The Wall Street Journal makes a good point this morning (though I’m not with them on all their conclusions in the editorial), one that alludes most of the Bush-is-anti-science, etc. critics: Bush never banned embryonic-stem-cell research. His August 2000 compromise was about federal funding. Private research has gone forward (for good or for ill–for ill for some of it, if you ask me); state funding of research, including toward human cloning (see New Jersey, California…) has gone forward… Which all, for one thing–wherever you are on whether these embryos used in embryonic-stem-cell research are being “killed” or not–begs the question: Why does the federal government need to fund this (the “soc-cons” and libertarians unite!)? (Never pretending to be the federalism purist in The Corner, I’d probably opt for a galaxy-wide ban on embyronic-stem-cell research, period, if I ruled, but we’re not going there, so I’m just going to hold out hope for at least banning cloning in America at some point soon–which is no guarantee at the moment.)