The symptoms of Parkinson's disease that all but ended Michael J. Fox's acting career are making him a powerfully vulnerable campaign pitchman for five Democrats who support stem cell research.'In 30-second TV ads' for Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, who is running for the Senate in Maryland, Senate candidate Claire McCaskill in Missouri and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, Fox shakes and rocks as he directly addresses the camera, making no effort to hide the effects of his disease.
In the McCaskill ad, which has been viewed by more than 1 million people on YouTube.com, Fox tells voters, "What you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans. Americans like me."
Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh claimed Fox was "either off his medication or acting," though he later apologized.
Dr. John Boockvar, a neurosurgeon and assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York's Presbyterian Hospital, called Limbaugh's claim "ludicrous." Boockvar said those with Parkinson's have "on" and "off" spells.
"If there is one single disease that has the highest potential for benefit from stem cell research," Boockvar said Tuesday, "it's Parkinson's."
12 comments:
When I first heard of Michael's diagnosis I cried. He was someone who I have always admired. For a politician to come out in such an offensive manner shows the anti-stem cell research league their true colours and their absolute ignorance of this amazing new technology. It has to be remembered it is 'RESEARCH' still and we need to get a move on NOW so we can help sufferers like Michael and my brother in law who has MS and my hubby who has SLE. So many people waiting and such stupidity because of a few people's 'philosophy'. Well if they don't like it they never ever have to use it!!!
Great post Karen!!
Love your blogs.
What I really find repulsive is this:
They claim that using these embryos (which are fertilized eggs owned by couples who for whatever reason decide they don't want to pay labs for the storage fees anymore) for research should be banned because it 'destroys human life.'
So, when the embryos are not used, they are destroyed, either in an incinerator or just thrown in the trash where they are eaten by cockroaches.
But have you heard ONE single opponent of embryonic stem cell research complain about the 'destruction of human life' that occurs when the unwanted embryos are tossed out?
No.
Only in the logic of the right is it less moral to conduct research that might save lives than it is to feed human flesh to cockroaches.
Why do people have to be so rude? To get higher ratings? So people will watch and listen to them? It's ridiculous and horrible.
when I first heard this, I quipped, Limbaugh ought to know who's on and not on drugs...
I watched Iraq for Sale tonight--have you seen it?
peaches~ good points.
eli~ more good points.
jolynn~ the rethugs are running scared.
sage~ here's what one person on a MSNBC discussion board said... "Let me get this straight. . . Michael J. Fox cares so little about his own health, his wife, and his children, that he will risk serious medican set-back, even coma or death by going off his meds, just to endorse a few Democrat candidates? Spoken like a true neo-neanderthal conservative/Republican. It's just what we should expect: hatred, intolerance, ignorance and sheer stupidity. Thank you for confirming that!"
i have not seen Iraq for Sale; what time and network was it on ?
the movie isn't on TV, it's being shown around the country now--you can go to their website for listings, I wrote a review of it and posted it today
I saw that on Olberman tonight after I got home from work. Rush the medical expert. He just says more and more outrageous things just for shock value. I don't think he has such an audience - if he did he wouldn't have to try and gain attention this way. He is like the Stern of conservative talk radio. Fox handled it with grace and Rush looked like an even bigger asshole. Eventually he'll crawl back under the rock he came out from under in the first place.
I am not yet sure where I stand on the topic of stem cell research. While I can certainly see the point of doing it and the great benefits for humanity - I do have some reservations. I agree with peaches - just cause I may have reservations doesn't mean that the rest of the world should live and believe the same things I do. (Last I checked the sun doesn't revolve around me.)
Great post karen!
Iraq for sale - It was a documentary that I felt was well done and raises a lot of good points and questions of what is being done in Iraq. I think the website is www.iraqforsale.com
sage & ~cj~ thx for the heads up!
I see this stripped to its bare bones essential (Occam's razor: the most simple, blut explanation is most likely correct)
1. It's not really about 'protecting human life' (see my last post) since the unused embryos will be just as dead no matter how you discard them,
2. When Republicans talk about 'protecting human life' but don't really mean it, then it really means they are talking about abortion (their deep and irrational fear that somehow harvesting stem cells from unused test tube embryos will translate into more abortions, though there is no explanation as to how this could possibly correlate). Why else would they care so much about ensuring that the live embryos are incinerated or fed to roaches?
3. Since whether someone else has an abortion does not affect them, and we've already determined that the whole 'concern for human life' bit is a crock, it's really that the far right has people in it who've never accepted the idea of a sexually independent woman. This disturbs them so they want to punish sexually active women by making them 'pay the consequences' of daring to have sex not for procreation.
4. This desire to punish women for having sex is due to their being some mixture of 1. misogynists, and 2. sexually repressed (mostly) guys who feel irrationally jealous when they see someone younger than them (especially a woman) having fun and having more sex than they ever had. Of course if they came right out and said this then someone would tell them to get a shrink, so instead they dress it up in all these couched arguments.
But in the end it is just a simple fear-threat reaction. So like any kid, it may be necessary for 'mom' to sit down with them and explain it calmly and rationally so they can see the errors in their line of thinking.
There. That is my deep psychiatric analysis, and guaranteed more likely to be right than Rush Limbaugh's diagnosis of Michael J. Fox, or Bill Frist's diagnosis of Terry Schiavo from two minutes of videotape.
Occam's razor: the most simple, blunt explanation is the most likely to be correct.
BTW the use of the term 'embryo' is a misnomer. They are actually blastocysts which is the stage before 'embryo'. They started using the term embryo to mean 'the very beginning' not in the reproductive sense of 'beginning of human life'.
One in four blastocysts don't implant naturally anyway but these little guys they are working on have not got the female nuclear in them anyway. It has been replaced by the 'sick' cell so a cure can be developed. It is still in the very raw beginnings of this technology and there is no time to waste.
If you don't like it, as I have said before, don't utilise it.
and BTW #2: All the previous developments from penicillin to heart transplants to IVF have all had to go through this philosophical/religous bullshit before they could be used to help people everywhere.
Post a Comment