Perry and stem cell

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Because you knew someone was going to go there, didn't you?

Doctors question Perry's stem cell back treatment

He calls it innovative. Others call it a big risk. In any case, the stem cell procedure that Texas Gov. Rick Perry had last month was an unusual experiment to fix a common malady: a bad back. ... The treatment carries potential risks ranging from blood clots to infection to cancer and may even run afoul of federal rules, doctors say. At least one patient died of a clot hours after an infusion of fat-derived stem cells outside the United States. It's not clear how much of this Perry might have known.

Oh, here's one West Texan ultra-conservative Christian fundie beloved Savior governor (on the other hand, some have called him Bush on steroids), who'd probably support stem cell research, eh? I wonder what does God think of stem cell research. Funny, how all your principles suddenly become moot, not to mention what Jesus whispers in your ear, as soon as the shit you're talking about actually starts affecting YOU.

Some more curious stuff related to this story:

(From the same article...)

Perry, the newest GOP presidential candidate, has access to the best possible care and advice. Yet he and his doctor chose a treatment beyond mainstream medicine: He had stem cells taken from fat in his own body, grown in a lab and then injected into his back and his bloodstream during a July 1 operation to fuse part of his spine.

When your back doesn't allow you a single calm night to sleep comfortably in your bed, and when your lower back starts hurting you like hell only after a couple hours standing upright at a meeting, suddenly socialized health care ceases to look that bad of a thing; what's more, now even the most innovative, almost-fringe fields in medicine that are controversial even among the scientists themselves, are OK to be explored and potentially benefited from.

However, there's something more to that story.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/08/20/doctors_wary_of_perrys_stem_cell_treatment/

Perry “exercised poor judgment’’  to try it, said Dr. George Q. Daley of Children’s Hospital Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. “As a highly influential person of power, Perry’s actions have the unfortunate potential to push desperate patients into the clinics of quacks’’  who are selling unproven treatments “for everything from Alzheimer’s to autism.’’

Never mind the possible consequences for larger groups of people who follow every word their revered leader utters, and every gesture he makes, and who are ready to follow him anywhere no matter what, because he's their new chosen Messiah. Even if that "somewhere" prematurely turns out to be right into the waiting arms of Our Beloved Boss up there in the sky. Win-win?

Gov. Perry's stem cell 'treatment' sends wrong message

If presidential candidate ignores evidence-based medicine for himself, what could it mean for the country?

But really. What kind of impression does this guy make on you? Is he Bush v.2.0, or is he something completely different?

Comments

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Austin, Texas (CNN) -- If Rick Perry and George W. Bush had been born in the same family, W would have become known to friends as "the smart one."

-- CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/17/moore.perry.bush/index.html?hpt=op_t1)

Let that send a chill down your back. I'm inclined to think he is Palin but in a more credible man form.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

That said, the intelligence of the official talking-head is largely irrelevant, as long as their teleprompter stays put, and as long as the right people (http://www.zerohedge.com/article/obama-appoints-ultimate-wall-street-insiders-top-posts-again) are occupying the prime sofas in his cabinet, writing his speeches (http://www.rense.com/general80/s0pa.htm) and whispering ideas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SISUIhprOa8) into his ear.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Er, Bush was smart enough to use the concept of the hatchet man. My prediction is that 30 years down the line it will turn out that it was never President Cheney doing anything but Bush using Cheney to do his dirty work so none focus on him.

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

A little known fact is that US voters actually picked the candidate with better college transcripts in the 04 elections. John Kerry was a dim bulb whose family ties got him into ivy league yet posed as an intellectual elite liberal.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

What kind of impression does this guy make on you? Is he Bush v.2.0, or is he something completely different?

He comes across as an incredibly capable political office holder who dabbles in certain practices in his private life that I don't consider the best choices available to him.

I vote on the former. If I voted on the latter, I'd have to stay home all the time.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

That's fair, but doesn't a person's individual and personal choices in their private life also affect their decisions on a larger scale, and possibly reflect their true standing on issues of public importance? Are private life and political standing completely divorced? I don't think they should be, but are they?

I just watched an interview with Christine O'Donnell on CNN (btw she walked out of the studio as soon as she was questioned on her choices in her youth, like Wicca, her comments on masturbation as adultery, etc). Does that choice of not-the-best choices that were available to her reflect on her present standing in public or not? I'm confused.

What about Newt Gingrich, who champions the sanctity of the family, while being divorced more than twice? Is it disingenuousness on his part, or rather the "my private life has nothing to do with my political stances" meme and the "a smoker can still advise people against smoking" meme?

What about Sarah Palin who likes to pose as the ultimate maverick, the grizzly-mom fighter, while quitting her public service in the middle of her term?

What about McCain, who is against DADT, after he was for it?

What about Mitt Romney, whose health-care model in Massachusetts was largely copy-pasted by Obama, and he's now criticizing Obamacare? Is that utter hypocrisy, or decisions taken on a local, state level, do not count when we're talking about federal level? Where's the line?

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

Perry doesn't have the chops to go all the way anyway. He'll get shot down mid-race, is my guess. This will be just one of the first shots.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Man switched from Democrat to Republican, I think it's fair to note this alone kills his chances for winning the nomination when the Tea Party realizes this.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

He must have figured he's unelectable in Texas if he was a Democrat. He must have been craving for power very badly.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Keep making the mistake that the Tea Party is about party and not ideology. Then become surprised again next November.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Reagan switched from Democrat to Republican.

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

When they bring it up, he'll make a deep, heartfelt speech (which has already been written), comparing himself to Paul on the road to Damascus. They'll eat that stuff up.

