The long-running crusade by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., against chimera research has some people tittering. Brownback attracted 20 co-sponsors (including one Democrat) for the Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act, introduced Friday, which would ban the laboratory creation of “part-human, part-animal creatures” that “blur the line between species,” according to his Web site. “This legislation works to ensure that our society recognizes the dignity and sacredness of human life,” he said.
But among the reactions:
“As our nation suffers through the greatest economic decline in a generation and our country’s brightest minds are working tirelessly to reverse course, what does Sen. Brownback propose? Banning mermaids,” wrote Chris Harris of Media Matters.
And a Daily Kos posting is headlined “Mermaids, Centaurs, Minotaurs and Satyrs Against Brownback.”
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50 Comments
Pathetic. You have to go to the Daily Kos or MediaMatters to find people to criticze Brownback’s proposal?
And yet no thread on the continued rise in unemployment despite the magical stimulus that was supposed to limit it to no more than 8%.
This is why I don’t have a subscription to the Eagle.
Sounds like Brownback is due to visit his psychiatrist to rid himself of these visions.
Seriously, would this ban transplant of animal organs into humans? Manpanzies would make great conservatives. How about introducing genetic material from another species to correct a defect in an embryo?
As our nation suffers through the greatest economic decline in a generation and our country’s brightest minds are working tirelessly to reverse course,
– - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – – - – - – — – - — – – - -
The only course they are working to reverse is America’s heritage of freedom and free enterprise as they bring in their “statist, criminal, scheme.
Chimeras also is a term for those who have mixed DNA cells. Research has shown that DNA has not always been 100% telling in people who have chimerism. If a person has the disorder, they could be cleared for crimes they did, and paternity might be issue.
I don’t think anyone is pro-mixing animal/human cells. Was this an issue- ever?
I wonder how Brownback feels about transplanting organs and other products from animals into humans. you know like insulin, hearts, valves…
Watch out diabetics, you might be out of luck.
“beber” –
As I recall, it’s not unusual to transplant heart valves from pigs into diseased human hearts.
Would Sam (the Sham) Browback’s proposed legislation scuttle all that?
And “ProudMan” has his panties in a wad because the Wichita Eagle reports on it, but has no problem with a United States Senator would-be Governor think the “Protection Against Mermaids Act of 2009″ is essential legislation?
Sam (the Sham) sure has his priorities in order.
But “ProudMan” blames the media.
For mentioning it.
Sam (the Sham) Brownback sits in the Senate during an economic crisis, two wars, a crazed North Korean dictator facing the abyss, and the burning of fossil fuels perpetuates all-across-the-board crises….
But the junior Senator from Kansas is worried about centaurs.
Keep it up, CONs!
You obviously don’t realize how absurd you’re becoming.
Is that like sponsoring a bill to create a Rosa Parks stamp instead of getting our troops the equipment they needed? Good ole Berry.
yeah.
Worst
President
Ever
Thank goodness Brownback has his priorities in order. Never mind the wars, the recession, etc, he’s going to protect us from an army of these guys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex42OGGarrE
Good ol’ Brownback, working hard to keep Kansas a laughingstock. It could be worse, he could become our governor.
Did any of you liberal nillies read the legislation as proposed by Brownback and Mary Landrieu (D-LA)?
Answers any of your questions regarding the use of animal “parts” for a lack of a better term in saving human lives is answered.
Why does he need to work on legislation regarding the economy? Maybe he’s still waiting on the first stimulus to kick in as we’ve been told to be patient?
The link in the post answers your questions about organ transplants. It looks like this is aimed at permanent genetic manipulation, not current treatments and transplantations.
And I think Ariel and King Triton are safe since they are naturally occurring and not made by a mad scientist.
Anyone who read this and read the proposed legislation is just willfully ignorant if that believe what DailyKos wrote. Landrieu(D) and Brownback(R) very clearly have outlined what is wrong with this type of research. Neither came close to outlawing using ‘animal parts’ in patient care and replacement.
No Pmom I wouldn’t warn diabetics but I would warn those who believe the tabloid journalism that DailyKos puts out on a daily basis and spouts it as gospel.
