Don't choke on the stardust baby

Obscure lyrics for the win!*

I've been reading Michael Crichton books because I found a bunch at a garage sale for practically nothing. The one I am currently digesting is "The Andromeda Strain", which I'm finding mildly entertaining more than I normally would as it happens that this book is often thought of when pandemics come into the foreground. Queue in the current "swine flu" issue. As a sort of whistling in the dark method of humor, I told my husband that the swine flu must have come from space pigs landing and spreading their virus among unprepared earth swine.

I am not all frightened and "oh noes the world, she is ending!", but I am concerned more than I probably would be, as my parents are currently living in Aguascalientes. Mom emailed me today to say things were looking up though, and Mexico City is calming down some, which then sets the course for how the rest of the country responds. They are still being cautious, but they are hopeful of a swift resolution to the problem.

Anyway, back to Crichton. What I find interesting about his fiction is that what he writes is plausible. There is little in the way of a reader having to work on their suspension of disbelief because frankly - we have the technology to carry out a lot of what he suggests in his books. His published speech at the end of his most recent title, "Next", is well thought out, and I have to agree with his arguments with regards to gene patenting and its inherent problems. I find it frightening (but not surprising) that there are recent claims that a doctor has successfully managed to clone human beings. More frightening is the possibility of the U.S. taxpayers' funds being portioned towards research and development for human cloning. Frightening, but not surprising.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not an alarmist. I am far from building a panic room and preparing for the end times, or any of that jazz. But it stands to reason that there are plenty of moral, ethical, nevermind scientific, reasons why this is so wrong. I understand the more noble reasoning behind it - "we could build parts for transplants, research diseases and cures, bla bla bla!" Yeah, that's great, but at what cost? There is always the seedier side to the coin, and let's not kid ourselves, if there's something to be exploited in this, it will.

Now I'm just rambling and tired. And wishing I had someone to parry all this off of. Off of? Off with? Something something. Time for bed now I think.

*Ok, I'll spill - the title of this post is a line from the lyrics to the song "Andromeda" by Zucker Baby.