I swear I am not making this up. On the “Culture War” segment of tonight’s (Fri.) episode of the O’Reilly Factor, Republican strategist Christine O’Donnell uttered the most fantastic claim I’ve heard in many a moon:
O’REILLY: Let them admit anything they want. But they won’t do that [clone human beings] here in the United States unless all craziness is going on.
O’DONNELL: They are — they are doing that here in the United States. American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains. So they’re already into this experiment.
Yes, dear reader, American scientific companies are coming up with MICE WITH FULLY FUNCTIONING HUMAN BRAINS. I swear I am not making this up. I saw it on my television set, and I copied the quotes above from a transcript at the Fox News web site.
O’Reilly’s other guest on the segment was Dr. William Morrone. Neither he nor O’Reilly called O’Donnell on her outrageous claim. It may not have registered with them. (Update: Dr. Morrone did respond to O’Donnell, stating “That is an exaggeration.” I missed this when I saw the segment, and the transcript I’ve linked above was not complete when I wrote the deleted statements above. The transcript has since been corrected. See the comments below. )
O’Reilly didn’t make the comment, and may not have really heard what O’Donnell said. But his staff should research this and come back with a correction on Monday’s program. It’s unreasonable to allow wild claims like this to go unanswered. A Google search on “human brains in mice” turns up O’Donnell’s referent: researchers created mice with functioning human stem cells in their brains. According to the National Geographic article, ” Less than one-tenth of one percent of the test mice’s brain cells are human.”
Functioning human stem cells in the brain of a mouse may give conservatives the creeps, but it’s a far cry from a fully-functioning human brain inside a mouse.
The story is nearly two years old. O’Donnell has no excuse for making such a ridiculous distortion of the facts, unless she has a fully-functioning mouse brain in her head. (She doesn’t.)
Science and technology are going to be important issues in the 2008 election. Our next President and his staff need to be well-versed in such issues. Let’s all take time to pray, hope, plead, or whatever that Christine O’Donnell and other Republicans strategists and policy makers will educate themselves about the current state of stem cell and cloning research.
8 January 2008 at 11:50 pm |
Buy the DVD.
Listen to me say “That is an exaggeration.”
Transcripts are never completely accurate.
9 January 2008 at 12:27 am |
I didn’t hear you say it, but I was probably yelling at my TV. I notice that the transcript I’ve linked above now includes your statement.
Thank you for the correction. I’ve edited the original post.
10 January 2008 at 9:01 am |
[...] From a semi-recent posting on Very Important Stuff, I see that a Republican strategist, Christine O’Donnell, made a claim on The O’Reilly Factor that s…. [...]
10 January 2008 at 9:45 am |
I’m not sure why you’re surprised here, I mean, you were watching O’Reilly. I don’t watch it myself, as I prefer more intellectual programming, such as America’s Next Top Model. Chantal FTW! :)
I doubt it would have registered even if I were watching. As happened to me when you originally posted this, my brain didn’t really highlight it for me due to being oversaturated with this type of event. “Politician (or similar) says something incredibly stupid about science” is so commonplace it’s difficult to separate the individual events from the background noise.
That’s not to say that it’s not worrisome that all this bs gets broadcast in front of, umm, extreme laypersons who are inclined to accept things just because a talking head on a political talkshow said it. It is. But as commonplace as it is, it is hard to fight it on case by case instances. Now, when members of Congress or officials in the Executive branch with the actual power to do things starts going off the deep end, now there’s a battle worth a rant or two.
I don’t even need a president or congresscritter that is well-versed in all the various important scientific fields; I’d be satisfied totally with lack of scientific knowledge if the person realized his/her lack and ensured that good advisers with appropriate credentials were consulted prior to making decisions involving science or where science can provide relevant data concerning the topic at hand.
As far as the human-brains-in-mice thing, I just posted a few thoughts and predictions related to that on my blog.
21 March 2008 at 6:54 pm |
Thank you for the edit and clarification. You are fair and honest.
8 June 2008 at 7:00 am |
Christine is right. A little research combined with some basic common sense reveals their ultimate goal of this highly unethical practice. Senator Sam Brownback from KS has been working to get a ban on half-human/ half- animal hybrids and the Senate won’t give it any movement. This is a slippery slope and I’m glad Christine O’Donnell is standing up against this!
10 June 2008 at 1:41 pm |
Kyle, a Google search reveals a similar bill introduced in the U.S. House: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-5910. I don’t know the status of Brownback’s bill.
I know very little about this area of research, and I respect the fact that serious ethical issues are raised by nearly every aspect of human cloning. But I suspect the goal of this particular area of research is to further stem cell research in the hopes of developing new medicines or treatment strategies for various diseases.
25 July 2008 at 2:46 pm |
[...] is Biden truly the crazy one? or without mentioning her name, is it this person.……. [...]