Flushing Green Eggs and Ham

Flushing the Quran... Ham Style
(I think the Quran say "no Ham?")

Mitt Romney Mentions Conspiratorial Author, Cleon Skousen

Mitt Romney Mentions Cleon Skousen!!

Mitts a Conspiratorialist?

After I point this out I wonder how long this video will stay up.

I give Romney props for actually debating these points. The real debate starts at 10:30 on the count up timer, it is as soon as they go off air. Then the meat of the theological issues (for us apologists) starts around the 15:00 minute mark. As a Bishop and Stake President, he is lying here. The Church Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints says Jerusalem is in Missouri. Period. I have hundreds of references to this. this means the Church believes themselves to be the true Israelites. Period. This is dangerous stuff. In fact, the Catholic Church use to teach that all the blessings on the Jewish people would be bestowed on them, and the new Jerusalem was Vatican City (where Christ was going to come). As the old commercial says, “Sorry Charlie.” The Catholic Church has officially corrected that (I am not Catholic so you know). Conveniently when these churches take on the blessings of the Jewish state from the Bible… they conveniently forget that God also deals harshly with his chosen people and throws “curses” their way to.

Mitt’s Interview with Radio Host

My Video Starting at the important part (not high quality… I recorded it off my TV just in case Mitt wipes it or edits it off his site) .

Now, at about 15:44 on the count up meter Mitt Romney mentions a book by a Mormon author, I have most of this authors books (as, I use to be a conspiracy nut in my past... but as readers here know I tear apart these dangerous ideas now), his name is Cleon Skousen who died just a couple of years back. Mitt mentions a book he wrote about the “end-times.” However, I want to zero in on just how the conspiratorial view of history plays a huge part in why Mormons build fall-out shelters in their back yards (maybe they all don’t, but as a religious belief, they have more shelters than any other “mainstream” religion).

I digress, the point is that Romney has just hinted at his views that may mirror Ron Paul in his belief that this grand-conspiratorial cabal was behind the major wars in our countries history and that even the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers may have been a conspiracy of some sort. Cleon Skousen’s two books I mentioned are found in any John Birch Society backed book store, along side Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, or, Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler.

The books the author Mitt mentioned are the The Naked Capitalist: A Review and Commentary on Dr. Carroll Quigley's Book, "Tragedy and Hope - A History of the World in Our Time”; and the Naked Communist.

Here are a couple of quotes from Naked Capitalist to set the mood:

''In time they [the banker families] brought into their financial network the provincial banking centers, organized as commercial banks and savings banks, as well as insurance companies, to form all of these into a single financial system on an international scale which manipulated the quantity and flow of money so that they were able to influence, if not control, governments on one side and industries on the other. The men who did this... aspired to establish dynasties of international bankers and were at least as successful at this as were many of the dynastic political rulers." (p. 51)

"The greatest of these dynasties, of course, were the descendants of Meyer Amschel Rothschild (1743-1812) of Frankfort, whose male descendants, for at least two generations, generally married first cousins or even nieces. Rothschild's five sons, established at branches in Vienna, London, Naples, and Paris, as well as Frankfurt, cooperated together in ways which other international banking dynasties copied but rarely excelled .

''The names of some of these other banking families are familiar to all of us and should be more so. They include Baring, Lazard, Erlanger, Warburg, Schroder, Selingman, the Speyers, Mirabaud, Mallet Fould, and above all Rothschild and Morgan. " (pp. 51-52 )

Typical crazy 9/11 truther stuff that Ron Paul supports, and now – apparently – so to does Mitt Romney, which is unfortunate. This will drive his polls down, if there are any sane people left in this grand country. Not to mention he wears weird underwear all the time!

I Posted on Mitt’s Underwear that he wears all the time.

Ha, Ha, Papa Giorgio Out!

Chinese Soccer Hooligan

GRAPHIC... do not watch if you are easily offended

Insane Hockey Accident!!

GRAPHIC... DO NOT WATCH IF SQUEEMISH

Become a Cult Leader 101

Very Original
I would say this is a perfect example of 3Ho

I will list here some keys to knowing you are in a cult by an ex-3Ho (Sikh) member:

"you know when your in a cult when..."

The pages of your phone book are all filled up almost exclusively with other members of your group.

You decide to stay within the group for your honeymoon.

The only real vacation you've taken in 20 years is a group sponsored retreat for some courses.

