With every negative thing that’s going on in this messed up world these days, it sure is nice to hear about things like this. We all see miracles in our lives every day, even it it is as simple as waking up alive in the morning to see the dawn of a brand new day. It means we’ve been given an extra day to accomplish more than we did the day before – one more chance to get it right.

H/T to apotheosis at SondraK.com

Today is a good day for the pro life movement. First is the earth-shattering report from stem cell researchers claiming that they now have the ability to fore go the destruction of human life through embryonic experimentation…

The Future Is Now
Stem-cell debate changes.
By Father Thomas Berg
National Review Online
November 20, 2007 9:19 AM

It’s called “reprogramming.”

Another technical term for it is “somatic cell dedifferentiation.” Just get those terms into your vocabulary because they’ll be around for the foreseeable future. As reported in two scientific papers published today, reprogramming is now the future of stem cell research and renders ethically controversial therapeutic cloning obsolete.

Ever since the debate of embryo-destructive stem-cell research began in earnest in 1998 when researchers at the University of Wisconsin first isolated human embryonic stem cells, we’ve known that the best overall answer to the ethical impasse would be a solution that both allows the search for stem-cell related cures to go foreword, while doing so without harming or destroying embryonic human life in the process.

We now have that solution.

Two major scientific papers published today in Science and Cell offer proof of principle research to show that it is possible to generate patient-matched pluripotent stem cells without human cloning and its attendant moral pitfalls: the need to harvest and use human eggs from female donors and the subsequent destruction of cloned human embryos. Both studies used reprogramming of adult human cells to generate stem cells known as “induced pluripotent state cells” (iPSCs) that have all the properties of human embryonic stem cells.

*snip*

Most of us in the pro-life movement have known for years that advancements in stem cell research would one day render the destruction of human embryos – the earliest stage of human life – obsolete. That day has arrived! Not only that, but there is also a report out that claims researchers have achieved an important breakthrough in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease using gene therapy…

Breakthrough in Parkinson’s gene therapy
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Telegraph.co.uk
Last Updated: 10:01pm GMT 19/11/2007

Evidence that a breakthrough has been achieved in gene therapy for serious brain diseases has come with the release of the hard evidence that it works in Parkinson’s disease.

Breakthrough in Parkinson’s gene therapy
Patients were given injections of billions of copies of genetically altered viruses into parts of the brain

The world’s first gene therapy for a brain disease brought about significant improvements in the mobility of Parkinson’s sufferers. American doctors said it could also herald a landmark in the treatment of other neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s or epilepsy but there was a lingering doubt that the reports by a dozen patients of improvements of up to 65 per cent in mobility could be anecdotal or due to the placebo effect.

Today, Prof David Eidelberg of the of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, and colleagues report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences evidence that the brain chemistry of the patients has been altered by gene therapy, ending concerns that the evidence that it worked depended too much on what the patients said and not enough on objective measures. “It is the first solid evidence of benefit from gene therapy. It is objective,” Prof Eidelberg told The Daily Telegraph.

Parkinson’s affects about 120,000 people in Britain, with 10,000 new cases diagnosed every year. It robs sufferers of the ability to walk and even eat, causes long motionless periods known as “freezing” as well as head and limb tremors. As the disease progresses, higher doses of drugs are required, leading to side-effects that include involuntary movements.

Sufferers include the former world boxing champion Muhammad Ali and the actor Michael J Fox.

*snip*

Michael J Fox is prolly twitching for joy after hearing this… right. I can’t wait to see him come out in applause for this fantastic news. I know, don’t hold my breath. Don’t worry folks, I’m way ahead of ya here.

Then, in what may appear to be a completely unrelated issue, the Supreme Court has decided to take up the issue of socialist gun control in Washington D.C…

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to DC Gun Ban
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
November 20, 2007

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Tuesday that it will decide whether the ban on owning guns in the District of Columbia is constitutional, a pivotal case that could determine if the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right to own firearms.

At issue is a 31-year-old Washington, D.C., law banning handguns and requiring that all shotguns and rifles be kept unloaded and either trigger-locked or disassembled at all times. There is no exception for self-defense.

“The Bill of Rights does not end at the District of Columbia’s borders, and it includes the right to keep and bear arms,” said Alan Gura, lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Heller v. District of Columbia.

“After three decades of failure trying to control firearms in the District, it’s time for law-abiding city residents to be able to defend themselves in their homes,” Gura added. “We are confident the Supreme Court will vindicate that right in Washington, D.C., and across the nation.”

Dick Heller, a District resident who works as an armed security guard during the day but is forbidden by District law from keeping a handgun at home to protect himself, explained: “I want to be able to defend myself and my wife from violent criminals, and the Constitution says I have a right to do that by keeping a gun in my home.”

*snip*

For years now, D.C. has had one of the highest violent crime rates in the entire nation. Is it any wonder? They also have the most restrictive gun laws in the entire nation! Law abiding citizens are not permitted to bear arms in order to protect themselves or their families in the event of an armed attack!!! This is insanity, the perps know they have the upper hand and without a threat of an armed retaliation, they have become extremely emboldened. Likewise, in other cities around the country with similarly restrictive gun laws, violent crime and crime involving illegal weapons has skyrocketed. As the old saying goes… outlaw the guns and only outlaws will have them.

Here a bit of common sense for ya, folks…

PRO-GUN = PRO-LIFE