Creeping Towards the Dark Ages: Nattie's Op-Ed

As grif posted below, the Presi-don't finally Presi-did and passed down his first-ever veto on stem-cell research. When I heard the news, you know the first thing that came to my mind? Ren Faire.

Yeah, Ren Faire. You know what I'm talking about: the pseudo-historical reenactment of the Middle Ages up in Harveysburg, complete with men in tights, women in corsets and kids wolfing down turkey legs and Pepsi. Don't get me wrong--I love Ren Faire! It's fun to spend the afternoon pretending you're a 16th century noblewoman, saying "fie" and watching the Mudde Show. It's nice being transported back in time for a few hours to experience the fun things about the Middle Ages (jousting, men in codpieces) and pay no mind to the not-so-fun things. Plague? Nah! Witch burning? No way!

After a few hours, though, even the fun things about the Middle Ages get old after a while. Once a year is enough for me.

But, apparently, Bush thinks otherwise. Yeah, you know Bush is a huge Ren Faire fan. Why else would he veto stem-cell research if he didn't want America to become the biggest Ren Faire in the free world?

Thanks to Bush, America will enter its own Dark Age, during which superstition will trump science. Though the majority of Americans support stem-cell research, Bush decided instead to listen to the modern equivalent of angry peasants with pitchforks: the Religious Right.

This must have been Bush's intention all along for this country. Crusades were all the rage during the Dark Ages--and what's the Iraq War but a crusade for Bush to accomplish what his father didn't?

War and religion were the dominating forces of the Dark Ages, and as the Middle East disrupts into even more turmoil, Bush's decision to veto stem-cell research on moral (i.e., religious) grounds is an eerie reminder of those times.

To quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "Run away! Run away!"