Tuesday, August 7, 2007
What's the worst that could happen?
Posted by Harold Henderson on Tue, Aug 7, 2007 at 7:10 AM
Illinois Democrats have failed miserably to govern, by not being able to agree on a state budget for two months and counting. Apparently Missouri Republicans are doing worse -- and their failure is driven, not by faction fighting, but by radical fundamentalist ideology that equates a microscopic assemblage of cells with a human being. As Jason Rosenbaum reports in the Columbia Tribune, (hat tip to Progressive States Network), the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City owns 100 acres there but may invest $850 million elsewhere. Even though Missouri voters have amended the state's constitution to prohibit legislative meddling with scientific research using embryonic stem cells, Republican legislators and the governor continue to try.
"In the event that Missouri embraces policies and enacts laws and regulations advocated by Sen. Bartle and Rep. Lembke, it is unlikely that there will ever be further expansion of the scientific facilities of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Missouri," Stowers spokeswoman Laurie Roberts said. "To do otherwise would be akin to expanding a newspaper operation in a jurisdiction that had abolished freedom of press."
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Harold, you just classified Pope Benedict, the Vatican, and the pontifical teachigns of the Catholic Church as a "radical fundamentalist ideology". Reading Rosenbaums article, it can also be interpreted that Missouri is unwilling to put out subsidy and pork for a morally questionable and economically unlikely project, prompting Stowers to demand government loot elsewhere. JBP
Radical indeed, and morally quite counterintuitive: check out http://unbecominglevity.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/11/2942952.html for the case of the firefighter entering the fertility clinic, who can either save a six-year-old girl or a test tube containing a frozen embryo. Should he hesitate? And by the way, Rosenbaum's article mentions nothing about subsidies, but it does have something to say about freedom, a value which most Americans (and, based on the referendum results, most Missourians) hold in higher esteem than Pope Benedict does.
Worth noting the same thing is going on in CA, only the sticking point is environmental regs.
From Rosenbaum "The withdrawal of life science-related projects from a $350 million plan to use sold loans from the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority for capital improvement projects at public colleges." I think Pope Benedict's resume speaks pretty well to being a proponent for freedom, and for a consistent stance in favor of life. Don't you think one of the basic job requirements of a moral and spiritual leader is to harbor some doubts about scientific experiments on humans? JBP
Sure. And one of the basic job requirements of those who claim to follow his teachings might be to pay equally serious attention to what he says about the Iraq war and the death penalty.
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