The only way you really know what's going on "in the real world", is by watching movies, which you do quite frequently.

You're really worried that you forgot to prepare your food as the group says.

Even your daughter's dolls look like group members.

All of your son's animals also are dressed up like members.

The only music that you own comes from your organization or its authorized list.

You can't figure out why your leader doesn't run for President or something really big.

Underneath you're hoping that your child is allowed to have a relatively normal name, but act really happy when he receives some weird name chosen by your leader.

You think that most people that aren't in your group are alcoholics, drug addicts, or neurotic (unless of course, they're friends with your leader).

The only things you can remember about your past are the painful parts.

Even though you don't believe in superstition or faith healers, you just spent some money to have your horoscope read by an astrologer and paid some guy to do psychic surgery on you anyway.

You wonder how it is that you can have a health problem when you know you've done everything just right like you were told by your group and its leader.

You have just completed 120 days of a meditation and still don't have a job. But you believe somehow that this has brought you blessings because you just found $20 in your coat pocket.

You just sold your car so you can afford to go to a group activity or fundraiser.

You are seriously thinking about selling your house for the same reason.

You baked hundreds of cookies to sell at some group activity, but you end up hawking them in the parking lot for enough gas to get home.

The only way you can really like people is when they are members of, or potential recruits for your group.

You do your two and half-hours of evening meditation and still wonder if that was enough and feel bad because you think you can never really do enough.

Even your nightgowns meet the group's code.

You throw out your favorite flannel shirt, because it's "not good for your aura."

Even though you might think that a piece of clothing looks good that's "not approved"--you don't even allow yourself to want it.

You think all the other groups just like yours are "cults," but not yours.

You think all the other groups just like yours don't ask enough of their members, but yours is better-- because you have to do even more than they do.

A lot of stuff that you used to think was really weird you are now doing.

Even though you told yourself that you would never bow down to a human being--you just touched your teacher's feet.

You don't care anymore who understands and who doesn't if they're not in your group.

So he/she they would learn better and you can be really close, you would actually think about sending your minor child away to a "third world country" for the rest of his or her childhood and adolescence if the group advised you to.

Even though you wouldn't trust your mother to make dinner for you--you now trust group members with your child. · You find it easier to forgive your friend's husband for arbitrarily, abandoning his children and stealing her money--than to forgive her for disobeying a group rule.

The Rick Ross link to the post

What "is" Freemasonry?

Freemasonry, Gnosticism, and 9/11

This post grew out of this post: NWO Explains Nothing

Below is a scan from my copy of Morals and Dogma. I am highlighting -- *literally -- page 567 to make a point about the conspiratorial view of history. The section on Adam and Eve is a great place to start. What you have here is an example of Gnostic thinking; Freemasons are merely modern day Gnostics. Roles are reversed in comparison to how historic Christianity has viewed them since its inception. I will explain, but first look at page 567 (click on it to enlarge):

So let’s get into the meat of the matter. Gnostic thinking is a combination of Judaism, Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity. (By-the-by, the below is much to do with a professor’s input I had, Dr. Wayne House.)

• Judaism – early Gnostics followed the thinking of Marcian, and Marcian taught that the God of the Old Testament was a demiurge. A demiurge would be what we would typically call the “devil.” Since anything 100% spirit is “good,” anything material is “bad.” So the God of the Old Testament created the world, which is material, and so this God is the Gnostic’s mortal enemy (pun intended). So Judaic thought and Judaism’s God is what Gnostics are “fighting” against. This is Judaism’s contribution.

• Platonism – plutonic thought is basically the codifying of Hindu thinking into Grecian thought. He taught that innate ideas (that is: existing in one from birth; inborn; native) were the ideas the mind beheld in the world of pure Forms before birth. This world, then, is but a shadow of reality… pure spirit. This is Platonic contribution to Gnostic thinking.

An aside here for clarity of thought. Platonic thinking shares a point in common with Gnostic thinking, so you could be a Platonist and not a Gnostic. You couldn’t be, however, a Gnostic without being a Platonist. This is important because many “scholars” get this concept mixed up when describing the points of contact between Gnostic thinking and Christianity. Okay, on we go.

• Zoroastrianism – Zoroastic thought has contributed what is called ethical dualism. It has said that there is a battle between good and evil, light and dark. Its addition to this is that anything material in nature is evil, and anything spiritual is good.

