Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
One minor oversight in the rush to gay marriage in canada. They forgot to set provisions for gay divorce.
The women, identified only as MM and JH, wed on 18 June 2003, a week after the province legalised same-sex unions, the Toronto Star reports.
The couple, who had been together for five years, separated five days later.
Three provinces and the Yukon have ruled in favour of gay weddings, but the divorce laws have not been amended to apply to same-sex couples.
Oops.
I don’t know if this is another hoax or not, but I like the sentiment.
Just read.
Kevin is pissed at Arnie, who intends to challenge the CA legislature:
The Republican governor may call a special election next year asking voters to, among other things, convert the Legislature to part-time status, strip legislators of their power to draw their own districts and restrict campaign contributions, his spokesman said Tuesday.
Kevin writes:
In substantive terms this is laughable, since as near as I can tell the budget deadlock was almost entirely Schwarzenegger’s fault. He screwed up his negotiations with local governments and had to backpedal, and then went to the mat over two trivial items that no one would even have noticed if he hadn’t suddenly brought them up out of the blue.
Some advice for Arnie:
1.) Advertise the special election as an opportunity for ‘every vote to count.’
2.) Call the conversion of the legislature to part-time status ‘Mandatory annual maternity/paternity leave.’
3.) Turn all re-districting issues over to the courts. All Democrats know that is where decisions are supposed to be made.
4.) Call the restriction of campaign contributions “Campaign Finance Reform.”
I don’t know how Democrats could oppose any of that.
And no, I amnot serious about any of this- thought I would just tease Kevin, who has yet to say one nice thing about arnod, who still smells like a rose compared to the last offering from the Democrats.
*** Update ***
Actually, Kevin being bitter towards Arnie is rather predictable. After all, who is he going to credit with the California recovery- Bush or Arnie? Neither is a decent choice for the Calpundit.
While Nick Gillespie slanders Carter Country.
“Handle it, Roy! Handle it, handle it.”
After watching Ron Reagan whore his father’s name for personal and partisan political gain at the Democratic national Convention last night, I thought we should check the current state of knowledge on stem cell research.
MYTH #1: If George Bush and the GOP have their way, there will be no scientific activity in the field of stem cell research.
FACT: Stem cell research is legal, and has always been legal through private research.
MYTH #2: George Bush and the radical Republicans have done everything they can to make stem cell research illegal.
FACT: Prior to George Bush, federal funding of stem cell research was ILLEGAL, with Bill Clinton ensuring such research remain illegal through executive order in 1994. The Clinton administration did examine and create some basic guidelines regarding stem cell research, but these were not widely debated and not implemented, thus leaving the issue to the Bush administration.
MYTH: Bush’s backwards, Christian Fundamentalist beliefs threaten the existence of stem cell research
FACT: Bush, during the campaign, was actually against any form of stem cell research (a mistake, IMHO), but later reversed course and came to favor such research.
MYTH: Bush’s decision on stem cell research has crippled the field.
FACT:Before President Bush’s Aug. 9, 2001, announcement, no NIH funds were used in supporting human embryonic stem cell research. In fiscal year (FY) 2000, $147 million and in FY 2001, $152 million funded all non-embryonic stem cell research. In FY 2002 things changed, with $10.7 million for hESC research and $170.9 million for non-embryonic human stem cell research . In FY 2003 the budget for hESC research was more than doubled to$24.8 million and non-embryonic stem cell research funding increased to $190.7 million.
MYTH: Because of President Bush, stem cell research is nearly impossible to conduct in the United States.
FACT: From a letter to concerned members of the House of Representatives, signed by by Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the Director of the NIH:
Through the President’s leadership and the extraordinary efforts of the NIH, we are making good progrss in meeth the potential of this exciting new field of science- a field that had not been federally funded prior to the President’s historic addresss toe the Nation on August 9, 2001.
As you know, 78 hESC derivations met the criteria established by the President on that date. Although some have been withdrawn or have failed to expand, many lines are currently being used for research into diabetes and Parkinson’s. Eligible lines are being used in private sector research and in research using funding from other Federal sources…
Today, much of the basic research thatneeds to be done canbe and is being supported with Federal funds under the President’s policy. In the three years since the President announced his policy, this science has advanced. Yet we still do not know with certainty what we will or will not be able to accomplish with 19lines or 23 lines or more. And although it is also fir to say that from a purely scientific perspective more cell lines may well speed some areas of hESC research, the President’s position is still predicated on his belief that taxpayer funds should not “sanction or encourage further destruction of human embryos that have at least the potential for life.”
MYTH The President’s position on stem cells is keeping medical treatment from people with horrible diseases.
FACT Stem cell research is just that- research, and much of the debate is about the promise of cures in the future:
The most promising use of stem cells is due to their ability to be modified into different functional adult cell types and serve as a potential source of replacement cells to treat numerous diseases. Thus, any disease in which there is tissue degeneration can be a potential candidate for stem cell therapies, including conditions and disabilities as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, Type 1 diabetes, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophies and liver diseases…
Recently, new possibilities for the use of adult stem cells have emerged when researchers showed that cells from the bone marrow can give rise to specialized cells in a variety of tissues as different as blood, brain, muscle, kidney, pancreas and liver. One can imagine that one day, we will be able to isolate our own bone marrow cells, treat them and reintroduce them back into the body to renew or repair cells in a number of different organs.
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), present in the bone marrow and precursors to all blood cells, are currently the only type of stem cells commonly used for therapy. Doctors have been transferring HSCs in bone marrow transplants for more than 40 years. Advanced techniques for collecting or “harvesting” HSCs are now used to treat leukemia, lymphoma and several inherited blood disorders.
The clinical potential of stem cells has also been demonstrated in the treatment of other human diseases, including diabetes and advanced kidney cancer. However, these new therapies have been offered only to a very limited number of patients using adult stem cells.
This is a sensitive issue- not a political football. Keep that in mind when you hear statements like this:
In an exclusive interview with MSNBC
There are arguments, good and bad, on both sides of the issue of gay marriage. There are reasons people take the positions they take, good and bad, on both sides of the issue of gay marriage. This, however, is just bile:
Remember when National Review’s in-house bigot, John Derbyshire, got all excited about a Scottish hotelier throwing a gay couple out of his bed and breakfast because they wanted to sleep in a double bed? The man is now running for the Scottish parliament on an anti-homosexual agenda. Not that he’s homophobic, of course. No one is, any more, are they? Here’s the money quote: “I am not homophobic. What they need is medical treatment because there’s something medically wrong with them. They need psychiatric treatment to get them out of it.” Why doesn’t Karl Rove offer the guy a job?
Clearly in the realm of those whose sexuality is the core essence of their being, any opposition to legalized gay marriage is nothing more than the twisted and demented homophobia of a Scottish bigot.
Andy, you petulant child. I am not virulently opposed to gay marriage- I think civil unions is the way to go, but John Hawkins is right. Sullivan is no longer making arguments, but rather spewing ad hominems faster than I can keep up.
I remember Andrew making quite a stink over Julian Bond’s Taliban comments. Apparently vicisous slandering of the sort is ok in Andy’s book as long as it is in pursuit of homosexual marriage.