From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Raelity
Bites
Are these people for Rael, or are they just cloning around? CNN reports that
"a company founded by a religious group that believes humans were created
by extraterrestrials" says it has succeeded in cloning a woman, producing
a seven-pound infant nicknamed Eve who is genetically identical to the 31-year-old
woman who bore her.
Bridgette Boisselier, "scientific director" of Clonaid and a "bishop" in the Raelian cult, made the claim this morning. She says Eve's "mother"--who, if the claim were true, would actually be the infant's biological twin sister--is an American citizen. But she "offered no immediate proof of her claim" and wouldn't say in which country the purported progeny was born. She did say "that she is allowing a freelance journalist to verify her claim." That journalist is Michael Guillen, a former science editor for ABC's "Good Morning America." Among other credentials, according to his biography, "he broke the story of the CIA's use of psychic spies."
The Raelians are--how to put this delicately?--total lunatics. CNN reports:
The Raelian movement professes that life on Earth was created through genetic engineering by extraterrestrials.
The Raelians believe their spiritual leader--former French journalist Claude Vorilhon who now calls himself Rael--is a direct descendant of these aliens. He says he has met with aliens and visited their planet. Rael told CNN in July 2001 that the long-term goal for human cloning is to live forever.
The "Not in Our Name" Web site lists one Marie-Helene Parent of the Raelian Movement as a signer of its pro-Saddam petition. Meanwhile, the Raelians' Web site seems to have conveniently disappeared, but the Internet Archive Wayback Machine has a copy of a page promoting a 2001 book called "Yes to Human Cloning: Eternal Life Thanks to Science":
Three years ago, Rael, the well-known spiritual leader of the Raelian Movement, the largest UFO-related organization in the world counting 55,000 members in 84 countries, founded CLONAID, the first company offering to clone human beings. In this book, he explains how today's cloning technology is the first step in the quest for eternal life.
Once we can clone exact replicas of ourselves, the next step will be to transfer our memory and personality into our newly-cloned brains, which will allow us to truly live forever. Since we will be able to remember all our past, we will be able to accumulate knowledge ad infinitum.
And so now man's ultimate dream of eternal life becomes a scientific reality. Rael allows us an extraordinary glimpse into an amazing future and explains how our nascent technology will revolutionize our world and transform our lives.
Boisselier asserts that Eve is "healthy," but the record of cloned animals suggests the possibility of health problems later in life. "Some animals have shown defects as they age," the BBC notes. "Scientists fear the same could happen with humans." New Scientist reports that Dolly, the first cloned sheep, developed a case of arthritis, suggesting that it was aging prematurely. "Some critics of cloning suspect that this is a genetic defect created by the cloning process."
The desire to clone oneself would seem to bespeak a monstrous narcissism; ending up with a defective copy of oneself would seem a horrific punishment for narcissism. Then again, is there any reason to believe the Raelians' pronouncements? Since when do the media take seriously the pronouncements of UFO cults?
A
Lotto Nonsense
At least the clone story is more interesting than yesterday's big news. We refer,
of course, to the lottery jackpot a West Virginia man won. This story was unavoidable
if you were watching TV news yesterday; CNN even aired a press conference by
the winner. Why is this news? It's not unusual for someone to win a lottery;
indeed, the way lotteries are set up, it's a mathematical certainty that someone
will eventually win. The jackpot the fellow won is a lot of money--a shade over
$100 million--but it's not exactly of Bill Gates proportions. When someone becomes
worth $100 million through a lifetime of honest work, that's not big national
news. Why all the fuss over someone who got rich by indulging in a vice?
All this media attention to lottery winners serves only to glorify gambling. And the lottery is a bigger rip-off than any other form of legalized gambling. Innumeracy.com ran an experiment to see what would happened if it made 10,000 random selections and entered them in each of 479 drawings in the British lottery. Result: An "investment" of £4,790,000 returned just £1,375,082, which means that each £10,000 "invested" would have cost the player £7,129.
A lottery, Innumeracy.com notes, is "a tax on the poor and the stupid." The next time some liberal journalist complains about "tax cuts for the rich," consider how his colleagues in the media help enable the government to soak the poor.