• Christianity – Christian theology provided a “vehicle” in which to express the above. It is then, the “vehicle of expression” for Gnostics. Jesus becomes the way in which they Gnostics explain the working of impersonal deity in human existence and the offering of salvation through secret knowledge, or, Gnosis. Gnosis means knowledge of spiritual matters; mystical knowledge.

Gnostic’s, then, only have a complete “system of thought” when they combine all four of these major aspects into their thinking. If their thinking were to lack any one of these, they would cease to be Gnostic. The combining of the major aspects of these four lines thought, then, make up the Gnostic “worldview.” What do Gnostics believe then? I will explain a bit more in this crude drawing (again, click on it to enlarge):

Much like Eastern philosophy, there is an impersonal spirit which is 100% spirit. Brahma as it is referred to in Hindu thought. Out of this impersonal force emanated “Eons.” These Eons were 99.9% spirit and .01% material, to put it layman terms. (Also, the percentages are not to explain exactly what Gnostic's believe, I am just using these numbers as examples to get the analogy across.) These less impersonal, or more corrupted Eons, created other Eons who themselves were more deficient in their spirit/matter balance. Until finally you have very “diluted” beings. One diluted being -- referred to as a “Demiurge,” what we would sometimes call the “Devil” -- created our world. He also created smaller more diluted beings called “Archons.” These archons would be what we view as demons; Gnostics would say Paul referred to them in Ephesians 6:12 when he said:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Jesus comes into the picture as an Eon who has a higher percentage of spirit left and sneaks past the demiurge and the archons and enters our world. He is “born,” not physically, but is an ethereal image of mankind (hard to explain) to point the way to a saving knowledge that is secret or hidden.

Freemasons are the most modern day representation of Gnostics; they have symbols that as you climb to higher degrees become clearer in their real meaning and are explained more-so as you climb this “knowledge ladder.” Secret handshakes, elaborate rituals and secrecy until finally at the 33^rd-degree you are presented with a true understanding (a Gnostic one) of reality and “God.”

From three separate Mason’s saying each part of the name of God, “Ja-bul-on,” to the meaning of the dot or “G” in the square and compass symbol. All these serve as layers for the initiates to come to realize that this material world is evil.

The Gnostics and hence, Masons, believe that there is a war going on with the “god” of the Old Testament and the “God” of the New Testament. As this thinking has progressed throughout history it has adopted other philosophies and has become more and more convoluted in its history and thinking. The New Age, much of your occultism, cults, and even Christianity (Trinity Broadcasting Network for instance) has been influenced by this thinking in one way or another. From Madam Blavatsky and her influence on Germany’s occultism that led to the Aryan philosophy of Hitler to Benny Hinn’s healing crusades.

All sorts of writers, especially conspiratorial writers, have had a plethora of facts to misuse and misrepresent and to twist to their own agendas. Their agenda have resulted in many people believing that “secret societies” control both parties and were behind the Twin Towers so they could implement a world government. This view that combines: “sun” worship from the ancient Egyptians to the Illuninati, from the Knights Templars and Rosicrucians, to today’s Skull and Bones and Council on Foreign Relations; is defunct mainly due to the lack of understanding gnosis and the philosophy that has driven it.

Click It

I do not joke when I say religion -- and the reactions to it -- influences almost everything! This lack of understanding will lead to wilder accusations that will lead to an eventual breakdown of common sense (the same idea is sarcastically explained in the cartoon above... it is basically the same thinking behind conspiracy thinking). This is already seen in the Democratic Party. Democrat Senators and Congressman calling Bush Hitler and believing he had something to do with 9/11 is an example of how off-base people can be in their thinking about reality when people refuse to know and study history. Movies like the Da Vinci Code are inculcated as truth. Any “pop-cultured” (I saw it said as “pop-occulture”) convoluted theory that comes along is swallowed with no regard to how sound that theory is.

Enough ranting, sorry. I hope I have helped, even if it is a little bit, to clear up some thinking on this matter. My main point is that any one can use the history of secret societies and their Gnostic thinking and connect it to any event in history and make it seem like they “caused it” to happen. With the use of these theories by the growing popularity of Marxism and Socialism around the world (used by them as propaganda), I do not see the “New World Order” coming from a planned “secret society” take-over. I see this “New World Order” (and hence a Hitlarian like force or person) coming to fruition by these propagandists undermining civil society with their convoluted thinking.

