That's Spring Spheres to you, bunny!

Every year I find a news item or an urgent issue that inspires a post about Easter.

In 2011, this has to be the one.

A teenager volunteering at a Seattle elementary school was apparently told to use the politically correct name “spring spheres” when she tried giving kids plastic Easter eggs filled with candy.

But a Seattle school board spokesperson told the Star it has not been able to confirm whether the incident actually happened.

“They said I could do it as long as I called the treats ‘spring spheres.’ I couldn’t call them Easter eggs,” a 16-year-old named Jessica told a Seattle radio station.

Ah, "political correctness", a term now pejoratively used by those who are too intellectually lazy, too ideologically religious or too politically entrenched to accept a challenge to their bigotry.

The incident above sounds like a humour-challenged fundamentalist misunderstood a comment or invented one to create the perception that there's some anti-christian "War on Easter" being waged.

That's actually quite amusing, given the pagan origins of Easter and the christians' systemic appropriation of beliefs and traditions that pre-date the alleged resurrection of their saviour.

Consider the squeamishness of RWNJ (right wing nut jobs) when certain words from *down there* are uttered publicly. From here:

At one point [Democratic State Representative Scott] Randolph suggested that his wife "incorporate her uterus" to stop Republicans from pushing measures that would restrict abortions. Republicans, after all, wouldn't want to further regulate a Florida business.

Apparently the GOP leadership of the House didn't like the one-liner.

They told Democrats that Randolph is not to discuss body parts on the House floor.

This led to a hysterically witty tweet campaign, in response to the Republican Stoopidity, with evocative Twitter hashtags: #uterati #GOPnames4uterus #OMGuterus #uterusmovielines, and more.

And also. The Raging Grannies sing out in their typical fashion.

Speaking of eggs ...

Every Sperm Was Sacred.

Last year scientists at University of Newcastle created primitive sperm cells with female embryonic stem cells.


As you can imagine, that provoked some shrieeeking from fundamentalist religious right wing zygote zealots. "Oh no!!! Bay-beez without holy sperm from the Menz!!!"


This year, the same team, led by Karim Nayernia, Professor of Stem Cell Biology, has re-purposed the research so its focus does not send Pat Robertson and his acolytes into a full-metal testerical rightwingnutter melt-down. A news item from ABC news reassures its viewers:

... the technique would allow researchers to study how sperm develops and possibly help develop treatments for infertile men. ... More than a third of infertility cases, which affect 7.3 million people in the United States, can be attributed to the male partner, according to a 2002 National Survey of Family Growth from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ... new research may provide a glimmer of hope that infertile men may one day be able to contribute to the gene pool.

Speaking of rightwingnutters called Pat*, Pat Buchanan had advice for the Palins regarding an outcast contributor to their family gene pool:

"Well, first, with regard to Levi, I think First Dude up there in Alaska, Todd Palin, ought to take Levi down to the creek and hold his head underwater until the thrashing stops." The whole 'Morning Joe' gang laughed pretty hard at Buchanan's joke ...

More on that stem cell research here.

* Thanks for catching that, J.A.Baker.

Poached Nuts on Research Menu, Hold the Eggs.

Back in July, we wrote about scientific ‘eggheads’ creating embryonic stem cells by using stimulated yet unfertilized ova, in Virgin Eggs Over Easy, Hold The Sperm. Meanwhile, a different group of scientists with something else on the brain have been playing around with mouse testicles. From the CBC story:

Stem cells found in men’s testicles could someday be used to grow organs and tissues needed to fight disease, researchers at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have found. … Scientists obtained spermatogonial progenitor stem cells (SPCs), which generate the precursors to sperm and determine fertility, from mouse testicles.

Catholic clergy got hot under the collar about research that used stimulated ova, and made up their own (unscientific) claims that if these eggs grow for the first few days and then stop, according to Church doctrine that may mean that they’re actually “very short-lived human beings”.

So far, there has been complete silence from the Vatican regarding research on testicular cells. This may be explained by the dynamics of another process, uncovered in the course of conducting research on male mice.

… other researchers have shown that adult cells can be reprogrammed to acquire
stem-cell potential. However, this process, called “induced pluripotency”, has
resulted in a generation of multi-potent stem cells that carried an increased
risk of transforming into malignant cells.

Now, does that process not sound familiar …? Isn’t that the perfect metaphor for the vile entity known as the

Magisterium?

Magisterium is a technical ecclesiastical term in Roman Catholic Church referring to the teaching authority of the church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the church, led by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope). According to Catholic doctrine, the Magisterium is able to teach or interpret the truths of the Faith, and it does so infallibly within the Sacred Magisterium. The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him

The Magisterium, a proliferation of malignant cells that fetishizes the fetus and command blind obeisance. Sounds quite right to me.

Originally posted at Birth Pangs.