Standing Patty
The editorial boards at the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer and the Washington
Post must really want a Republican to win Washington state's 2004 Senate
race. Both newspapers have editorials offering backhanded support to the clueless
Sen. Patty Murray, who in an infamous recent speech described Osama bin Laden's
popularity as having stemmed from his alleged good works in Arab countries,
including the building of--we're not kidding--"day care facilities."
Both papers acknowledge the foolishness of Murray's statement. The Post, in its headline, calls it "inept." And the Post-Intelligencer notes the obvious: that "most of [bin Laden's] support . . . stems not from any good works but from al Qaida's murderous attacks on Americans and others." Yet both papers still strain to credit Murray with offering an important intellectual contribution. "Murray Has Guts to Stir Needed Debate," proclaims the Post-Intelligencer's headline. "There is a deeper point that Sen. Murray, with extraordinary ineptitude, seemed to be trying to make," adds the Post.
Murray has refused to apologize for her statements, and these editorials can only embolden her in that defiant stance. Maybe the two papers really believe she's a misunderstood deep thinker, or maybe they're trying to make excuses for someone with whose politics they sympathize. In either case, they're doing her no service, for she remains a big fat target for her opponent in the next election, whoever that turns out to be.
Muslim
of the Year
Last year some (including
us) criticized Time magazine for not choosing Osama bin Laden as its "person"
of the year--the man "who most affected the events of the year, for better or
for worse." Now Sabili, an Indonesian Muslim magazine, has named as its
"man of the year" the "alleged spiritual head of the terror group
blamed for the Oct. 12 Bali bombings," the Jerusalem Post reports. This
doesn't appear to be a neutrally defined designation for someone who makes big
news:
Abu Bakar Bashir's "charisma" and "stand against the United States" were the main reasons why Sabili magazine honored him in its December edition, its editor Yogi Utomo said Friday. . . .
Sabili magazine typically features fiery articles on the alleged injustices by western governments on Muslims worldwide, on efforts to impose Islamic law in Indonesia and advice columns for young Muslims.
Incidentally, Time also has an "Asian newsmaker of the year" category. The winner this year was Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, an Indonesian police investigator working on the Bali bombing case.
Chechen
Blast Kills Dozens
A pair of suicide bombers have blown up "a major pro-Kremlin government
building" in Grozny, capital of Chechnya, killing at least 41 people, CNN
reports.
You
Don't Say--I
"Hamas Calls for More Attacks on Israel"--headline, Associated Press,
Dec. 27
You
Don't Say--II
"Al Qaeda Associates Remain on the Run"--headline, Washington Times,
Dec. 27
You
Don't Say--III
"Anti-Taliban Afghans Welcome U.S. Presence"--headline, Associated
Press, Dec. 27
Foggy
Bottom Denial
The State Department denies that it discriminates against Jews--or maybe we
should say discriminates in favor of Jews. Former foreign-service officer Timothy
Hunter, as we noted
yesterday, says the department has avoided sending Jewish diplomats to Saudi
Arabia. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker as says the charge is "completely
wrong" and assignments are made "free from discrimination," the
Associated Press reports.
The
Bush Scholarship Fund
The New York Sun reports that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia has
donated half a million dollars to Phillips Academy, Andover, for the "President
George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship Fund." Phillips Academy is a prep
school that both Presidents Bush attended.
Alwaleed is the same prince whose $10 million donation to Sept. 11 victims Rudy Giuliani spurned when the cash turned out to come with a statement demanding that America "re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."
Weapons
Inspectors Get the Boot
"North Korea today announced its intention to expel United Nations inspectors
from its Yongbyon nuclear reactor complex and said it will restart a factory
that extracts weapons-grade plutonium," the Washington Post reports:
In a letter sent to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, North Korea said that because "our freeze on nuclear facilities has been lifted, the mission of IAEA inspectors has naturally drawn to an end," according to North Korean's official press. "Our government has decided to send them out."
While it escalates the nuclear confrontation, Pyongyang is also finding the time to engage in movie criticism. Another Post dispatch quotes the Stalinist dictatorship as saying through its propaganda channels that "Die Another Day," the new James Bond film, is a "dirty and cursed burlesque aimed to slander [North Korea] and insult the Korean nation." Some South Korean Buddhists are upset too, over a sex scene in a Buddhist temple.
