We're quite accustomed to lying. Some may feign shock - as they did when a slump-faced, shifty-eyed, quivery-lipped Frey confessed to Oprah, the arbiter of truth, that his book was a pack of lies. It seemed like more genuine disbelief when the stem-cell myth slowly unraveled and the legacy of Hwang did a landslide shift from "supreme scientist" to he who would have had a street named after him, could have had a museum named after him, or would have been forever revered by his countrymen. Really, all this shock can't be more than an act. Maybe all jurors should be chosen from Oprah audiences; but lets be honest about the pretend "surprise" of it all. The routine deceptions are no more surprising than Groundhog Day (the movie). With all the Enrons and WorldComs and Katrinas and Iraqs, isn't it just the same day all over again?
Cut to Bush's State of the Union address. People recoiled at his proclamation about banning any sort of cloning research, "human cloning in all its forms; creating or implanting embryos for experiments; creating human-animal hybrids; and buying, selling or patenting human embryos". It has been widely pointed out that animal-human chimeras are a not so very scary part of health research. What Bush proposes also pertains to infertility treatments used by thousands of couples today to have families. People speculate about what he really means.
On energy, Bush said we were "addicted to oil" and that we would reduce our dependence on mid-east oil by 75% -- "through technology". There were arguments about this out of the gate -- the reductions weren't realistic or feasible and only 20% percent of our oil comes from the mid-east anyway. Indeed, say Bush's aides according to the Philadelphia Inquirer today, the President did not mean any of this literally. "This was purely an example", Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.
So is the cloning rhetoric also just an "example"? If the administration knows what they say, perhaps they don't really mean it? Outside of the most obvious (and at the moment unfeasible) human cloning and therapeutic cloning "examples" that Bush wants banned, there are some technologies that are essential for the scientifically advanced, humane, non-isolationist nation he promotes. Unfortunately, since the administration has already gone to great lengths to curtail stem cell-like researh, indications are that they will be invigorated by their new court appointees and will continue down this path.
While the intention is certainly there, it seems ideologically distorted. The stated impetus of "a hopeful society...that recognizes the matchless value of every life", rings false. As a small example, why say "no cloning", then merrily "clone" these troops for speech props in this Photoshop picture. Isn't that disrespectful?
The good thing about Groundhog Day (the date) is that one way or another you know that the season or term or trend or silliness will eventually end.
