How far are people willing to go? I came across this auction on a domain name of Mitt Romney at his expense. Here is the link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/MormonRomney-com-Mitt-Romney-GOP-Campaign-Domain_W0QQitemZ200182914013QQihZ010QQcategoryZ11153QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Now it is clear that who ever is selling it, is trying to provoke simply by looking at some of the images in the auction page. I am curious if such thing is even allowed on ebay.
What’s your opinion?
Image taken on 2008-03-06 21:38:15 by lodev.
Tags: 20080306, Cnnpolitics.com, politics Posted in
President Bush Discusses Stem Cell Research Policy / Video. Creative Commons license: Public Domain.
Description: George Bush Discusses Stem Cell Research Policy Date: 7/19/2006 Length: 15.42 minutes Political Video Link: http://www.politicalvideo.org/node/1927Original Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060719-3.html
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Congress has just passed and sent to my desk two bills concerning the use of stem cells in biomedical research. These bills illustrate both the promise and perils we face in the age of biotechnology. In this new era, our challenge is to harness the power of science to ease human suffering without sanctioning the practices that violate the dignity of human life. (Applause.)
In 2001, I spoke to the American people and set forth a new policy on stem cell research that struck a balance between the needs of science and the demands of conscience. When I took office, there was no federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. Under the policy I announced five years ago, my administration became the first to make federal funds available for this research, yet only on embryonic stem cell lines derived from embryos that had already been destroyed.
My administration has made available more than $90 million for research on these lines. This policy has allowed important research to go forward without using taxpayer funds to encourage the further deliberate destruction of human embryos.
One of the bills Congress has passed builds on the progress we have made over the last five years. So I signed it into law. (Applause.) Congress has also passed a second bill that attempts to overturn the balanced policy I set. This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it. (Applause.)
Like all Americans, I believe our nation must vigorously pursue the tremendous possibility that science offers to cure disease and improve the lives of millions. We have opportunities to discover cures and treatments that were unthinkable generations ago. Some scientists believe that one source of these cures might be embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to grow into specialized adult tissues, and this may give them the potential to replace damaged or defective cells or body parts and treat a variety of diseases.
Yet we must also remember that embryonic stem cells come from human embryos that are destroyed for their cells. Each of these human embryos is a unique human life with inherent dignity and matchless value. We see that value in the children who are with us today. Each of these children began his or her life as a frozen embryo that was created for in vitro fertilization, but remained unused after the fertility treatments were complete. Each of these children was adopted while still an embryo, and has been blessed with the chance to grow up in a loving family.
These boys and girls are not spare parts. (Applause.) They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells. And they remind us that in our zeal for new treatments and cures, America must never abandon our fundamental morals.
Some people argue that finding new cures for disease requires the destruction of human embryos like the ones that these families adopted. I disagree. I believe that with the right techniques and the right policies, we can achieve scientific progress while living up to our ethical responsibilities. That’s what I sought in 2001, when I set forth my administration’s policy allowing federal funding for research on embryonic stem cell lines where the life and death decision had already been made.
This balanced approach has worked. Under this policy, 21 human embryonic stem cell lines are currently in use in research that is eligible for federal funding. Each of these lines can be replicated many times. And as a result, the National Institutes of Health have helped make more than 700 shipments to researchers since 2001. There is no ban on embryonic stem cell research. To the contrary, even critics of my policy concede that these federally funded lines are being used in research every day by scientists around the world. My policy has allowed us to explore the potential of embryonic stem cells, and it has allowed America to continue to lead the world in this area.
Since I announced my policy in 2001, advances in scientific research have also shown the great potential of stem cells that are derived without harming human embryos. My administration has expanded the funding of research into stem cells that can be drawn from children, adults, and the blood in umbilical cords, with no harm to the donor. And these stem cells are already being used in medical treatments…..
