Saturday, May 31, 2008

WRITTEN WHILE LISTENING TO PINK FLOYD'S A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON





Turning away from the Signs of war
Who will own and control The air?
Turning away from the Signs of war
Who will own and control The water?
Turning away from the Signs of war
Who will own and control The petroleum?
Turning away from the Signs of war
Will own and control the Planet?
Turning away from the Signs of war
Who will own and control Outer space?
When will we
Turn away from
The
Signs
Of
War
And
Let
Peace
Take
Control?



IT'S THE OIL STUPID!


***

Before the US launched its attack, Saddam Hussein was telling the Bush/Cheney administration he was willing to leave the country. All he wanted was a safe haven like Idi Amin got, and a billion dollars. We were not told about this offer until years later. Yet think how much cheaper that solution, arrived at through a little talking, would have been than what we got through not talking. Instead of letting Hussein run off with a billion of his own ill-gotten wealth, we’ve spent close to a trillion dollars, killed upwards of a million innocent Iraqis, destroyed a country, driven four million people in a nation of 24 million into exile, ruined America’s global reputation, and bankrupted the US treasury, not to mention running up the price of oil four-fold.
Talk is cheap, I’d say.
Obama should be more forthright and admit that America has no enemies, and that we can talk to anyone.
Dave Lindorff

Friday, May 30, 2008

"IT"

Medea rejuvenates Aeson by Nicolas-André Monsiau





From The Merchant of Venice
ACT V
SCENE I. Belmont. Avenue to PORTIA'S house.


*

I probably shouldn’t write about “it”, but I will.
At my age I suppose it’s o.k. if I write about “it”.
I won’t tell what “it” is for as long as I possibly can to keep your curiosity, or drive you completely nuts.
The setting for this “it” (that I will eventually expose), was at my junior high school.
Belmont Junior High.
Home of the Panthers.
Can you guess what the school colors were?
You were right.
They were black and white.

*

I was too young to know much about panthers or
“it”.
All that I remember about my kindergarden class is how much I enjoyed riding in trains that my teacher made out of paper boxes.
I don’t think I learned very much in first grade.

*

There used to be a tunnel that went under Colfax Avenue so that kids could avoid walking across busy Colfax to get to Belmont.
The subterranean tunnel was wet, dark and spooky.
But it was fun to walk through.
I always expected something bad to happen, but nothing ever did.
My parents' house was about two miles from the school, but it seemed a lot closer because I always took short cuts.

*

There was a girl at Belmont that I became obsessed with.
She had blond hair and always wore black clothes.
I followed her a few times and then stopped when I realized that my desire to be with her was just a young boy’s fantasy.

*

My favorite day at Belmont Junior High was DILL PICKLE DAY.
Five cents for a huge dill pickle!
And there were also sock hops that I loved.
There were only a few each school year, but I went to all of them.
A DJ from the nearby radio station came to the school and played songs.
I looked forward to the slow songs.

*

“It” was in my eighth-grade English class.
I wasn’t too interested in English back then.
I was interested in something---with it---that is...
THAT WAS on MY TEACHER.
I forget her name.
But I lie.
Her name was Ms. Milliron.

*

It” was something that I looked for every day that I came to English class.
On some days I could see “it” better than other days.

But that was o.k., because I knew that “it” would always be there in the same place.
Students never talked about “it”.
“It” was terra incognita, and it was a territory too terrible to talk about.
I sat in front to have a better view of “it”.
Even with my bad eyes I could see “it”.
The first time that I ever saw “it” I blinked hard and thought to myself, “What the heck was that…I mean it?”

*

I waited to look at“it” again.
And again.
And again.
And I always got to see “it” again.

*
I could see “it” better, depending on what Ms. Milliron wore (or didn't wear.)
“It” was as dark as the night.
And there was a lot of “it”.
I think Ms. Milliron knew that I and the entire class saw “it”.
I think she wanted me and the other students to see “it”.
WHAT WAS “IT”?

“It” was the _ _ _ _ on Ms. Milliron's chest!
You can fill in the missing letters.
[Hint: the letters don’t spell a rabbit-like mammal!]


IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND HAIR ON THE CHEST!

























Thursday, May 29, 2008

ROCKING IN CHAIRS AND REMEMBERING THE GOOD OLD DAYS


"Bye.
But when my book is published, you'll all have puzzled, disgruntled, and sad out of body experiences.
"


***


George Bush has gotten away with murder---thousands of murders, and no one is doing anything about it. The American people can't let him do this.

On October 1, 2002...the CIA sent George Bush its 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified top secret report. Page eight clearly and unequivocally says that Saddam Hussein was not an imminent threat to the security of this country. In fact, the report says that Hussein would only use whatever weapons of mass destruction he had against us if he feared that America was about to attack him.

We know that Bush was telling millions upon millions of unsuspecting Americans exactly the opposite of what his own CIA was telling him. We know that George Bush took this nation to war on a lie. Who is going to pay for all of this? Someone has to pay. And the person who has to pay obviously is directly responsible for all of the death horror and suffering. And that person is George W. Bush.

I have set forth in my book the jurisdictional basis for the Attorney General in each of the fifty states – plus the hundreds upon hundreds of district attorneys in counties within the states – to prosecute George Bush for the murders of any soldier or soldiers from their state or county who were killed in Iraq fighting George Bush’s war.

I don’t think it is too unreasonable to believe that at least one prosecutor out there in America – maybe many more – will be courageous enough to say – this is the United States of America. And in America no one is above the law. George Bush has gotten away with murder. No one is doing anything about it. And maybe this book will change that.


Vincent Bugliosi

Author of Reclaiming History (The JFK Assassination), Helter Skelter (Manson Trial), Outrage (O.J. Simpson Trial), The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined Our Constitution and Chose Our President (2000 Presidential Elections), and The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (Perseus Books, 2008).




Tuesday, May 27, 2008

TO FLUSH OR NOT TO FLUSH





SPACE STATION:
Houston...We have a problem.
MISSION CONTROL:
 Roger SPACE STATION…What is your problem?
SPACE STATION:
 Houston…the toilet has stopped working.
MISSION CONTROL:
 Roger…We’ll take a look at what we can do down here.
SPACE STATION:
 Houston…the problem is what we can’t do up here.
MISSION CONTROL:
Roger…just hold it for a little bit until we work something up.
SPACE STATION:
Houston…that’s just it. Something is already working up.
MISSION CONTROL:
 Roger…we suggest that all of you in the SPACE STATION eat and drink as little as possible until we can get your toilet working again.
SPACE STATION:
Roger Houston. We’ll do that, and just sit…I mean stand up until we can sit down again.
MISSION CONTROL:
Roger…SPACE STATION…and Roger out.




IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND TOILETS!

Monday, May 26, 2008

REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 ON MEMORIAL DAY 2008



We must press on with our agenda for peace and prosperity in every land.
George W. Bush

[From President Bush Speaks to United Nations
Remarks by the President To United Nations General Assembly
U.N. Headquarters
New York, New York
November/2001]

We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty.

George W. Bush
[From President Bush Speaks to United Nations
Remarks by the President To United Nations General Assembly
U.N. Headquarters
New York, New York
November/2001]




