How are other countries dealing with patents on human DNA?

No, No, No! How did it ever get to this - where a corporation can patent a part of the human genome. I don't care if their company did the research that makes the connection between a specific gene and a disease state. The company can patent a treatment process related to that gene but in what bizarro world do they get to patent a gene in a living organism? It seems that our society is no longer able to recognize when something is fundamentally wrong. Corporations have shifted our social mores into a make believe world.

Well I'm following leighmf and simply just go one better - I'm not going to die!

Only in barking mad USA?

leighmf ~ I'm with you--CREMATION. There's no way I'm coming back to this place on the whim of any human being. Only if God commands the natural way. Even then I'm not going easily.

Besides, it won't be the first time I've made an Ash out of myself.

By the way, at the risk of being off topic, has anyone noticed the latest False Flag operation in Boston Mass. today. Seems strangely ironic that this attack comes one week after President Obama submits a proposed budget with $200 Billion in cuts from the military. It also seems poetically ironic that this event takes place on tax day. What a way to save cuts in the military as well as pass more unconstitutional legislation banning public gatherings. Any thoughts, friends?

DeAnneMarc - this is off subject, I have grown tired of reading the various comments and commenting myself, it is getting old hat. As far as faith goes, I will place my faith in my .357 for the protection of my family and myself. You can choose to place your faith in whatever makes you feel comfortable. I do believe the end results of someone or something trying to perpetrate an act of violence against me and mine will have a better outcome for us in my hands, then your faith in the force you perceive to have a guiding hand or fate in your life and the lives of those you care for. I have proof my magnum will have a most certain effect and an outcome I can foresee happening. I do not place my faith in something or an entity that I believe in to have its, his or her hand in protecting or guiding my life. I am not an atheist, I just do not believe the thing you place your faith in will be there to protect you or yours and is more of a comfort factor then an actually entity. I will not completely rule out the existence of a greater power, this all began somehow or somewhere (the Big Bang Theory). I just do not rely on it to guide or protect my family or myself. You do not need to explain the difference of faith, religion or belief. They all have the same outcome, which is to place the responsibility for your life and decisions you make in the hands of a higher power. Like I said before, just a cop-out to let you sleep better if you think something else is in control of guiding your thoughts, life and life style. Of course you never see an athiest in a fox hole under fire or in any combat! ha. I have yet to see any proof that those with faith have a higher quality of life or a better outlook in life towards oneself, family and others we encounter throughout life’s journey. And, it does bother me a great deal when someone takes it upon themselves to explain faith, religion and belief to me as if you were preaching down to the crowd from your soap box. I am trying to be less confrontational with people who come across the way you do, so you do not have to thank me for not coming down on you in an aggressive manner, it is for me that I take this attitude, not you my friend.

P.S. It appears that either homegrown or outside terrorists are starting to surface in our society. You can use your faith; I will use my magnum when it comes to dealing with a threat to me or mine. As I have stated before, the time is coming or has come when there will be uprisings across our country in various forms. To try to elaborate on this matter or discuss it further could make me sound like I embrace what is happening or will happen and that could put me in a compromising position. I am starting to sound like Palindromedary, and he may be right about having to be careful how and what we say since some form of terrorism has raised its head in our nation this day. I do not embrace the killing of innocent people, but I do understand why it can happen and the possibility it will happen again. You can only push our people and those of other nations so far before they start to push back in whatever manner is open to them. I do truly feel for those who have been killed and wounded and their families who will suffer the pain of loss. I do not however, believe the government of our country had anything to do with this. It may very well be the work of some demented soul or group that thinks killing innocent people is a way to make a statement. I really wish your god had seen fit to intervene in this tragedy today, but I suppose he, she or it was too busy listening to prayers to glorify its existence in our universe of mankind and our need to believe we will be around forever in one form or another. No thank you, I will concentrate on living for today and worry about infinity when I am star dust again. I bet the parents of the millions of children who suffer from diseases like cancer or starvation wish your god would take time to intervene in their lives. I will put my faith in the doctors and scientists who work hard and long to benefit mankind today, not in infinity. Have a good day.

