Extract from the American Symphony orchestra....

The dramatic and literary bases of Strauss' early tone poems were diverse and more or less innocent. With the 19th_century German metaphysical poet Friedrich Nietzsche, and the prophet-figure he distantly based on the ancient Persian mystic philosopher Zoroaster, the composer took his stand on more problematical ground. The cult of the Übermensch, or superman, propounded in 1885 in Nietzsche's [http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogues_extensions/99_2000season/2000_03_08/strauss.cfm|Thus Spake Zarathustra], came half a century later to look dangerously like the foundation for the concept of the super-race that led to Nazism.

It's true that Hitler and his henchmen drew ideological sustenance from Nietzsche, from his one-time idol Wagner, and from their more soberly philosophical compatriots. It's true also that the seed of one element in Nazism can be traced in Nietzsche's radical rejection of the Christian ethos—of mercy and compassion, and the exaltation of the meek—in favor of a hard-edged, clear-eyed, ecstatically arrogant confrontation of the mysteries of the universe. But the pronouncements of his Zarathustra have something of the willful paradoxicality of the socialist John Tanner in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, who declares he hates the poor so much that he wants to abolish them utterly.

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Gus: Welcome to the paradoxicality of the Neo-Christianity-Fascistry of the Bushits...
Is our Zarathustrabbott rejecting the sick? Or does he not want to afford them a possible avenue of cure, just because of his tightarse-ism, being the minister for diseases?

From The ABC

Abbott 'scaremongering' on therapeutic cloning
A member of the committee which reported to the Federal Government on stem cell research says Health Minister Tony Abbott is using "scaremongering" tactics to discourage support for therapeutic cloning.

Therapeutic cloning is when the nucleus is removed from an unfertilised egg and replaced with the cells from another person's body.

The Lockhart Committee - a panel of scientists - reviewed the legislation which prohibits therapeutic cloning and recommended the Government lift the current ban.

Professor Loane Skene, the deputy chair of the committee, has told ABC radio's Sunday Profile that Mr Abbott is incorrectly suggesting Australia is heading down the path to reproductive cloning.

Reproductive cloning is making a person genetically identical to an existing person.

"Reproductive cloning is prohibited by the legislation," she said.

"We have recommended, in the Lockhart Committee's report, that it should continue to be prohibited.

"It seems to be that it is scaremongering to say that if the Lockhart Committee's report is accepted then the next step will be reproductive cloning."

Professor Skene also says she has not been invited to brief the Mr Abbott on the committee's findings.

"I haven't been invited to talk to Mr Abbott himself, but if I were invited to talk to him, I would say that reproductive cloning, which is making a person who is genetically identical to an existing person, is prohibited by legislation," she said.

Sunday Profile airs at 9.05 tonight on ABC local radio.

The chief spokesperson of Australians for Honest Politics was quick to seize on new stem cell research:

... Well I am not in the business of finding obscure theological arguments against things, ...

Shortly after, with an argument that was NOT all that obscure, Vatican rejects 'ethical' stem cell breakthrough:

... Bishop Sgreccia says the procedure is wrong-footed from the start - experimenting with embryos is reprehensible, as is use of "unnatural" in-vitro embryos created at fertility clinics, like the ones the US scientists employed in their research. He says Advanced Cell Technology then made things worse by extracting what could be a "totipotent" cell. "This is not just any cell, but a cell capable of reproducing a human embryo," he said. He added that, in effect: "a second embryo is being destroyed". ...

I suggest the lad should present himself to the Penguin to have his lugs tugged, and knuckles cracked with a cane.

How will he back out of it? "Well, I don't always agree with the Vatican"?

 

 

 

was that a human embryo T.G. ...... ???

 

From our ABC

Blood plasma supply to be put to tender

The Federal Government will recommend the supply of processed blood plasma be put to tender despite an independent review warning against such a move.

The review found the current arrangement of processing plasma locally should continue, although it predicts a major shortage of plasma products unless more people donate blood.

But under the terms of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, Australia must put the process to tender and allow overseas companies to bid for the contract.

Health Minister Tony Abbott says he will recommend the job of processing plasma be advertised, but the approval of the states and territories is needed.

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Gus: Another loopy FTA contractual stuff-up from the Howard UnAustralian government...