Here's a fascinating comment (left anonymously to this post):

I am against living in a world and a time that has no advance in science enough to turn all those gays and lesbians who refuse being so into...dads and moms with lots and lots of children.. with a family to care for to turn to when there becomes no one else to turn to. TO HAVE A LIFE FOR GODS SAKE!

As to "no advance in science" to "turn" gays and lesbians into dads and moms, I am baffled. Has the commenter ever heard of the turkey baster? There are gay sperm banks. What does the commenter want? To want to have children? Where there's a will, there's a way.

I don't get it. Really, I am scratching my head over this one.

Is someone pulling my leg?

Speaking of discriminatory health concerns, I found a fascinating analysis contrasting the "above-the-waist" Herpes Simplex 1 with the "below-the-waist" Herpes Simplex 2 (abbreviated as HSV-1 and HSV-2).

The range and potential severity of HSV-1 infections lead some experts to view the virus as more risky than usually perceived. "This is heresy, but I think type 1 is a more significant infection than type 2," says Spotswood Spruance, MD, an oral HSV specialist at the University of Utah. "Type 1, and the morbidity associated with it, are underestimated."

By comparison, HSV-2 is widely believed to be a painful, dangerous infection that affects only people with very active sex lives. The reality? Some 22% of adult Americans from all backgrounds, income levels, and ethnic groups have HSV-2. Like HSV-1, type 2 is usually mild-so mild that two- thirds of infected people don't even know they have it. Type 2 rarely causes complications or spreads to other parts of the body. It is the most common cause of neonatal herpes, a rare but dangerous infection in newborns; however, type 1 causes up to one-third of neonatal infections.

The two types do behave somewhat differently depending on whether they are residing in their site of preference-the mouth and face for HSV-1, and the genital area for HSV-2. But both types are quite common, and under most circumstances neither is a major health threat. That's one reason medical professionals tend to dismiss HSV -2 despite the emotional trauma a diagnosis can cause for a patient.

If HSV infection is as easily transmitted from the mouth as from the genitals, then why do people take steps to prevent genital but not oral infection? Why don't we kiss through dental dams?

"It's ironic, isn't it?" says Wald. "It's not about health, it's about social acceptability."

Scientists can tell us all day that the main difference between the two viral types is simply their site of preference-whether they typically occur above the waist or below. But the unspoken attitudes of our society send a different message. That's just the problem, social attitudes whisper. Below the waist is bad.

"People think of oral herpes as the "good" herpes and genital herpes as the "bad" kind," says Glover of the National Herpes Hotline. "It's partly that they don't understand the similarities between HSV-1 and 2. But it's also that good and bad is how our culture views sex and our bodies."

The inescapable fact is that HSV-1 is usually spread through contact with infected lips, while HSV-2 usually spread through contact with infected genitals. From a social point of view, the problem is not the disease; it's how you got it.

Double standards and problems with logic exist everywhere, sometimes even in science.

Even so, I am not persuaded to be "against living in a world and a time that has no advance in science."

But hey, here's the Muslim view on certain "advances in science":

I. All cases introducing third parties into a marriage, whether a womb, an egg, a sperm or a cloning cell are not permissible.

II. Ordinary human cloning, in which the nucleus of a living somatic cell from an individual is placed into the cytoplasm ofan egg devoid of its nucleus, is not to be permitted. If exceptional cases emerge in the future, they should be considered to verify compliance with the Shari'ah.

III .All Muslim countries are called upon to formulate the necessary legislation to prevent foreign research institutes, organisations and experts from directly or in directly using Muslim countries for experimentation on human cloning or promoting it.

What a world!

I say, let's clone the prophet Muhammad! It could be done, you know.... There are plenty of his relics, just sitting in Turkish museums....

As my commenter suggests, "HAVE A LIFE FOR GODS SAKE!"