With “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” opening today in theaters nationwide, it would be nice to think that busy U.S. senators like Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) took the time to read the seven books of the fantasy series.
Mermaids in the depths of the Hogwarts campus lake and centaurs patrolling The Forbidden Forest play pivotal roles in the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermoine, but it’s possible the senators took Ms. Rowling’s amazing imagination a little too seriously.
Or, for that matter, even Greek mythology.
Last week the two senators introduced the “Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2009” for legislative consideration.
“This legislation works to ensure that our society recognizes the dignity and sacredness of human life,” Brownback said. “Creating human-animal hybrids, which permanently alter the genetic makeup of an organism, will challenge the very definition of what it means to be human and is a violation of human dignity and a grave injustice.”
You can read more of Sen. Brownback’s reasoning HERE.
In the meantime, I can name a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill who “challenge the very definition of what it means to be human.”
***
A reader sent this along from an online medical dictionary, said it would "blow Brownback's mind:"
Chimerism
A child's genes are inherited from his or her parents, so when a 52-year-old woman from Boston had a completely different set of genes than two of her three children, the medical community was at a loss for an explanation. It took two years for doctors to conclude that she was a "human chimera," someone with two or more distinct sets of genes. For example, DNA extracted from the skin of a human chimera may be different from DNA in the blood. Chimerism -- named after a Greek monster called the chimera with the head of a lion, body of a goat and tail of a snake -- occurs during pregnancy when two embryos that would have resulted in fraternal twins fuse early on in the pregnancy, resulting in one baby with two separate sets of DNA. While some chimeras have two different eye colors, most lead normal lives and never realize their condition.
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demwit
Chronicling the absurd, the obnoxious, the outright lies, the occasional truths and the downright mystical out of the mouths of politicians and pundits.
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- B.J.
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5 comments:
Hah!! Hilarious B.J.
The scary part is that there could be some unseen reasoning behind the legislation that could make it urgent! What if the Military is already working on some poor couple who signed on the dotted line to serve their country.
Can't you imagine the wide eyed enthusiasm the Generals would have at the thought of having a Human/Wolf or a Rhinoceros/Man to send into battle?
How would this impact upon Wolf Blitzer?
Behave, boys! I’m LMAO!
Oh, golly, there’s Cat Stevens, Tiger Woods, Duane “Dog” Chapman, Michael J. Fox, Redd Foxx, Chick Corea and Robin Williams.
And what about fictional characters like Snake Plissken, Crocodile Dundee, Rooster Cogburn, Beaver Cleaver and – yikes – Spider-Man?
As usual, these idiots don't understand what the science actually does.
Humans have been "permanently altering the genetic makeup of an organism" ever since plant domestication began thirteen thousand years ago, although modern techniques are more efficient.
Transplanting human genes into microorganisms for pharmaceutical manufacturing is an old, established, routine technology, even if these ignoramuses have only just gotten around to noticing it.
Of course, microorganisms are not "animals". But humans are -- even the title of the legislation is stuck on stupid.
Frodo wants to suggest a theme song for "Landrieu and the Wingnuts," how about something that goes like this, "Johnny is a joker; He's a dog; A very funny joker; He's a Bird Dog."--with apologies to Phil & Don.
There is no end to the lengths to which some will go in order to appear sanctimonious.
Landrieu's father, by the way, was named "Moon," which presupposes human genome engagements with aliens.
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