Blatant Reality

When you think of a “non-profit” organization, you think of some group of people trying to help their fellow man by eking out a meager existence as they go along. I know that legally, there are many different kinds of non-profits out there but that example is what I believe most people think of off hand.

Well this may as a surprise to you but Planned Parenthood is actually classified as a non-profit and made record profits last year. Right Wing News has a whole article on this that you should probably read.

A recent study seems to show that stem cells derived from umbilical cords can help treat Alzheimer’s in mice. Next stem, humans.

Scientists have found that targeted immune suppression using stem cells derived from human umbilical cord blood may reduce the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study published in the March issue of Stem Cells and Development.

 

For the study, researchers had administered a series of low-dose infusions of umbilical cord blood cells into mice with abnormalities mimicking Alzheimer’s disease, according to a Mar. 27 news release by Cryo-Cell International, Inc., which funded the study. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and incurable brain disease that affects more than five million people in the United States alone.

 

According to the organization’s announcement, researchers found that the two main markers of Alzheimer’s progression in the brain were reduced as a result of the infusions – myloid-beta proteins by 62 percent and cerebral amyloid angiopathy by 86 percent.

 

“The scientific community has only skimmed the surface in uncovering the many potential therapeutic uses for cord blood stem cells, and this new research in Alzheimer’s disease may pave the way for discoveries around the use of these cells for a host of neurodegenerative and other chronic conditions,” stated Mercedes Walton, chairman and CEO of Cryo-Cell International.

Well here is something you don’t see everyday. Two liberal groups, an animal activist group and an artist, got into a little dispute about who could be the most liberal.

You see, liberals are all about free speech in art unless you are killing some animal or doing something to offend Muslims. This case has to do with the former. The French artist’s display includes several different animals, including a horse, getting bludgeoned over the head with a mallet until they are dead. This of course set the two groups at odds and threats started to fly.

However, no matter how “right” the animal rights group may be, threats to kill the children of the artist and the art gallery owners isn’t the best, or most sane, way to respond.

Personally, I think both groups are pretty sick, twisted, and demented. The artist and the art gallery people are pretty sick for doing/allowing such a thing to be shown while calling it “art” and the animal rights people for thinking that the killing animals is worth threatening to end a child’s life.

To take a quote from the “Say Anything Blog” that I got this article from,

I don’t understand either thing and I hope to God I never do.

 

There’s something seriously wrong with both sides.

Yesterday, the Washington Post came out with an article quoting Obama as saying that basically he feels that Hillary should stay in the race as long as she wants.

“My attitude is that Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants,” Obama told reporters in Johnstown, Pa. “Her name’s on the ballot, and she is a fierce and formidable competitor, and she obviously believes that she would make the best nominee and the best president.”

He then downplayed the idea that the inter party fighting would damage whichever candidates comes out on top.

He downplayed the notion that an extended contest could bruise the eventual winner, to Republican Sen. John McCain’s advantage. “I think that the notion that the party’s been divided by this contest is somewhat overstated,” Obama said. “There’s no doubt that, among some of my supporters or some of her supporters, there’s probably been some irritation created. But I also think, every contest you’ve seen, in every state — huge jumps in Democratic registration, including independents and Republicans who are changing registration to vote in the Democratic primaries. You know, those are people who are now invested in what happens. And I think that bodes very well for us in November.”

With recent polls showing that McCain can pretty much beat both Hillary and Obama, I don’t think Obama completely understands the gravity of the situation. If this fighting keeps up, I’m predicting an almost landslide victory for McCain come November. However, if Al Gore enters the situation, I have no idea what kind of crazy stuff might happen.

It seems that the Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is trying to appease the United States while simultaneously denouncing us to the rest of the Arab world. In a summit held today, he went off on a rant warning that after the United States toppling of Saddam’s regime, no Arab country is safe and that “your turn is next.”

“Your turn is next,” Gadhafi told the leaders, some of whom looked stunned while others broke into laughter at his frankness. “Destruction will be yours.”

 

In recent years, Gadhafi has dramatically repaired ties with the United States — once his top enemy — by giving up his country’s weapons of mass destruction programs and paying compensation for the 1988 Pan Am bombing. Libya is hoping for a landmark visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, though one is still not set, and has stepped up economic ties to the West.

