Thursday 26 September 2013

Charlotte Iserbyt

Yesterday I spent a little time going over some things, a review of what has happened to this world over the last hundred years, and revisited Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt. What a wonderful lady, stands strong by her principles no matter what the personal cost to herself. Charlotte worked as secretary of education under Ronald Reagan.

Whistleblowers today (well I guess they always have ) put themselves in extreme danger. Charlotte does, but doesn't care about her personal safety as she does about telling the truth about what goes on "behind closed doors". I know that things will grow worse and worse, and this world is not our home. We are just passin' through. It is good to know what is happening, to keep our eyes wide open to what is happening all around us, and to be faithful to tell the truth about the corruptions of this world, and the goodness of our Lord Jesus and what He has done to redeem us (chosen) out of it.

Wednesday 11 September 2013

So What???

We've all been there right? At one time or another you (and I have too) thought "I'm number 1" and that your (my) opinion is better than most (if not all) others.

Once I was talking with a resident (a doctor in training) about this. She told me she believed in Islam. I asked her "Do you believe that what you believe is more correct than what other people believe? Do you think that when you disagree with others it is always you that is right and others that are wrong?" and she hesitated for a moment and then said "Well...yeah" ....and that thinking is also true of me (most of the time) like my opinions or ideas are the ones that have the most value somehow. That is the way of our flesh; it wants preeminence.

So these days when I see people going on and on about this new idea of theirs, or their opinion about this, that, or whatever other thing, I remember that we are but a vapor, and what we think means very little if it doesn't line up with what God says. If it doesn't bring glory to God, but still turns attention back on the person who is talking, I ask "Why?" and "So what?" Should we really care about all that hot air (vapor)?

It is good to think, and to share, and to care, if in the thinking and sharing and caring we remember it isn't about YOU or ME, but it is ALL ABOUT JESUS, and what He has done, and will continue to do for those whom He has been given by the Father out of this wicked and temporary and insane world. What He thinks matters, and He has given us His word. :)

Tuesday 3 September 2013

"They're Here"

World's first GM babies born

by MICHAEL HANLON, Daily Mail

The world's first geneticallymodified humans have been created, it was revealed last night.
The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics.
So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three 'parents'.
Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a result of one experimental programme at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey.
The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to conceive.

Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults --two women and one man.

The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their 'germline' means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.
Altering the human germline - in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species - is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world's scientists.
Geneticists fear that one day this method could be used to create new races of humans with extra, desired characteristics such as strength or high intelligence.
Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers, led by fertility pioneer Professor Jacques Cohen, say that this 'is the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children'.
Some experts severely criticised the experiments. Lord Winston, of the Hammersmith Hospital in West London, told the BBC yesterday: 'Regarding the treat-ment of the infertile, there is no evidence that this technique is worth doing . . . I am very surprised that it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain.'
John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: 'One has tremendous sympathy for couples who suffer infertility problems. But this seems to be a further illustration of the fact that the whole process of in vitro fertilisation as a means of conceiving babies leads to babies being regarded as objects on a production line.
'It is a further and very worrying step down the wrong road for humanity.'

Professor Cohen and his colleagues diagnosed that the women were infertile because they had defects in tiny structures in their egg cells, called mitochondria.
They took eggs from donors and, using a fine needle, sucked some of the internal material - containing 'healthy' mitochondria - and injected it into eggs from the women wanting to conceive.
Because mitochondria contain genes, the babies resulting from the treatment have inherited DNA from both women. These genes can now be passed down the germline along the maternal line.
A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates 'assisted reproduction' technology in Britain, said that it would not license the technique here because it involved altering the germline.
Jacques Cohen is regarded as a brilliant but controversial scientist who has pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction technologies.

He developed a technique which allows infertile men to have their own children, by injecting sperm DNA straight into the egg in the lab.

Prior to this, only infertile women were able to conceive using IVF. Last year, Professor Cohen said that his expertise would allow him to clone children --a prospect treated with horror by the mainstream scientific community.
'It would be an afternoon's work for one of my students,' he said, adding that he had been approached by 'at least three' individuals wishing to create a cloned child, but had turned down their requests.