The President’s office, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the FBI allowed the attackers to prepare their plans, secure funding, proceed to the airports, board the planes and carry out their attacks…all carrying US visas (mostly issued in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – once a prominent site for processing Arabs to fight in Afghanistan) and with ‘pilots’ who were US-trained. As soon as the terrorists took control of the flights, the Air Force was notified of the hijacking but top leaders ‘inexplicably’ delayed moves to intercept the planes allowing the attackers to reach their objectives…the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Every level of the US government was aware that Arab extremists were planning a spectacular armed attack in the United States . The FBI and the CIA had their names and addresses; the President’s National Security Adviser Condeleeza Rice publicly admitted that the Executive branch knew that a terrorist hijacking would occur…only they had expected, she claimed, a ‘traditional hijacking’ and not the use of ‘airliners as missiles’. The Attorney General John Ashcroft was acutely aware and refused to fly on commercial airliners. Scores of Israeli spies were living blocks away from some of the hijackers in Florida , informing headquarters on their movements. Overseas intelligence agencies, notably in Germany , Russia , Israel and Egypt claimed to have provided information to their US counterparts on the ‘terrorist plot’. The President’s office, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the FBI allowed the attackers to prepare their plans, secure funding, proceed to the airports, board the planes and carry out their attacks…all carrying US visas (mostly issued in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – once a prominent site for processing Arabs to fight in Afghanistan) and with ‘pilots’ who were US-trained. As soon as the terrorists took control of the flights, the Air Force was notified of the hijacking but top leaders ‘inexplicably’ delayed moves to intercept the planes allowing the attackers to reach their objectives…the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In pursuit of military –driven empire building in accord with Israel’s own version, the Zionist militarists in the US government exceeded their pre-9/11 expectations, raising military spending from 3% of GNP in 2000 to 6% in 2008, growing at a rate of 13% per year during their ascendancy from 2001-2008. As a result they raised the US budget deficit to over $10 trillion dollars by 2010, double the 1997 deficit, and driving the US economy and its economic empire toward bankruptcy.
The pivotal group linking US military-driven empire builders with their counterparts in Israel was the major influential Zionist public policy group promoting what they dubbed the ‘Project for a New American Century” (PNAC). In 1998 they set out a detailed military-driven road map to US world domination (the so-called ‘Project for a New American Century’), which just happened to focus on the Middle East and just happened to coincide exactly with Tel Aviv’s vision of a US-Israel dominated Middle East. In 2000 the PNAC Zionist ideologues published a strategy paper ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses’, which laid down the exact guidelines which incoming Zionist policy makers in the top spheres of the Pentagon and White House would follow. PNAC directives included establishing forward military bases in the Middle East, increasing military spending from 3% to 4% of GNP, a military attack to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and military confrontation with Iran using the pretext of the threats of ‘weapons of mass destruction’.
The PNAC agenda could not advance without a catastrophic Pearl Harbortype of event, as US military-driven empire builders, Israelis and US Zionist policy makers recognized early on. The deliberate refusal by the White House and its subordinate 16 intelligence agencies and the Justice Department to follow up precise reports of terrorist entry, training, financing and action plans was a case of deliberate ‘negligence’: The purpose was to allow the attack to take place and then to immediately launch the biggest wave of military invasions and state terrorist activities since the end of the Indochina War.
Israel , which had identified and kept close surveillance of the terrorists, insured that the action would proceed without any interruption. During the 9/11 attacks, its agents even had the presumption to video and photograph the exploding towers, while dancing in wild celebration, anticipating Washington’s move toward Israel’s militarist Middle East strategy.
Philip Zelikow, an academic and former government official and prominent advocate of ‘preventative defense’ (the offensive war policies promoted by the Zionist militants in the government) was named executive director to conduct and write the official ‘9-11 Commission Report’. Zelikow was privy to the need for a pretext, like 9/11, for launching the permanent global warfare, which he had advocated. With a prescience, which could only come from an insider to the fabrication leading to war, he had written: “Like Pearl Harbor, this event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States (sic) might respond with draconian measures, scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects and use of deadly force (torture)”, (see Catastrophic Terrorism – Tackling the New Dangers , co-authored by Philip Zelikow and published by Foreign Affairs in 1998).

