Dec 04 2007

An Annie Hall Moment: Krauthammer Contradicted By Groundbreaking Stem Cell Scientist

From Annie Hall:

. . .  MAN: Now, Marshall McLuhan–

WOODY ALLEN: You don't know anything about Marshall McLuhan's work–

MAN: Really? Really? I happen to teach a class at Columbia called TV, Media and Culture, so I think that my insights into Mr. McLuhan, well, have a great deal of validity.

WOODY ALLEN: Oh, do you? . . . Oh, that's funny, because I happen to have Mr. McLuhan right here. Come over here for a second?

WOODY ALLEN: Tell him.

MARSHALL McLUHAN: — I heard, I heard what you were saying. You, you know nothing of my work. How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.

WOODY ALLEN: Boy, if life were only like this.

Sometimes it is. Via Josh Marshall, Charles Krauthammer gets his comeuppance on some nonsense he wrote on stem cell research. Groundbreaking stem cell researcher James Thomson delivers it:

Krauthammer's central argument — that the president's misgivings about embryonic stem cell research inspired innovative alternatives — is fundamentally flawed, too. Yamanaka was of course working in Japan, and scientists around the world are pursuing the full spectrum of options, in many cases faster than researchers in the United States.

Ah, sometimes life IS like this.

14 comments

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  1. catch Krauthammer sneezing on a pile of cocaine. Nah… that would be too perfect.

    • Edger on December 4, 2007 at 16:09
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    [people and countries] around the world are pursuing the full spectrum of options for telling Bush and his band of idiot 24 percenter ga ga followers where to shove it… in many cases faster than [people] in the United States – sadly.

    • oculus on December 4, 2007 at 17:19
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    NYT editorial agrees (not with Annie Hall; about skin stem cell research0:

    Any claim that Mr. Bush’s moral stance drove scientists to this discovery must be greeted with particular skepticism. The primary discoverer of the new techniques is a Japanese scientist who was not subject to the president’s restrictions. The senior scientist on the American team told reporters that the political controversy and Bush restrictions set the research effort back about four to five years.

    My personal favorite line from Woody Allen:  I can’t wear a beige shirt to rob a bank.  

  4. dishonest when he’s shilling for the right I don’t even bother with him anymore.

    He’s becoming a male version of Coulter.

    • oculus on December 4, 2007 at 18:09
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    Please “bump.”  This could be a fun day.

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