Kicking the tires of the stem cell machine

nj.com ^ | October 25, 2007 | paul mulshine

[Coleus]

As I was watching the groundbreaking ceremonies for that gleaming new stem cell institute in New Brunswick the other day, my mind drifted. I got to thinking of one of those situation comedies about the South. I imagined the camera focusing on a hillbilly in overalls sitting in front of a shack. His wife is wearing an old homemade dress. She's complaining that she doesn't have any food for the kids. Then the camera pans past the pigpen. Under an old oak tree sits a brand-new car. "She's a Dodge Hemi. She's got the 426 V-8," says the hillbilly, as he gestures toward his pride and joy. "She'll do zero to 60 in under five seconds, and she'll top a hundred in the quarter-mile.

"Heck, she'll do everything but cure cancer."

In the next scene, of course, the banker shows up to repossess the guy's house. And just like that hillbilly, we New Jersey taxpayers could lose our houses if we don't get our borrowing under control. Buried deep in the language of the ballot question to fund the institute is a description of what happens if the state can't pay back the bonds: "there shall be assessed, levied and collected annually in each of the municipalities of the counties of this state, a tax on the real and personal property upon which municipal taxes are or shall be assessed ..."

"What they're basically doing is using your house and my house as collateral," said Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, who has been fighting irresponsible state bonding ever since Republicans were doing it, way back in the Whitman era. Lonegan's group, Americans for Prosperity, is campaigning for a "no" vote on the initiative as well as on another initiative for $200 million in bonding for open space.

[Coleus]

 Corzine hails start of stem cell facility

Americans for Prosperity is preparing to work hard to defeat higher taxes and more debt this November by defeating Ballot Questions 1, 2 and 3. This is the opportunity New Jersey Taxpayers have been waiting for. A chance to send a clear message to Trenton-NO More Taxes!

Click the sign or here to learn more!

Vote NO on the Ballot Questions 

New Jersey Budget Factoids 

Click here to check out  the AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY FOUNDATION "Snake Oil Salesman" TV ad on this bond issue! It is worth watching!

[neverdem]

bump & a ping

[WOSG]

We are fighting this nonsense in Texas too.

VOTE NO ON ALL BONDS.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is this even a “good” stem cell institute, pursuing the only thing proven to work, i.e. self stem cell treatments? Or is it more kill-the-babies snake oil?

[Fire_on_High]

Vanderbilt is part of a program that takes stem cells from blood and uses them to regrow bone marrow, in situations that normally would have required a standard bone marrow transplant. They’re not from yourself but instead from a matching, compatible adult donor found via a national registry kept by blood banks.

It’s not that much bigger of a deal than a normal blood donation and it’s ethical.

[HiTech RedNeck]

OK