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Researchers Concerned About Creation of Human/Animal Hybrid "Monsters"

By Selwyn Duke

When we hear about the implantation of human genes in animals, it may conjure up images right out of the story The Island of Dr. Moreau. Of course, present-day experiments of this kind take a more modest form, such as the Chinese’s introduction of human stem cells into goat fetuses or U.S. scientists’ proposal to create a mouse infused with human brain cells. Yet the possibility that H.G. Wells’ nightmare could one day be made reality is troubling some researchers, prompting them to ask for new regulations governing the humanization of animals. Writes Reuters:

Scientific experiments that insert human genes or cells into animals need new rules to ensure they are ethically acceptable and do not lead to the creation of "monsters," a group of leading British researchers [from Britain's Academy of Medical Sciences] said on Friday.... Extreme scenarios, such as putting brain cells into primates to create talking apes, may remain science fiction, but researchers around the world are constantly pushing boundaries.

The academy also conducted a poll showing that the general public shares their concerns. As Reuters reports, “There were serious concerns voiced [by the respondents] about experiments involving the brain, the potential fertilization of human eggs or sperm in an animal, and giving animals human characteristics such as facial features or speech.”

Read the rest here.

Three-monkey Authorities Ignoring another Black-on-white “Hate Crime”

By Selwyn Duke

Like the three monkeys who see, hear and speak no evil, our authorities seem intent on ignoring the true nature of yet another black-on-white racial attack.  In the New York City subway this past Sunday, 29-year-old Jason Fordell was attacked by a group of black men who taunted him for being white.  Yet NYC police “are unsure” if the incident is a bias crime.

The Statist Call-for-Civility Con

By Selwyn Duke

When I hear today’s frequent calls for civility, I’m reminded of Rodney King’s plaintive appeal, “Can we…can we all get along?” After all, King was a thug but, when he made his statement, seemed wholly sincere. This means that most contemporary political figures who call for civility share one certain commonality with King.

One of those who likely was sincere was Betty Ford, who has managed to make such a call from beyond the grave. Laid to rest this week, she had instructed two statists, Cokie Roberts and Rosalynn Carter, to send a message about conservative incivility. Writes Michael Kimmitt at American Thinker, "Mrs. Ford wanted me to remind everyone of the way things used to be in Washington," said Roberts…. "I wouldn't be at all surprised if she timed her death to make sure she could convey the message of comity during this week when it seems so badly needed."

Messages of comity sound nice, but how did things really “used to be in Washington”? Well, Kimmitt points out that Robert’s own father, Congressman Hale Boggs:

Read the rest here.

MediaMatters takes another shot at stirring up anti-truth outrage

By Selwyn Duke

It really is a shame when a media watchdog has a twisted nose that mistakes putrescence for floral aroma—and vice versa. In a piece published yesterday, self-proclaimed media watcher MediaMatters (MM) criticizes Fox News for running the supposedly “misleading headline”: “Cambridge, MA set to Pay Gay Employees More Than Straight.” MediaMatters takes issue with Fox because the headline doesn’t explain that the reason for the measure is to compensate homosexuals for a tax that married couples don’t have to pay.

Of, course, a headline is a hook, designed to draw readers in, not an explanation. But Fox offered no such explanation—at least that’s what MM leads its readers to believe. The attack dog writes that Fox “excerpted an article from The Daily Mail, which has a similarly misleading headline. However, the Daily Mail article clearly explains that the city is offering gay employees a stipend to offset a federal tax that does not apply to straight employees.” The Daily Mail “clearly explains” this, so, obviously, Fox doesn’t.

Except that it does.

Woman Faces Jail Time for Planting Vegetables on Own Property

By Selwyn Duke

Vegetable gardens may be popping on abandoned land in Detroit, Michigan, but nearby Oak Park apparently likes broccoli as much as does George H.W. Bush. At least, that is, when it’s growing in a homeowner’s front yard.

Resident Julie Bass is learning this the hard way. After Bass’s lawn was torn up during a sewer line’s replacement, an ambitious green thumb and the price of organic food inspired her to pursue a botanical project a bit more interesting than watching grass grow. The result was five large planter boxes boasting fresh basil, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, cumbers, and more — all visible from the street. Explains Bass, “We thought it'd be really cool to do it so the neighbors could see. The kids love it. The kids from the neighborhood all come and help.”   

But one neighbor wasn’t so helpful. He called the city and complained, prompting a visit from a code enforcement officer. Bass related what happened next to ABC News, stating:

Read the rest here.