Duration : 0:15:25
Tags: 2005, 810, ablation, Act, adopt, adoption, adult, ASC, ban, bill, biomedical, biotechnology, blastocyst, blood, Bush, cell, cells, congress, cord, Death, Democrats, destruction, embryo, embryonic, embryos, Enhancement, ESC, ethical, ethics, federal, federally, frozen, funded, H.R., HR, human, ICM, inner, law, legislation, liberals, life, mass, moral, morality, morals, nerve, nuclear, of, policy, political, politices, politics, regenerating, research, Science, scientific, SCNT, somactic, stem, stem-cell, therapeutic, transfer, umbilical, veto, vetoed Posted in
In representative democracy people abdicate their power to elected officials. The candidates’ stated policies are limited to a few vague generalities, and once they are elected there is little control over their actual decisions on hundreds of issues – apart from the feeble threat of changing one’s vote, a few years later, to some equally uncontrollable rival politician. Representatives are dependent on the wealthy for bribes and campaign contributions; they are subordinate to the owners of the mass media, who decide which issues get the publicity; and they are almost as ignorant and powerless as the general public regarding many important matters that are determined by unelected bureaucrats and independent agencies. Overt dictators may sometimes be overthrown, but the real rulers in “democratic” regimes, the tiny minority who own or control virtually everything, are never voted in and never voted out. Most people don’t even know who they are.
In the name of realism, reformists limit themselves to pursuing “winnable” objectives, yet even when they win some little adjustment in the system it is usually offset by some other development at another level. This doesn’t mean that reforms are irrelevant, merely that they are insufficient. We have to keep resisting particular evils, but we also have to recognize that the system will keep generating new ones until we put an end to it. To suppose that a series of reforms will eventually add up to a qualitative change is like thinking we can get across a ten-foot chasm by a series of one-foot hops.
We know that antiquated styles of protest-marches, hand held signs, and gatherings are now powerless to effect real change because they have become such a predictable part of the status quo. We know that post-Marxist jargon is off-putting because it really is a language of mere academic dispute, not a weapon capable of undermining systems of control. We know that all the infighting, splinter groups and endless quarrels over ephemeral theories can never effect any real change in the world we experience from day to day. We know that no matter who is in office, what laws are on the books, what “ism”s the intellectuals march under, the content of our lives will remain the same. And our boredom is proof that these “politics” are not the key to any real transformation of life.
However, in truth there is nothing more important than politics. NOT the politics of American “democracy” and law, of who is elected state legislator to sign the same bills and perpetuate the same system. Not the politics of the “I got involved with the radical left because I enjoy quibbling over trivial details and writing rhetorically about an unreachable utopia” anarchists. Not the politics of any leader or ideology that demands that we make sacrifices for “the cause.” But the politics of our everyday lives. When we separate politics from the immediate, everyday experiences of individual men and women, it becomes completely irrelevant. Indeed, it becomes the private domain of wealthy, comfortable intellectuals, who can trouble themselves with such dreary, theoretical things. When we involve ourselves in politics out of a sense of obligation, and make political action into a dull responsibility rather than an exciting game that is worthwhile for its own sake, we scare away people whose lives are already far too dull for any more tedium. When we make politics into a lifeless thing, a joyless thing, a dreadful responsibility, it becomes just another weight upon people, rather than a means to lift weight from people. And thus we ruin the idea of politics for the people to whom it should be most important. For everyone has a stake in considering their lives, in asking themselves what they want out of life and how they can get it. But politics often look to us like a miserable, self-referential, pointless middle class/bohemian game, a game with no relevance to the real lives we are living out.
What should be political? Whether we enjoy what we do to get food and shelter. Whether we feel like our daily interactions with our friends, neighbors, and coworkers are fulfilling. Whether we have the opportunity to live each day the way we desire to. And “politics” should consist not of merely discussing these questions, but of acting directly to improve our lives in the immediate present. Acting in a way that is itself entertaining, exciting, joyous – because political action that is tedious, tiresome, and oppressive can only perpetuate tedium, fatigue, and oppression in our lives. No more time should be wasted debating over issues that will be irrelevant when we must go to work again the next day. No more predictable ritual protests that the authorities know all too well how to deal with; clearly, those won’t get us anywhere. Never again shall we “sacrifice ourselves for the cause.” For happiness in our own lives and the lives of our fellows, must be our cause!
