Isn't it odd, in November Californians voted to tax themselves to the tune of $3 billion dollars over the next ten years to fund human embryonic stem cell research.  Governor Schwarzenegger said that Proposition 71 would be a "boon" to the biotechnology industry in California.  "We daringly led the way for the high-tech industry, and now voters can help ensure we lead the way for the biotech industry."  Sounds like mega-billions for the state if the research pans out.

That's a big 'if ', since there have been zero benefits from embryonic stem cells to date, as opposed to myriad breakthroughs using adult stem cells.   However, if embryonic stem cells do indeed provide something more than just "great hope to the American people", California (and its politicians) would certainly cash in on its success. 

But Schwarzenegger has asked President Bush not to veto federal funding for embryonic research.  If you know you will eventually have a sure thing, why would the California governor want to share the pie with the federal government?  Because California is sure to get a lion's share of the 'free' billions from the federal largesse approved by Congress.  The state and its university labs will forever be a haven for embryonic research without the state dipping into their coffers.  No breakthrough?  No problem.  Just like the never ending federal funding to find the 'cure' for cancer which has yielded questionable results, the federal gravy train "boon" on embryonic research papers has just begun.  

2010 update:  4 years later and Schwarzenegger's boondoggle doesn't even garner a mention within all his other boondoggles.  God works in mysterious ways.  Gloria Patri.

I've been deluged with e-mails regarding my post 'Does the Methodist altar have foot stirrups?, objecting that not all Methodists are pro-abortion.

Of course not all Catholics are pro-life either, but the Catholic Church is, along with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).  These Churches have always been pro-life.  No question, no straddling, no mealy mouthed placation.
 
You can find Catholics who are pro-abortion, pro homosexual marriage, pro-women priests, and pro-coveting thy neighbors goods (taxes).  But it is up to the Church to hold true to its core beliefs and traditions, and what is right in the eyes of God. 

The Methodist Church, like so many others, has chosen the easy way out and capitulated to pro-abortionists.  While only Howard Dean's United so-called 'Church' of Christ favors all forms of abortion, all the time for any reason, most try to placate both sides of the aisle by statements such as The Episcopal Church's "All human life is sacred. Hence it is sacred from its inception until death." The statement then goes on to equivocate, making sure it appeals to all comers.  In 1994, the 71st General Convention expressed "unequivocal opposition to any ... action ... that [would] abridge the right of a woman to reach an informed decision about the termination of her pregnancy, or that would limit the access of a woman to a safe means of acting upon her decision."  In 1997, at the 72nd General Convention, the delegates approved a resolution that did not condemn partial-birth abortions. 

But hey, other than that, "All life is sacred" to the Episcopal Church!!

It's tedious responding to incessant babble from Democrats.  But if the drool is left sitting in a pool on their hi-chair, people might notice and consider it normal (or true). 

Henrietta Reid, the always clucking Senate Permanent Minority Loser whined on the Senate floor that "serious issues" such as gasoline prices, health care costs, Voting Rights Act, and passing a Senate (tax payer funded embryonic) stem cell bill is of utmost importance to his permanent minority party.  He moaned that Republicans hadn't given workers a meaningful raise lately and hadn't accepted the 'link' to wildfires and "changing climate patterns".

It's no surprise that Reid and his Democrat Socialist Party of America want the Politburo to set prices on gasoline and Hillary Health Care as in other communist countries.  The fact that our economy has been the greatest in the world for over a century makes no never mind to socialists.  Speaking of Democrats, , it is indeed socialist governments that dictate wages.  Voting rights is a bogus issue today, except when Democrats insist on showing no ID and sue when dead people are removed from the voting rolls.  It's called "disenfranchisement" of honest voters.

As to her contention that global warming (here) is causing wildfires, my sister lives in an undisclosed location in the mountains of Colorado on 2000 acres.  Her husband complains that government regulations forbidding grazing on federal land which would remove piles of dead underbrush, and restrictions on lumber companies clearing overgrown forest is cause for most of the fires Henrietta complains about.  As to Henrietta's "wasting time on issues that matter to conservatives, such as the marriage amendment, drilling in the Artic Wildlife Refuge, flag burning, bankruptcy, class action and the estate tax", this is absolute proof that God is a Republican.   Scientists all agree.

The United Methodist Church and Amnesty International recently decried the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing capital punishment to continue in the U.S. with a vigil outside the nation's high court, CNSnews reports.  The United Methodist Church (UMC) is giddy that they were the first church to come out against capital punishment.  "Fifty years ago, the United Methodist Church gave a bold yes to life," said UMC Bishop Ray Chamberlain, "and a resounding no to the death penalty.

The sanctimonious bishop says in their judgment it is "morally indefensible to deliberately destroy life, devalues life to the ultimate extreme, and continues the cycle of violence." Obviously to the Methodists, some killing devalues life more than other killing.  The United Methodist Church began in the early 1970s to view abortion as a "choice". Their favor of abortion has been so strong that two of its institutions helped organize and affiliate with the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. For many years RCAR used office space in the United Methodist Building across the street from the U.S. Supreme Court. In both 1996 and 1997 the United Methodist Church publicly supported President Clinton’s veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.  

Query:  Does the Methodist altar have foot stirrups?  Anyone??

Since 1976 there have been 1,029 people who've been heard by a jury of their peers and executed for their crimes against humanity.  Since the 1973 Roe v Wade, there have been over a million babies executed each and every year for convenience.  So much for the Methodist's phony moral judgments.