[onefatmusicnerd.livejournal.com]

I suspect 35% or so of the tea party membership were once Democrats, double that number for tea partiers over 65. And he is also not alone. Bachmann first became involved in presidential politics with the Carter campaign.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Perry probably the biggest corporate shill candidate out there right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fRhb0awjAg

That, and his positions on social and scientific issues are atrocious. If any of these are some elaborate 'appeal' to the moral majority and deep down he's actually a good guy with economics (despite getting a D in Principle of Economics) then it's still bad enough to not have him in the highest office in the country.

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/08/flashback-rick-perry-supports-criminalizing-gay-sex

http://www.examiner.com/atheism-in-atlanta/creationism-texas-rick-perry-favors-breaking-the-law

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0818-perry-global-warming-20110818,0,1895804.story

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/08/rick-perry-evolution-presidential-race-/1

Small government conservatism saves Texas with... higher government spending?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/08/labour-markets-1

Oh and don't forget the outright lying to scare people into voting for him. Common politician tactic.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/16/296844/perry-tractor-regulation-myth/

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

And the even more obvious: he went from Democrat to Republican. The Tea Party won't bite at a former liberal hyena vermin subhuman switching parties.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

The issue isn't stem cells. It is embryonic stem cells. There is a difference.

You are a partisan hack.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

And that makes you what, Socrates?

My bad, stem cell research has nothing to do with embryonic stem cell research, it's completely unrelated to it and it would have never ever occurred to any biology researcher to relate the two. OK, now explain this to the multitude of howlers out there who wouldn't understand this slight nuanced distinction.

What does Jesus think about stem cells,a gain? Yes, stem cell research, not embryonic stem cell research. You know, those cells you take from the stem to make medical research.

http://investorstemcell.com/stem-cell-research/will-the-tea-party-help-to-derail-stem-cell-funding/

Again, whose party am I a tool of? The party of a country I'm no citizen of? What stake do I have in that? And how am *I* relevant to what's being discussed here?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yet the ban affects all stem cell research.

[korean-guy-01.livejournal.com]

Why should we care more about this compared to Obama being a smoker?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Smoking is a vice. It's actually written on every single cigarette box. This thing here is supposed to save lives and/or improve medical conditions, except it hasn't been adjusted yet to make it in a safe enough way. Meanwhile, many of Perry's fans will decide that since the governor, such a respected man, is doing it, it's OK that they do it, too. Then they get all sorts of complications, and they blame who? - the darned physicians.

Has Obama voiced any stance on smoking? I haven't heard. His constituents are against smoking in some way? I must have missed some episodes of your, rather curious political life in the US. ;)

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

He's the empty husk of a campaigning robot with full & shiny hair but sadly programmed with Creationism and other irrational garbage. Can't govern or apparently think rationally.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

So, much like Obama but with an opposite electric charge?

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Stem cell research is not the same as embryonic stem cell research and the objections that come along with it. You didn't... um, research this very well, did you. Nevertheless, he may make other people try this untested treatment, or he may not. No one knows.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Already addressed that above (mostly in the Policraticus sub-thread).

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

Shit, I'm late to the party again.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Nothing to see here, I got thoroughly spanked. :p

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

here's one West Texan ultra-conservative Christian fundie beloved Savior governor (on the other hand, some have called him Bush on steroids), who'd probably support stem cell research, eh?

You do know there's a difference between adult stem cells and stem cells from fetuses, especially when it comes to whether people object to them or not, right?

When your back doesn't allow you a single calm night to sleep comfortably in your bed, and when your lower back starts hurting you like hell only after a couple hours standing upright at a meeting, suddenly socialized health care ceases to look that bad of a thing; what's more, now even the most innovative, almost-fringe fields in medicine that are controversial even among the scientists themselves, are OK to be explored and potentially benefited from.

What are you on about? What does this have to do with socialized medicine? If he was using the best care and advice then he wasn't using socialized medicine, so how are you connecting it to that?

Never mind the possible consequences for larger groups of people who follow every word their revered leader utters, and every gesture he makes, and who are ready to follow him anywhere no matter what, because he's their new chosen Messiah.

This looks like you're trying to start the same thing that Obama had going in 2007. Are you feeling ok? Maybe you took a double dose of some medication?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling fine, but you're sounding kind of upset.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

...suddenly socialized health care ceases to look that bad of a thing... - Socialized health care has little to do with stem cell research.

Even if that "somewhere" prematurely turns out to be right into the waiting arms of Our Beloved Boss up there in the sky. Win-win? - I see you're taking after paft...disgusting! Take a tip from the Tucson shooting and knock-off the hateful rhetoric.

In the grand scheme of things, there's one thing you're missing: He had stem cells taken from fat in his own body, grown in a lab and then injected into his back and his bloodstream... - Has Perry voiced opposition to any and all stem cell research, or just certain categories? According to the article in the OP, he praised adult stem cell research...so what's the problem with that?

Oh, I know what the problem is...

Lest you think this is just cheap-shotting a personal medical choice, check the nonsense all over the Internet about the value of stem cell therapies. Quacks, conmen and ripoff artists are omnipresent. Perry is doing nothing to call out this sleazy activity. - I don't know, seems like cheap-shotting to me.

In Perry’s Texas, evolution is a “theory” on a par with creationism. He thinks creationism should be taught so students can figure out which one is science? So Perry is not good at distinguishing faith from science? - So not only is this article (and this issue in general) an attack on his personal choice, it's also an attack on his faith-based views?

Yeah, that tells me all I need to know about the intentions of broaching this topic...

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Calm down, you. What hateful rhetoric, I'm talking about our beloved boss up there. And no, that's more like Sophia_sadek rather than Paft. ;)

But I know you still love me. <3

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I don't see the big deal, sorry. Dude injected his own stem cells into his back. That's badass.