First, from the mea culpa department, a couple of corrections. Yesterday, I carelessly stated that both embryonic stem cell research and adult stem cell research have yet to produce any tangible results. While that is true of embryonic stem cell research, adult stem cell treatment has produced several treatments of note. Because adult stem cell research is not a political football and can’t be used as a bludgeon to bash the Bush administration and the Republican Party, it of course doesn’t get the same press clippings as its embryonic sibling.

Also from the mea culpa department, yesterday I posited that there were more Muslim Americans than Jewish Americans. According to most reputable counters of such things (i.e. not CAIR), this was an error. Nonetheless, according to everyone’s tally, Jews maintain a commanding lead over Muslims as per capita victims of religious hate crimes. It’s not even close. So I stand by my assessment that we’re still number one, and I along with the rest of American Jewry anxiously await a sympathy card from CAIR.

Now, on to Michael J. Fox. Some lefty site must have linked to my column yesterday because I got an extraordinary quantity of email that sought to begin a dialogue on the matter by calling me a f*****g a*****e and other less civil things. I tried telling these correspondents that I very much appreciated their feedback, but that only seemed to inflame them more.

Specifically, regarding Fox, there’s something from his autobiography that merits a mention (HT: Leaning Straight Up). Writing about his first time testifying before the Senate, Fox said:

I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling.

If you don’t think that’s manipulative and quite frankly outrageous, we’re just going to have to agree to disagree. It also begs the question, why did he make himself suffer? If his goal was to make a disingenuous statement about his condition, he didn’t have to refrain from taking his medication. He could have just taken his medication and pretended to be sicker than he was. After all, isn’t that in effect what he did?

Now specifically on to the McCaskill advertisement. Many McCaskill/Fox supporters wrote in ludicrously suggesting that Fox just wants to kick-start the embryonic stem cell research so that future generations might benefit. Here’s some of the ad’s text. You tell me if that’s the honest takeaway:

“In Missouri you can elect Claire McCaskill who shares my hope for cures. Unfortunately Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope…What you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans. Americans like me.”

Again, if you think this ad is anything other than a naked suggestion that Talent opposes Michael J. Fox’s well-being while McCaskill supports it, then we’ll have to once more agree to disagree. Regardless, I stand by my original assessment that Michael J. Fox wants to manipulate people’s sympathies so they’ll support his political positions.

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