Manure

Two separate conversation in two counties this past weekend focused on manure. The virtues of such, you know, the stuff that is cleaned out of barns or feedlots, when applied to a garden, were extolled. Large watermelons and an abundance of potatoes would be the result.

With no livestock at the farm, we have no source of fresh manure for our garden, neither here nor there.

The only manure I have access to is the recycled kind that is transmitted along radio waves and cable lines.

Like yesterday when the world fell apart because President Obama was lifting the Bush ban on embryonic stem cell research, which will allow federal funding to back such research.

Among the things the right wing is saying to try to skew people's knowledge and understanding:

The moment a sperm impregnates an egg, and the resulting cell divides, it is a human being. Sometimes they even say "living, breathing human being." Bull Crap. First of all, the cells don't breathe. Respiration goes on, at a cellular level, but that is hardly breathing. Second, if the embryos are "human being," capable of all the human emotions and feelings as they claim, then isn't it cruel to keep them frozen for indeterminate periods of time. I mean, you wouldn't put a real live baby in the freezer, would you? But you claim these embryos are babies, I don't get it.

Barack Obama is a demon. In a cartoon she received before the election, Obama was morphing into a demon, a woman said. Now she knows it's true, and its not funny anymore. In fact, she and others said that Barack Obama was destined for Hell because of the signing of the documents yesterday. He would be solely responsible for millions of deaths. Horse Crap. Well, these embryos are frozen and later discarded like medical waste, so who is responsible for those embryos' deaths? Are they going to Hell also? Nice job of being God's gatekeeper, lady.

This is Brett Dennen's song "Heaven," and this seems like an appropriate place for it. The maker of this youtube vid had this to say about the picture: "The picture used is unrelated to Brett or the song. I took that picture with my Macro lens of the bottom of the fire pit at camp. Yes, that's what burning wood looks like. Beautiful, isn't it?"

I chose this version so your mind could create its own images during the song.



This move will require millions of embryos to be created and destroyed to supply the demand for research. Malarky. They used terms like "embryo farming" to describe the scenario they envisioned.

The Catholic Church was throwing out plenty of manure too. I accidentally landed on EWTN last night, and there was a talk show on. The conversation shifted from embryonic stem cell research to abortion, and they were trying to say that one third of all U. S. hospitals will be forced to close if FOCA (Freedom of Choice Act) is passed and signed into law, (they are claiming that 1/3 of all hospitals are Catholic Hospitals, which might be true), because if the hospitals refuse to perform abortions that Kathleen Sibelius will order them closed. She's Catholic, by the way. Of course she would also close Baptist Hospitals and any others that refuse, so the health care in our country would crumble even more. What a crock. That is not what the bill says or supports.

See, I can't take anything the Catholic Church puts out seriously. I mean, here, at The Wild Reed, is one example why. A ways down in that post is this:

A third example - one that is making international news: Time magazine is reporting on the outrage among Catholics in Brazil about Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Recife (pictured above) who recently announced that the Vatican was excommunicating the family of a local girl who had been raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather, because they had chosen to have the girl undergo an abortion. According to Time, the Church has also “excommunicated the doctors who performed the procedure as well.”

Keep reading and you will learn that the rapist was not excommunicated. Another writer is quoted:

[Many are] furious with the Church [for] not excommunicating the girl’s stepfather. The truth is the stepfather has not engaged in an excommunicable offense. In fact, raping his stepdaughter is actually seen as a more moral sexual act than having sex with his wife if they were using birth control. Raping his nine-year-old stepdaughter is a sexual act open to procreation. According to the Church, God’s law favors rape over birth control. God’s law is sure tough on women and nine-year-old girls.

Rape is procreation, they say, so that's OK? How can anyone support a church, created and run by men, that has such a policy? Give me a break.