Yeah..Brownback’s so out there…at least the Dems have their priorities in order…Clemons steroid hearings as the economy’s in freefall, a Michael Jackson stamp proposal somehow manages to go straight to top of the heap for consideration, college football playoffs, HR 1207 (fed reserve audit) with 260 co-sponsors (huh, 260 would be a healthy majority in a House floor vote..huh, wierd) can’t see the light of day in Bawney Fwank’s committee, NY Dem congressman trying to get Pres term limits repealed (now there’s confidence in the Dem “bench”!), Manhattan flyovers for photo ops, cash for clunkers….at least they’re keeping up on ethics probes of Rangel/Dodd…and the Pres’s got time to vet/hire a Great Lakes Czar, Cali Water Czar, Pay Czar and the other 30 Czars…and where would we be as a nation if we hadn’t spent $18M to upgrade the stimulus website…how would “you don’t mess with” Joe Biden remember its “number”??
spent $18M to upgrade the stimulus website
C ock S ucker. Where was I when they bid on that job. I’d'a done it for ~17 – 17.5 million.
“I don’t think anyone is pro-mixing animal/human cells. Was this an issue- ever?
The Russians actually had a program to cross-breed humans with the higher apes. I read about it in New Scientist. It didn’t work, as the humans selected were all female, and the apes would have nothing to do with them. Now if the situation were reversed —- hmmmm?
Sol – good news is…they used some DC based “tech” company…who didn’t list “web development” as one of their services on their website…you might have time to get the job as a subcontractor…:)
But the fact that they’ve never done web development is at least consistent, since the FDIC issued a multi-billion $ contract to Feinstein’s husband, who’s never sold real estate, for selling foreclosed homes for them at above market commissions & fixed fees…
Sol – here’s the story with the developer listed…I mean how could go wrong with “Smartronix”…
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/07/18m-being-spent-to-redesign-recoverygov-web-site.html
Seriously, how in the world can anyone take Brownback seriously after this? How can anyone take any of the other 19 who sign on seriously? Proudman was this not a serious enough action for you to address it?
Is partisanship not a matter of common sense? You pointed to them not having a thread of the failure of the stimulus package to create jobs. While some within the Conservative party and a lone liberal are going on at the same time fighting to ban mermaids! In what realm of reality are you wanting the Politicians to operate in? Instead of addressing the lunacy of the idea of banning half human/half animals in principle and their focusing on such a thing now instead of the economic concerns. You respond with attack on the News paper? Does that mean you believe there is a real need for these 20 to address this fantasy issue at this time rather then address the pressing issues?
Here again is one more reason to point to Kansas as a bunch of ideologue, ignorant deniers of reality.
Tilting at windmills and the clouds in the sky! This man wants to be the Governor of Kansas? Perhaps that would be more lunacy then his thinking this issue was important!
OKO this is on Brownback’s website just where is this a partisan issue or attack? I once said that if a liberal came out against slitting the throat of small children to bring on the rain. The partisanship would negate any sense of reality and the Conservatives would come out in favor of child sacrifice in a blinded partisan drive! And true it is not isolated to only Conservatives but just when does partisanship demand the overthrowing of logic, reason, reality and common sense?
What action or issue is one where we have to stop being blindly partisan and side with reality?
Writes Brownback: ?Creating human-animal hybrids, which permanently alter the genetic makeup of an organism, will challenge the very definition of what it means to be human and is a violation of human dignity and a grave injustice.?
_____________________________________________
Hmmmm? Wonder if Brownback has been reading some old Sci-Fi novels?. The one that comes to mind is ?Friday? by Robert Heinline.
?Friday is a 1982 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the story of a female ?artificial person?, the titular character, genetically engineered to be stronger, faster, smarter, and generally better than normal humans. Artificial humans are widely resented, and much of the story deals with Friday?s struggle both against prejudice and to conceal her enhanced attributes from other humans. The story occurs against a backdrop of general social collapse, in a balkanized world in which the United States has been split up into a number of smaller nations.
Friday was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1982 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1983″
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_(novel)
I think BrownLib has talked his editors and gotten approval to be on the sacred Kos and MediaMatters commercial endorsement.
It works like this – exclusive blogs are allowed to re-post main articles and comments from each other and this allows the boosting of a revenue stream for both places, but more so for the politically empowered vampire funds of Kos and MM.
“This is why I don’t have a subscription to the Eagle.” [ProudMan]
Well, why dont you stop using the WE BLOG if you hate the Eagle so much??? Hmmmm???
I would propose legislation to prohibit aliens from the Pleaides from landing in the United States, without proof of birth, and a Social Security number…
Anybody think Brownback would join such legislation??
Chas, nice to see you read, albeit fiction (or is it just proof that Wiki/Google is your sole source of “knowledge”?). Chimera was an X-Files episode subject as well…you might look that one up to continue your education.
