Wednesday, August 28th, 2006

Wither the Rants?
I haven't blogged for a few days, so you'd think I'd be able to come up with a bunch of stuff. Alas, no. It's all soft news and old news. I mean, from an Anti-Pundit standpoint. Lots of things happening, of course, but most of them just straight news, with little or no political slant. And I don't want to fall into the trap of just being a news commentator-- I'd rather just rant and rave about what politicians and their cheerleaders say. So for today and the last few days, I apologize for the meagerness. I'm sure starting next week the mid-term election fighting will really start moving, and I'll have plenty. For now, here's what I got.

The Republican Success
Its more or less official, though it's been official for a while. The economy is heading slowly, some would say smoothly, into a recession, following record highs for corporate profits matched by new lows in wage-earners salaries. Salaries that don't keep up with inflation. Salaries that get eaten up by the high cost of energy. And yet productivity is at an all time high too. So it is defiantly not the case that people just need to work harder. I've said it many times, and I'll say it many times more: The conservative elite have a vested interest in maintaining a large, impoverished, under-educated populace. It's call slave labor; it’s what built this country; it's how this country became a super-power in less than 200 years, and it's an economic model the very-rich depend on to stay very rich. And, it's an economic model that works, so long as the larger part of the country is willing to work very hard, have lots of babies, and live in poverty. This is why, on the run-up to this November, the GoP is bringing The War and Religion, those great whip-cracks of slavery, to the discussion table, will Dems are bringing the economy. But slaves aren’t allowed to vote, so we'll just see if the debates starting next week have any kind of impact.

Back In the Game: Stem Cells
Scientists have figured out a way to remove stem cells from live embryos without destroying them, using a method similar to one they use to test for such things as Downs syndrome. When the fertilized egg has split four times, and has 8 cells, it's called a blastomere, and they take one of cells and leave 7. So far, people who developed from the remaining 7 have proven to be 100% healthy. This new method should remove opposition to stem cell research, since the only argument conservatives use against the research is that life is destroyed in the process. Of course, some conservatives still don't get it. Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas claims "You are creating a twin and then killing that twin." This argument is so willfully ignorant, and shows such a dangerously low understanding of biology and science in general, one wonders if Brownback is smart enough to pass even regular, non-controversial legislation. Let me echo the Dixie chicks, as I was raised in Kansas: I am ashamed to admit Sam B is from Kansas too.

French to Throw Down Their Lighters
In France a smoking ban like the ones we have here in Washington, and in California and New York, will go into effect in January. The health minister is behind this, though the ban won't apply to bars that cell cigarettes, casinos, and some nightclubs. Given the reputation Europe, and especially France, has for smoking, this should be very interesting to watch. It may soon be the case that Asia is the last bastion of smoking yourself to death. Maybe that's the way to finally defeat North Korea: just wait till they all have cancer.