Our Bassackwards World

When a family budget crashes, is the logical thing to do to tighten the belt or break out the credit and add to the debt load?  We would say to pull in the reigns while government chooses to print another trillion or four.  When a pregnant woman is killed and the child dies, it is a double homicide.  We do however allow thousands of babies per day to be killed by abortion procedures.  There is the cry for independence from foreign oil, yet we are told not to drill and use our own vast reserves.  We now complain about the plastic bags after the tree huggers brought it on themselves by saying to stop cutting down trees for paper.  One of the latest contradiction involves animal fat and embryonic stem cells. The debate has gone on for awhile about stem cell research, specifically, embryonic vs. adult cells.  One of the arguments had been that more abortions and creation of embryos would be encouraged to provide material for the research.  There are those who argue for the research on embryonic stem cells and those that say it is unnecessary or that it is not right to use the embryos in such a way. A story I heard yesterday involved biofuel and the use of animal parts and fat in its production.  The story told of manufacturers now using whatever organs or fat that is left over at a butcher shop as components in producing the alternative fuel.  What then got my interest was that a group was complaining that it would lead to the breeding of animals for the express purpose of creating the biofuel.  The proverbial slippery slope that, in this case, would be equated to cruelty to animals. The slippery slope argument has been used for as long as I can remember.  I remember in the late 70's when in the Democratic Party, the ethics of abortion was still debated.  At the local caucas the argument would be made that abortion would lead to abortions for convenience and eventually allow euthanasia.  Here we are with the morning after abortion pill and doctor assisted suicide, not to mention the eventual health care rationing that will come with the nationalized health care.  Now it is being used for the debate about killing an animal specifically to serve another purpose, fuel.  We already breed and kill animals to serve a specific purpose; to eat.  I don't agree with breeding animals for dog or cock fighting, but for eating I give my full support.  As for fuel, I guess the debate will continue. While the two subjects, stem cells and biofuel, are not directly related, I found it interesting that the arguments were similar.  I also began to wonder who was on each side of the argument and how they may be contradicting themselves.  I suspect there will be no shortage of contradictions in future days in this politally charged day in which we live.