Okay, this is strange. There seems to be a retro Australian music virus spreading across the “internets”. I can’t go into a yahoo chatroom without having Men at Work or Mental as Anything blared at me.

Yeah, that’s an excellent song, particularly at this time of year. So is “Pink Frost,” by the Chills.

And Universal Soldier by Donovan. What? Oh, I’m sorry. Never mind…

mikey

music to stare at your shoes by

Of course you’re not covering how Jim Talent has went from being down 9 to being up 3 in Missouri.

Or how Harold Ford melted down and showed how much of a thug he was.

Or how Democrats can’t get a lead in Connecticut over Shays, or in Kentucky over Davis.

The fact is that momentum is clearly on the side of Bush and the Republicans.

Americans recognize that the Democrat leadership helped coverup Foley’s scandal. Americans recognize that their vote is one that will either give them two more years of a great congress or two years of a Congress that will raise taxes and surrender in the War on Terror.

The fact is that a good chunk of Talent’s momentum comes from Missourians who are disgusted at being told what to do by out of state liberal actors.

The ticket of life will win. A ticket of “yes for Talent” and “no on 2”. Missourians will roundly reject human cloning and extreme leftism.

Sad that Grant McLennan passed away earlier this year. “Cattle and Kane” is such a great song, even if it is in 11/4 or some other odd time signature.

The fact is that real Gary seems to post only on threads devoted to music these days while avoiding the politics threads. Coincidence? You be the judge.

The fact is that Ruppert cheated with Santorum’s favorite dog.

On topic, Grant McLennan, RIP. And Aussie/NZ music seemed to avoid the lapse into bad hair and bad fashion (relatively speaking) in the 80s. Which is a good thing.

More Aussie fun here. With relatively large hair.

Wow. This video would have fit in perfectly on MTV in 1985. (Back when, you know, there was just one MTV… and they played videos.) Thisis some hardcore flashback material. Right down to the haircuts and the decidedly “on set” feel, and *especially* the spoken word interlude.

Thanks for the timewarp!

I thought it was the ‘Gobi Twins’…

Forget annie. I want to marry Gary.
Now, i’m neither gay nor into 12 year old mexican boys, but we can make it work somehow. A love like ours is too true, Garebear.

Or how Harold Ford melted down and showed how much of a thug he was.

A thug? The fact is that what you meant is he “showed his mad mad lust for our white women.”

So, Gary. When are you gonna weigh in on Rush attacking Michael J. Fox for having Parkinsons’s Disease?

Just wondering.

I think that Rush made some very reasonable arguments, especially when you consider that this is an election and sometimes people will exaggerate and decieve.

I’m actually in Missouri and i’m voting no on 2 because it endorses cloning and mass-abortion.

So, you clone first, then abort?

Actually Gary, had you or Lush bothered to do any homework on Parkinson’s and L-Dopa, you would have found out that the dyskinesia (spastic movements) are a side effect of the drug and increase over time as it becomes more difficult to dose effectively and may also be due to drug resistence in the patient. That’s why M. Fox’s kids used to refer to him “Spazz Dad”. His only hope (as neurons are non-mitotic and have no adult stem cell population to recruit from) is embryonic stem cells. Taken from extra embryo’s generated during IVF. Which if not implanted, are disposed of. In the trash. And if you want to start complaining about “Weapons of Mass Abortion”, blame your Invisible-Sky-Daddy-Love-Me-Or-I’ll-Torture-You-For-Eternity. He aborts about 25% of all fetuses.

Asshole.

The Go-Betweens ruled my record player in the mid eighties. Have all domestic vinyls.

Staying the course, Gary?

The fact is that there is no link between cures and embryonic stem cell research.

As well, Missourians recognize how selfish such ads from Canadian actors like Michael J. Fox really are. Basically asking for more deaths and more abortions in order to save themselves first.

Matt Rosenberg posted:
http://www.rosenblog.com/2006/10/23/welfare_reform_isnt_working.html

” … At the same time, there’s a growing cadre of upwardly mobile professional black women who define self-worth through education and professional achievement, and refuse to settle for a “playa.” It’s just too bad more of them won’t have a chance to breed. Interracial marriages are one way out for black women …”

Anybody want to visit Matt Rosenberg’s blog?

The fact is that there is no link between cures and embryonic stem cell research.

The fact is there’s plenty of evidence that stem cells can be used to grow new cells which may be helpful in alleviating or even curing some diseases. The fact is you want to stop the research before they prove any cures. The fact is if embryonic stem cells caused erections Rush would personally inject them into his own penis with abandon, and you would STILL justify him.

As well, there is a huge backlash, since the backers of Embryonic Stem Cell Research have spent over $25M (including over $8M to Hollywood companies for ads).

And the opponents of Embryonic Stem Cell research have spent under $500K.

The Stem Cell fanatics are trying to buy an amendment, and they will fail.

Gary:

care to cite these numbers?

So Gary,
You’re on board for billions of dollars spent on “staying the course” in Iraq, with thousands dead and tens of thousands wounded (coalition and Iraqi), with no “victory” in sight? But if Michael J. Fox can’t inject a few stem cells today to cure his Parkinsons, stem cell research for likely cures in the the future is a waste? You are one of the original kool-aid kidz.