Prior to 9/11 Zelikow provided a ‘blueprint’ for the process of an executive seizing extreme power for global warfare. He outlined a sequence in which a ‘catastrophic terrorist event’ could facilitate the absolute concentration of power, followed by the launching of offensive wars for Israel (as he publicly admitted). In the run-up to 9/11 and the multiple wars, he served as a member of National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice’s National Security Council transition team (2000-2001), which had intimate knowledge of terrorist plans to seize US commercial flights, as Rice herself publicly admitted (‘conventional hijackings’ was her term). Zelikow was instrumental in demoting and disabling the counter-terrorism expert Richard Clark from the National Security Council, the one agency tracking the terrorist operation. Between 2001-2003, Zelikow was a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. This was the agency, which had failed to follow-up and failed to pursue the key intelligence reports identifying terrorist plans. Zelikow, after playing a major role in undermining intelligence efforts to prevent the terrorist attack, became the principle author of the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States, which prescribed Bush’s policy of military invasion of Iraq and targeted Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and other independent Arab and Muslim countries and political entities. Zelikow’s ‘National Security Strategy’ paper was the most influential directive shaping the global state terrorist policies of the Bush regime. It also brought US war policies in the closest alignment with the regional military aspirations of the Israeli state since the founding of Israel . Indeed, this was why the former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated at Bar Ilan University that the 9/11 attack and the US invasion of Iraq were ‘good for Israel ’ (see Haaretz, April 16, 2008).
Zelikow directed the commission report, which exonerated the administration of any knowledge and complicity in 9/11, but convinced few Americans outside of the mass media and Congress. Polls conducted in the summer of 2003 on the findings of the Commission proceedings and its conclusions found that a majority of the American public expressed a high level of distrust and rejection – especially among New Yorkers. The general public suspected Government complicity, especially when it was revealed that Zelikow conferred with key figures under investigation, Vice President Cheney and Presidential ‘Guru’ Karl Rove. In response to skeptical citizens, Zelikow went on an insane rage, calling the sceptics ‘pathogens’ or germs whose ‘infection’ needed to be contained. With language reminiscent of a Hitlerian Social Darwinist diatribe, he referred to criticisms of the Commission cover up as ‘a bacteria (that) can sicken the larger body (of public opinion)’. Clearly Zelikow’s pseudoscientific rant reflects the fear and loathing he feels for those who implicated him with a militarist regime, which fabricated a pretext for a catastrophic war for Zelikow’s favorite state – Israel .
Zelikow, as Bush’s personal appointee as the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, coordinated the cover-up of the Administration policy of complicity in 9/11 with the Vice President’s office. While Zelikow is not considered an academic heavyweight, his ubiquitous role in the design, execution and cover-up of the world-shattering events surrounding 9/11 and its aftermath mark him as one of the most dangerous and destructive political ‘influentials’ in the shaping and launching of Washington’s past, present and future catastrophic wars.
Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11
by Prof. James Petras
May 25, 2008
James Petras’ forthcoming book, Zionism and US Militarism, is due from Clarity Press, Atlanta , in August 2008.
***


As America approaches its next Presidential election, I wonder whether we are in for another 9/11, this time to justify a war with Iran. The recent
forced resignation of Admiral William Fallon from U.S. Central Command (forgotten since it occurred during the Elliot Spitzer dust-up) was an event of great potential magnitude. Fallon was widely perceived as the last military figure willing to stand up to the Bush administration on Iran. "Not on my watch," were his now-famous words when asked about a potential war with that nation. Well, Fallon is now out of the way.
Fallon’s departure from Centcom has been interpreted by many as a signal that America is planning
a strike against Iran. From a military, political, and economic standpoint, this is sheer madness. And yet, many believe it is possible, even likely.
The problem, however, is that the rest of the world sees no justification for a strike on Iran. None of the rhetoric emanating from the White House has persuaded anyone outside the tight confines of the neoconservatives who make policy. But even they recognize the need for positive spin, and the need of a sufficient justification.
Such a justification would have to be something very major, and then pinned on Iran. I imagine that people in the Bush administration would like for it to occur before the 2008 election. If so, would such an event also be used to excuse a "delay" to the election? Back in 2004, such possibilities were
quietly discussed, although the normally comatose American media woke up and the Bush team quickly backed off. Apparently, it was easier simply to rig the election again.
But how many elections can you rig before people begin to talk out loud? Hence my concern that Fallon’s ouster from Centcom is the signal for a major "something" to occur within the next few months. If seven years of the Bush administration have taught us anything, it is that the men and women running it would not scruple against expending more American lives and dollars in pursuit of grandiose plans of wealth and global hegemony.
It is noteworthy that in May 2007 the President signed the
National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive. This has received hardly any media attention, but it specifies procedures for continuity of the government in the event of a "catastrophic event." Substantial portions of it remain classified, and even the relevant members of Congress have been denied access to it. The directive appears to allow for the President to claim a national emergency and take over the government without oversight from Congress or the Supreme Court. It does not specify who has the power to declare any such emergency over.
The betrayal of the American Dream by the current occupants in the White House has not occurred as brutally as the Stalinist betrayal, so deftly portrayed by George Orwell. Nothing in history is ever exactly the same. And it is important to point out that such betrayal is a fully bi-partisan effort, for the Democratic Party sold its soul to the requisites of globalization and empire long ago.

