Friday, June 03, 2005

MTV now reaches almost 4 times as many foreign households as American ones under many national/regional brands. I wonder if they actually get music as part of MTV, or if the name is as confusing to them as to us.

Bush denounced the stem cell research bill, saying he wouldn't "destroy life in order to create life." (quote from last week's Newsweek) How does that contrast to sending American soldiers to die in Iraq, whether it's to preserve/enhance American or Iraqi life? Seems like we determine what's worth dying (or sending others to die) for already - stem cells aren't all that new a moral dilemma.

Since I'm trying to use this to record what I think as well as communicate with you fine readers (both of you! (I hope)), I'm actually against stem cell research if it involves creation/destruction of embryos. I think it's a better use of excess embryos than just destroying them, but I'd prefer to not have excess in the first place - is creating a baby worth creating extra embryos that you plan to destroy? I don't know exactly how/where to define life (anyone who says they know has a real problem not knowing what they don't know), but I'd prefer to err on the side of valuing any potential human life. And yes, that means I'm against war, too, although I do think a lot of good is going to come out of the Iraq invasion.

And speaking of Newsweek, they now indicate why anonymous sources want to remain anonymous in an effort to avoid any more Quran-flushing scandals. From everything I've read, they followed standard journalism practice and didn't act irresponsibly, but I suppose tightening regulations for this kind of thing will usually help more than harm. And America loves a good public self-flogging. Oy.
posted by Unknown 10:48 AM | 0 comments