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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2006-07-20

Quick Hits

Not a lot of time to play with tonight, so I'll just go around the bases with quick hits.

--If I were in charge:
world to Israel: cease fire
Israel to world: since you have no interest or ability to force Hezbollah into a cease-fire, we will agree to a cease fire once we have guaranteed that they no longer have the ability to fire

--President Bush issues first veto, killing federal funding for embryonic stem cell research funding

Politically speaking, I'm not sure this would have been my first veto--six years in to my Presidency. And if it comes at the cost of expanding funding for adult stem cell research, I'm also not certain that that was worth the price. Besides which, I'm reminded of the thoughts of Samuel Broder, former director of the National Cancer Institute.

Morally speaking, I'm glad the President both stuck to his promises AND acted to protect life. I'm a little less confident of my position vis-a-vis the "life" of a test-tube zygote than I was five years ago when this was first in the news, but I respect that the President stuck to his convictions, even if the issue is a loser.

I do think he should follow that up, though, with an aggressive campaign for expanded federal research into adult stem cells. But that's just me . . .

--Is anybody else worried that a cruise liner used to evacuate Americans from Lebanon makes an awfully big target steamin' around the Mediterranean?

--The House, citing the nation's religious origins, voted Wednesday to protect the Pledge of Allegiance from federal judges who might try to stop schoolchildren and others from reciting it because of the phrase "under God."

For my money, I would have preferred to wait for the Supreme Court to have an opportunity to clear up its muddled thinking on the Establishment Clause with this case. If SCOTUS blew it then, then it would be appropriate for Congress to act in this fashion.

On the other hand, the result is a good one, so . . .
Posted by: Michael / 7/20/2006 12:19:00 AM

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