Just as you pointed out, Muscular Dystrophy, a terrible disease but with relatively few afflicted, is a high profile disease because of the annual Jerry Lewis telethon. However there is still no cure. Here I might point out that for most of the TV stations that carry a telethon, it is a considerable profit center, draw your own conclusions.
Everyone knows someone afflicted with some type of cancer, they are either suffering with it or have died from it. Since it takes a lot of money to find cures for these diseases, why is there no annual telethon for cancer with a well known "star" to draw an audience? Seems logical that such a telethon would result in far more donations than MD. In the meanwhile, unimaginable "conclusions" have been drawn and whispered among the masses; such as discovering a general cure for cancer would put too many people out of work.
Many major advances in the fight against cancer have been discovered and applied, yet there is still no cure and people are getting impatient.
Stem cell research is still somewhat in its embryonic stage but to many people it is not unlike the abortion issue, I beg to differ.

embryonic stem cell transplant is still investigational and far from providing us the silver bullet of "cure" whereas there is documented success with adult stem cell transplant on numerous fronts... a bone marrow transplant for leukemia is a form of adult stem cell transplant.

I have no problem with Michael J. Fox raising money for private research into stem cell use, but I do have a problem with the government using my money for embryonic stem cell research. And I have a problem with Michael Fox being on TV ads requesting support. He could have been just as effective doing a voice over for the ads, but the emotional and visual influence of him physically on tv is "priceless". As a medical person, I do know that either under or over medicating, as he claims he was, can cause that same reaction. As a grandaughter of a wonderful women with parkinson's disease, she would rather die than know that it took the death of an infant to save her.

As for celebrities... don't get me started.... IF they would donate the sale of all but one of their homes and their private jets and their clothes that have only been worn once, then maybe we wouldn't have underfed, undernourished children in our own country... Why did it take a hurricane for Brad Pitt to become concerned about the situation in New Orleans... there weren't undernourished children languishing in underfunded, poorly perfoming schools in "non-environmentally correct" neighborhoods before the hurricane... get real. It reminds me of the Pharisee that prayed in public so that everyone could see how wonderful he was with his dedication to God but the prayer that God valued was the one from the old woman who prayed in the corner giving all she had to Him.

I know that I am rambling and this is my first post, but message to all.... I love reading all of what you say and these blogs are my favorite part of the Chronicle website

Gimpel, you sound like a Republican hack...we all see it. I've never written here, but it's now time.
Michael J. Fox was ON medication and that is one of the side effects, the "twitching movements"....get your facts straight.
Rush Limbaugh, the Drug Addict, has apologized to Mr. Fox...thus, what he initially said was false then wasn't it?
If it were not for "famous" people, many diseases would go unnoticed. Instead of using Mr. Fox in a negative sense when he is trying to follow the scientists advice and get funding for research.......the other diseases that affect our aunts, uncles, moms and dads need a famous face, too. It does help to raise awareness to a level of importance.
As for the celebrities using money from a home, car, etc. to help people instead of hoarding wealth (from Ponytail)..the same should go for the numerous wealthy Republicans. But Pubs tend to hoard their money and not GIVE to charities. I bet I can name more famous people who are Independents as I am, or Democrats, than you can name Republicans who give to charity. You are distorting the truth.
And now the CDC, this organization is for the PREVENTION of health risks to the entire public such as West Nile Virus. Diseases like Parkinson's is not preventative at this time. Thus, the CDC has to use it's funding that affect the worldwide population that could cause epidemics. Get your fact straights.
Gimpel, take note.
And Ponytail...just because you don't "Believe" in embryonic stem cell research personally, you want the rest of us, to do without. Seems were at a stalemate. That's why we have majority rule through a democratic process, voting. The majority of Americans support it. And it may take 10-15 years, but what is it to say, let's not even try? If you want to look at this from your perspective....WHY did God create all of the intelligent Scientists who continuously use science to conquer new frontiers in medicine and beyond? Did God just create them in Name Only?
Ponytail...so your grandmother would rather die than use an embryo....so why don't you and all the Republicans rescue ALL of the embryo's and put them in your own wombs and carry them to birth? Go adopt all of the unwanted and abandoned children, too. IF you really cared about the children, you would. You just want to spew your religious beliefs into politics, and the 2 don't mix. Stem cell research is science, not religion and not politics. Let the scientists that GOD put on this earth do their jobs!
As for Brad Pitt coming to the aid of Katrina victims....good for him. Did you go down there and help? Did you send money? If you did, good for you. But just tell me how many Republicans are really concerned and helping the victims today? Instead of complaining about the people who are helping being "celebrities", you should be thanking them for raising and donating money, it's less you might have extracted from your wallet, and I know that's what you care most about.
What we really need is Independent candidates for all offices. There is a vacumn with many of us who believe in some policies of both major parties, but not ALL of either of them. Give us a voice. I'm not far left, and I'm definitely not far right. I'm sick of having to choose sides!