So what I use to think was an explanation behind coming events -- the conspiratorial view of history -- will really be the catalyst for it. CAN YOU PICK UP WHAT I AM PUTTING DOWN!?!?

• * I mean literally because during this time I was using highlighters to annotate. My annotating “style” has become more precise and cleaner to look at (no more highlighters in other words).

Picture Gallery for visuals:

Below are just a few snapshots from some of the rituals involved in the Blue Lodge initiation into a degree. They usually involve representations of you promising to keep this secret knowledge or face death. There are also a death and rebirth symbology that is enacted with the initiate being placed in a coffin and coming out reborn. It looks spooky and scary if you do not know the meaning behind it. For the Christian, understanding this meaning and its history in Gnostic literature is key in witnessing to Masons.

Actual ceremony caught on hidden camera (from Turkey)

There are many “secret” handshakes in Freemasonry. Many ex-masons have given what these shakes, symbols, and rituals are. I will include under this photo some symbols from Mormonism take from Freemasonry by Joseph Smith, who was himself a Freemason for some time.

Mormon ceremony just like the Masonic version (after this was released the ceremony was changed) -- eery music to make you think Mormons are evil! Ha, Ha. keep in mind this all has roots to gnostic thinking, even though modern man has made it crazier than it use to be.

Even Charles Taze Russell (founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses) had a bit of influence in this area ("pyramidology" was all the rave back then... especially for dispensationalists). The below is his grave stone:

Remember, these aren’t grand conspiratorial movements that control all these religions. It is influence from a worldview. Just as Christianity has influenced the shape of musical notes to the creation of hospitals and the nursing industry to the building of cathedrals all over the world. So to has Gnostic thinking/philosophy influenced areas of our life. The conspiratorialists (if that’s a word) read more into it than there is, that’s all.

Craziness!! Trying to talk to people who believe what is depicted in the picture below is near impossible!

Now, after reading and seeing some of what I have said, take that more balanced thinking to this video about Mormonism's occult connections --- rooted ultimately in Gnostic influence:

By posting this somewhat humorous video I do not in any way support Larson's ministry. I will say that while he has great insight into the occult, he himself has some issues that should make the comparative-religious person go "hmmmm."

Skills

Beckham Jr.

I think L.A. would have been better off if they got this kid instead of Beckham. I got this from Hot Air

OUCH!!!

X-Games Fall - Jake Brown

I love the slow-mo "talk"... ha, ha

NWO Explains Nothing

Conspiracy Nuts… I Was Once One

This is to reply to a comment made on my You Tube page to a video I posted. I will post the video here and then the person’s comment, and then respond. I post this video and comment for context.

Here is the video, it was filmed during one of the first major “anti-war” (anti-Iraq/anti-Bush) march:

Here is the comment:

“The DNC AND GOP are criminal NWO/CFR/Fed'l Reserve's shill puppets. They conspire wars for profit and care not one wit about Americans unless there's a way they can profit.”

I was once the biggest New World Order (NWO) guy there was. Ralph Epperson was a god of conspiracy theories in my view of history. But when I started to draw these conclusions out to their logical ends and started tracking down references used by these writers, I found that this belief is just that, a belief.

Listen, I will give a parallel to one (of the many) reasons I reject Darwinism as a reason that excludes the conspiratorial view of history.

“The underlying problem is that a key Darwinian term is not defined. Darwinism supposedly explains how organisms become more ‘fit,’ or better adapted to their environment. But fitness is not and cannot be defined except in terms of existence. If an animal exists, it is ‘fit’ (otherwise it wouldn’t exist). It is not possible to specify all the useful parts of that animal in order to give an exhaustive causal account of fitness. [I will add here that there is no way to quantify those unknowable animal parts in regards to the many aspects that nature could or would impose on all those parts.] If an organism possesses features that appears on the surface to be an inconvenient – such as the peacock’s tail or the top-heavy antlers of a stag – the existence of stags and peacocks proves that these animals are in fact fit.

So the Darwinian theory is not falsifiable by any observation. It ‘explains’ everything, and therefore nothing. It barely qualifies as a scientific theory for that reason….