[From Orwellian America: 9/11 and the Road to Iran
By Richard M. Dolan
May 9, 2008
http://keyholepublishing.com/Orwellian%20America.htm]




Richard Dolan is author of UFOs and the National Security State. He has made numerous television and radio appearances, and is currently writing a second volume to his original study.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

MEMORIAL DAY

If you’re for peace, you can’t be in our parade.

War and its dead are what we are parading.

Peace is a pariah in a parade about wars and those who were lost because of those wars.

Remember the dead; not the living.

Celebrate Wars’ victims.

Peace has no place in our parade.

Peace is the enemy of war.

We remember only those who died in wars; not those who are living for peace.

Everyone loves a parade.


Mad Plato


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!


***


The Little Girl Saw Her First Troop Parade

By Carl Sandburg


The little girl saw her first troop parade and asked, “What are those?”
“Soldiers.”
“What are soldiers?”
“They are for war. They fight and each tries to kill as many of the other side as he can.”
The girl held still and studied.
“Do you know…I know something?”
“Yes, what is it you know?”
“Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.”




Vets for Peace Booted from National Memorial Day Parade

There is one group of veterans that isn’t allowed to march in the national memorial parade in Washington on Monday.

That’s the Veterans for Peace, Delwin Anderson Memorial chapter, based in D.C. It’s named after a World War II vet who fought in Italy and then worked for the VA for many years designing programs for injured veterans.

The group had applied to join the National Memorial Day parade.

And initially, anyway, it was accepted.

But then, late last month, the group was told that it didn’t meet the criteria to participate.

The American Veterans Center, which runs the parade, told them “we cannot have elements in the parade that have any type of political message or wish to promote a point of view.”

But other groups, like the American Legion, will be participating in the parade.

Its creed is to defend “God and country” and to “foster and perpetuate a 100 percent Americanism.”

And check out the list of major sponsors for the parade. They include: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, the nation of Kuwait, the U.S. Army, and even the NRA.

“We’re striving to keep political statements out of the parade,” says Jordan Cross, communications director of the American Veterans Center. “Last year, we had two groups who supported the war, and we turned them down.”

Cross says that when the American Veterans Center looked more closely at the Vets for Peace application and “saw what they were requesting, to carry a coffin in the parade, and all that jazz,” it decided not to let them participate.

Michael Marceau, a wounded Vietnam vet, serves as vice president of the D.C. Vets for Peace group. “We’re puzzled,” he said, adding that he felt “very disrespected.”

Caroline Anderson, the widow of Delwin Anderson, was supposed to ride in the parade in a convertible. Bashful, she doesn’t want to talk about herself or on behalf of the Vets for Peace chapter. But she is not happy about the expulsion. “It’s a great disappointment,” she says, “to feel that other veterans would not allow them to be with them and march, just because they’re for peace.”

http://www.progressive.org/mag_mc052308


Saturday, May 24, 2008

IRONY


ABC News reported how fast the ice is melting in the Arctic because of Global Warming.

Then it reported on how many countries want to plant their flags beneath this melted ice.

Why?

To have ownership of some of the huge volume of petroleum deposited below.

ABC reported that the Arctic has more oil than the Middle East!


IT'S THE OIL STUPID!

Friday, May 23, 2008

HILLARY ROCKY HEART OF COLD STONE CLINTON


Shame on you Hillary Clinton.

You make me sick.

It was bad enough when Mr. Holy Huckabee Christer joked about assassination.

But you have mentioned it with sedate indifference.

The depths are deep that politicians go to gain their political goals.

Yours are for power and vainglory.

You have been undone, Mrs. Clinton, by your own horrible words.

Now, even if Senator Obama had you on his short list for Vice President, you are now at the bottomless abyss.

Your run for the presidency is over.

