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ti j v l liwvy p 4 weekender march 8 1997 stux i i i i opkuon science fiction of immortality now nonfiction viewpoint it is odd that a most impor tant moment in history passed with little fanfare in an age when musings of madonna generate global dis cussions an announcement of unparalleled significance gets by us with a notice in the paper and a few editorial car toons the successful cloning of a our population is no longer scottish sheep and two mon- biologically necessary the andrew mair keys from the us has the potential to be the greatest turning point in human evo lution what does a sheep and a pair of twin monkeys mean for the human species the cloning of these mammals renders sex obsolete males fundamental act of procre ation of reproduction has been neutered by these scien tists cloning has as many ethical and moral implications as any creation of humankind the potential for unbelievable evil is now apparent worried are obsolete fully one half of about terrorists getting their technology has far stripped our ethical hands on nuclear or biologi cal weapons add a cloned army to your list of night mares as well cloning renders death in the traditional sense null and void true you would still be dead while your clone walked around but the science fiction of immortality just got moved to the nonfiction shelf the process has plenty of proper and good applica tions disease fighting and organ transplant were brought into the realm of the 21st century cloning could also assist childless couples looking to have a baby as is usually the case our out- and moral pronouncements on such things we are just now beginning to understand the impacts electricity has on our bodies and the disasters polymers and plastics are wreaking on our molecular structure we are a species which is vain enough to put a man on the moon to claim it is the chosen master of the uni verse yet cannot come up with a common sense policy on smoking we are a species which has built the capacity to destroy the planet in a blinding flash but cannot seem to find the will to feed the hun gry- cloning has brought sci ence fiction into the realm of reality a long time before we are ready for it the tribune weekender edition a metroland community newspaper patocia pappas publisher jo ann stcvenson editor inchief andrew mair general managereditor debraweller director of advertising barry goodyear director of distribution vivian cneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager stouffville all enquiries 905 6402100 fax 905 6405477 6244 main st stouffville ont uxgripge all enquiries 905 8529741 fax 905 8524355 88 brock st w uxbridge ont httpwwwyorkregioncom the tribune published every wednesday and satur day is one of the metroland printing publishing and dis tributing group of community newspapers which includes ajax pickering news advertiser ahiston herald barrie advance brampton guardian burlington post citypar- ent collingwoodavasaga beach connection east york mirror etobicoke guardian georgetown independentacton free press kingston this week lind say this week midlandpen etanguishene mirror milton canadian champion mississauga news newmarketaurora erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakville beaver orillia today oshawawhitbyclaringtonport perry this week peter borough this week richmond hillthomhillvaughan liberal scarborough mirror todays seniors contents not to be reproduced without written permission from the publisher permit 1247 the publisher reserves the right to refuse or classify any advertisement credit for advertisement limited to space error occupied the weekender is a member of the ontario press council yfib great political invective is gone our defence minister doug young is developing quite a reputation for running his mouth young dismissed que bec separatists as a bunch of snot noses he sneered at a progressive conservative opponent as a faded pansy then doug young really got nasty deborah grey a reform mp from alberta was flailing away at the liberals in what passes for debate on parliament hill she called the liberals porkers the defence minister cast an appraising eye over the amplyproportioned ms grey and intoned that she was more than a slab of bacon herself there is a word for politi cians like doug young the word is amateur editors mail cutting prep time hurts the students to the editor i would like to respond to jo ann steven sons viewpoint article entitled a strike is not the way to teach children specifically her comment regarding prep time the public has difficulty seeing the need for a strike on this issue when teachers seem to have much more spare time than the aver age working person teachers have not done a very good job educating the public about their profes sion the first thing the general public thinks about is the holidays and yes hav ing the summer off is terrific but if youre the end of each grade it is up to each teacher to figure out how to teach these skills the teacher has to find and make all the resources the teacher has to create and conduct the assessment for each per formance criteria one of the resources at a teachers dis- eosal is the curriculum documents from the oard which consists of a 4inch binder for each subject these binders are full of skills to be taught and some suggestions but have very few concrete studentfriend ly activities prep time is necessary during the school thinking about becoming a teacher for the day because there are some things that holidays you wont last until christmas cant be done at home we now have port- youll have your first nervous breakdown folios for each studen these take up three around thanksgiving how do teachers decide what to teach the curriculum is not laid out in such a way that daily lesson plans are given to each teacher each grade has hundreds of eerformance criteria skills which are to e mastered learned by the students by boxes in my class shall i lug them home each evening or can i do some marking on my prep cutting prep time ultimately hurts the students t carigiliabull stouffville there was a time when giants walked the earth giants with names like churchill kennedy and diefenbaker in a debate any one of those gentlemen would have inhaled doug young like a cocktail canape he wouldnt have lasted ten seconds with the guy who called king henry viii a pig an ass a dunghill the spawn of an adder a basilisk a lying buffoon a mad fool with a frothy mouth a lub berly ass a frantic mad man now who said that rush limbaugh don cherry nope it was martin luther nearly 500 years ago american public figures have a gift for denunciation too check what a 19th centu ry us congressman by the name of john randolph had to say about a fellow politi cian he was a man of splendid abilities but utterly corrupt like rotten mackerel by moonlight he both shines and stinks and then theres the british i have a theory as to why the brits are so relatively civi lized in public aside from aberrations like soccer louts the british tend to be well- behaved and nondemonstra tive in social situations i think thats because theyre so busy disemboweling each other with words the brits are masters of verbal violence listen to benjamin disraeli describing sir robert peel the right honourable gen tlemans smile is like the silver fittings on a coffin on lord john russell if a traveler were informed that such a man was the leader of the house of com mons he might begin to com prehend how the egyptians worshipped an insect on an irish agitator a systematic liar and a beg garly cheat a swindler and a poltroon he has committed every crime that does not require courage then of course there was winston churchill god help the wretch who felt the lash of his tongue such as clement atlee a modest man with much to be modest about stafford cripps there but for the grace of god goes god neville chamberlain in the depths of that dusty soul there is nothing but abject surrender canadas own john diefen baker got off more than a cou ple of haymakers in his time it was dief who described the liberals as the flying saucers of politics no one can make head nor tail of them and they are never seen in the same place twice hes also the one who described the thenpremier of quebec the somewhat self- important jean lesage as the only person i know who can strut sitting down diefs gone nowmores the pity id love to hear what hed have to say about parizeau and bouchard