Rob Capehart, he of the 80 hour work week.

Ok, the GOP is gathering this weekend to pick their new state chief. Whoopee. Like we need more rah rah political bullshit in the state. Oh well, you have to play the hand you are dealt, I guess. Too bad you can't shoot the dealer.

Anyway, one of the front runners for the Party Chairman is this guy Rob Capehart. He used to be Tax and Revenue Secretary under Cecil Underwood. I actually heard him give several speeches out in the community when he was Tax Secretary. Too bad it was the same damn speech each time. He would start it off talking about how he'd fly into Seattle's airport and see the big Boeing plant there, huge building, that would generate a ton of tax revenue, especially property tax revenue. Then right across the street was a little building, that was Microsoft. Which made infintely more money than Boeing, but because of technology advances didn't pay anywhere near the taxes as Boeing. Blah blah blah. This schmuck couldn't even be bothered to write a new speech for his craptastic public speaking engagements.

Anyway he left when Cecil got the boot, and became a professor at Marshall, so says their faculty webpage. He also used to be called Robin Capehart, but I guess he decided the "in" part made him seem too, something or other, and now he's just "Rob." Whatever his name, he's still a pathetic hack. I'd like someone to explain to me how someone who's supposed to be a fulltime professor at Marshall University, has the time to be galavanting around the state running the Republican Party? I'd love to see how many hours this jackass really works at Marshall for his full time teaching gig, which you and I pay for. I mean, how much time could he have really spent teaching last year in January and February, if he was out campaigning for the Republican nomination for Governor? Were you and I paying his salary while he was out kissing babies? And now, if he becomes Party Chair, will he give up his full time state job? I think he should, otherwise one of those jobs is going to be done half-assed, and I bet it won't be the one where he gets to be front and center the next time Bush comes to town. No, the one that will get the half-assed treatment, will be the one you and I are paying him for.

Most college professors work hard, giving a 40 hour work week, in class, office hours, and other institutional duties like committee meetings and advising students. And they sure as hell don't get rich doing it. However, it's jackasses like Capehart that hardly do any work at the College, and suck a fulltime paycheck from the state along with PEIA coverage for their whole family, while they are off running their own business making real money or running for political office and playing party politics like Capehart is doing, that give college professors a bad name as lazy, overpaid muckety mucks.

And now, for something completely serious.

I was watching the NBC Nightly News tonight. The lead story was some docs in South Korea had finally "cloned" a human embryo. I'm actually surprised it has taken this long after Dolly the sheep was cloned to reach this point. However, they did it only to harvest stem cells. Five days after implanting the egg with human dna, the stem cells are harvested, and the embryo is no longer viable. But you now have stem cells that may very well be the key to unlock the cures to countless medical conditions and diseases.

This story struck me as a seminal moment in human history. This could be the Sputnik of medicine. We now have the ability to exercise an enormous amount of power over our future. Diseases and conditions that were previously incurable, may very well be reduced to mere nuisances, if not outright eradicated. In short, the quality of life for humans, will only increase exponentially due to this technology. However, this seminal moment, occurred in South Korea. While the only legitimate superpower on the planet, the United States, has legislation that actually discourages this type of research. The bottom line is this breakthrough should have occurred here. We need to be on the cutting edge of this. Not some country that only exists because the US keeps its northern neighbor from overrunning it. Unfortunately, due to the freakish religious right, this type of scientific breakthrough is discouraged in the US, because of the pro-life movement. This is one of several issues in which I think our President has completely missed the boat.

However, all is not lost. The pharmaceutical industry rides in on its white horse and saves us. Part of the story, is that congress is not as reticent to deal with this issue, as was previously discussed a couple years ago when Bush pushed through his agenda to scale back stem cell research. Evidently, some very pro life congressmen, republicans even, are on board with opening up this type of research. Orrin Hatch was one who is now leading the charge to allow this type of research. Methinks the drug industry finally got to them and said "Hey man, we need to be in on this here in the us." Evidently there is a serious push to open up the US to this type of research. And even if Bush vetoes it, there may very well be enough support to override a veto.

And to the religious crazies who feel this is some sort of abortion or sin against god, get a grip. These embryos would have never existed if it weren’t for scientific research and the methods involved. If they want to argue that normal, created for procreation purposes embryos, should be protected from a religious/moral perspective, so be it. I don't agree with that, but I can see their point, and it has at least a basis in some sort of warped religious logic. But the petri dish embryos created solely for the purpose of stem cell research and harvesting. After only five days growth, I'm sorry, you don't have a life. You have a mass of cells that resemble NOTHING like a human embryo, except from a scientific definition perspective only.

I never thought I'd say this. Thank God for the pharmaceutical industry's greed and their influence on congress.