Weird or Brilliant?

I totally just cyber-stalked someone and now I feel kind of dirty.

But also kind of great because it took some serious deduction and cunning on my part to find them.

Ha-ha! Take THAT sick and dying people!!!

George Bush sure gave it to all those cancer patients and Altzheimer's patients. People with cancer are literally DYING to get out of America, and Altzheimer's patients are constantly forgetting how AWESOME America is. WHY DO THEY HATE FREEDOM AND AMERICA?

(End hilarious joke, begin deep and serious discussion)

Feel free to correct me if any of the information below is wrong, or if you find any fault in my logic.

- A majority of embryonic stem cells used in stem cell research come from fertility clinics.

- When a woman "conceives" via in vitro fertilization, there are a whole lot of extra eggs left over.

- These eggs are either kept frozen in perpetuity or thrown out as medical waste. Unless:

- These eggs are the source for what eventually become embryos to be used in stem cell research.

- Ergo, it's not really a question of "farms" "harvesting" and then killing babies... so let's just get that icky Orwellian/Phillip K. Dick-type of imagery out of the discussion (I had mistakenly believed this was the case, and therefore understood [possibly for the first time] the president's position on embryonic stem-cell research, and even though I may not have totally sorted out my own feelings on it -- and also notwithstanding the tangentially related issue of "really, this is your first veto?" -- I wasn't really outraged by the prez).

- What, then, is the difference between using the embryonic stem cells for research and "throwing out" the unused eggs from fertility clinics? (And yes, I understand one is fertilized and one is not, and it's a matter of "degrees" but isn't that really just an extension of the religious fundamentalist's argument about embryos/zygotes being people? Discussions of trimesters and "at conception" are nothing but arguments about "degrees.")

- Considering the above, it seems to me someone against stem cell research based on moral "killing-of-life" grounds would also have to be against the whole idea of in vitro fertilization, seeing as similar "killing-of-life" type arguments can be made for it. And while I would respectfully disagree with this position (dual anti-stem-cell research/anti-in vitro fertilization position) it is, in my mind, a consistent and therefore not wholly ridiculous stance. I would understand it.

- Jenna and Barbara Bush were conceived via in vitro means. Therefore, presumably, there are/were hundreds (possibly thousands) of Laura Bush's eggs frozen somewhere or thrown out as medical waste.

- How can George W. Bush believe that stem-cell research is morally reprehensible, yet not only support, but actually take part in, in vitro fertilization? And taking this one step further, by the religious fundamentalist point-of-view and moral stance, is George W. Bush, having taken a role in an in vitro fertilization, not a murderer? Or at the very least, a hypocrite?

And also, one last thing. For all those people (the aforementioned POTUS included) who speak of pregnancies being "God's will" and how abortion is interfering with God's will and killing His creation, and how embryonic stem-cell research is "playing God" -- HOW IN THE HELL IS IN VITRO FERTILIZATION NOT PLAYING GOD AND, THEREFORE, JUST AS BAD?!?!

I Give Up

I can't do it anymore. I'm done caring. Well, I'm done putting myself in a position to care, because it's really impossible to totally stop caring. It's an exercise in futility. Israelis and Arabs. Blowing each other up. It's horrible, but I've realized, there is never, ever (as in ever ever ever ever) going to be peace there. This isn't some squabble. They've been fighting forever. The UN and Condi Rice are going there? So? It's never worked before. Fuck it.

I realize the above is kind of cavalier in tone, but I really don't mean it to be so. In truth I'm horrified and sadened by it all, but it's dawned on me that peace is a fool's dream. It's just not going to happen. Just like I'm never going to be a rock star. Same thing. I mean, sure, it's technically possible... but really? Nope. This is the reality we live in. Fucking sucks. Almost makes me not want to ever bring kids into this shithole.

Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead

I wonder if, at any point this week or next, we'll see Kenneth Lay's bloated corpse ringing the closing bell on Wall Street.