The Daily Kos, a political blog with huge national readership, carried an interesting piece by patient advocate Don Reed on last week's oral arguments in the California stem cell lawsuit.
Reed was present during the hearing, and, as usual, has a quite personal approach to the affair. Here is a sample of his thoughts as the three appellate judges seated themselves.
“It occurred to me how important the personal element was; I hoped all the judges had slept well, and had a good breakfast or lunch or brunch or whatever. I would have run out and gotten them a pizza if it would have helped. “But there was nothing to be done, no pizza bribes to offer, only to listen, and hope.”
Reed's posting on Kos was a truncated version of his Feb. 15 filing on his own web site, which carried this additional paragraph about a chat he had at the hearing:
“I had a conversation with Ms. (Terri) Somers (a reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune) on the disastrous shrinkage of newspaper funding—it kills me that newspapers, the foundation of an informed citizenry, are losing ground in every direction—I got to put in my plug for a government bailout of the newspaper industry. If we can bail out the Savings and Loan Industry, why not newspapers, which provide such a vital service to democracy?”
A Prop. 71 for the newspaper business? Probably too risky since even venture capitalists do not seem willing to enter the “dead tree” business -- at least most of them.
Here is a link to Reed's Kos item: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/15/101926/443
Here is a link to the original column (see his Feb. 15 archives if it does not come up immediately): stemcellbattles.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment