Progress in Science

I just watched an exciting program on CCTV called "The Cause of Dwarfism" on CCTV Nature and Science. CCTV is a cable channel produced by the Chinese Government. With the possible exceptions of North Korea and Cuba, China is the most progressive nation on earth.

The program was absolutely riveting. Two young women were pregnant. Their families suffered the affliction of dwarfism. The affliction of dwarfism means a person is short. Being short, I guess, is a terrible, terrible, terrible thing.

So, the brave scientists on the show raced against time to find the genetic marker for dwarfism. It was all touch and go as the scientists scanned international literature and did a series of tests on the members of the family.

Fortunately, in the last month of pregnancy, the scientists found a marker that might be related to dwarfism. One of the babies had the marker. The other didn't. So they aborted the baby that had the marker.

If they identified the right marker, the world was saved from having another short person in it.

Progress.

Sadly during the "lost decade" of the "Bush Dark Ages," the United States wasn't able to pursue progressive genetic science. The result of the Bush Dark Ages is that the United States has to suffer an ongoing plight of short people. The iTunes button loads Randy Newman's "Short People."

PS: Being a reactionary drone. The show made me feel sick. I wish the baby had a chance to experierence its waist high view of the world. Quite frankly, if I were the one charged with engineering people, i would probably cull out the tall ones, reasoning that tall people produce more greenhouse gasses.