The truth is that Darwinism is so shapeless that it can be enlisted is support of any cause whatsoever…. Darwinism has over the years been championed by eugenicists, social Darwinists, racialists, free-market economists, liberals galore, Wilsonian progressives, and National Socialists, to give only a partial list. Karl Marx and Herbert Spencer, Communists and libertarians, and almost anyone in between, have at times found Darwinism to their liking.”

From an article by Tom Bethell in The American Spectator (magazine), July/August 2007, pp. 44-46.

So to is the conspiratorial view of history (Bilderbergers, Council of Foreign Relations, Banking Institutions, Rosicrucians, The Knights Templars, on-and-on). It is used by Marxists to libertarians and anarchists, liberal and conservatives. If someone or something disproves an aspect of this theory that person is a “shill” or the fact has been planted. It explains everything and therefore nothing.

Papa Giorgio

UPDATE: some photos of the type of books I use to support wholeheartedly... but no longer.

I want to point out what the below two photo's are. It is a copy of Morals and Dogma. It was required reading for third-degree Freemasons many years ago. But now you have to be a 32-degree or 33-degree Mason to read it. This copy I got by scaling up an old / large drainage pipe to a third story - open - window where a Blue Lodge was housed. Yes, I wasn't thinking too much back in this time in my life... this is obviously granted.

Near Death Proofs

Dr. Gary Habermas on Life after Death Experiences

Dr. Habermas isn’t a good lecturer; he is a much better at debating or teaching (he is a professor).

This is a long speech given at UCSB, not very exciting… unless you are interested in some proof of our spirit. It isn’t proof for the existence of God, but it fits well with the theistic worldview. Eastern philosophies and atheism do not fit with what is presented here, only the Judeo-Christian worldview. There are some pretty amazing examples in this lecture.

Obama a "Neo-Con"?

Who wants to invade?

Get out of Iraq and into Pakistan?

I just saw an article (on a liberal website) about “neo-cons” wanting to invade Pakistan. However, last I checked, Obama wasn’t a “neo-con” when it comes to foreign policy (he is on domestic).

The Illinois senator warned Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that he must do more to shut down terrorist operations in his country and evict foreign fighters under an Obama presidency, or Pakistan will risk a U.S. troop invasion and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

"Let me make this clear," Obama said in a speech prepared for delivery at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070801/ap_on_el_pr/obama_terrorism_7

Christian Worldview a Hate-Crime?

Soon to be Hate-Crime I’m Sure

One News Now - props

With the criminalization of thought becoming more Politically Correct in regards to mores will eventually mean that the Judeo-Christian worldview, matters such as homosexuality, will soon be considered a hate-crime. This is what many homosexual organizations are pushing for in fact. A post I put together with excerpts from Dr. Robert George thinking then will one day, like in Canada for instance, become against the law.

Again, all one has to do is to follow the “Hate-Crime” “tag” below and see the many examples of the Politically Correct nature of this law.

A future ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is expected to clarify the extent of free speech available to public students in the Boyd County (Kentucky) School District after students were instructed to withhold Christian viewpoints on homosexuality.

The instruction came in the form of a video that was part of school curriculum designed to teach students about "sexual diversity training." Boyd District's diversity training requirement began as a result of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by a high school Gay-Straight Alliance club against the district and did not include an opt-out provision on moral or religious grounds.

Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Kevin Theriot says a suit was filed against the district in 2005, but a federal judge rejected both a preliminary injunction, based on religious free speech, and the right to opt out of the sessions, which was why an appeal was filed in 2006.

"Our concern at the appeal level was that students were not allowed to even share their faith -- their biblical views regarding homosexual behavior -- with another student if that student may perceive it as insulting," says Theriot. According to the attorney, even the American Civil Liberties Union agreed that the school went too far in placing restrictions on student speech.

Theriot and ADF attorneys argued against what they call the unconstitutionality of that policy, before a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit last week. He also alleges that school officials have not been fully forthcoming about the district's existing opt-out procedure for parents who do not want their children in the sessions.

Science 101

Crazy Science!!

Military Capabilities?

Puppy Dog

Too Cute to Pass Up

George Bush Made Me Do It!

Slashing Tires in the Name of Justice

Just an interesting story out of Colorado thanks to “Sweetness & Light” This person is probably from the party of tolerance and understanding in the midst of a “peace” protest… … by himself.

