This morning I was listening to our local public radio station and one of the morning show guests was an ethno-botanist named Mark Plotkin, who's the co-author of a new book called, "The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise of Drug Resistant Bacteria." Unfortunately, I only got to hear half the program, but what I heard was frightening enough. The audio archive should be up tomorrow, though -- so I and anyone else who might be interested can listen.
http://kpcc.org/programming/airtalk/
The overprescription of antibiotics, aggressive marketing and resulting overuse of anti-bacterial soaps, vaccination for everything under the sun (regardless of whether or not there's a real threat of an outbreak); all have contributed to the resistant strains of bacteria that keep cropping up, as well as the skyrocketing numbers of people being diagnosed with auto-immune related disorders. We've been doctored and drug-companied to death, and paid good money for it to boot. Anyone who believes that the FDA, the drug cartel and the medical industry are truly interested in public health is sadly mistaken.
Once again the government is poised to enact legislation based on the moral views of SOME people, without regard for the actual scientific value of the research. And yet, I'll bet the same people who have a moral problem with cloning research have no problem at all with conducting tests on animals; injecting them with pathogens, dousing them with chemicals and god-only-knows what else, just so they can continue to flood the market with cheap products that cause cancer, suppress immune function and take away some of the human body's own form of defense against disease.
Cuz, y'know... a few human embryonic cells strung together is A LIVING HUMAN; whereas that cute little bunny that was just injected with engine degreaser is JUST AN ANIMAL. :angry:
Fucking people make me sick.