Francis Collins and the Dickey-Wicker amendment

The New Yorker has a very well written article on Francis Collins and the recent upset in stem cell research, but it feels terribly premature. It’s a stage-setting piece to an act that hasn’t been resolved yet.

The part about Collins is familiar ground for those of us who were peeved at his selection to be head of the NIH — he’s a folksy evangelical Christian with a fabulous scientific CV. But it’s the context that’s most important.

Here’s the deal: during the Bush years, many restrictions were imposed on embryonic stem cell research by a reactionary right-wing congress and executive. President Obama has been trying to move ahead and open up new avenues for research, but just recently got a bit of cold water splashed in his face by a judge who determined that the Dickey-Wicker amendment was being illegally neglected.

The Dickey-Wicker amendment is a relic of Gingrich-era scientific obstructionism. It prohibits the funding of research in which human embryos are created or destroyed; the Clinton administration developed a rather dodgy line of reasoning to get around it by arguing that human stem cells were not human embryos, therefore research on cells could be funded. Which is entirely true, but it’s shaky because the intent of the legislators was to kill human embryonic stem cell research entirely, and taking advantage of the inability of Republican congressman to draft a scientifically complete description of the work they were prohibiting isn’t exactly fair.

So, much as I deplore the decision, Judge Royce Lambeth was legally correct, I think, to pull the plug.

“The language of the statute reflects the unambiguous intent of Congress to enact a broad prohibition of funding research in which a human embryo is destroyed,” he wrote. “This prohibition encompasses all ‘research in which’ an embryo is destroyed, not just the ‘piece of research’ in which the embryo is destroyed,” as the Justice Department argued.

The problem is the anti-science Dickey-Wicker rider, which needs to be scrapped (rather than rhetorically sidestepped) in order for research to proceed. And that’s where Francis Collins comes in, and, unfortunately, precisely where the New Yorker article stops.

Collins has the right goals: he’s wrangling with congress to open up opportunities for more stem cell research. His opponent is the Christian pro-life contingent, and hey, look, Collins speaks their language — he’s One of Them. Could that help? Will he get through to them and break the logjam? Stay tuned!

I’m a bit cynical. I think we’re looking at a deep-seated ideological conflict, and that the right wing won’t budge no matter how folksy and friendly and religiously copacetic Collins might be. But this is a case where, if Collins succeeds in battling the bureaucratic believers and overcoming the hurdles to stem cell research support, I will grudgingly admit that he was a politically astute choice for his position, despite my earlier contrary sentiments. I still think he’s a dingbat, but maybe we need a few dingbats on the interface between science and politics.

Of course, if he fails…but let’s hope he doesn’t.

Saudi Arabia, land of barbarians

Amnesty International reports that:

Reports say a court in Tabuk, in the north-west of the country, had approached a number of hospitals about the possibility of cutting the man’s spinal cord to carry out the punishment of qisas (retribution), as requested by the injured victim.

I don’t know how you find a doctor willing to commit such a violation of medical ethics, but then, I don’t understand how we can have doctors to carry out the death penalty, either.

Fervor can replace competence in our military’s officer corps, I guess

This is revoltingly narrow-minded and stupid behavior by our military. We’ve got a Christian kook, a Major General James Chambers, who has mistaken morale and discipline for indoctrination in the Christian faith. He’s running a program called the Spiritual Fitness (whatever the hell that means) Concert Series at army posts in Virginia. This program brought in a Christian rock group to perform, which is annoying enough, but then attendance was optional in name only. At least one company was marched to the doors of the event, and then told they had a choice: attend or be disciplined.

Those of us that chose not to attend (about 80, or a little less that half) were marched back to the company area. At that point the NCO issued us a punishment. We were to be on lock-down in the company (not released from duty), could not go anywhere on post (no PX, no library, etc). We were to go to strictly to the barracks and contact maintenance. If we were caught sitting in our rooms, in our beds, or having/handling electronics (cell phones, laptops, games) and doing anything other than maintenance, we would further have our weekend passes revoked and continue barracks maintenance for the entirety of the weekend. At that point the implied message was clear in my mind ‘we gave you a choice to either satisfy us or disappoint us. Since you chose to disappoint us you will now have your freedoms suspended and contact chores while the rest of your buddies are enjoying a concert.

Not everyone in this company was Christian, by the way. Their clueless commander doesn’t care.

The Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concert Series was the brainchild of Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers, who, according to an article on the Army.mil website, “was reborn as a Christian” at the age of sixteen. According to the article, Chambers held the first concert at Fort Lee within a month of becoming the commanding general of the Combined Arms Support Command and Fort Lee in June 2008. But he had already started the series at Fort Eustis, as the previous commanding general there. The concerts have continued at Fort Eustis under the new commanding general, as well as spreading to Fort Lee under Maj. Gen. Chambers. The concerts are also promoted to the airmen on Langley Air Force Base, which is now part of Joint Base Langley-Eustis.

In the Army.mil article, Maj. Gen. Chambers was quoted as saying, “The idea is not to be a proponent for any one religion. It’s to have a mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds.” But there has been no “mix of different performers with different religious backgrounds” at these concerts. Every one of them has had evangelical Christian performers, who typically not only perform their music but give their Christian testimony and read from the Bible in between songs.

It’s a waste of money (millions are being spent on “Spiritual Fitness” programs), it’s coercive, and it privileges evangelical Christianity over every other faith — or absence of faith — that recruits bring into the military. It’s un-American, or it should be.

Oh, nice. It looks like Chambers no longer holds his position.