You did it all by yourself.

You’re finished!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

IF EMBRYOS COULD TALK ABOUT INTERSPECIES SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER



Emily: Well, today’s the day we get transferred.

Byron: Where?

Emily: Haven’t you heard? To some pigs and cows.

Byron: Holy cow! I mean…why?

Emily: For our future brothers and sisters---so that they can have replacement cells and organs

Byron: But why the pigs and cows? What’s wrong with us?

Emily: I’m not sure. Well, let’s get going. We can’t be late.

Byron: O.K. Just let me get my hat.

Mad Plato

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

Enter, the Cybrids

By Olivia Judson

The New York Times

May 20, 2008


This week, a complex and controversial piece of legislation began to make its way through the British parliament. One of the provisions of the bill permits the creation of “savior siblings” — children created via in vitro fertilization (I.V.F.) to ensure their tissues will match those of a sick older brother or sister, in order that the new child could provide, say, a bone marrow transplant. (Conceiving a child the old-fashioned way doesn’t guarantee a tissue match.) Another is a reduction of the legal time-limit on abortion, which up to now has been 24 weeks.

A third provision — and the most controversial of all — permits the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos, or “cybrids,” for medical research. On Monday, in the first stage of passing the legislation, members of the House of Commons voted in favor. It is this third provision that I want to focus on.

Traditionally, a hybrid is the result of a mating between individuals of different species, as when a donkey and a horse mate to produce a mule. In nature, whether species form hybrids depends on many factors, including whether individuals from different species ever meet each other, whether they find each other attractive and whether they are physically able to copulate.

If mating actually takes place, several further conditions must be met. First, the sperm and egg must recognize each other, and the sperm must be able to get inside the egg. Then, the two genomes must be able to work together to build an embryo. Finally — in mammals like us with an extended pregnancy — the mother’s body needs to be able to interact correctly with the developing fetus. In these traditional hybrids half of the DNA comes from each species, and the resulting animal is a blend of the characteristics of the two.

The hybrids under discussion in the British bill are totally different. The idea is to take an animal egg — say a cow egg — and remove its nucleus. This would remove most of the cow’s DNA from the egg. Human DNA would then be introduced, and the embryo would be allowed to begin to grow. (The introduction of human DNA would normally be done by putting an entire small cell, such as a skin cell, into the animal’s egg. On being zapped with electricity, the two cells readily fuse, and the nucleus of the skin cell then becomes the nucleus of the egg.) The new nucleus thus contains only human DNA. The technical term for this procedure is interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer, or interspecies cloning.

If the embryo were allowed to keep growing, and was then implanted into a woman, it would — presumably, and assuming nothing went wrong — grow into a baby. However, the aim is not to produce humans this way; under the new law, embryos will have to be destroyed at 14 days (the time that the embryo begins to differentiate into cells of different types). Rather, the aim is to collect stem cells from the embryos for use in medical research.

Embryonic stem cells are made in the first few days after an egg is fertilized; the reason these cells are sought after is that they have the potential to become any type of cell in the body. (There has been some progress towards reprogramming other cells to behave like embryonic stem cells; but whether these reprogrammed cells are in fact equivalent is not yet clear.) Embryonic stem cells could potentially provide treatments for diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. But there is a shortage of them because the traditional way to get them comes from cultivating human eggs, and these are in short supply. Hence the interest in using animal eggs.

The idea hasn’t come out of the blue. There have been various public consultations about the procedure for well over a year: a parliamentary committee on science and technology has investigated the matter, as has the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, an independent body that oversees I.V.F. and embryo research in Britain. Moreover, the general methodology — removing the nucleus of an egg and injecting a skin cell (or similar) from the same species — has already been used extensively in the cloning of cows and other animals.

Work on interspecies cloning has been also proceeding for a number of years. For example, macaque (that’s a type of monkey) DNA has been put into rabbit eggs; gaur (a kind of South Asian cow) DNA has been put into domestic cow eggs; mouflon (an exotic sheep) DNA has been put into domestic sheep eggs. Usually the experiments end before significant embryonic development takes place; in few cases have any live animals been born. (Unlike traditional hybrids, however, such animals are clearly of the species that the nucleus came from.) Most of these experiments are being done in the hopes of one day being able to rescue species that are endangered — and for which eggs are thus scarce.