As far as my genes go, I could care less who claims them as long as they strive to do away with disease and the pain and suffering that go along with sickness of the body and mind. It is just another subject for Hartmann to rag on about, to justify his talk show and program. The man has to make a living, I just wish for once he would identify the good in life that mankind has done to one another in this life and stop his continual bitching of what is wrong in everything he sees! He is starting to sound like the thin version on the left, of the fat man version on the right. Both get tedious after awhile. I can only imagine what Hartmann will rant on about the bombing today! See you around, time to have a beer and relax...K.W.

Business can make things so ridiculous.

Ken, that reminds me of the story I heard when I was living and working in Saudi Arabia. The US Air Force was training the Saudi Air Force in how to fly their F15s and it seems the US trainer pilot was desperately trying to get the Saudi student pilot to pull up, PULL UP!! The Saudi merely replied calmly..."Inshallah" (means basically "will of God" meaning Ho Hum if God wanted them to crash they would...if not...they wouldn't). I don't remember if they actually crashed or not. I had the desire to run for cover every time an F15 flew over. But, as they also say in Araby...Maffy Shogul, Maffy Faloos (No work, no pay)! So ducking was out of the question...not that I really did anything useful over there....but they paid well for not doing anything useful...so...

Lots of people were over there doing nothing particularly important or useful.except for those who did...especially the rough necks and other oil men who had to sweat it out in the Rub al-Khali..but they all got paid. It had something to do with a kickback scam between the US and Saudi Arabia I read about years later when I left Saudi Arabia.

But, I got to drive around portions of Saudi Arabia pretending to do something useful. Didn't ride any camels but I shot one and her baby camel once when I went to Yanbu.

It was getting dark and on my way back from driving to the north of Yanbu (on the Red Sea side of the Saudi Shield) in attempting to satisfy my curiosity about seeing a massive community of tents from afar..I finally chickened out and did an about face.

As I drove back, I saw this mama camel and baby standing on a sand dune next to a shrub. I noticed a hole in the fence so I pulled my car over and went through the hole and crawled through the sand dunes over toward the pair. I pulled out my Nikon and shot a few pictures of them standing together with the morning star (Venus) in the background ( was shooting from my stomach upward). That old mama camel was just glaring at me and I was probably lucky she didn't stomp the crap out of me. I didn't realize until I had the pictures developed that Venus actually appeared in the picture. What a sight! I still have that picture, I think, somewhere.

Since taking pictures in Saudi Arabia is quite a chancy endeavor (they don't like you taking pictures of their animals, their women, old buildings, or anything of a geographical nature). So, I had to send my film off...back to the states for developing..and was lucky they didn't inspect them when the pictures returned. It would have been the Saudis who would have stomped the hell out of me had they caught me.

Eggplant.

D A M - What would be the payoff for the Fed's to bomb a marathon in Boston? If you look back in our history concerning the types of attacks that our own homegrown terrorists have committed it follows the scenario, especially on the traditional, Tax Day. I will be happy to say I was wrong if it is found out that it was not a homegrown sicko or terrorist from an American group. As far as cuts to Medicare and Social Security go they are minor in the scope of the two programs. The cuts in Social Security will amount to about a minus 1% on the increases based on inflation. Most companies, corporations, counties and school districts haven't been given cost of living raises in years. As I recall a few years back those on Social Security and S.S. Disability went four years without a cost of living increase (raises due to inflation) and no one made a major deal of it. So as far as the cuts to Medicare, they will be felt by doctors and hospitals that have to follow new guidelines concerning re-imbursement for services, the people who have Medicare will still have their insurance and will continue to pay the co-payment. The Sequestration cuts will hurt the elderly and poor more than any changes to S.S. and Medicare. The Sequestration Bill President O' pushed through congress in 2010 with his so called Affordable Health Care will costs the Middleclass big time in cuts and increased costs. In California it is reported that those who buy their own insurance for healthcare will pay an increase of 30% over last year and that includes a whole lot of people who are just making it in today’s economy.

