On the one side you have a minute cluster of cells, destined for the trash bin, from which stell cells can be recovered. On the other side you have ignorant religious fanatics flamed into outraged by a cynical and twisted (and murderous) Republican machine. Why are we taking seriously that small group of nuts opposed to embryonic stem cell research? They're the same nuts who oppose the teaching of evolution. Next they'll be arguing that the Sun revolves around the Earth and anything to the contrary is liberal blasphemy.

2009. We get rid of the Bush Administration monstrosity and, hopefully, resume the march towards human progress and scientific achievement. Let us not be intimidated by the fools who seek a new Dark Age instead.

Indeed, that small group of nuts has power. However, I was taking the long distance view -- say, of an alien observer. Why on Earth are the crazies in power? Actually, I think the greedy are in power, but they use the crazies as a power based. Regardless, from an outsider's perspective (and GFSM, I wish I was an outsider), it's incredible that we let the loonies run the asylum.

That said, yes, they have power; way, way too much power. Time to wrest it away from them.

"All have been developed (mostly by the wicked, wicked monsters at Big Pharma) in the last few years."

You made several valid points, but you cannot excuse the destructive behavior of the pharmaceutical industry simply because as part of their pursuit of profits they provide useful products any more than you can excuse the destructive behavior of oil companies for doing the same thing.

Big Pharma is one of the leading opponents of a rational health care system in the USA. They warp the political process and contribute to a system where the sick are too often reduced to choosing between paying for food and paying for their medicines.

You can go here to learn all about factory farming: www.farmsanctuary.com.

As for Mr. Barber, I find it difficult to understand how someone can raise and care for an animal, earn its trust, and then slit its throat so that one can dine on its corpse.

Such a nice business partner, that Saudi Monarchy. Shame about the whipping of rape victims. Too bad that the majortiy of the 9-11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Let's invade Iraq!

Conservatives the world over share a profound hatred of women and sex. Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu: doesn't matter. They're all throwbacks.

I never heard of that loser until you posted about him twice. He's a men's rights advocate, eh? Have you not noticed that we men ain't exactly oppressed? We kind of run...everything. Having this dude whine about men's rights is akin to those losers who form "White Europeans Rights" groups because, you know, whites have it so bad in the U.S.

Moreover, Sacks is a darling of rightwing idiots. Here's a blurb from his website's bio page:

His opinion columns have been reprinted or his work has been discussed or quoted in numerous books, including: talk show host/author Dr. Laura Schlessinger's Woman Power: Transform Your Man, Your Marriage, Your Life; Larry Elder's best-selling Showdown: Confronting Bias, Lies, and the Special Interests That Divide America; Charles Colson's Lies That Go Unchallenged in Popular Culture; Neil Boyd's Big Sister: How Extreme Feminism Has Betrayed the Fight for Sexual Equality; Paul Coughlin's No More Christian Nice Guy; several college writing textbooks; and others.

Anonymous, share it with your sob brothers over at Free Republic.

If you're referring to the millenia of "civilization" that include human slavery, bigotry of all kinds, torture of all kinds (directed at all things), child labor, religious crusades, war, tyranny, and all the rest, then the answer is: a great deal of it.

Happy Vegetarian Thanksgiving, everyone!

The wife and I both thought Razor did the job of giving us our much-needed BSG fix, though BSG's embrace of dimly lit authoritarianism is getting a little disturbing. Question: if you were the young Adama, would you stick your hand in a big tub of murky goo?

Anyway, what we thought was ridiculous were those awful Quiznos ads that told us in a breathtaking way what we had just seen a few minutes earlier. For example, you've just learned that I thought Razor did the job of giving me a much-needed BSG fix!

That was a terrible skit. Stupid, not funny, and not so stupid it's funny, either.

Am I the only one who thinks Will Ferrell has no talent, aside from having the courage to show his flabby naked ass onscreen?

The rape joke was terrible, like something my clueless 90 year-old uncle would tell. I suppose a funny rape joke is possible (Sarah Silverman's one good joke involves rape), but in general rape is not conducive to humor, and this video provided no exception.

All the lame, allegedly humorous violence in this video left me wanting to liver punch each one of those idiots.