Trashing the Constitution: The Living Document Con

By Selwyn Duke

Is constitutionalism akin to blind faith? Some statists certainly think so, as they have called the position “constitution-worship.” In light of this, what should we call those who lack that “faith”? Given that they don’t believe in the Constitution, and that the document is the supreme law of the land, can it be said that they don’t believe in law? Are these people, who are often atheists, also “alegalists”?

Whatever you call them, they’re more visible and brazen than ever. Writing in Time magazine recently, Richard Stengel insisted that our Constitution “must accommodate each new generation and circumstance.” Georgetown professor Michael Dyson said recently, “When I talk about the document being living and vital, I’m talking about the interpretation of it.” And these appeals are buttressed by the notion that our founding document is fatally flawed. For example, Harvard Law School professor Michael Klarman wrote, “For the most part, the Constitution is irrelevant to the current political design of our nation.” And CNN’s Fareed Zakaria recently opined, “The United States Constitution was … drafted in a cramped room in Philadelphia in 1787 with shades drawn over the windows” — which, presumably, is worse than an idea coming out of his cramped head.

Read the rest here.

Noam Chomsky Gets Half a Clue

By Selwyn Duke

Of all idiots, none is so useful as he who can masquerade as a genius.

MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky recently denounced Hugo Chavez, accusing the Venezuelan strongman of making an "assault" on his nation's democracy and of cruelty with respect to a female judge he imprisoned for issuing an unwelcome ruling.  The criticism made headlines, as the "renowned scholar" had long given aid and comfort to Ego-and-Mouth Chavez.  In fact, when the leader denounced President Bush in an infamous 2006 U.N. address, it was Chomsky's book Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance that he waved and used as a prop.  And Chomsky often praises Venezuela's socialist revolution, most recently saying, "It's hard to judge how successful they [the Venezuelan socialists] are, but if they are successful they would be seeds of a better world."

Well, socialism has only failed every time it's been tried, but I guess Chomsky's renowned intellect has finally figured out a way to do the same thing over and over again and achieve different results.

New York Plunges into Marriage Insanity

By Selwyn Duke

If it weren’t so tragic, there really would be something amusing about “progressivism.” New York just legalized the curiosity that many call by an oxymoronic euphemism but that I, in my up-the-down-staircase effort to control the language, more rightly call faux marriage. And the tragically amusing part is this: We effect our much vaunted social change progressively, a smidgeon here, a tad there, a dollop elsewhere – until it is everywhere. But why waste all this time? Just cut to the chase and allow people to civilly unionize, marriage-pretend, tie the nuttiness – or whatever you want to dub it – with … well, whomever. It’s where we’re headed, anyway. And opposite sex or not, sentient or otherwise, animate or room temperature; what’s the difference? We all believe in freedom and choice, right? Everybody is a human being entitled to human rights, right? Let slip the horndogs of culture war.

I will tell you why we don’t.

Because there is absolutely no logic behind how we “progress.”

In fact, it cannot even be called progress because the word implies movement toward a destination, and the progressives among us never define any such place. Instead, what we call progress is simply governed by what people have been conditioned to accept.

Read the rest here.

College Islamization: Yale Closes Initiative for Study of Anti-Semitism

By Selwyn Duke

It was 60 years ago that William F. Buckley published God and Man at Yale, a book critical of the hostility toward religion prevalent at the Ivy League school. But now religion may be poised to make a comeback at the institution — at least, that is, if its god is called Allah.

Just this month, Yale took the striking step of shutting down the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA), supposedly at the behest of powerful Muslim forces. Writes FrontPageMag.com’s Phyllis Chesler:

The Palestinianization and Stalinization of the American professoriate coupled with the likely prospect of funding from the Arab world made this outcome inevitable….

Only last year, there were bitter and very public complaints the Palestinians and their supporters made in response to YIISA’s best-ever conference on contemporary global anti-Semitism, which was held last August. And why? Because the scholars gathered by YIISA from at least five or more continents dared to focus on the Muslim and Islamist face of genocidal anti-Semitism.

The YIISA global conference…was utterly unique in focusing not only upon the politically correct view of anti-Semitism as a Christian, Western, and European phenomenon, but also on its current and lethal incarnation in the Islamic and Islamist worlds.

Read the rest here.

Cowardly British Cops Cover Up Muslim Crime

By Selwyn Duke

Much like a caterpillar, the West grows more self-destructive with age.  And the moth it has become cannot resist being drawn toward the flame of liberalism.  This results in continual forays into the heat of cultural indifference, and a recent example is the British police’s refusal to pursue Muslim criminals for fear of being labeled bigots.  The Telegraph reports on the story, writing that it has “uncovered more than a dozen…cases in [the London Borough of] Tower Hamlets where both Muslims and non-Muslims have been threatened or beaten for behaviour deemed to breach fundamentalist ‘Islamic norms.’”