Well, I try to just tell the truth, as my cognitive abilities allow me to know it.
Hack? You cut me to the very bone. Uncle Karl won’t approve.
Are you saying celebrities actually help people? Their approval is required to make curing a disease important?
Wow… they seem like the most useless things in the country to me. Brad Pitt? Helping Katrina victims? Maybe the make believe victims. Do you have problems with reality?
Hmmm… not too many examples of them actually helping come to mind. Harry Chapin helped people. He gave his money to his causes. He died in an old VW Rabbit. And his help wasn’t the court ordered public appearance variety because of some drug charge, either. I suppose Bono and a couple of others help, some. But showing a lovely face for a few minutes doesn’t fit my idea of help.
And, I’ve looked and looked, but don’t see where I said the CDC was responsible for Parkinson’s.
I did not say that.
Please, get your facts straight. And, ponytail said her grandmother would rather die than live due to the death of a BABY... a human BABY. Use her words. Get her words straight.
However, I do not like the fact that Mr. Fox wants people to use their vote, give their vote, donate their precious vote, their guarantee of freedom and strength, to him.
For something that may or may not work, when he could darn well get his rich celebrity friends to donate enough money to do almost anything.
Hollywood does have a few bucks, after all.

Gimp...instead of nit picking...why don't you answer the questions I raised. Esp. this first one.

WHY did God create all of the intelligent Scientists who continuously use science to conquer new frontiers in medicine and beyond? Did God just create them in Name Only?

And it may take 10-15 years, but what is it to say, let's not even try, to let the scientists use the science using embryonic stem cells to see where it might lead?

Rush Limbaugh, the Drug Addict, has apologized to Mr. Fox...thus, what he initially said was false then wasn't it?

Why don't you and all the Republicans rescue ALL of the embryo's and put them in your own wombs and carry them to birth? Go adopt all of the unwanted and abandoned children, too. IF you really cared about the children, you would. You just want to spew your religious beliefs into politics, and the 2 don't mix. Stem cell research is science, not religion and not politics. Let the scientists that GOD put on this earth do their jobs!

Katrina victims.... Did you go down there and help? Did you send money? If you did, good for you. But just tell me how many Republicans are really concerned and helping the victims today? Instead of complaining about the people who are helping being "celebrities", you should be thanking them for raising and donating money, it's less you might have extracted from your wallet, and I know that's what you care most about.

Get YOUR facts straight...I never said approval from celebrities was required to help with stem cells. Geez.

And no, I do not have problems with reality, but obviously you think that everyone who reads your blog and then disagrees with you, has that problem....but in reality, it's you, for not admitting that there just may be 2 sides to a solution, not just your point of view. Those like you are the problem we have today in government...not willing to compromise and get solutions. Power is more important, Your way or no way, is more important. It comes from arrogance, so yes, you must be a PUB.

cinhin,

1. Rush, if you had listened to him, said that IF Fox wasn't acting then he apologizes. Fox then said he over medicated. Overmedicating caused his movements captured on film. He knew what the effects of overmedicating would be. So was he purposefully doing that to influence people? Would that not have the same effect as acting?

2. Republicans do donate. Brad Pitt's contribution was a drop in the bucket compared to what churches did all over this nation, without national news reporting it. Not everyone in the church is Republican but they are well represented. People left their jobs to go there and help; thousands of truckloads of stuff went down there.

3. Scientific advancement is extremely important to the future of mankind and most all Republicans understand that. The main objection is using aborted babies for their experiments. Killing is wrong anyway you look at it. There would be a lot more support, and the same experiments can be conducted from humans that die from natural causes.

4. God created intelligent Scientists He created everything. But God has given every man the ability reach beyond their own limitations to achieve great things. But God according to His nature in the Bible would not have man kill another human being to further a scientific cause. The killing of babies and using their stem cells is nothing more than man's laziness to find an easier way of creating what they need for their experiments. If the scientists have the intelligence to discover ways to cure illnesses like Parkinson’s then they have the ability create the necessary stem cells without the murdering of unborn babies. How about adult Stem Cells?

One of the reasons scientist use aborted babies for research is that it is a multi-million dollar business where the product sold is available to the seller for free.

(Now, before we go off knee deep into the issue of abortion please understand that a question was asked and I answered it to the best of my understanding. I am not looking for a debate, nor will I respond to the abortion issue debate should it rise. In my answer to this question I am not telling anyone what to believe but I want to show what intelligent people can achieve without taking human life.)

Gimpel
Since you seem to want to end this discussion without getting too deep into abortion and "when" an embryo is considered to be a human being, ok, we won't go there. Personally, I don't believe in abortions. I would never have one, that's my decision. However, I am Pro Choice. It should be up to the woman, it's her body and thus, her decision. (Hopefully, with the father's input).
The only answer you gave that I can say I agree with somewhat is #2.
Ok, I'm done.

What has happened to Gimpel? I miss reading the Gimpel blogs!!