Oh give me a clone

Blaspheme of the day:

What's so inherently awful about reproductive cloning? A clone is basically just a twin who's a different age. Which means that two clones will be less similar than two identical twins. Of course, reproductive cloning will lead to long lines of genetically identical rich people who use their money to preserve their genes intact...but the joke will probably be on them when flaws begin to emerge in the DNA (cloning is, after all, the ultimate form of inbreeding), and later cloned generations just keep on getting weirder and weirder looking. Frankly, I see no reason not to let people do this...it's basically what happened with British aristocrats, whose large ears and prominent buck teeth have been a rich source of comedic material.
At any rate, I agree with this guy.


Actually worth-reading National Review story of the week:

Saudi Arabia may seem like a bunch of nice guys on their jaunts through the U.S. (aka "The Money Tree Country"), but as this article shows, they sing quite a different tune when the language is Arabic. Choice quotes from Saudi government and affiliated sources include this one from the late King Fahd:

[W]e consider ourselves to be in a continuous war against the Zionist enemy in every way until we achieve the hopes of the Arab nation driving the occupier out.

and this one from a 4th-grade textbook:

[Israel is intended as] a thorn in the back of the Muslim nations, and a window through which colonialism can sneak up among the ranks of the Muslims to work on dividing them and light the fire of hatred between them.[T]he Muslims will not rest until they cut off this disease and purify the land of Palestine from the plague of Zionism, and until its rightful owners reclaim it.

(Long division? Check. Spelling? Check. Purifying the land of Palestine from the plague of Zionism? Check.)

Also, the article goes on to note:

[O]ne brave Muslim teacher in Saudi Arabia by the name of Mohammad al-Harbi [w]as sentenced to 750 lashes and a three-and-a-half-year prison term for making positive statements about Jews and the Bible. Such religious tolerance is forbidden, according to the Saudi publications we found, because it “breaks the wall of resentment between the Muslims and the unbelievers.”

750 lashes? In Starship Troopers, ten looked pretty bad! Stay away from that wall of resentment, kiddos...