You raise a larger issue however. Regardless of what laws are passed restricting clones, if scientists/doctors were doing it judiciously and not for the money, it would be VERY hard to catch them. I am personally convinced that there will be attempts made (if not already made) for human reproductive cloning in the next few years. Most attempts will probably be done by moving the parties temporarily to a nation where there are no laws governing cloning, or do it in International Waters (on board a private yacht) or done where it is illegal where the probability of getting caught would be minimal. As you suggest, the result could easily be explained as an ivf.

First, please understand that the woman’s area you prayed in was only created after several repeated orders of the Israeli Supreme Court. Those Rabbis who control the wallou dragged their feet for years, but at least this is done.

Here is what would have caused a major incident, probably accompanied by violence as you can read past reports in the Israeli Newpapers.

1. You did not wear a Talit. Had you, you would have been accosted.
2. You prayed, but did not LEAD a prayer. If a woman leads other women in prayer at the wall, it is a major problem.
3. You did not pray with scripture–a torah. Men may carry a torah and read from it or lead prayers. When women try to read from the torah, the trouble begins.

If you are honestly interested I will try to get you a video of women praying with a torah actually being physically beaten.

There are other problems, because of the gender discrimination, a mother may not attend a son’s bar mitsva at the wall. An American rabbi tried to lead his congregation in prayer at the wall but was not allowed as he had women in the congregation. For the ultra orthodox, they want segregation of the sexes and they should have that opportunity with a male area and a female area. But there should be a third area where mixed gender couples or groups can have access to the wall. Most orthodox Israelis have no problem with this, but the few who control the Wailing Wall not only i=want to control their own members but they want to control ALL including the Jews who do not agree with them. Each step takes repeated court battles, and continuous violation of Israeli law treating all Jews equally. Did you observe any of the “forbidden” behavior I have described? If so, please let me know as there may be some recent progress. If you did not, p;ese accept my word that these are all problems. Women have been arrested over reading a torah. Please reconsider your characterization of my article as a rant.

Today, the problem is greatest (Moslem and non Moslem) with non state militias and armies where the practice is still common.

I think that to meet this and other related challenges we need to keep track of the truly basic issues of human life and survival which I think is the meaning of the word wisdom. In this modern era that requires not being fettered by concepts which were only valid in the pre scientific era. For example appeals to the supernatural are really not helpful. Old words on the other hand can be refined to greater clarity and ethical effectiveness. For example: “evil” is that which occurs as, when, and to the extent that a person is treated as if he or she is a mere thing and not a person. Analise the actions and policies of your local leaders, bureaucracies and commercial organisations to see how they score against that definition of evil. Let them know about it!

First the United States failed to pursue an even half-intelligent naval war against Japan, due to the conservatism, self interest and technical incompetence of its naval elite. The possibility of an aerial and submarine blockade of Japan – eminently possible, as evidenced by the U-boat campaign against our shipping in the Battle of the Atlantic, accomplished (as far as it was) by resources and cooperation far inferior to what the US had in the Pacific, was never consciously pursued until it became a fait accompli because of overwhelming material superiority, and even then, it was not pursued to the end.

Second, the faction of the US elite represented by the associates of MacArthur and various financial interests who wished to be paid back their prewar investments by Japan’s military and industrial rulers, did not wish a blockaded Japan to have the inevitable revolution against the crown and the zaibatsu that would have ensued, as it did in a similarly blockaded Germany in 1918. It was politically expedient to murder hundreds of thousands of civilians instead.

Third, as has been pointed out numerous times elsewhere, the US wanted to demonstrate to Stalin’s Russia that its overwhelming superiority on the ground in Europe was not going to be allowed to trump the Western Allies in the postwar negotiations to divide Hitler’s empire.

The American obsession with saving the lives of its military typically blinds Americans to the self interest of its elites, and, in the end, to the interests of ordinary Americans themselves.