An Embryo Is A Person? A DeLay Is An Idiot

On Tuesday, a majority of the House of Representatives, in a momentary lapse of sanity, approved a measure that would would extend federal funding to research embryonic stem cell lines that were nonexistent in 2001, when Bush limited funding solely to lines in existence at the time. According to scientists, many if not all of the previous lines are now contaminated and unusable. Opposition to embryonic stem cell research is so strong among Bush's supporters on the religious right that he is threatening to wield the veto for the first time since he was selected for the presidency by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Majority Leader Tom DeLay weighed in with a shining example of the right's twisted thinking on this issue: "An embryo is a person" declared the Tsar-hammer of the House. It gets even better: "This bill tramples on the moral convictions of an awful lot of people who don't want their tax dollars to be spent for killing innocent human life," DeLay said.

The first question I would love to ask one of these people of "moral convictions" is the following: If you had a choice to save either a total stranger or a frozen embryo from an oncoming train which would you choose and why? Follow up question: If you had a choice between saving the stranger's pinky finger from being crushed by the train or the embryo which would you choose and why?

My next request is addressed directly to Mr. Delay. I've always considered myself to be a person of moral convictions too. And, since you appear to have taken up the cause of moral people with such a passion, I'd like to present a very brief list of actions by the U.S. government that have trampled on my convictions and where my tax dollars have been spent for killing innocent human life:

1) The estimated 1 million deaths of civilian, non-combatant Iraqi men, women and children
caused by sanctions imposed on Iraq largely at the behest of the U.S. government

2) The indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan from October 7, 2001 through March 2002 resulting in approximately 3-3400 deaths

3) The estimated 22 to 25,000 civilian deaths that have resulted from the U.S. military
intervention in Iraq

4) The well-documented 1,647 U.S. military deaths in Iraq resulting from the lies told to
the American people about the gravity and immediacy of the "threat" posed by Iraq

I could go on but I think this is enough to get you started.

I know I can count on you, Tom