Monday, October 23, 2006

Michael J. Fox

What do you think of this?

20 comments:

Kate said...

I honestly wish they'd figure out the difference between stem cell research, and EMBRYONIC stem cell research.

The Game said...

that is one point I was going to make
And it was powerful if by powerful you mean making me want to puke...and no, I'm not insensitive...I just understand the difference between embryonic stem cell and stem cell...and I understand the difference between federal funding to work with things many people are against..and federal funding of working with regular old stem cells...yes, stem cells have produced some minor results so far...embryonic...zero..
and why should I be made to sit there and hear that stem cell research is going to make michael j fox stand up and run around in 5 years....

Jim said...

I'm against subsidizing oil companies and big farming companies with my tax dollars, but I don't get to decide THAT either. We elect representatives and they supposedly carry out the will of the majority. Isn't that what you are always saying when you complain about so-called activist judges?

There's a lot of science that hasn't produced marketable results yet, but scientists continue their research in hope of helping people.

DP's mom said...

I have to say that I could go both ways on this one.

I love Michael J. Fox. I think he's been one of those "actors" who steered clear of the limelight. I was saddened to hear about his diagnosis. It's just terrible that ANY person would have to go through such a thing. And I know that stem cell research would benefit PD.

My narc conference was this past weekend. One of the things discussed was how narc and PD research are related in several different ways. Therefore, it is safe to hypothesize that stem cell research would benefit my own narcolepsy research, possibly figuring out a way to re-grow lost hypocretin cells, which are neurotransmitters within the brain that cause the person to fall asleep because we have 90% fewer than a normal person. PD also has this.

HOWEVER, even in saying that, and knowing that this research could also help those of us with narc where there is NO research being done at all, I have to admit that I am still torn.

Didn't God make these for a reason? Not as punishment...but if we keep finding cures to everything, don't people realize the diseases are just going to get worse and worse???

I want to be well. I'm sure Michael J Fox wants to be well. As well as Magic Johnson. But when is enough, well, enough? When do we draw the line and say that we're not God?

Marshal Art said...

Rhyno is off base a bit. To say that some "think they're God" is not injecting religion into the debate, but only pointing to the person's attitude about, in this case, a particular research.

And it is indeed arrogant to suppose that one has nailed the exact moment one becomes a person and can research away by staying way before that subjective point in time. Furthermore, it is arrogant to believe one has the rank to determine when one life is more important than another. It is even more arrogant to then volunteer that undefended person to sacrifice his life without debate. Finally, it is arrogant to constantly use victims of disease in advertisements or PSA's after filling their heads with hope for research that has yielded no results yet.

So no, I don't like the ad.

PCD said...

I just heard Rush do some of the explanation. Fox is lying. Fox in Missouri is not supporting Stem Cell research in Amendment 2, but he is supporting HUMAN CLONING. Amendment 2 specifically mentions the medical procedure used to clone people, not stem cell research which is legal in MD and MO, but will remain so without such laws. Again Fox is a liar.

PCD said...

Jay, you are the liar and so is your cited website. Limbaugh said more than that and he was right. Fox was off his medication so that he's look bad and be a sympathetic figure to sway opinion. Fox is distorting and outright lying to defeat Republicans. No breakthrough will come through Human Cloning.

Fox wrote in his own book that he goes off his meds when he goes to Legislative committees like Congress to get his way.

The Game said...

pcd...if you can get me a link on that...I'll go put it right up on Jay's web site

Dedanna said...

I do believe this here: In addition, those movements are hard to imitate accurately because they stem from circuits between the basal ganglia and cortex that you can't just turn off or on. Those aren't volitional circuits. There is little chance he was acting, and if he was, he could only accentuate slightly movementse already had. In other words, this is as tragic as it looks.

HOWEVER, I also heard Rush say something intelligent for the first time at the end of that audio: that it's wrong to exploit people like Michael J. Fox.

I come at it from a different angle however, that being that it's tragic enough that these people have the diseases they do. Using them for ads, etc. to exploit them is just wrong. Plain wrong.

liberalshateusa said...

It is a scam bill backed by the left wing liberals. As I state Adult stem cell research has already been approved in Missouri but, not embryonic stem cell research. (CLONING)
As in Dolly the sheep. What do they want to do make more Michael J Fox's


A proposed bill on the Missouri November ballot, referred to as Amendment II to the Missouri Constitution, would allow human cloning. Couched alternately as “Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer”, a process necessary for cloning, supporters have called it “therapeutic and research cloning”.
Adult stem cell research has already been approved in Missouri but, not embryonic stem cell research. The human cloning is said to be a vital part of the proposed amendment.: “The initiative is being packaged as a way to ban cloning, when in fact it would put a right to clone into the state constitution.”

Jay Bullock said...

Game, pcd can't give you the link, because he is lying:
What you are seeing on the video is side effects of the medication. He has to take that medication to sit there and talk to you like that. ... He's not over-dramatizing. ... [Limbaugh] is revealing his ignorance of Parkinson's disease, because people with Parkinson's don't look like that at all when they're not taking their medication. They look stiff, and frozen, and don't move at all. ... People with Parkinson's, when they've had the disease for awhile, are in this bind, where if they don't take any medication, they can be stiff and hardly able to talk. And if they do take their medication, so they can talk, they get all of this movement, like what you see in the ad.

While Rush may have lots of experience with meds, generally, I trust the MD.