The North Koreans take their movies seriously. London's Daily Telegraph reports that dictator Kim Jong-il "had his favourite South Korean film director, Shin Sang-ok, kidnapped and brought to Pyongyang to make him a Korean Communist version of the Japanese monster film Godzilla."
Meanwhile, the North Korean "news" agency KCNA reports that "General Secretary Kim Jong Il received a floral basket from Yasser Arafat, President of Palestine, on the occasion of the New Year, Juche 92 (2003). The floral basket was handed to Paek Nam Sun, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, by Shaher Mohammed Abdlah, Palestinian Ambassador to the DPRK, on Wednesday."
Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
You
Don't Say--IV
"U.S. Army Finds Allies in the U.S. Air Force"--headline, New York
Times, Dec. 26
Say
What?
"U.S. Confirms Reports That Army Rapes Women"--headline, Miami Herald,
Dec. 26
Don't worry, though, it turns out to be the Burmese army.
Gersten
Stays Down Under
A very strange story, involving prostitutes, crack cocaine, a stolen Mercedes,
a congressional investigation and Janet Reno, seems to be at an end. Joe Gersten,
an erstwhile Florida politician who claims he is a "political refugee,"
has been allowed to settle in Australia after Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock
intervened. Rather than recount the story in all its gory detail, we'll just
refer you to our April
2001 item about it.
You
Don't Say--V
"Value of Enron Assets May Have Been Overstated"--headline, Fort Worth
Star-Telegram, Dec. 26
You
Don't Say--VI
"Police Advise Against Drunken Driving"--headline, (Bloomington, Ill.)
Pantagraph, Dec. 27
You
Don't Say--VII
"House Explosion Ruins Holiday Plans for Some"--headline, WNBC-TV
Web site (New York), Dec. 24
You
Don't Say--VIII
"Weather Service: Snow Is Normal"--headline, (Waterville, Maine) Morning
Sentinel, Dec. 27
Great
Moments in Jurisprudence
"A judge, taking away a tool Westchester County [N.Y.] had used to keep
a convicted sex offender from giving balloon sculptures to children, said the
county cannot ban performances aimed at soliciting donations in public parks,"
the Associated Press reports. Richard Hobbs sued the county after it "refused
to let him perform a clown act, give away balloon sculptures, engage in humorous
social commentary and accept donations from passers-by in 1999 and 2000"
at the county-owned Playland Amusement Park. The county looked into Hobbs's
background and discovered he had been convicted of sexually abusing children
in 1978 and 1982. Judge John Martin ruled that the county's restrictions violated
Hobbs's First Amendment rights.
Here
Comes Santa Claus
The suspect is described as a heavy-set Caucasian male with a white beard wearing
a red suit. "Harris County deputy constables searched Thursday for a gunman
who dressed as Santa Claus while robbing a tollbooth Christmas Day," Houston's
KPRC-TV reports. "Fake Santa Robs Tollbooth," the headline reads.
But wait. The story says the suspect is still at large, so how do they know he's a fake Santa?
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Michael Segal, Barak Moore, Raghu Desikan, Adam Muntner, Edward Baer, Jack Raia, Erik Fortune, Howard Weiser, Yehuda Hilewitz, Carl Sherer, Judie Amsel, Doug Levene, Abraham Sanders, Natalie Cohen, Damian Bennett, Jerome Marcus, Brian Ferguson, C.E. Dobkin, Stuart Brown, Bob Batts, Steve Early, Charles Daugherty, Merlin Haas, William Newberry, Marie Bourgeois and Gil Yoder. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: President Bush is no "Caesar."
- Peggy Noonan: Reflections on a year of cleansing and rebuilding.
And on the Taste page:
- Review & Outlook: New Year's resolutions for Winona Ryder, Saddam Hussein and 18 other celebrities.
- Tony & Tacky: Dumbing down Shakespeare; putting a price on Christmas.
- Elizabeth Crowley: A history contest that's about history, not victimization.
- Mark Yost: Some folks are fighting mad over a team named Sioux.
- Matt Hamel: "I failed," the man who inspired Kwanzaa acknowledged