 

Still, that hasn’t stopped Gadhafi from denouncing U.S. domination of the world and criticizing other Arab countries for their closeness to Washington.

I don’t know about you, but I think that this really doesn’t sound like someone we want to get too close to. It seems all Gadhafi wants to do is lull us into thinking that he isn’t dangerous and then stab us in the back. Its like he is taking the whole “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” thing to heart.

We are obviously one of his enemies.

The Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer along with 50 state legislators are scheduled to address the issue of affordable housing this month.

The S.C. Workforce and Affordable Housing Special Interest Caucus is an outgrowth of Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer’s special task force on Affordable Housing. Increased housing costs, stagnant incomes and limited availability of affordable housing make finding safe, quality housing a nightmare for hardworking citizens on modest incomes, according to a release from Bauer’s office.

 

[...]

 

The caucus will will work to address the issue through education, funding opportunities and reduction of regulatory barriers to increase the supply of affordable housing, which is critical to the state’s economic future.

 

The caucus will meet on April 9 in Room 321 of the Blatt Building in Columbia.

Three Republicans battled it out yesterday at a debate in Hilton Head’s state House District 123. The three participants in the debate were challengers Starletta Hairston and Stu Rodman along with incumbent Richard Chalk. Throughout this “civil” debate, education seemed to be the number one priority on the peoples’ minds.

The issue that received the most attention was the state’s education formula, which the candidates agreed puts local public schools at a disadvantage.

 

The biggest difference among the three was over who could bring home the most money for education.

 

Voicing her frustration with the current formula, Hairston, a former county council member, said, “I’d like to be that squeaky wheel in Columbia that talks about this and shows them that we have families that are low income; we have families with children that (receive) free or reduced lunch, which they think we don’t have down here.”

 

Stu Rodman, a current county councilman and a former school board member, argued his experience working with the schools makes him ideally qualified to find creative solutions to the funding problem. “I came out of a financial background,” Rodman said during the debate, “but my heart is really in seeing if we can make a difference in education and education funding.”

 

Chalk pointed out that he was already sitting on a task force in the House to examine the funding formula and argued that the best chance the county has to see improvement is by gaining clout in the state legislature.

A couple days ago, Thomas Sewell published an article on his Townhall.com blog about Barack Obama. Let me give you a heads up; it’s not one of those typical glowing article.

To give you a little background on Thomas Sowell, he is a prolific conservative writer whose books have focused on the economic, political, and often social aspects of our country. Oh, and since race doesn’t matter in this coming election, I won’t mention to you that he is black.

Now that you have some background, in the article Sowell basically criticizes Obama for being the stereotypical, two-faced candidate and not rising above party politics like he claims.

The irony is that Obama’s sudden rise politically to the level of being the leading contender for his party’s presidential nomination has required him to project an entirely different persona, that of a post-racial leader who can heal divisiveness and bring us all together.

 

The ease with which he has accomplished this chameleon-like change, and entranced both white and black Democrats, is a tribute to the man’s talent and a warning about his reliability.

 

There is no evidence that Obama ever sought to educate himself on the views of people on the other end of the political spectrum, much less reach out to them. He reached out from the left to the far left. That’s bringing us all together?

 

Is “divisiveness” defined as disagreeing with the agenda of the left? Who on the left was ever called divisive by Obama before that became politically necessary in order to respond to revelations about Jeremiah Wright?

Well, it seems that Obama might actually want chance after all, but its not the change you may think he is preaching. I think Obama is sick and tired of all this “moderate government” crap and wants to establish far left rule.

This is the second installment of your “Tranquil Tableau” (aka “Pretty Picture”). Hope this puts you in a hiking mood for the weekend.

This picture was taken up in the mountains near Hendersonville, NC.

This is a pretty cool story that will make you smile.

Nurses, doctors and host parents surrounded Haider Emad Al-Darausha’s bed just before surgery to hold his hand and show him pictures of how his scars have healed since coming to the United States.

 

The 7-year-old Iraqi boy suffered burns in a mortar attack in Karbala when he was 2. He came to Hilton Head Island in January through the Gift of Life program, which provides surgery for children who can’t get adequate treatment in their home countries.

Haider received surgery to removed some of the scars left on his face from the attack. Fifteen other patients much like Haider have been helped by the same doctor, Dr. Robert Laughlin, through this program.