Clone Controversy Flusters Idiot Press
The mass media seems to be having trouble getting its collective mind around the staggering implications of the announcement that a human clone may have been created, so they've siezed on the much more accessible angle of the story: what a bunch of weirdos the Raelians are! Yes, the idea of a human clone may be complex and disturbing, but every yahoo watching CNN or Fox can understand why a French guy in a white Star Trek costume deserves ridicule. You see, Raelians don't claim that anyone walked on water and came back from the dead, they don't suggest that you go to a perfumed garden full of virgins if you die in the act of blowing up a schoolbus, and don't believe that you get your own planet if you die in their faith. No, nothing so mainstream. They believe - get this! - that humans are the result of alien genetics experiments. I mean, really, have you ever heard of anything so crazy?
Rael himself (the ridiculous French man in the white Star Trek suit) has been making the rounds of the cable talk shows, where he presents himself at least as well as Jerry Falwell or Oliver North. All the junior-league morning anchors seem eager to make their bones by questioning him on the more sensational aspects of his ideology - aliens and such - which are subjects that he is much more comfortable and capable discussing than they are. Consequently, they look beligerent and he looks sympathetic, which is exactly the point if this all turns out to be a big publicity stunt. OK, so Rael is the head of a goofy cult. We get it. But if his group really did produce a human clone, don't we have bigger things to worry about?
3:17:21 PM 
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