As far as not being a big deal that 3 people were killed including an 8 year old girl, I have to differ concerning the significance of the act. Ask the families of those who were killed how significant their loss is. I am being serious. I am not a big fan when it comes to conspiracies by our government killing Americans. The risk is too high and the price of being caught does not appear to be cost effective in the payoff of such an act. The government does not need a reason to stop the cuts to the military, all they have to do is vote to change the Sequestration demands and the problem is fixed without any risk and a big payoff of being seen as doing something about a poison pill bill the President presented and pushed through the Democrat held Senate and House in 2010. I do not expect those who have not served and been part of the bigger picture concerning our government and military to be patriotic and see things in the same way. I just had to get that jab in, sorry!

I would like to state Just one last word about faith. It is said one must have faith in things they cannot see in order to believe in a higher power. Bull shit, that is the oldest cop-out in history when it comes to believing in a god or a higher power. You cannot disprove or prove anything based on the premise that one has to have faith first to believe, it is like proving a double negative. You have faith in your wife or your doctor to do the right thing based on their previous and present actions. The same applies to believing in a god, show me and I will have faith, is this not why Jesus is shown in the bible to have performed miracles for the people. And, the New Testament was written up to several decades after Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. Christianity (Jesus), Judaism (Moses and Abraham) and the Muslim faith (Mohammed) were all based on Acts that were performed in the name of their God (all share the same god). So in my humble opinion faith without factual acts is nothing more than a cop-out because you cannot prove or disprove something based on faith alone. Why I am writing this in Thom's blog is beyond me at this point. I think I, (like many others on this site), like to get the last word in for some damn reason that is not quite clear at this late hour! Have a good day today; it is after midnight on the west coast!

Quote Michael Hudson and Paul Jay:
JAY: Just quickly dig into this CPI chained cost of living. Why are people criticizing this, and what does it mean?

HUDSON: It’s not really a cost of living index. It’s a “cost of lower living standards” index. Yves Smith calls it the catfood index.

Here’s what it does. Suppose that you have to switch away from eating steak or eating meat or eating fish to eating canned tuna fish or canned beans. That’s considered a price reduction.

If the chained index is done “properly,” anti-labor economists can cut Social Security by 50 percent. Here’s how. If people stop taking cabs and begin to take buses, that’s considered a lower cost of living. Well, what if they buy a bicycle? All Obama has to say is, “Look, folks! If you really want to save money, get a bike.” That’s what Margaret Thatcher said. That was one of her campaign slogans: “Get a bike!” So all of a sudden, the transportation in the cost of living goes down to zero.

If living standards are ground down and down because people are poor, then the government can say, “Because you’re getting poorer and poorer, your living standards have declined, so we don’t have to pay you so much to live.” This is no longer a price index. This is an index of declining living standards. Poverty will cascade downward, and so will the chained CPI. This gives new means to the working class being put in chains.

JAY: And that’s because the concept behind this chained CPI is that people are finding cheaper ways to do things, ways that supposedly are not being reflected in the current system.

HUDSON: That’s right. People are having to walk to work instead of taking buses. They’re having to eat tuna fish and canned beans instead of buying fresh food on the table. Of course they’re finding cheaper ways. We call that declining living standards.

The starting point for Obama’s budget “reform” is to find the path of least resistance in screwing Social Security recipients, how can we pay them less to pay our campaign contributors, the 1%, more? They start by putting the class war back in business. They sugar-coat it by calling it a price index instead of a catfood index or declining living standards index. This is the politics of deception.

In other words...this may initially seem like a small thing but it is a "foot in the door" and once the flywheel starts turning it won't stop. Momentum and precedence will continue to screw us. When we can no longer afford to eat steak. because they cut our Social Security..we'll eat chicken..then they'll say "See there, you can still survive on chicken..we're obviously paying you too much...so it's now time to reduce your Social Security even more"..and the chicken prices will rise because the demand is strong..then we'll be forced to eat even cheaper foods...but they will also increase in price so then we will end up struggling to survive on cat food or rats. It has happened before to others in other countries and it may very well happen here. It may already be happening here to some people.

Jeez Yanks will do any thing to make a Buck

Do Not Alter (DNA)!
That's all I have to say on this .

Now onto the next "No brainer"...
Bombs in Boston!?!?
What happened to the trusty AR-15; the weapon of choice when setting out to kill a mass of people? I Guess since they did away with large capacity clips/magazines it took the fun and efficency out of mowing down large amounts of people with a gun.
Hmmm, something screwy go'en on here...I wonder who is behind the "Curtain of Terror"!?!?

