In God We Trust

Jesse Says:

19 May 2008 at 12:28 am.

This whole thing is hard to believe. You would think the generals would see it was in their own best interest to help their people.

The Return of Burma’s Monks

Rangoon travel agent Chin Chin used to take tourists to a nearby Irrawaddy delta town famous for its pottery. But the vast waterworld of rivers and rice fields that stretched beyond it was a foreign land to her until Cyclone Nargis and its horrific aftermath. On Thursday, Chin Chin and her friends bought rice and water, loaded it on a truck, and drove deep into the delta. She was shocked by what she saw: roads lined with hundreds of cold and hungry villagers, disregarded by their own government, who had walked for an hour from their broken villages to beg from passing motorists.

“They were mostly housewives,” recalls Chin Chin, who goes by the nickname. “They told me, ‘Rice is a must, so it’s worth standing in the rain for three or four hours to get some.’ They didn’t even have a change of clothes.” Fighting back her tears, Chin Chin gave out rice and listened to stories of families torn apart and villages destroyed. “It was piteous,” she says. “I really sympathized with them. We didn’t see any aid from government or foreign groups.”

Chin Chin belongs to a burgeoning homegrown relief effort which is capturing Burmese from all walks of life. Students and shopkeepers, medics and models - thousands of people have now donated money, food or services to Nargis victims. Hundreds like Chin Chin are delivering aid themselves, while privately run local charities are reorienting their operations around cyclone relief.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080518/wl_time/thereturnofburmasmonks

Cameron Says:

19 May 2008 at 9:42 am.

Obama Warns GOP “Lay Off My Wife”
Obama Loses Argument With Wife Over Getting a Dog
By IMAEYEN IBANGA
May 19, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama ripped into a Republican ad today that targets comments made by his wife, Michelle, and called the GOP tactic “low class” and “detestable.”
The senator and his wife discuss the race for the White House.

The Illinois senator told “Good Morning America” that he expects hardball tactics from the Republicans if he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.

“But I also think these folks should lay off my wife,” he told “GMA” as his wife chuckled beside him.

Obama told “GMA” that he believes he will win a majority of the Democratic delegates once the votes are counted after Tuesday’s primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. Obama is favored in Oregon while rival Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York is expected to win Kentucky.

Obama was careful not to act as if he had already clinched the nomination, but he also tried to present himself as the candidate who will be taking on Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the fall.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2008/story?id=4881883&page=1

M.G. Says:

19 May 2008 at 10:33 am.

Cameron, your article about the Mexican drug lords is so crazy. We have a lot of politicians who want to erase the borders. What’s up with that? They want to important that kind of crime. We think drugs are bad now in the US. There is so much corruption in the police in Mexico that if we erase the borders we will be in so much trouble.

avatar Says:

19 May 2008 at 3:38 pm.

Regarding the comments on Mexico, unfortunately, Mexico seems to have an ingrained tradition of corruption it just can’t shake, going all the way back to when it was part of Spain. I’m afraid that our border with Mexico is already almost non-existent and that we are already “importing” many of Mexico’s problems at a furious rate. In spite of everything, I consider Mexico a friendly country (as opposed, say, to Iran) but I think this is one case where a good fence would make for even better neighbors

Concerned American Says:

19 May 2008 at 5:41 pm.

Slippery slopes are dangerous things. I believe this is an abomination and will bring about spiritual consequences.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3964693.ece

MPs back creation of human-animal embryos

British scientists will be allowed to research devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using human-animal embryos, after the House of Commons tonight rejected a ban.

An amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill that would have outlawed the creation of “human admixed embryos” for medical research was defeated in a free vote by a majority of 160, preserving what Gordon Brown regards as a central element of the legislation.

The Government, however, is braced for defeat tomorrow on a separate clause that would scrap the requirement that fertility clinics consider a child’s “need for a father” before treating patients. MPs will also tomorrow consider amendments that would cut the legal limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 22 or 20 weeks.

A second amendment, that would have banned the creation only of “true hybrids” made by fertilising an animal egg with human sperm, or vice-versa, was also defeated by a majority of 63. Another free vote saw MPs backed the use of embryo-screeing to select “saviour siblings” suitable to donate umbilical cord blood to sick children, by a majority of 179.

Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, moving the amendment to ban all admixed embryos, said mingling animal and human DNA crossed an “ultimate boundary”. He said that exaggerated claims were giving patients false hope and that the dangers of the research were unknown.

He said: “In many ways we are like children playing with landmines without any concept of the dangers of the technology that we are handling.”

Mark Simmonds, a shadow health minister, who moved the amendment to ban “true hybrids”, said there was no compelling evidence of their research utility.

Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West, challenged those who accepted admixed embryos in principle but rejected “true hybrids” to explain the ethical difference between an embryo that was 99 per cent human and one that was 50 per cent human.