Meanwhile, in several countries including China, Korea and the United States, human DNA has already been put into eggs from both rabbits and cows; in one of the experiments (with rabbit eggs), some embryonic stem cells were generated.

These results are preliminary, and it isn’t yet clear whether stem cells produced this way will behave as regular human embryonic stem cells do. The reason is that no one knows how much the animal origin of the egg is going to matter. Eggs of different species differ from one another in a number of important respects. For example, the very first stages of embryonic development are not under the control of the genome in the nucleus, but of factors in the egg. The nuclear genome does not immediately get switched on; the timing of the switching differs from one species to the next. For example, it starts at the two-cell stage in mice, the four-cell stage in humans, and the eight-cell stage in cows. In rabbits, it happens gradually. Whether such differences will cause problems remains to be seen.

And there’s something else as well. A moment ago, I said that removing the nucleus of the egg would remove “most” of the animal DNA. Importantly, it does not remove all of it. Some DNA is not stored in the nucleus, but in small entities in the cell’s cytoplasm known as mitochondria. The reason is that once upon a time, mitochondria were free-living bacteria, so they retain the remnants of their original genome.

In and of itself, the mitochondrial genome is tiny. Where the main human genome is 3 billion base pairs of DNA long, the mitochondrial genome is a mere 16,500. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter: mitochondria play several crucial roles in the cell, and faulty mitochondria are linked to a large number of human diseases. Worse, mitochondria exist in many copies. A mammalian egg may contain as many as 200,000 mitochondria; each of these will have at least one copy of the mitochondrial genome.

Inserting a human cell into an animal egg does, therefore, create a kind of genetic hybrid, for most of the mitochondrial DNA will be of animal origin. (A little will be human, for the skin cell will have brought some with it. Hence the term “cybrid” — for cytoplasmic hybrid.) At least some interspecies clones have run into problems because of a failure of the DNA in the nucleus to communicate correctly with the DNA in the mitochondria; in the gaur-cow fusion, for example, problems between the mitochondria and the nucleus led to a variety of abnormalities in the embryos as they began to grow.

It may be that no human stem cell lines will be produced from such work. But even if they are not, in the course of it, we will learn an enormous amount about fundamental aspects of how embryos develop. This in itself may lead to insights about how to treat diseases, or to any number of important discoveries we cannot foresee.

So, what are the objections? Some object on religious grounds, arguing that the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos is an assault on human dignity and the sanctity of human life. I disagree: I think a tiny clump of cells in a dish does not have equal standing with a person. Moreover, if that tiny clump of cells can potentially lead to treatments that improve peoples’ lives, it seems to me that the sanctity of human life is better respected by following that potential, not preventing it.

Others object on practical grounds, arguing that it may not work. To them, I say: is it right to cut off a line of investigation because it might be unsuccessful? Whether or not this technology leads swiftly to the development of treatments, it seems to me to be worth investigating: without doing the experiments, we can’t find out if the idea is useful.

Another objection: fear that the experiments could lead to new infectious diseases. And it is true that the human genome harbors sleeping viruses — known as human endogenous retroviruses. Might these wake up on finding themselves in a new cellular surrounding? Maybe; but this can be monitored, and in any case, the risk seems remote.

When, a couple of years ago, I first imagined putting a nucleus from one animal into the egg of another, I found the idea unsettling. But that was because I was imagining something different: I had in mind the growing of animals, not the creation and swift destruction of a clump of cells. I worried that animals produced this way might not be normal. But then I learned more about the procedure and how it is done. Also, in the course of making a television program about biotechnology, I visited laboratories working with stem cells, and I was impressed by what we have already managed to achieve.

Now my discomfort has gone away. It’s been replaced by wonder. We’ve already learned a great deal about the ultimate construction of life as a result of the experiments done so far. But more than that, the fact that it’s possible at all to put one creature’s DNA into another creature’s cell and have the two work together at all is amazing — and another sign of the common evolutionary heritage of ourselves and the other beings on the planet.

