Two Minus Three Equal Negative FUN!

My dad is a hardcore Republican; a card-carrying member. He used to tell me that he had been a Democrat when he was younger, but then I would joke that when he got older he got bitter and Republican. He didn't so-much appreciate that. Even though I almost never agree with his politics, he's a smart, well-educated man who was accepted to Rutgers and Princeton, and served in the Army, and for the life of me I can't understand why he seriously defends some of the people in his own party who are not only ill-informed, but dumb and actually working against his own party's platform. I used to tell him "Dad, I know you're a Republican and I think that's really cute and all, but really...George Jr...is that really the best you guys could come up with?"

Case in point: Today our president decided to use the full power of his office to veto a bill for the first time. What horrible, liberal, welfare-socialist bill was this you ask? It was supported by a 63-37 margin (253-193 in the house) and sponsored by those left-wing nutjobs....Arlen Spector and Bill Frist? Yes, the bill was put forth and supported by anti-choice Republicans, people who have agreed with the President nearly 100 percent of the time and are the cream of the neo-con crop.

This bill would have loosened regulations on funding for Stem Cell research so that diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's might one day be cured by using stem cells generated from discarded embryos. Whenever a women stores embryos at a fertility clinic, or has embryos taken out for in-vitro fertilization, the unused embryos are normally just thrown away, which no one seems to have a problem with and no one in their right mind considers murder (because if they did then women would be murderers at least once a month). However, studying or using those embryos to cure disease is, in the eyes of one G.W., apparently is equal to or worse than grabbing children out of their cribs and ripping their limbs off in order to create Frankenstein-like abominations. Believe me, Bill Frist isn't suggesting that we hold women down and take all of their embryos to do with as we please, and the Republican from Pennsylvania doesn't think we should be harvesting stem cells from fetuses in the womb. All they are suggesting is maybe we should look into saving lives that have already been created, born, and blessed by god by using cells that were going to be discarded anyway.

Bill Frist and Arlen Spector are both morally opposed to abortion, just like the President. And, agree or disagree, at least Bill and Arlen (and all of the Republicans that support this bill) recognize that life at least needs sperm, a womb, and about 9 months gestation. Is the President suggesting that every embryo is a life? If so, does he think that we should be striving to make sure that every single egg a woman has is given the chance to be fertilized and grown into a full-grown human? Not only is that idea silly, but its actually sort-of frightening.

Sure, go ahead, take those extra embryos and try to find a woman who wants to "adopt" it and use it to have a child; there are many infertile women who will jump at the chance. But, as a species, I think we have far more embryos than we ever could or even should use (oh the financial burdens of having hundreds of children each). Why not then use these extra embryos, already out of the womb and never intended to become lifeforms themselves, to save lives. I'm not suggesting we grow clones and steal their organs, and I'm not suggesting that we start draining women of the embryos they're not planning on using. I'm not even suggesting that we start mass-producing stem cells...I'm just saying why can't we do some research and see if it would even be possible to improve the health and lives of people that everyone on both sides of the aisle can agree are lifeforms. Not every embryo and every sperm is a life. There are many gray areas, but can we not all agree that as long as those two things stay separate that neither of them counts as a lifeform? When a man is murdered, you don't count all of his sperm as living entities, otherwise newspaper headlines would read "Apparent Suicide Kills Billions". Now that's just silly.
Also silly: For once I am agreeing with Bill Frist. BILL FRIST! The guy who thought the woman who's brain had literally shrunk was not brain damaged because he watched a videotape of her not moving. That Bill Frist. Thanks a lot George. You've got me siding with that guy. Just sign the damn bill.