I thought we were winning

I keep hearing from official sources that we’re getting Afghanistan under control, but I don’t believe it. If we are, how is this happening?

The Taliban in Afghanistan has publicly stoned to death a man and a woman over an alleged love affair, government officials said.

I guess a mass of soldiers sitting in your country really doesn’t do much to change your quaint ancestral folkways.

Deep Rifts among the wingnuts

Quite the little hissyfit is brewing on the far right. One one side is Joseph Farah, lunatic publisher of the online teabagging journal, World Net Daily, better known as Wing Nut Daily to rational people. Farah organizes something called the “Taking America Back National Conference”, in which the not-very-bright half of America gets together to piously discuss how they can complete the total trashing of the country.

On the other side is crazy flaming psycho goon Ann Coulter, who would have been a headliner at the WND conference — she’s exactly the kind of nut WND loves. Unfortunately, Coulter also accepted an offer to speak at another crazy place, Homocon,, organized and attended by far right gay Republicans who seem to love everything the Tea Party movement stands for, except that bit about hating gay people.

I guess Farah was upset that Coulter would talk to gay people rather than stoning them, so he rescinded his invitation to speak at the WND conference.

“Ultimately, as a matter of principle, it would not make sense for us to have Ann speak to a conference about ‘taking America back’ when she clearly does not recognize that the ideals to be espoused there simply do not include the radical and very ‘unconservative’ agenda represented by GOProud,” said Farah. “The drift of the conservative movement to a brand of materialistic libertarianism is one of the main reasons we planned this conference from the beginning.”

Aww, poor Joe. Now he’s left with no one to talk at his conference…oh, wait. There’s no shortage of raving loonies on the right. He’s still got Michele Bachmann and Alan Keyes. But Coulter is furious with him.

“[T]his was an email exchange [between] friends and even though I didn’t expressly say ‘OFF THE RECORD’ and I believe everything I said, he’s a swine for using my private emails politely answering him,” Coulter wrote to the Daily Caller. “[W]hy would he do such a despicable thing? … for PUBLICITY.”

She continued: “I will say that [Farah] could give less than two sh–s about the conservative movement – as demonstrated by his promotion of the birther nonsense (long ago disproved by my newspaper, human events, also sweetness & light, american spectator and national review etc, etc etc). He’s the only allegedly serious conservative pushing the birther thing. for ONE reason: to get hits on his website.”

You know you’re in trouble when you’re in a dialogue and Ann Coulter is the sane one. And Farah isn’t helping the perception of his judgment.

Farah responded to Coulter’s remarks, saying, “Ann is angry. I hope she calms down and there can be some restoration, repentance and forgiveness. She said some mean things about me, but I can sleep at night knowing I did the right thing in God’s economy.”

God’s economy? What does that mean? I’d love to know exactly how his god is carrying out his economic plans.

Does this mean god is an atheist, because he seems to be shipping our economy overseas to China?

Rule of thumb: Never trust an organization with “family” in the name

The Australians are having an election, and one of the parties is the Family First Party — a Christianist group — and another is the Australian Sex Party, which would have my vote just for the name, if I were Australian. And after watching this debate between the two, I am confirmed in my bias.

I’m a bit disillusioned with Julia Gillard, who’s a bit too quick to throw away principles to pander for votes (which probably means she’ll get elected). Fiona Patten, though, seems quite nice and forthright. And I like their ads.

Now if only the US had a party like that…

Australian priorities

Australia is not a particularly religious nation, and they’ve got the same problems we all do—a sagging economy, and essential demands for social programs that ought to be met…but compromises have to be made. Here, though, is a compromise I can’t understand: the Labor government has decided to throw away huge sums of money on something ridiculous.

That something else is school chaplaincy. Last week the Gillard government pre-empted its own review and increased the program’s funding by more than a third. The total cost to the taxpayer now stands at $437 million.

What are these chaplains supposed to do? It seems to be a sinecure for god-wallopers, who get a privileged position in a school, and $20,000 per year for…it’s not clear.

The Government knows chaplains are evangelical Christians, not mental health experts. This is why departmental guidelines prohibit chaplains from counseling students. They also ban chaplains from providing educational and medical services, as well as from proselytising. All of which begs the question: what exactly are we paying chaplains $20,000 each to do?

I’m not the only one wondering. As a report on the program reveals, many chaplains are unclear about their role. A majority admits they do deal with student mental health and depression issues, student alcohol and drug use, physical/emotional abuse and neglect, and suicide and self-harming behaviours. What most don’t do is refer to appropriate professionals when out of their depth.

If you’ve got problems in the schools like the ones listed above, it seems to me that hiring someone incompetent and untrained will not solve them.

It’s the patriotic thing to do

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12 September will be Burn the Confederate Flag Day.

Burn the Confederate Flag Day is a protest against the right’s exploitation of racial prejudice for political gain. We urge you to burn the Confederate flag, a long-time symbol of racial hatred, on Sept 12, the date when the racially-divisive Tea Party holds its annual hate fest.

Now I just have to figure out where to get a cheap traitor’s flag in Minnesota. Hmm…it sounds like the kind of thing a truck stop might sell.

That meddling 14th Amendment foils Republican plans…again!

How dare radicals insert their civil rights provisions into the sacred Constitution — a federal judge has just declared that California’s Proposition 8 is in violation of the 14th Amendment. Now it’s probably going to the Supreme Court, and who knows what will happen in wacky Roberts-Scalia land, packed with Catholics.

I guess the only surefire strategy for the conservatives is to go back to whining about that awful 14th amendment. Meanwhile, California should plan on having a gay old time.