Hmm. Bush didn't have any problems using Texas tax dollars for something "many people believe to be murder": the death penalty.

So then, it's murder if it is federally funded, but it's OK if it is done in the private sector. Well, at least the man is consistent in his own perverse, bizarre way.

Snow quote: "inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder."

Apparently this White House attitude doesn't extend to the war in Iraq.

Ice would be more appropriate, they way that man was scating in his interview with Tim Russert, He would be world champion in every competion and category of skating.

You liberals just don't understand! It's not just the balance that needs to be struck in this difficult decision-making process, it's about how delicate that balance needs to be. You can't just step back and make a decision in a situation as difficult as this one and say "let's be balanced." You have to weigh the options without incurring further indelicacies which could jeopardize the moral backbone of the president's stance!

Which is to say the balance that needs to be struck has to take into account the needs of those who agree with the president on moral grounds as well as the needs of the president's supporters in the economic sector (who keep America a strong and solvent superpower), while at the same time completely ignoring the wishes of the general population and the insane rantings of the scientific community, who are really just looking for more research dollars through higher taxes.

Do you see what I mean?

The president can't just make a blanket decision to outlaw all stem cell research in the private sector, because he has to strike a balance ensuring that the government doesn't get its filthy, grubby, indelicate hands on patents from discoveries made with taxpayer-supported stem cell research. Those patents are just as precious and as viable as those beautiful snowflake babies and they cannot be allowed to fall into the coarse hands of the public domain. One can't allow for the possibility of profits from future patents to slip through the grasp of the president's strong supporters within the business community; yet on the other hand, one needs to make sure that the more pronounced statement being made by the president about stem cell research focuses on the moral motivations. Do you see how difficult this particular scenario is, and why the president fervently seeks to balance that decision in a way that emphasizes his strong moral certitude in preventing the use of beautiful, sacred, blonde-haired human embryos for federal research? Why, it could devolve into a state-sponsored genocide! Soon a tyrannical government might demand that women take fertility medication and produce embryos to be fertilized and kept in locked government facilities to be used by immoral federal agencies for unsanctified reasons. (That's the talking point we use for speeches made in the halls of faith-based organizations.. for a hefty speaking fee, of course.)

Far better to let the privately-funded research community take control of the entire field of human embryonic research while the government funds morally correct solutions, like giving faith-based organization tremendous amounts of funding to direct the implantation and eventual adoption of those several dozens of embryos which are donated each year to infertile Christian and Republican Jewish couples.

And that's the difficulty faced by the president in this decision-making process... which is why it calls for an exquisitely delicate balance.

That all the "Snowflake" babies standing behind Bush at the Dog and Pony show were WHITE?

I'm just wondering how Bush's base would react if 400,000 black "snowflakes" were standing behind Bush. Those stem cells would disappear faster than a snowflake in July.

Bush has an easy way out here - just allow funding and research on Lebanese embryos. You can kill them with impunity however far along they've developed!

I think Bush is a stem-cell.

Eb, I'm shocked. Those "Snowflake" babies standing behind Bush at the Dog and Pony show were a regular rainbow coalition. White, off-white, ivory, french vanilla.

And judging by the efforts of Southern Republican Senators to gut the language prior to renewing the civil rights act, I know exactly how Bush's base would react if 400,000 black "snowflakes" were standing behind Bush.

Josh Bolton can't even get the cliches right. "Drawing a line" is not the same thing as "striking a balance." I would submit that Bush has done neither. According to Bush, it is murder to use some stem cells for research and not others while at the same time it is not murder to dispose of certain embryos but it would be murder if they were used in research to benefit humanity. Nor has Bush struck a balance between the majority who favor stem cell research, and the minority who do not. Rather, he has selectively imposed the morality of the minority on the majority. The minority get the meat, and the majority get the bone. In the final analysis, Bush has struck a balance between ignorance and stupidity, and drawn the line between fascism and democracy.

I was going to say that many vegetarians consider meat-eating murder but we still subsidize the beef industry but you all beat me to it with much better analogies.

Here's something even funnier: An editorial in my local paper today said that of course Bush had to veto stem cell funding because he is for small government as a principle. Hearing that about the most intrusive government I've ever lived under...well, I nearly busted a gut over that one.

If I adopt a bunch of "snowflake babies", can I declare them as dependents on my income tax return? I have plenty of space in my freezer for a couple of dozen new family members!

What does, "fertilized human embryos" mean? There is not an embryo until sperm and egg are united - that is there are no embryos until post- fertilization. So a fertilized embryo would have to be one that is a female human embryo that has sperm (male gametes) placed in contact with its eggs (female gametes) - I don't think the fertility clinics are doing that... Unless the administration means that they are dumping manure on the embryo's to "fertilize" them - which would explain all the BS that Snow/Bolten are creating – OR this simply reflects the poor grounding in science that the people making these decisions (faith-based decisions) have. I think they need to take a sex-education class – oh wait, they are only allowed to take an abstinence class.