Must Be Election Season

I’ve written about stem-cell research and my thoughts on it before. My thought is, embryonic stem-cell research is a voodoo science at best designed to bilk money out of the only contributor it hasn’t yet scared away, government. It has produced no promising results. The actual tests done with embryonic stem cells have shown either no results or have shown horrible side effects like tumors and runaway growths. Still, the snake oil salesmen who’ve been peddling it have been able to add a whole cavalcade of celebrities to their carny show. The late Christopher Reeve and Michael J. Fox are likely the most prominent promoters of embryonic research. It’s sad that the hucksters trying to siphon off money have picked on the most desperate such as these celebrities with their sensational and to date un-provable claims of miracle cures.

The reason I mention it is because it’s election season and once again the Democrats have drug out the old carcass of embryonic stem-cell research as another crutch to their “Republicans are heartless” campaign. Yes, Republicans are heartless and Democrats are spineless and we are reminded of it every two years. However, issues like this one really get under my skin; partly because I detest junk science and partly because I hate bold-faced lies at election time.

The first to earn my ire has to be David Orentlicher, who fired the opening salvos in the local District 86 election for the state legislature. Even Matt Tully of the Indianapolis Star, a proponent of embryonic stem-cell dallying, even took umbrage with Orentlicher’s ads. From his column:

"There's nothing worse than turning your back on someone with Alzheimer's," the mailer reads, next to a picture of an old man with his old head buried sadly in his old hand. "Kathryn Densborn is the kind of extremist who opposes the stem cell research that could cure Alzheimer's disease."

You've probably heard about Orentlicher's other ad -- the one with a pretty but sick-looking thirtysomething woman on the cover and a sheet-covered corpse on the flip side.

"We could cure her," it reads. "But Kathryn Densborn opposes life-saving stem cell research."

The ad is boilerplate election-year garbage, but what really gets me about it is the fact that Orentlicher, a doctor mind you, doesn’t think anyone understands that there are promising and better-proven stem cell lines (adult and umbilical) that may actually cure or at least better treat the conditions the shysters have been claiming embryonic stem cells will cure. The major difference is with embryonic stem cells you have to destroy a fetus to get them. Adult and umbilical stem cell harvesting doesn’t require that anyone be killed for them. So either he’s not a very good doctor or he assumes you and I are sub-morons who can be easily duped with a little fancy medical jargon. Either way, you couldn’t pay me enough illegal campaign contributions from the Chinese Army (no matter how many Buddhist monks you sent) to want to vote for such a cretin.

Now, I’m not excusing Kathryn Densborn from that type of ad as well. She apparently has ads suggesting Orentlicher is soft on child abusers. Yes, yes, at election time everyone either coddles criminals, beats children or makes old people and the handicapped live on dog food with nothing but cardboard boxes for homes. You’d never guess this is the most prosperous nation in the world each even-year’ed November, but then again, positive ads don’t win elections.

But I digress. The other recent occurrence of this I’ve come across regards the Senate race in Missouri between Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill. Apparently, Senator Talent opposes a Missouri amendment on the ballot that would allow cloning, especially for the purpose of generating embryos to destroy for their stem cells. McCaskill has played it much like Orentlicher, claiming that Talent wants to leave old people to rot with their diseases and that he doesn’t care for the infirmed. My beef with her is, that’s not what the bill is even about! How moronic does she think Missouri voters are? What does that suggest to Missouri voters?

I mean, it isn’t as crass as the Democrats’ assumption that all blacks will vote for them simply by playing the race card every two years or the Republicans’ assumption that conservatives can be fooled with a few speeches on “limited government”, but it’s close. Needless to say, I do hope you all do your research this month before going to the polls, wherever you are and whatever your political persuasion. There’s no sense in falling pretty to last-month politicking, especially given the easily accessible news sources these days.

And should you choose to vote against them if you’re in McCaskill’s state or Orentlicher’s district, make sure you send them a personal letter mentioning this as one of the reasons why you chose to send them out to pasture. Like I always say, baby steps…