Debates: Health care, stem cells and science

It's hard to believe this was a presidential debate in the 21st Century.

Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee all raised their hands to say they don't believe in evolution. That's simply a deal-breaker for DB.

This was all former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson had to say about his plan to modernize health care for America:

I would transform the health care system a lot different than the president's talking about.

Sign me up.

John McCain, who wants a $3000 tax cut for health care, was the only one firmly supporting federal funding for stem cells. There were some others of various levels of support. Mitt Romney had the most interesting answer:

Altered Nuclear Transfer creates embryo-like cells that can be used for stem cell research. In my view, that's the most promising source. I have a deep concern about curing disease. I have a wife that has a serious disease that could be affected by stem cell research and others, but I will not create new embryos through cloning or through embryo farming because that would be creating life for the purpose of destroying it.

As far as health care goes, we learned that Mitt loves his plan and hates Hillary Clinton's. What exactly is Romney's plan? Who knows?

Rudy Giuliani hates Clinton's plan, too. His solution? Fix health care with optimism.

We're a country that has the greatest health-care system in the world.

It's flawed. It needs to be fixed, but we should fix it from our strengths. We shouldn't turn it into socialized medicine. Those are the things that Ronald Reagan taught us. You lead from optimism.

UPDATE: Oh yeah, cloning is bad.

Flush Limbaugh

DB hasn't commented on Rush Limbaugh because (blogger was down yesterday and) so many others have done a terrific job identifying him as a pig. But here's a couple additional thoughts:

Michael J. Fox isn't exploiting the disease. The disease is exploiting him. That doesn't mean that he's being mindlessly controlled by the disease and is acting irrationally. It just means that Parkinson's Disease is not the victim.

Fox was living a normal life, like so many other Americans, and probably didn't view politics through the prism of an afflicted person. This year, 50,000 Americans (and their loved ones) will leave a doctor's office, praying -- from a very personal place -- for a cure for Parkinson's to arrive quickly. And if any of them want to lead the fight for stem cell research, then DB supports them 100 percent. If any of them still oppose stem cell research, DB politely disagrees, but supports them in their right to speak their beliefs.

But what is Limbaugh really saying? That only a healthy person should be debating health care? That Lance Armstrong shouldn't be raising awareness of cancer research? That should be left to people who never had cancer?

That we shouldn't have Megan's Law or AMBER Alerts? How dare the families of child victims try to inject themselves into these serious debates?

What a jackass. And you can bet all the OxyContin your maid can carry that if Limbaugh were diagnosed with Parkinson's, he'd be selling stem cell research to his braindead audience faster than he ran to the ACLU to bail his pathetic ass out of trouble for his drug-related crimes.