Osama Recruiting Minotaurs

* * * * State of the Union 2006 * * * *:

"A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners, and that recognize the matchless value of every life. Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life is a gift from our Creator -- and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale. (Applause.)"

What?

What?!

"Creating human-animal hybrids"? When did this become a problem? And where was I?

When I heard this clip on "The Daily Show" I thought it was just a well done audio edit, and kind of funny. But then I looked up the transcripts on www.whitehouse.gov and there it is.

Granted I'm not the news junkie I was in school, but I still like to think of myself as fairly well informed, with a pretty good grasp on the much of the cloning dispute, but this is the first I've heard of animal-human hybrids becoming an issue. Has technology advanced to the point where we will soon have Centaurs at the petting zoos? How come nobody told me?

Is this even an issue Congress should be handling? Isn't this more appropriate for the Ministry of Magic or the United Federation of Planets? And we've still got about 150 years before Dr. Arik Soong is born.

And even if Congress is going to take up the animal-human hybrid issue is there any real congressional opposition? Is someone going to filibuster in favor of werewolves?

And this was a serious mention in a speech, vetted by dozens of people, I'm sure. It wasn't just something thrown into a press briefing to satisfy some fringe interest group that donated to the campaign. Apparently, there are a lot of people who consider this a serious issue, and are actually afraid of the future onslaught of these critters.

I'm still in shock.

In a related story, apparently bestiality is not illegal in Washington state. Fortunately, our legislature is working to rectify the problem. From the article:

"Our laws are lacking in this area," [Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn] said. "People are coming from out of state to do this here. We don't need to have a mecca here for abusing animals."