Tire Slashing War Protestor Charged with Felony

By Brynn Grimley

Monday, July 30, 2007

PORT ORCHARD - The 19-year-old Bremerton man who slashed 42 government tires in retaliation of the Iraq war was charged with a Class B felony Monday in Kitsap County Superior Court.

Jason C. Chavez, currently a student at a Colorado college, was charged with first degree malicious mischief for causing more than $4,200 worth of damage to 13 government service vehicles that were parked in front of the U.S. Army recruiting business in Silverdale…

Just after midnight on July 29 Chavez was seen slashing tires in the parking lot along the 2800 block of Bucklin Hill Road. Witnesses called 911 to report a man dressed in black was slashing tires in front of the Army recruiting office with a knife.

When deputies arrived Chavez ran, then stopped near the Staples building across the parking lot and put his hands in the air. At the time he dropped a butterfly knife from his pocket, according to Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office reports.

When deputies arrested him, Chavez asked “is this the time where I can confess?” He proceeded to tell deputies he specifically identified government cars and slashed the tires because he “hated the military and the government and the war we were in,” according to reports…

When Chavez was arrested Sunday deputies smelled alcohol and asked him to take a portable breath test. He complied and blew a 0.168, more than double the legal driving limit.

Chavez told deputies he would have slashed the tires, sober or not, according to the report.

He also said if he was in Iraq he would kill everyone fighting on the American side, adding that he believed the actions of the government were “unjust and wrong.”

Stem Cells

Adult Stem Cells!

Church and State - props

This is one of the biggest misconceptions from the Left, that is, that fetal stem cells are the cure to our major problems. Growing fetuses in jars for the purpose of harvesting them later is, well, barbaric. Stem cells from “core blood” or adult stem cells are the way to go.

A woman's life has been saved because of adult stem cells and the liberal is ignoring it.

Morrow's nurse from her third heart attack had been researching adult stem-cell therapy and came across a groundbreaking study at the Texas Heart Institute. Her health records were sent to Texas.

On Oct. 14, 2006 — her birthday — she went into surgery. Doctors removed about 50cc of bone marrow from her left hip. Then the cells were cultivated. Four hours later, she was back in surgery, where 30 million stem cells were injected into the right side of her heart.

Morrow stayed in Texas for nine days and returned every two weeks through January. A local businessman, for whom she had catered, paid for all of her plane trips.

This month, she returned to the University of Alabama, where she had received dire news just a year ago. She had another CT scan to see how her heart was functioning.

"The doctor calls and says, 'Ma'am, the right side of your heart is normal.'"

"I told the doctor, 'I don't understand why we have this huge political mess going on about stem cells,'" Morrow says. "I'm living proof that adult stem cells work far better than embryonic. And why should embryonic even be in discussion?

She doesn't even need her $85,000 defibrillator anymore. The cost to culture the stem cells, Morrow says: Less than $600. "This is going to revolutionize heart disease.

I am off to work so I am posting this story quickly in response to a commenter... enjoy:

UPDATE RESPOSNE TO COMMENT:

Taken from:

Life Issues article

Rutgers University Forum

President Bush then created the Presidential Council on Bioethics to oversee the ESCR debate and chose Dr. Leon Kass to chair the council. Dr. Kass has:

• Questioned the uses of in vitro fertilization
• Opposed the substitution of the Hippocratic Oath – with its injunction against abortion.
• Decried the growing acceptability of euthanasia
• Strenuously argued against even basic research into human cloning.
• His core thinking, “We should bequeath to our children a world in which human dignity can flourish no less than human health.”

To date, current research on embryonic stem cells has resulted in no promising results. Ironically, a leading pro-ESCR advocate is the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, but ESCR research has failed in fighting this disease.

Past supporters of this controversial research are now speaking out about the false hype surrounding the results. The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that doubters are coming out of the woodwork. Paul Billings, who studied stem cells’ effects and co-founded a stem cell bank, said that hopes for major new medical treatments based on embryonic stem cells are “very remote”. “The problems are so complex that we’re not likely to be able to tackle them with the stem cell gambit in the foreseeable future.”

Researchers in China met with a disastrous result. Fetal tissue injected into a patient’s brain produced temporary improvement, but within two years the patient developed a brain tumor and died. An autopsy revealed that the fetal cells had taken root, but had then metamorphed into other types of human tissue – hair, skin and bone. These grew into the tumor, which killed the patient.