I think if we scratch the surface of this bill, we will find some anti-science nonsense. Some basic genetic research could involve “mixing” DNA in cells.
We cannot handcuff our researchers…
I want to know more about this…
OK, so the idea of barring Minotaurs is silly.
How ’bout this?
First step towards man-eating robot
Be very afraid: scientists have invented the first organically powered robot, writes Robert Mendick. To put it another way, Chew Chew, the “gastrobot”, has discarded bytes in favour of bites.
The robot, which will be publicly unveiled next month at a robotics conference in Hawaii, should not send too many onlookers running for their lives. It is yet to develop a taste for meat, although Stuart Wilkinson, its inventor, admits that would be its ideal fuel.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/first-step-towards-maneating-robot-706269.html
—-
Take that, ManCow.
Writer if you had really read my post upstream you will see that I attributed the same thought process to Brownback and a prominent democrat from LA. No where did I use a partisan attack on either party as you seem to want to do with your post. I did attack the article in Daily Kos as tabloid journalism.
You sure are getting as touchy as one of the old guard dems that post here. What is the problem?
Ah Monkeyhawk, you are so thoughtful to remind me why I don’t bother to post comments very often. Bear in mind that just because someone discusses only a part of an issue rarely gives you insight as to their position on the other portions. Thank you for giving me an opinion that you could mock.
As to my actual comment, it stands. If you have to go with the Daily Kos or MediaMatters to find slight with your political opponents your are definetly at the bottom of the discussion.
Chas.,
I do not pay to the WEagle directly for use of this blog. Any financial support they derive from my lurking/posting is very small. However buying the print edition is direct support that I will not provide.
Besides, why do you think I “HATE” the WEagle? I did not make that statement. All I gave was a reason I will not buy the print edition.
DFB
Posted July 15, 2009 at 11:22 am | Permalink
Chas, nice to see you read, albeit fiction (or is it just proof that Wiki/Google is your sole source of “knowledge”?). Chimera was an X-Files episode subject as well…you might look that one up to continue your education.
============================================
The genius of Heinline is that when he wrote “Friday”, the science of genetics, and gene splicing was nearly totally in the realm of Sci-Fi… One of the key mantras used by the AP’s(like Friday) throughout the book was: “My mother was a test tube; my father was a knife.”
Heinline was truly a visionary…. By the time of the X-Files, such matters had been incorporated into major scientific ventures…
Chas first you are giving us drivel off of Coast to Coast AM and now X-Men. Man you are losing it. Reality and real life are lost to you it seems.
Maybe there is a medicine you can take.
Okie dont you know the difference between X-Files and X-Men???
Do you know what illustrative comments mean??
Get those reading glasses, I keep telling you that… but you continue to make a total fool of yourself….
Brownback’s true goal is to first pass this “mermaid” type bill…. And THEN, extend it to prohibit IVF and other reproductive procedures he and his little religious group, Opus Dei disapprove of…
“Mermaid” legislation is just the tip of Sam’s outrageous program….
Well,
Brownback ALREADY jumped the shark with the snowflake babies thing.
I guess now he is jumping the mermaid?
BTW, Okie, I didnt bring up X-Files… I just commented on the show… Somebody else brought up X-Files…
YOU are the only one to mention X-Men….
For some reason, I see Gary Larson’s goofy Far Side scientists in my mind, messing around.
That is a no brainer. Brownback couldn’t be more right. Creating monsters for whatever reason is stepping outside the bounds and should be illegal.
Breaking News! Obama Creating Breed Of Super Democrats in Secret White House Laboratory!
“BlueJay” notes –
“Brownback ALREADY jumped the shark with the snowflake babies thing.
I guess now he is jumping the mermaid?”
Okay.
That’s funny.
Maybe he doesn’t like tuna.
DavidB — You mean that secret lab hidden in that undisclosed location — the one where they re-charged Cheney’s batteries, before he could make his speeches?? ROFL!!
Brownback would also ban IVF, Artificial Insemination, ESC research, and myriads of others… This “mermaid” bill is just his warped way of testing the waters….
I’m still waiting on Sam, or one of his other wackos in Congress to issue a bill that would declare space aliens ineligible to be citizens of a country, because they arent HUMAN… and have no rights…
(Sort of like many of the CONS want to do with foreigners from certain nations, or religious backgrounds…)
Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie.
