Okay, not really. That’d be a funny enough story. In this case however the man wasn’t actually so disgusted with his humanzee daughter that he vowed not only to never do it again, but to prevent any and all people from ever doing it again. No. In this case the man is just a religious zealot that’s pretty much against any and all genetic manipulation that involves human DNA, but especially weird stuff like animal-human hybrids and gays having babies.

Calum MacKellar, a trained biochemist and now Elder of the Church of Scotland and bioethics think tank operator (quite the scary thought mixing religion and science like that), is warning the UK government that the The Human Fertilisation and Embryo Bill isn’t enough. For example, while it specifically prohibits the placement of animal sperm into a woman, it does not prohibit the opposite, of Scotsmen shagging sheep … or in this case Brits boffing chimpanzees … for science. I did it for science!

I guess I can kind of see the point. It is an interesting loophole. So if you’re going to ban cross-species genetic tampering, perhaps you should actually ban all interspecies sperm spewing. At least when it involves human DNA. And especially when it involves chimps. Because if there’s one thing the world is really scared of, it’s a humanzee. For some reason.

So yes, ban it I say.

Still…

Making things illegal seems to not exactly stop these things from happening. It just makes us feel better that the government theoretically says no. And it most definitely doesn’t prevent someone from doing it in some other place where it is legal. And with something as hot of a topic as a humanzee, no doubt, someone, somewhere, is going to do it at some point. For science. So all laws like this really do is put a government up on their soapbox so that they can say, “Not in my back yard!” While this sad world still turns.

Which in itself raises an ethical question. Would you rather have a well cared for humanzee in a first-world country with ethics you trust, or would you like to roll those dice and hope the humanzee’s quality of life doesn’t come up snake-eyes? It makes one ponder. Is moral indignation a satisfactory defense for ethical shunning?

Ah well. Such is life. At least Calum MacKellar gets to feel better about himself. If only it was that easy for the rest of us.

Now, I would hope that everyone knows who Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is. I mean how can anyone not know about the man that drug the United States kicking and screaming into modern thinking like civil rights, and by doing it through peaceful means at that? He was a man of the age. He was an icon.

But does he really need to close down the banks, schools, and post offices?

I mean “Presidents’ Day” is questionable enough. George Washington at least founded the country though. And Lincoln – who was just kind of thrown into Washington’s birthday for the heck of it I guess – was another major founding father – who coincidentally also did a lot for civil rights. But do we really need a holiday to be patriotic on when we have, oh, I dunno, the 4th of July. Or Veterans Day? Or Memorial Day?

Don’t get me wrong, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. certainly was an awesome guy. But compared to the scope of what defines the other national holidays, does he really stack up? Or is giving him his own holiday like this just some politician’s way of pretending to care about civil rights to quiet the angry oppressed black folk?

I mean what about people like Rosa Parks? Or why isn’t there a holiday for someone who did great things during women’s suffrage? We have a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin that no one uses. Is that supposed to be equal?

In a decade or two will we have some notable gay rights movement leader with a face on a three dollar bill? (That no one uses.)

It just seems to me that today not only do we not yet have all of the civil rights that so many have fought for, but we even fail to equally recognize the people who have done so much. Were we really so desperate for a holiday that we singled out Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.? Or is it more like “equal opportunity” where you pick someone based on color to make it look like you’re not picking based on color?

Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man who did awesome things. I hope we can all learn from him.

But is he and he alone worthy of his very own holiday? Or should we do to Martin Luther King Day what we did to George Washington Day and make Civil Rights Day where we can promote everyone who did great things for all civil rights: race, gender, religion, age, sexual preference, etc.?

To me it’s sadly ironic that today this use of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is in fact oppressing other civil rights. I have a feeling if he were alive today, he’d agree. I’m sure he wouldn’t want us to concentrate just on race.

Though, being a reverend, I’m not sure where he’d stand on gay rights.

Yes, so a lot of this blog entry is tongue in cheek. If you’re looking to take it seriously and you get offended by it, I apologize. But it’s meant to make light as well as bring light. The United States of America, for being a “land of the free”, still has a long way to go and a lot to learn. And I hope one day we can get there, and even get there with laughter and smiles.