A devastating result occurred at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In some of the patients, the implanted embryonic cells apparently grew too well, churning out so much of a chemical that controls movement that they writhed and jerked uncontrollably. Dr. Paul E. Greene called the uncontrollable movements developed by some patients as “absolutely devastating.” He said, “They chew constantly, their fingers go up and down, their writs flex and distend. It’s a real nightmare. And we can’t selectively turn it off. No more fetal transplants. We are absolutely and adamantly convinced that this should be considered for research only.”

In stark contrast to the failures of embryonic stem cell research, the future looks very promising for treatment with adult stem cells.

The following are examples of research breakthroughs with adult stem cells. Please note that this list is only a sampling.

• Researchers at Harvard Medical School say adult stem cells may eliminate the need for embryonic ones. The researchers experienced a permanent reversal of Type 1 diabetes in mice by killing the cells responsible for the diabetes. The animals’ adult stem cells took over and regenerated missing cells needed to produce insulin and eliminate the disease. The results hold promise for rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus and more than 50 other ailments.

• At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, a man with a rare, potentially fatal skin disorder that was so severe that he could no longer eat, is now symptom-free after receiving a transplant of his own adult stem cells.

• Doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago extracted the adult stem cells from the blood of two Crohn’s patients and successfully used them to rebuild their faulty immune systems.

• Dr. Edward Holland of the Northern Kentucky Eye Laser Center in the greater Cincinnati metropolitan area, is using adult stem cell transplants as part of a treatment to dramatically improve the eyesight of his patients.

• New research in the UK on rats indicates that transplants of adult stem cells can help stroke victims regain movement, senses and understanding. They also show that the adult cells were more effective than cells from aborted babies.

• The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York came to similar conclusions.

• A study by the Institute for Stem Cell Research in Milan, Italy showed that certain cells from the brains of adult rats can be used to generate muscular tissue.

• Researchers at the University of South Florida in Tampa have found that adult stem cells from the umbilical cord blood may be able to help repair damaged brain tissue after a stroke.

• Scientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ have found that bone marrow cells may be converted into replacement nerve cells, able to treat brain and nerve injuries. Dr. Ira Black and his team were able to convert 80% of the bone marrow cells into nerve cells.

Forbes Magazine provided additional confirmation that adult stem cell research is far more successful that embryonic stem cell experimentation. In their September 3, 2001 issue, page 36, they quoted an article printed in the Wall Street Journal Europe by Richard Miniter.

“Of the 15 US biotech companies solely devoted to developing cures using stem cells, only two focus on embryos. Embryo stem cell research is at the drawing-board stage – not for lack of funds but for lack of promising research to finance. Venture capitalists have no agenda beyond making money; if they see embryo projects that are likely to bear fruit over the next five to seven years – the usual VC time horizon – they will fund them. That the market is speaking so loudly against embryo stem cell research probably explains why embryo researchers are so eager to reverse the ban on government funding.”

ROOOF! Grrrr.

Just a Couple “BlueDog” Democrat News Articles

#3 Democrat says good news in Iraq bad news for Democrats. So the Democrats want bad news is what he is saying, right?

Clyburn, in an interview with the washingtonpost.com video program PostTalk, said Democrats might be wise to wait for the Petraeus report, scheduled to be delivered in September, before charting next steps in their year-long struggle with President Bush over the direction of U.S. strategy.

Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.

"I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us," Clyburn said. "We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report."

Washington Post article

Joe Lieberman (the Democrat nominee for vice Pres just a few years ago) “respectfully” call democrats “naïve.” I agree.

Ever since Connecticut Democrats refused to back him for a fourth term in Congress, Joe Lieberman has been burnishing his independent credentials in the narrowly divided Senate while becoming increasingly critical of the Democratic Party on the war in Iraq.

Lieberman, the Democrats’ 2000 vice presidential nominee, insists he is not actively considering joining the Republican Party. But he is keeping that possibility wide open as his disenchantment grows with Democratic leaders. The main sticking points are their attempts to end the war in Iraq and their hesitation to take a harder line against Iran.

“I think either [Democrats] are, in my opinion, respectfully, naïve in thinking we can somehow defeat this enemy with talk, or they’re simply hesitant to use American power, including military power,” Lieberman said in a wide-ranging interview with The Hill.

“There is a very strong group within the party that I think doesn’t take the threat of Islamist terrorism seriously enough.”

The Hill