This just makes me sick. How have we come to a place where we are arguing about whether to pursue scientific research? Gary, you are not a biologist, nor are you a bioethicist, so kindly shut the fuck up. The same goes for all politicians and clergy. Shut the fuck up. This is science. It is not wrong to do research. You have no idea what will be discovered. The american government and it’s citizens have a decision to make. Fund stem cell research, or accept that other, more rational nations and their people will do so. The advances will not necessarily be available to americans, and certainly not inexpensively. The economic value of the resulting products and services will contribute to other nations GDP, not ours. And Americans purchasing stem cell based medical treatments abroad will contribute to the trade deficit.

So I ask again. How have we allowed the theocratic right to hijack basic biologic research? Why are they even a party to the discussion? They can choose not to avail themselves of the benefits of the research, just as they can choose not to avail themselves of an abortion or “Desparate Housewives”. In many ways, this nation has completely gone off the rails…

mikey

Mikey, “why are they even a party to the discussion”?

Because the Republican party gains from pandering to them. And it does so, successfully.

This is another excellent example of why there are no good Republicans.

Thanks, Gary, for confirming that people who vote Republican are a bunch of DUMB FUCKS.

Does that offend you, Gary? Well, sorry, I know how politically correct conservatives can be … when it suits them.

Anyway, if you don’t like being called a DUMB FUCK, stop being a DUMB FUCK.

Without all you DUMB FUCKS, America could be great again.

Gary says:
“The fact is that there is no link between cures and embryonic stem cell research.”

Oh really? That would explain this:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=24159

Guess they should just give up. Besides, it’s not like spinal cord injury is any big deal, nor has it been one of the most intractable of conditions, frustratingly difficult to remediate.

(Having worked on the treatment of oncology patients using, in this case, autologous stem cells, this kind of ignorant shit really pisses me off.)

And mikey is right. The stem cell researcher brain drain is on. If embryonic stem cells showed so little promise, you think these researchers would give up their tenured positions here in the US to start over abroad?

care to cite these numbers?

From the Missouri Ethics Commission:

MO COALITION FOR LIFESAVING CURES – $29M raised, $24M spent

They spent $8.5M on “Ad Placement” to a group called Winner & Mandabach Campaigns which is located in Encino, California.

MISSOURIANS AGAINST HUMAN CLONING – $673K raised, $386K spent

The Coalition For Lifesaving Cures is a left coast controlled organization trying to buy this election.

MAHC is a grassroots movement.

CFLC is outspending MAHC by the margin of 48 to 1, and they will lose.

As well, Missourians recognize how selfish such ads from Canadian actors like Michael J. Fox really are. Basically asking for more deaths and more abortions in order to save themselves first.

Gary, do you even know how embryonic stem cell research works?

I ain’t no scientician, but my understanding is they take the surplus embryos made from artificial insemination and wish to do research on them. See, because artificially inseminating a woman is a horrifically expensive process (read tens of thousands of dollars), the rate of impregnation is low and the difference in cost of making 1 and 100 embryos actually favouring the latter, they make hundreds if not thousands of of embryos for one shot at pregnancy. Now, because they make so many, there are almost always extra ones left over.

Now, most of the time these embryos are destroyed once the woman in question is pregnant. Either that or they are frozen for eternity, which seeing as we haven’t perfected cryogenics, also kills these embryos.

Of course, the religious right is up in arms against stem cell research because they see it as Mengele’s experiments writ large. Strangely though, they don’t seem to be campaigning against artificial insemination, which if we use the life begins at conception rhetoric that people like Gary employ all the time, is responsible for the deaths of millions (if not billions). Neither are armies of conservative women lining up to be surrogate mothers to all these embryos.

So Gary, since you are answering questions today, are you against artificial insemination? And if not, how can you live with yourself?

Gary Ruppert said,

I’m actually in Missouri and i’m voting no on 2 because it endorses cloning and mass-abortion

Where in Missouri??? I’m calling the cops. Right now. But not before I remind you that Missouri has a ‘concealed-carry’ law, and I keep a cute lil gun in my purse.

And the question 2 wording specifically outlaws cloning, and has absolutely nothing to do with abortion, and only a demented fuckwit like you wouldn’t know that (well, you and Jim Talent), so why the fuck am I even trying to explain it to you?

BTW Gary, Michael J. Fox has been a naturalized US citizen since around 2000, I think.

I’m still calling the cops.

Gary, you cite numbers from only one of the many groups opposed to stem cell research. The combined total of them all is still considerably less than the pro stem cell camp, but it is in the millions of dollars, so you are, as usual, wrong.

Gary, does the amount of money spent have anything to do with the real issue? And if the amount of money spent negates the issue in any way you could say that the iraq war is such a non-issue that it doesn’t really exist (which would be convenient for your lot).

Gary you are a big wanker who chews poo-sticks on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

P.S. I saw the Go-Betweens live at Port Melbourne in 1988. I was 15 at the time and didn’t truly appreciate what I saw…. but at least I didn’t chew poo-sticks!!!!

Stop using the internet, Garebear.
If you are going to be anti-science, stop using everything science has given you.
Now.

Also, Gary, when you develop diabetes from being damn near morbidly obese, no insulin.
It’s made from nuns.

Sorry, I lied. It was 1987, 1988 was the first time I snuck into a nightclub (Velvets) and I got to see the mighty Painters and Dockers. Next time I snuck in I saw the just-as-mighty Cosmic Psychos.

Oz Rock rocks.