Bombs Over Boston
Chaos! Chaos!! Chaos!!!
Innocent lives snuffed out
Body parts strewn about
Shredded flesh
Blood and guts everywhere.
Screams of terror
Moans of agony
Lost and crying children
wonder amongst the dead.
No one notices
Wild flowers grow
in a near by park
gentlely swaying
in the breeze

No one notices
The bee buzzing
The butterfly fluttering
A bird snatching a worm
The rich snatching your future
No one notices.

No one notices
the folly of our ways
No one stops
to take in a moment
Until the moment stops
and takes you.

This issue -- our destructive patent system -- points to the irresponsible, unethical impact of Supreme Court decisions on our society. It also shows that corporations have been taking actions, for 30 years, to make it impossible for middle class americans to achieve justice in the courts while giving corporations everything they want. Our court system, today, is pretty much limited to corporations suing each other (elites who have access to courts suing other elites) and criminal/immigration actions which are all about filling up the private prisons to satisfy private prison industry's need for profit. Our Supreme Court justices, who were supposed to be above the fray, seem to be mostly concerned about the well-being of the elite. They don't watch films like "American Winter," or "We're not broke." They surround themselves with the wealthy elites, not the common man. And they really don't care about the common man, and it shows.

No, I was replying to Wendalore's comment that "business can make things so ridiculous". The basic reason for this, along with all the other ills we face in the world today is Eggplant, which is not a "plant' at all but an extraterrestrial embryo existing half in our space and half in the seventeenth dimension. I mean, just look at one of the damned things. Is that something that looks like it evolved on this planet? When the time comes, they'll all hatch and out will pour carnivorous mushroom based life forms. In the meantime, eggplants emit a subsonic note designed to put human nerves on edge and drive us to eat more Big Macs and fries, hence, the obesity issue here (fattening us up). I guess my initial response was a bit cryptic. I thought you guys knew all this.

Outback: But I have it on good authority that if you smother Eggplant with lots of garlic, onions, and Parmesan cheese along with Tobasco Sauce it zaps those alien critters into submission long enough to savor the flavor. Sometimes they may resurrect, however, while floating around in gastric juices. So beware! Parmesan Chicken (Chicken Parmesan) is another of my favorites. Haven't seen any alien chickens though. But Chicken Man, from Chicago just tried to call me..I know because I check out every unrecognized phone call that appears on my Caller ID...and he checks out to be from the Williamette FBI. I guess they are checking up on me for all of the dissenting attitude I've been displaying on this Blog.

One time I was doing a Google Earth and internet search for Bush's ranch in Texas and I get this really strange call, as I was looking at his ranch on Google Earth, (before I started using caller ID) and it was a weird screeching noise like you hear from a modem. It wasn't my modem for sure.

Ken Ware ~ I just wanted to admit that you might be correct. I was so expecting such a staged event/False Flag that it slipped my mind that you are right--this country is full of a plethora of violent wackos that are worse than the military. It's a shame though that you and I have to give each other the benefit of the doubt because of the sorry state of affairs that this investigation--and subsequent non official investigations--could go in any direction and we'd both probably accept any theory handed out.

Very strange that some group hasn't stepped forward immediately to take credit. No credit, no agenda. This leads me to suspect the act was perpetrated by an individual 'mentally disturbed' person. If so it just goes to prove what I said before. If we don't address the underlying causes of mass killings by wackos, taking their guns away is not going to make the problem go away.

Do you have a single example of the US targeting an innocent civilian?

chuckle8 ~ Dresden, Berlin, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Napalm in Vietnam, Cruise missiles in Iraq, how about Drone strikes in residential areas from Syria to Pakistan--all cases of blatant targeting and annihilating of countless innocent civilians. You forget when you kill someone without a trial they are innocent forever by our definition of law because they can no longer be proven guilty.

To answer your question, no I don't have a single example of the US targeting innocent civilians--I have a plethora of examples.

During a war we rationalize that every person of the enemy state is guilty. It would be interesting if the Boston bomber said he was at war with US.