Patti Davis, Michael J Fox, Stem Cells, Bullies, and Limbaugh

Heartlessness -- By Patti Davis

Oct. 25, 2006 - When I was a kid, I was once being teased relentlessly by a bully at school, and I faked being sick to stay home and avoid him. My parents knew I was faking (the thermometer under hot water trick didn’t work) but they also knew something was wrong. My father came into my room to talk to me, and I willingly confessed. He patiently explained to me that the best way to deal with a bully was to totally ignore him—treat him as if he is invisible. Because all bullies really want is attention.

I got it right back then. I returned to school, ignored the persistent bully, and he backed off. I seem less able to do that now when a bully by the name of Rush Limbaugh has accused Michael J. Fox of faking the symptoms of Parkinson’s (OK, he actually said “acting”) for political purposes.

Patti, there is a difference between Limbaugh and a bully. Limbaugh is not a bully, he's a hack, a neocon shill. Everything he does is done for the sole purpose of empowering the neocon elites. So of course you shouldn't respond to him the way you would respond to a bully.

This is an interesting topic for many reasons. For one thing, the whole stem cell debate is a farce, and is really quite laughable given the state of world affairs. Here we are giving over a billion dollars a day to China, where they execute political prisoners and sell their organs. Where they have no qualms about using any kind of stem cell for anything. It's ok to support that, but embryonic stem cell research in the US is bad?? Look, if we don't do it, other countries are going to. It'll end up being one more area where we get left behind. The reason people like Limbaugh are against embryonic stem cell research is because it could help this country. And they obviously don't want that. Everything they say and do is about destroying this country, or rather the middle class. (They don't view that as the destruction of the country because they'll still have their yachts and gated communities and whatnot. Even when all our major cities resemble Calcutta.) And besides, the big drug companies are going to do plenty of embryonic stem cell research regardless of what laws we pass. They'll just do it over in Asia or wherever they can. It's all just windowdressing. Those drug companies don't want any independent research being done on these shores. They don't want to take the risk of a major breakthrough that they can't profit from. They want to clamp down on that possibility. They want more government control. I guess that makes them good little conservatives??