On the Square Today

In her latest On the Square column , Elizabeth Scalia confronts the idol of American optimism:

There are probably ten thousand articles to be found on the Internet all fleshing out their theories of what is behind America’s swift collapse. Curiously, most of them will touch—all without realizing it—on the seven deadly sins; Capitalist Greed; Spiritual Sloth; Physical Lust; Nationalist/Military Pride; Consumer Gluttony; Partisan Wrath; Class Envy. Good arguments can be made blaming some are all of these sins for our current dire straits and for the sense that we are standing upon a precipice.

But I wonder if it is not the first and greatest sin named by Yahweh and given to Moses, that is most at fault: the sin of idolatry.

Also today, Wesley J. Smith on a European victory for ethical stem cell research :

The latest front in the ESCR patent wars manifested itself in Europe recently after the European Union’s highest court ruled that embryonic stem cells and products derived from are  not  patentable under applicable EU law.

There are a couple of interesting twists to this case. First, In the United States, most opposition to the destruction and/or creation of embryos in research comes from the starboard side of the political boat. That isn’t as true in Europe, where greens tend to distrust biotechnology more than do most Americans. Thus, the case in question—which challenged a German biotech company’s legal right to patent progenitor (a form of adult) stem cells, made from ES cells for potential use in treating Parkinson’s disease—wasn’t brought by the Catholic Church or political conservatives. Greenpeace filed the lawsuit. Yes,  that  Greenpeace.