Duration : 0:8:45
Tags: 1999, Anarchist, Anarchy, politics, Radical, Revolution, Seattle, Situationist, WTO Posted in
President Bush Discusses Stem Cell Research Policy / Video. Creative Commons license: Public Domain.
Description: George Bush Discusses Stem Cell Research Policy Date: 7/19/2006 Length: 15.42 minutes Political Video Link: http://www.politicalvideo.org/node/1927Original Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060719-3.html
THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Congress has just passed and sent to my desk two bills concerning the use of stem cells in biomedical research. These bills illustrate both the promise and perils we face in the age of biotechnology. In this new era, our challenge is to harness the power of science to ease human suffering without sanctioning the practices that violate the dignity of human life. (Applause.)
In 2001, I spoke to the American people and set forth a new policy on stem cell research that struck a balance between the needs of science and the demands of conscience. When I took office, there was no federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. Under the policy I announced five years ago, my administration became the first to make federal funds available for this research, yet only on embryonic stem cell lines derived from embryos that had already been destroyed.
My administration has made available more than $90 million for research on these lines. This policy has allowed important research to go forward without using taxpayer funds to encourage the further deliberate destruction of human embryos.
One of the bills Congress has passed builds on the progress we have made over the last five years. So I signed it into law. (Applause.) Congress has also passed a second bill that attempts to overturn the balanced policy I set. This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it. (Applause.)
Like all Americans, I believe our nation must vigorously pursue the tremendous possibility that science offers to cure disease and improve the lives of millions. We have opportunities to discover cures and treatments that were unthinkable generations ago. Some scientists believe that one source of these cures might be embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to grow into specialized adult tissues, and this may give them the potential to replace damaged or defective cells or body parts and treat a variety of diseases.
Yet we must also remember that embryonic stem cells come from human embryos that are destroyed for their cells. Each of these human embryos is a unique human life with inherent dignity and matchless value. We see that value in the children who are with us today. Each of these children began his or her life as a frozen embryo that was created for in vitro fertilization, but remained unused after the fertility treatments were complete. Each of these children was adopted while still an embryo, and has been blessed with the chance to grow up in a loving family.
These boys and girls are not spare parts. (Applause.) They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells. And they remind us that in our zeal for new treatments and cures, America must never abandon our fundamental morals.
Some people argue that finding new cures for disease requires the destruction of human embryos like the ones that these families adopted. I disagree. I believe that with the right techniques and the right policies, we can achieve scientific progress while living up to our ethical responsibilities. That’s what I sought in 2001, when I set forth my administration’s policy allowing federal funding for research on embryonic stem cell lines where the life and death decision had already been made.
This balanced approach has worked. Under this policy, 21 human embryonic stem cell lines are currently in use in research that is eligible for federal funding. Each of these lines can be replicated many times. And as a result, the National Institutes of Health have helped make more than 700 shipments to researchers since 2001. There is no ban on embryonic stem cell research. To the contrary, even critics of my policy concede that these federally funded lines are being used in research every day by scientists around the world. My policy has allowed us to explore the potential of embryonic stem cells, and it has allowed America to continue to lead the world in this area.
Since I announced my policy in 2001, advances in scientific research have also shown the great potential of stem cells that are derived without harming human embryos. My administration has expanded the funding of research into stem cells that can be drawn from children, adults, and the blood in umbilical cords, with no harm to the donor. And these stem cells are already being used in medical treatments…..
Duration : 0:15:25
Tags: 2005, 810, ablation, Act, adopt, adoption, adult, ASC, ban, bill, biomedical, biotechnology, blastocyst, blood, Bush, cell, cells, congress, cord, Death, Democrats, destruction, embryo, embryonic, embryos, Enhancement, ESC, ethical, ethics, federal, federally, frozen, funded, H.R., HR, human, ICM, inner, law, legislation, liberals, life, mass, moral, morality, morals, nerve, nuclear, of, policy, political, politices, politics, regenerating, research, Science, scientific, SCNT, somactic, stem, stem-cell, therapeutic, transfer, umbilical, veto, vetoed Posted in