There's also this:
Some of the symptoms can be temporarily reduced with medicines, but there is no cure, and when he is off his meds Fox says it is hard to speak or even control his facial expressions. He wrote at length about his day-to-day difficulties in his memoir, Lucky Man.

He didn't seem to be having trouble speaking in the ad--just the problem with the weaving around.

Sorry, pcd, but Rush is an ass.

Jim said...

Marshall said:

"[I]t is indeed arrogant to suppose that one has nailed the exact moment one becomes a person..."

Isn't that exactly what you are doing?

"Furthermore, it is arrogant to believe one has the rank to determine when one life is more important than another."

Isn't that exactly what you are doing?

"It is even more arrogant to then volunteer that undefended person to sacrifice his life without debate."

I believe there is plenty of debate except, of course, by those who know they know God's truth.

"Finally, it is arrogant to constantly use victims of disease in advertisements or PSA's after filling their heads with hope for research that has yielded no results yet."

I'm sure Michael J. Fox was dragged kicking and screaming in front of a camera and forced to recite those lines.

And by your logic, we should have given up on missile defense decades ago.

Anonymous said...

The movements by Fox are not acting. Nor are they from Parkinson's disease. They are the result of the medication he has to take, as anyone with a Parkinson's victim in the family could tell you.

In other words, Limbaugh is wrong to say that this is because Fox didn't take his medication.

It is because Fox DID take his medication.

That none of you know this shows that you are speaking from ignorance -- so much ignorance in this discussion, on so many points.

Remember, Nancy Reagan also has publicly advocated embryonic stem-cell research. To the "compassionate conservatives" here, take every bad thing said here about Fox and say it about Nancy Reagan.

Was she exploiting the memory of Ronald Reagan? If you think so, then you are neither compassionate nor conservative. You're just as much of an uninformed fool as is Rush Limbaugh.

Marshal Art said...

Jim says,

"Isn't that exactly what you are doing?"

No. I go with the scientific explanation for when human life begins. You may recall that I took the time to spell that out on an earlier thread. That science says it's a human being from the moment of fertilization. Thus, I have justification in science for my position. You've got bupkiss.

He says yet again,

"Isn't that exactly what you are doing?"

No. I'm going with our founding documents that state that all are created equal and that each is endowed by their Creator with the right to life. It was the self-serving who have decided, like Nazis or KKKlansmen, that they are superior to another due to irrelevant attributes.

Then he's all

"I believe there is plenty of debate except, of course, by those who know they know God's truth."

First of all, your side of the debate is unsupported by facts, while mine is supported by facts. So there is no debate, except whether your side can ever find support that isn't arbitrary and subjective. But the debate to which I was referring was the debate that never takes place between the scumbag submitting another human being for sacrifice and the innocent being sacrificed. The child never gets to argue for it's life. And finally, everyone can know God's truth that studies the Bible, accepts Christ as his Savior, and prays for guidance while seeking to live according to Christ's teachings. You should try it sometime.

"I'm sure Michael J. Fox was dragged kicking and screaming...etc..."

That's the point. They convinced him there's hope in the research while no evidence that it'll work is available. He bought it, now they use him, without dragging him, because he believes their myth.

The last line simply makes no sense.

Marshal Art said...

For the anonymous one,

Nancy Reagan is just as wrong. And she's most likely coerced by her own grief. So she's also being exploited.

PCD said...

Jay,

You are lying. I just returned to this site just now. You are one dishonest SOB.

Here's another link http://www.iowavoice.com/index.php?/archives/2901-Michael-J.-Fox-And-The-Stem-Cell-Debate.html

Brian did a very good post. I suggust you apologize, Jay, and repent you vile ways.

PCD said...

Jay,

Here's another link for you:

http://newsbusters.org/node/8571

Also, you can go buy a copy of Fox's 2002 book and read it, if you can, for yourself. My advice is to buy the book and have the game read it to you.

PCD said...

Jay,

Does being an English teacher make you and expert in all fields??? Maybe your arrogance needs to be punctured, BIG TIME!

Rush played Audio Clips of Michael J. Fox saying to interviewers, like Leslie Stahl, that he (Fox) does not take his medications before testifying before committees.

Also, there is a Dr. Davenport refuting EVERYTHING Fox said in a article published in the American Thinker.

Now, Jay, are you going to continue to lie to yourself and others? Do you spew your anti-Republican venom to the kids in your classes? Do you FLUNK kids who stand up to you???

The left, especially Democrats, are desperate in this election if they have to lie constantly to try to make others look worse than they are.

Jay Bullock said...

PCD, I'm not saying Fox didn't go off his meds to speak to Congress--in 1999. If you think that's what I said, you need the reading lesson.

I'm saying that MDs who've looked at the ad--in 2006--say that what you see (the weaving and shaking) is a side effect of the meds. Hence, he can't be "off" them.

PCD said...

Jay,

Now that you are cornered, you are shifting the argument. Fox is trying to manipulate the voters though emotion, not through science. Do you need more pummeling on this? Science, ESC vs Adult Stem Cells shows over 70 lines of therapy for ASC to ZERO for ESC. You need a URL? Do you need to be intellectually and factually beaten into the ground???

You started with your ignorant bloviation about Rush Limbaugh. It has been proven YOU don't know what you are talking about and Rush did.

Stuff that into you left wing, NEA Union Goon ego and stop indoctrinating the captive kids in your class. Teachers like you ought to be pilloried.