If you like Indian food and you’ll be in Ottawa next weekend, Saturday, 22nd of June, 2013, Andrew Haydon Park, Ottawa.
This is a fundraiser for the Manjari Sankurathri Memorial Foundation – and the food is always ECXELLENT!!!
This is what’s on this year’s menu: Indian Vegetarian Food (Served from 11am – 2pm)
While I have not had a chance to study the ruling in detail yet, I have no illusions that my non-legally-trained mind would be able to grasp all of the nuances of the ruling, so, please, do read it for yourself.
In the meantime, this is what the news folks are saying about it:
‘The US Supreme Court has issued a potentially far-reaching ruling, stating that DNA in the human genome is a “product of nature” that cannot be patented.
The nine-member court’s unanimous finding on Thursday overturns exclusive rights to use genes that have been issued in recent decades by the US Patent and Trademark Office, but does allow companies to patent their developments of synthetic, so-called composite DNA.
“A naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent-eligible merely because it has been isolated,” wrote Justice Clarence Thomas, author of the decision.
However, he went on to write that composite DNA “is patent-eligible because it is not naturally occurring”.
The decision strikes down patents issued to Myriad Genetics, which had isolated a rare gene associated with very high rates of breast and ovarian cancer in women who carry the mutation. The company had claimed the exclusive right to offer tests for the gene, based on its patent.’
Of course, this patenting of the naturally-occurring cancer genes has been the highest obstacle in cancer research and even cancer treatment, as per many medical professionals. If you had a naturally occurring breast cancer, you yourself could not use your own tissue to try to get better, because someone else held a patent on the DNA that had naturally occurred inside of you!
Frankly, that sounds to me like slavery by another name – and I am glad that the US Supreme Court has struck it down! It corrects some (no, not all, but you have to start somewhere) of the incredible patents irresponsibly (and, hopefully ignorantly) granted by the US Patent Office.
‘The opinion said DNA came from nature and was not eligible for patenting.The US biotechnology industry had warned any blanket ban on such patents would jeopardise huge investment in gene research and therapies.
‘For more than 30 years, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been awarding patents on human genes. But Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a patent could not be placed on naturally occurring human genes, because researchers didn’t “create” them.
Those who are praising the decision believe it will benefit both the progress of research and protect the human body ”from the assertion of private property rights.”’
Considering that over quarter of human DNA had been patented, this is an important ruling indeed!
UPDATE: Please note that the date has been changed to July 21st, 2013 To make sure everyone gets this change, I’ll leave this post ‘stuck’ at the top for a few days.
UPDATE: If all goes according to plan, yours truly will say a few words at the event!
Date: Saturday, July 13, 2013 Sunday, July 21, 2013
This fundraiser is being held to help Connie and Mark Fournier of Free Dominion pay the costs associated with their upcoming trial in September which will define boundaries of freedom of speech on the internet for Canadians. An important battle, if there ever was one!
To all of you who’ve been asking where are all the moderate Muslim voices are who condemn all forms of terrorism: yesterday, the 9th of June, 2013, they were in Toronto!
It is good to see – and we must give these guys all the support we can. They are brave and we must let them know that we will not permit their voices to be silenced by the militants – that we are prepared to defend them, protect them and give them the platform to speak.
And, when our elected representatives are looking for voices from the Muslim community for consultation, we should demand that they talk to these Canadians first!!!
When I was about 14 years old, my parents hosted a dinner party. One group of their guests was a family much like ours: mother, father and a daughter, an only child. Except that the other family’s daughter was about 5 years my senior and, while I was in High School, she was already attending University.
During the meal, the matriarch of this guest family, with an indulgently patronizing smile, responded to something my dad had said with: “How can you say that, with two fine young feminists sitting at the table?”
Well, that got my hackles up!
I immediately responded with (loosely translated to English): “I am no such thing as a feminist! Please, don’t insult my intelligence by calling me one!”
Which seemed to puzzle my parents’ guests (both of whom [the parents] held doctorates in Physics): they could not possibly imagine a young woman who isn’t driven by her immature teenage rebellion into the foolishness that is ‘Western feminism’. Their own daughter was, indeed, a full blown feminist and a Marxist to boot – and, to the best of my knowledge, has remained so till now…
OK, it was one of my Aspie moments, I had embarrassed my parents and all that. Jaws dropped all around – perhaps due to the passion with which my statement was delivered – and, looking back, my parents had a hard time getting the conversation back into the ‘safe’ zone.
Yet, even at the age of 14, I recognized and despised – to the core of my being – the hypocrisy of modern-day Western feminists who, far from attempting to create a ‘level playing field’ where every individual is treated equally, regardless of where they fall in the demographics game, were all about a power/money grab for a specific snotty elite…a corruption of an ideal if there ever was one!
I, for one, considered myself ‘an equalist’ – someone who despises special privileges for anyone. for any reason. The rules of life (aka ‘the laws of the land’) had to apply to everyone equally!
After all, that is why we came to Canada: so my family would no longer be persecuted because of my father’s beliefs (not actions, just beliefs). Where teachers would not regularly single me out because of my pigmentation, my pale skin and hair and eye colour – ‘just the king of kid the Nazis would have liked – unlike the rest of my classmates, whom they would have gladly have exterminated’: a statement my grade 3-5 homeroom teacher made, in class, several times week, and which inevitably led to a school-yard beating for me…at least, until I learned how to fight back…
So, I guess I learned the hard way to wish for the rules to apply to everyone equally – even to pale freaks like me! And, I had expected that immigrating to a country with a heritage of liberal democracy, like Canada, would provide that!
How very Aspie of me…
The Cultural Marxists – led/bullied by the ‘feminists’ – had corrupted the spirit of liberal democracy in Canada long before I got here.
It saddens me to see so many smart people fall for their scam.
Warrantless DNA collection is now a reality in the USA, as per the US Supreme Court.
In a State that, with the coming of Obamacare, how long do you think it will take before the police and medical files are linked?
And in an increasingly broke state, how long do you think it will take before medical treatment is rationed – and denied to people with genetic markers for specific diseases, even if they are disease-free, simply because it would be a ‘risky’ investment for The State to make?
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 