Bob Scheiffer, Reasonable Commentator, waxes poetic

They just don't get it. Irrelevent metaphors won't help them get it. But they continue to try

Good 'Ol Bob. Doing a fine job restoring credibility to the CBS Evening News. He takes the time to wonder aloud why We Americans aint what we used to be:

History has been shaped by three groups of people: those who wondered what was on the other side of the mountain, those who had no interest in what was there, and those who feared what was there.

Most human achievement has come from the first group, those who had the courage to go to the other side of the mountain.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Americans are descended from that first group. Our ancestors crossed an ocean to see what the far shore held, and once they got here, they kept going, in covered wagons, no less, with no idea what they would find.

Which is why I am surprised, as Congress faces the question of stem cell research, at the turn our national dialogue on science has taken.

Of course, the national dialogue on science hasn't changed. That's because the national dialogue isn't about science, per se. It's about morality. Specifically, it's about the morality of whether or not unborn children--even as embryos--are ever a legitimate means to even the brightest of ends. Philosophically, it's about once again revisiting the definition of humanity and facing the question again of when life begins.

Mr. Scheiffer doesn't get that. In his urge to wax poetic on how he doesn't get it, he doesn't get his facts straight either. Behold:

While the rest of the world moves at warp speed in every area of research, our national debate has somehow veered away from how to blaze new scientific trails to arguments over how to best limit research.

Really? When it comes to stem cell research, the rest of the world "moves at warp speed?"

How, Mr. Scheiffer, do you explain this?

But the concern about falling behind the rest of the world may be overblown. In fact, the United States appears to be a relatively hospitable place for embryonic stem cell research, especially compared to Canada and some nations in Europe where governments not only refuse financial support for human cloning to produce stem cells, they outlaw the practice.

In Canada, scientists who violate the ban can be jailed for 10 years and fined $500,000. "You can bet that with these harsh sanctions scientists are complying," said Rosario M. Isasi, an attorney who works on medical ethics issues at the University of Montreal.

Under German law, scientists who even e-mail or telephone cloning instructions to colleagues in other countries can be thrown into jail for three years and fined more than $60,000. There are key differences among nations when it comes to regulating embryonic stem cell research, according to Robert L. Paarlberg, a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts who has written a book on genetic engineering.

Perhaps if CBS Evening News spent more time fact-checking and less time bloviating politically correct opinions that have no basis in fact, they wouldn't bleed away what ratings they have left. Mr. Scheiffer should be the most concerned about this, considering whose shoes he has stepped in to fill. Does he really want to go down in Broadcast history as the last anchor of CBS Evening News?