Is President Obama an ethical man?

Is President Obama an ethical man? Now, some of you are already reacting in surprise at the very asking of the question, but it is one that has to be asked.

I find it very strange to consider, but it seems to me that George Bush has more ethical backbone than President Obama, even though Bush was considered wrong about his wars by most people. I say this being surprised even to have to say it.

I shall explain. President George W. Bush was against the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research. His stance was a simple one: embryonic stem cells can only be obtained through the murder of unborn children. President George W. Bush thought it wrong and unacceptable that medical research should seek to "save lives" of those with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, through murdering embryos. He thought that America should not support such research. Instead, the Republicans advocated NON-embryonic sources of stem cells as lines of research - adult stem cells and others.

President Obama is reversing this Bush era policy of a ban on embryonic stem cell research. President Obama has decided that the murder of unborn embryos, to further research into disease for older humans, is the right way for America to go. He says that it is holding back research to have such a ban. Well, to my mind, that statement makes President Obama an ethical pygmy. He cannot see that it is inherently evil to kill unborn children to save adults. Under no circumstances can it ever be viewed as right or justifiable. The unborn child has a right to live, to dismember the embryo to harvest its stem cells is to murder it. President Obama is advocating the murder of embryonic children to save adults. What makes this worse, is that research in recent years has shown that there are other ways to produce stem cells that do not require embryos to be destroyed. An ethical President would endorse those ways. President Obama has, rather insultingly, to all Christians, been compared to Jesus Christ, in his campaign marketing photographs. There has been the building of him into a saintly figure. Well, the last time I checked, saints don't endorse the murder of little children to save adults.

Now, I was impressed by President Obama's general presentation of himself in the campaign. I thought he was the best at personally "selling" himself. But there is a difference between being good at managing one's image and being a good man, in heart and mind. A good man is, in my view, an ethical man - and President Obama is showing, quite clearly, in these early decisions, that he lacks moral insight. The biggest irony of this situation is that George W. Bush, who is always portrayed as a stupid man, seems to have greater moral understanding than President Obama, who is always portrayed as a "brilliant" man.

President Obama is also reversing a "conscience rule" that gives healthcare workers the legal right not to treat patients, with abortion or contraception, if it is against their ethical principles. So, not only is Obama not an ethical man, he wants to BAN being ethical. Under President Obama, medical staff will lose the right to be guided by their own ethics.

This is a very interesting development. It seems that President Obama is not only an unethical man, in some ways, but one who is waging a legislative war against ethical behaviour. I find it curious that more mileage is not being made of this in the mainstream media in the US. President Obama is eroding the ethical standing of the United States, and doing it in the most charming of ways.

I never thought I would write a post like this, because it never occurred to me (though it should have) that the image making seen in the electoral process was just an image, without real substance.

I think it will become clear, in the coming year, that Obama, while an effective leader and a charismatic man, might be lacking in the moral dimension that is so important in guiding a nation. If the leader of a nation is not a moral man, that nation becomes capable of great crimes, in the world.

The irony, of course, is that Bush, while clearly a moral man, was involved in what some see as a great crime in the Middle East.

It remains to be seen if the less ethical Obama, will turn out to be less criminal on the world stage, than his more ethical forebear. At this time, it is not really possible to predict the outcome, except to say this: a lot of unborn children will now be murdered in a race to save old people, from old people's diseases, under Obama's new embryonic stem cell directive. That is the kind of crime that stains the conscience of a race, forever. (That is, when they wake up to what they have done...which can take generations.)

Perhaps President Obama would like to show the way, and ask Michelle to provide all the unborn embryos to be mashed up and dismembered for science? Perhaps then he might actually come to a moral understanding of what he has just ordered should take place.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

No Child Left Behind Act: Is Bush One?

Is President George W. Bush a child left behind? I can't help but wonder - for he characterizes to a great degree, the very children he espouses to support in his keystone educational legislation - the No Child Left Behind Act.

For those of my readers who are not American and do not know, the No Child Left Behind Act requires education authorities and schools to focus on the weaker children - to ensure that, "No Child is Left Behind". This may seem admirable, but has its downside. The effect is that all the more capable kids - that is, almost everyone else - gets ignored, to a greater or lesser degree. In other words, most kids in the American system suffer because of the No Child Left Behind Act. The aim of the schooling system is now to bring up the performance of the worst performers, which tends to lead to the better performers being ignored. Apparently, in many school systems, the lowest scorers improve - but how about everyone else? This matter is largely ignored.

Anyway, the reason I ask whether President George W. Bush is in fact a child left behind, himself, is because of something which happened on Wednesday and which was reported by Reuters.

At a televised event, surrounded by schoolchildren and in the presence of Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, he said: "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured."

Wow. Children might learn, in such circumstances but, clearly, in the impoverished circumstances of President George W. Bush's own difficult upbringing, he didn't manage to learn basic English grammar.

Now, you might say this may be an isolated incident. But it isn't. The President's grammar is frequently original - but never insightful. He is capable of mistakes I have never heard any native speaker of English ever make - and he does it quite spontaneously - and with mind-numbing regularity. The Reuters report also noted that, the "education President" - as he thinks of himself, once asked: "Is our children learning?"

Probably not, if their President isn't and hasn't, either.

Now, President George W. Bush defends himself by saying that he was an average student at school and makes light of his tendency to mangle English grammar - but I think that poses deeper questions. He may have been an average student - but should an average student be leading a meritocratic nation? (Is America a meritocratic nation? If not, why not?)

Now I have no political opinion on Bush or any other President of America since I don't live there and am largely insulated against most of what they say and do - but I am able to make, therefore, fairly impartial observations.

Generally, a well-functioning brain does not make grammatical errors, on a regular basis, in the speaker's native language - at least, that is what I have observed in the course of my life. Does, therefore, the President of America not have a well-functioning brain? If he doesn't, surely he should.

Perhaps his intelligences are biased towards the non-verbal spheres of mental life. Sadly, I cannot illustrate any decisions, events or actions in favour of this view. Perhaps others can.

It may well be, that, mysterious as it seems, the President of America, George W. Bush is, in some ways, a child left behind. His No Child Left Behind Act, could be the work of a man who empathizes with these children who cannot keep up with their peers. Perhaps, in some way, George W. Bush cannot keep up with his own peers. He must daily be surrounded by his intellectual superiors, in his office. Perhaps that is the very source of his passion for the No Child Left Behind Act. It would seem apt.

Perhaps you, as a reader have some personal experience of the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act and might like to share them. Or maybe you have some insights into that most unusual of figures: the present President of the United States, George W. Bush - and a child left behind?.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)