Well, O.K.

This is so wonderful.

Some scientific advances or creations are not good (for our health or ethics).

I am suspicious and worried about the efficacy of this one.

Does the end justify the means?

To you, it does; to me, it doesn't.

I find this a monstrosity, not a wonder.

Mad Plato


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

JAW JAW OR BOMB BOMB?

Reporter:
Senator McCain, what do you believe is the biggest difference between you and Barack Obama on the Iraq war and Iran?

JM:
I want us to stay in Iraq until there is victory; I'll bomb Iran if I think that it will help us win in Iraq. But Mr. Obama wants to raise a white flag in Iraq and to appease Iran and talk with its leaders.

Reporter:
Is that all?

JM:
Well, Senator Obama has about as much experience with war and foreign relations as my little toenail does.

Reporter:
And yet, you want to bomb, and Senator Obama wants to talk.

JM:
That's right. He's a jaw-jaw man. I'm a bomb-bomb man.
(McCain snickers)

Monday, May 19, 2008

Q & A

How does John Edwards’ endorsement of Barack Obama affect the Democratic primary race?
How does a solid punch to your solar plexus affect you?
Just ask Hillary Clinton.


Should the highway speed limit be lowered to 55 mph to conserve gasoline?
No, make it 50 mph.
Then when people speed at 55 or 60 mph, conservation can be achieved.


Should Republicans facing congressional races in November run away from – or run with – John McCain?
Yes, they should run away from McCain as if they are running away from the Devil and the Fires of Hell.
What message does it send the GOP when 72,000 people show up for a Barack Obama campaign rally?
Barack does Rock.
Not only this, Obama DOES lift up heart and spirit...and yes...
HOPE!

IT'S THE OIL STUPID!




Saturday, May 17, 2008

OTHER WORLDS

As soon as somebody demonstrates the art of flying, settlers from our species of man will not be lacking [on the moon and Jupiter]... Given ships or sails adapted to the breezes of heaven, there will be those who will not shrink from even that vast expanse.

Johannes Kepler

I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.

Stephen Hawking

The prospective colonization of space responds, not to the particular problems of the American nation, or of any other nation, but to those of mankind as a whole... In an ideal view, such an undertaking by mankind as a whole would tend to divert it from its present preoccupation with international conflict would tend to channel its energies into the pursuit of a great common purpose.

Louis J. Halle

***

It’s time to get our weary and warring butts off of this world, and get them to Europa.

No, not Europe… but

Jupiter’s Europa.

Our bellicose butts have been sitting on earth for almost thirty years since we landed on our own moon.

By we, of course, I mean America.

The new voyages into outer space should not be a nationalistic enterprise.

Multi-talented men and women from all nations on Spaceship Earth should go.

These nations should share the expenses.

With water below the surface of Europa, humans can live there.

We must leave soon.

Before the dollar is totally worthless.

Before bad weather, war, and famine put out the lights on Earth.

We should have a five-year plan for migrating to other worlds.

Go for the Gold!

Go for the Gusto!

Go to Europa!

Before it’s too late!

P.S. Outposts on the Moon and Mars must be constructed first.

I guess we might be looking at

another fifty years before this show is put on the road.

IT’S THE OIL STUPID!

***

Friday, 16th May 2008
News.scotsman.com

Jupiter moon 'could be a habitat for life'

SHIFTING poles on one of Jupiter's moons strongly suggest the presence of a global ice-covered ocean, it was revealed yesterday.

The discovery of "wandering poles" on Europa provides further evidence of a liquid ocean beneath an icy crust.

Many scientists believe the hidden ocean, warmed by tidal forces from Jupiter's powerful gravity, may provide a suitable habitat for life.

Europa, slightly smaller than the Earth's moon, has a number of unexplained surface features pointing to a turbulent geological history.

One example is two groups of broad troughs and depressions at diametrically opposite locations on Europa's surface.

Images from three spacecraft, Voyager, Galileo and New Horizons, show several arc-shaped depressions extending more than 500 kilometres.

Scientists writing in the journal Nature said these were just the sort of patterns that would be expected to result from stresses caused by wandering poles.