole life.

* Joke lifted from an old friend, but he probably stole it himself, so the hell with him.

More Seriously: Paul Sperry points out the bleedin' obvious in a NYT editorial.

Posted by: Ace at 11:47 AM | Comments (15)
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Eh, you know the sites. Drudge, Lucianne, FoxNews, etc.

A lot of times I don't link big stories because 1, I imagine everyone knows about them, so why should I waste your time linking a story you already read? and 2, because I have nothing to add.

I mean, they rounded up nine bombing suspects in London. This is great news.

And that would be my comment: "Hey, guys, this is great news."

The suspected bomb-master has been detained in Zambia.

Again: "Hey, guys, this is really super news. I hope they hang him. That would be even more super."

So, nothing to add. Unless I could pull a Wretchard and analogize the capture of nine terrorist suspects to Darius' defense of Athens or somethin'. Which I can't. Was Darius even the king of Athens? I have no idea. So, right there, strike one.

Anyway... just letting everyone know, they're catching the terrorists. Yes, I know about it, and I'm not mentioning it because I figure you all do too.

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (28)
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Funnier than you'd guess. It's fashion advice that speaks to me.

Dr. Thorpe: This guy sweats champagne.
Zack: This is what MTV would look like if Mozart had written a piano concerto about spinnaz.

Dr. Thorpe: I wonder why they chose the photo where he's standing like a bouncer. Terrifying as that coat is, it just doesn't project menance. It's only terrifying because you have to imagine how it smells after a night out: like Brut, scented body oil, hair gel, and testicle.

You can check out the actual International Male catalogue here. It's sort of Vin Diesel in XXX meets an old Scritti Politti video.

Thanks again to Posted by: Ace at 11:24 AM | Comments (14)
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More like this, please:

U.S. Muslims issue anti-terrorism 'fatwa'

By Romney Willson 50 minutes ago

Top U.S. Muslim scholars issued a "fatwa," or religious edict, against terrorism on Thursday and called on Muslims to help authorities fight the scourge of militant violence.

The fatwa was part of efforts by U.S. Muslims to counter perceived links between Islam and terrorism and avert any negative backlash after this month's bombings by suspected Islamic extremists in London and Egypt.

"Having our religious scholars side by side with our community leaders leaves no room for anybody to suggest that Islam and Muslims condone or support any forms or acts of terrorism," said Esam Omeish, president of the Muslim American Society, one of the groups which announced the fatwa.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said it was the first time Muslims in North America had issued an anti-terrorism edict, although they had repeatedly condemned such acts of violence.

Better late than never, I guess.

Thanks to Thomas. From Yahoo. (Can't find the link.)

Posted by: Ace at 10:46 AM | Comments (40)
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