A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532492,00.html
—-
We all knew the zombie apocalypse was coming, of course. We just didn’t know it would be mechanized and self-perpetuating.
Cool.
(This headline is just too good to pass up on this thread!!!)
Ah, the Republican/Conservative mantra: If Obama and the Democrats are for it, well, dang it, I am against it.
I wish Pelosi would introduce a resolution praising Baseball, Apple Pie and Chevrolet.
I wonder how many Republicans would vote against it.
Oh, that’s right – Republicans HATE Chevrolet.
My bad.
OKO I admit I misread what you posted but, I guess my problem is that the actual facts are ready made for tabloid journalism. The Brownback legislation is right out of Weekly world. All it needs is the black and white picture of a half man and half shark attacking the scuba diver! He wants to ban it in case they breed and do what? He speaks of the blending of the human species. And it making the human being less pure, his primus is right out of Outer limits.
It might make sense if he argued that it would bring up the problem of what rights would such hybrid have?
The end results of these hybrids would be using them for transplants and testing of drugs on them as their closeness would be a better test. But even at that is seems he is acting on something he read right after the article about “Bat Boy has been found again!”.
Brownback is reflecting on your party and mine, its true that the Liberal media has no problem reporting on things like this. I have pointed it out several times now. It is not hard work for them, shoot they would not even make some of this stuff up as it would be so hard to believe someone actually coming up with it! It thing like this and others who come out in front of a camera like Michelle Bachman. They reflect on the party and the reflection does not say that Republicans are sane and prudent. It rather said that a bag of Walnuts and the Republican party is one in the same. Just a cluster of nuts! Are you a nut? I know I am not how about Hank? is he a loon?
If we do not shoot them loons down we become totally associated with them. Maybe the party has been reduced to nothing more than a gathering of delusional Ideologs. You sure can not tell it has NOT,
based on the public officials and those most vocal on the Conservatives side.
So yes I do get as touchy as “one of the old guard Reps that post here”. Sometime it get lonely being that too!
I somehow doubt that there’s anyone outside the Kentucky horseracing set who wants a centaur. That’s not the problen.
Obviously, human DNA has not ascended to the absolute height of perfection or there wouldn’t be Brownbacks in the world. We may in a few short years be able to cure wingnut conservatism with recombinant DNA technology, and the wingnuts are very afraid that it might mean the extinction of their species. Most of the rest of us aren’t.
Today is ManBearPig Awareness Day. He is real. Believe!!!!!!!!!!
Google it.
What was the name of the show where the mad scientist was making all these weird man/animal creatures on a remote island?
Ahhhh, I found it “Island of Dr. Moreau”, maybe Brownback will call Dr. Moreau to testify!
Hey, creating Centaurs would be a FANTASTIC boon to the racing industry! No more paying for a horse AND a Jockey! Think of the savings!!!
And so Brownback makes a fool of himself once again. Nothing new there.
Uh Fiore,
Last I heard, a horse who wins a race only gets paid a bag of oats before it gets pimped out.
Just to contribute in the middle of the night.
Here’s today’s Gail Collins column –
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/opinion/16collins.html
I got in a silly mood and commented –
Gail, I really like the way your mind works.
Another great piece.
It’s kind of a shame, though, the Sotomayor hearings stole the thunder from Sam (the Sham) Brownback who Wednesday introduced the “Prevent the Mermaids Act of 2009″ (something like that).
As amazing as it might sound, there are Senators even more insane than Cornyn and Coburn.
Maybe it’s because Brownback’s special blend of ignorance and arrogance is so… Kansan. Bland. Mayonnaise sandwiches on Wonder Bread with the crust cut off, there in the C Street communal kitchen (John Ensign was always stealing a fellow Family-member’s egg salad from the fridge), that’s Sam Brownback.
He’s a recent Opus Dei convert so he never appears in public without wearing a barbed-wire jock strap.
Brownback used to be on the Judiciary Committee but is off on more important things, I guess.
I’m missing questions he might have posed to Judge Sotomayor:
“Does ‘empathy’ include making up narratives for ‘Snowflake Babies?’”
Or:
“Does life begin at conception or with the sparkle in the father’s eye that night?”
You’re there sittin’ in your highfalutin New York City apartment where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a 3-star restaurant and I’m here in small-town Kansas where Ray’s Mini-Mart stops heating up frozen pizza at 9pm and the biscuits-and-gravy doesn’t go on sale ’til 5am… but I’ve got it worse!
Sam Brownback is representing me in the United States Senate!