Soylent Green Revisited? Nah, Just the Crazy Season in High Gear
Posted: January 25, 2012 Filed under: abortion rights, fundamentalist Christians, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, Republican politics, Women's Rights | Tags: abortion, fetus fetishists, silly season, stem cell research 18 CommentsThere is no end to the terror and frantic posturing when it comes to the Republicans’ fetus fetish. I thought I had heard it all but a Oklahoma
legislator, specifically Republican State Senator Ralph Shortey, has introduced a state Senate Bill 1418 prohibiting the use of human fetuses in . . . our food. No that is not a typo. The proposed legislation reads as follows:
STATE OF OKLAHOMA
2nd Session of the 53rd Legislature (2012)
SENATE BILL 1418 By: Ralph Shortey
AS INTRODUCED
An Act relating to food; prohibiting the manufacture or sale of food or products which use aborted human fetuses; providing for codification; and providing an effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA: SECTION 1. NEW LAW A new section of law to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 1-1150 of Title 63, unless there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows: No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients. SECTION 2. This act shall become effective November 1, 2012″
Why? you may ask incredulously.
Well, because a Christian anti-abortion group [reportedly, The Children of God] has made ‘allegations’ that a bio-tech firm and several food companies used embryonic stem cells to test the flavor of food and even more egregiously used stem cells to enhance the flavor of specific food products. The companies cited included Pepsi Co., Kraft, and Nestle. The accused bio-tech firm, Semomyx, was also connected to Campbell Soup Co. After the original accusations were made, Campbell cut its tie with the bio-tech program.
Bad PR is bad PR. And this, of course, is stomach churning.
But an accusation is easy to make.
The original allegations made last year went nowhere and the accused companies have flatly denied all charges. In addition, it’s absolutely illegal [not to mention unethical] under US law to use stem cells in the alleged manner.
That’s the true beauty of a witch hunt.
All one need do is scream, WITCH! Public passion is enflamed, fears are stirred and we’re off to the races [or the stake, as the case may be]. You can even get a state senator to introduce a bill that has absolutely no bearing to reality. Hell, it might be worth a vote or two.
Of all the idiotic fears I’ve read, this takes the cake. Not only is it disgusting fear-mongering, something the Republicans have turned into an art form, but it distracts from and delays any real effort in solving our economic issues.
Which are very real. And for which Republicans have few solutions.
But wait, let’s think about it as Stephan D. Foster, Jr. suggests at Addicting Info. [Addicting Info cites its mission as debunking Right-Wing propaganda.] If you were hell bent on forbidding any and all stem cell research and/or products for medicinal purposes, the sort that have been proposed for the cure of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s or used to generate cell growth in brain or spinal-cord damaged patients, what better way to covertly outlaw scientific research than slide through a seemingly pointless bill outlawing fetuses entering our food chain. As Foster states:
Depending on the source, stem cell treatments could fall under a ‘product that contains aborted human fetuses.’ You “consume” medicine in the same sense that you “consume” food; it enters the body and is processed in some fashion. Whether it is used for energy or to heal a damaged brain is irrelevant to this law.
Convoluted? Crazy?
Certainly no crazier than Senator Shortey, originally unavailable for comment, who told Nicole Burgin, KRMG Talk Radio the following :
I don’t know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be. What I am saying is that if it does happen then we are not going to allow it to manufacture here.
Oh, good Lord! Is this a disciple of Rick Perry? Senator Shortey claims he went ahead with the legislation because his research led him to believe a law was necessary.
Splendid!
Okay, I want a law of my own. I propose the following: If aliens land on the earth, toting a cookbook? And if they ask for ‘volunteers’ to visit their fine planet? I want Senator Shortey and all like-minded legislators to be the first to board said aliens’ spacecraft. Maybe they can convert a few Outworlders before the Barbeque gets going.
Pass the salt, please! 
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
KFF. so inviting.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. These people are nuts!
And so are their voters!
I swear, I have never heard of anything quite so ridiculous [or disgusting] as this stupid legislation.
How can the Republicans embrace this sort nonsense. Unless they’re batshit crazy?
It never ends!
The crazy people have them scared to death. I had them stalking my family before. Most of these fetus fetishists truly belong in either a mental institution or a jail.
As I wrote down below on Minx’s post, the OK legislature needs to have a psychiatrist on staff to diagnose and treat the psychotic disorders from which many of the members clearly suffer. Maybe a pharmacy on the premises too, and some orderlies with straight jackets at hand.
Strait jackets seem to be the only true solution and some rubber rooms for them to play in.
Happy Chinese New Year — Welcome the Year of the Dragon.
http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/24/10223896-chinese-new-year-celebrates-year-of-the-dragon
A day late but better than never 🙂
What will I do with this casserole I just made?
I say serve it up to Sen. Shortey with some Fava beans and a nice Chianti…
We need to come up with our own set of bizarre laws to counter this lame attempt to plant horrifying ideas in peoples’ minds.
I propose a law that prohibits Conservatives from grinding up Liberals in wood chippers and meat grinders and using the remains as fertilizer. Is it actually happening? Well I don’t know, but they’re sure not going to start in my neck of the woods!
What these people need to do is stop pushing religious crap down our throats…they need to stop rewriting history and science to their way of thinking.
Gingrich In Video Which Claims Constitution Is Based On The Old Testament « SpeakEasy
David Barton is a total fraud who was in ‘nowheresville’ until the odious Glenn Beck plucked him from obscurity and ranted and raved how Leftists had rewritten American History and censored the Founding Father’s clear Christian message. Beck was [not sure he still is] running Beck University with faux-professors like Barton teaching revisionist history.
People paid for this mockery!
There was a great site [not sure it’s still around] called Liars for Jesus. The woman who ran the site wrote a book, taking Barton to task on each and every utterance. These people are insane; they fuel the sort of nonsense that came out of Oklahoma. The fact that Gingrich is meeting with these loons behind ‘closed doors’ says everything you have to know about Uncle Newt.
He’ll do anything for the vote, even share the delusions of the Beckosphere [although I think I read Beck is personally not a Gingrich fan]. The crazies have been unleashed!
Geithner: Obama Wouldn’t Ask Me to Stay in a Second Term
Well, that may be one asshat down. Now where’s that woodchipper?
I told you they might be leaving Timmy out of the meetings after Confidence Men!
Since he, along with Summers and probably more so, has been the prime mover behind a huge amount of really bad policy they can’t get him out fast enough. Provided he could be replaced with a really competent person, it would make a big difference in outcomes, I hope.
An extremely well-written post. And very depressing. I don’t know if democracy can survive if much of the populace believes in hallucinated history and concocted current events. A Leonard Bernstein show tune you’ve probably never heard includes these lyrics:
“Half of the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election
Half of the people are drowning and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction.”
Those lyrics were written in 1972. Nowadays, the voting half of the citizenry acts even more stoned than the stoners.
Thanks, Joe. Btw, I’ve missed your writing over at Cannonfire.
As for this Oklahoma nonsense? It is disturbing how ridiculous [ignorant, really] some of these anti-abortion/anti-science people are. Bernstein’s lyrics [and you’re right, I’m not familiar with it] is on point. The revisionists lurking in the population spinning fairytales for the gullible only make things worse.
What a mess!