The winners and the losers

• Winner: Admittedly, this week's announcement that scientists had found ways to turn regular cells into embryonic stem cells will require years of research in order to fully understand. The breakthrough may yet turn out to have unacceptable down sides.
But it was great to see that science may be able to skirt the seemingly unskirtable moral questions surrounding stem cell research. The end result of all this, we hope, is a future in which today's most troubling and tragic diseases are a thing of the past.

• Loser: The Animal Liberation Front, a terrorist organization according to the Department of Homeland Security, among others, claims to have stolen hens from a farm in Spanish Fork. But the people who run the farm say that isn't true. Regardless, the farm may be a target for future raids and acts of vandalism, things the group's spokesmen call "courageous."
There is nothing courageous about vandalism. Rather, such methods are an admission that one's cause does not resonate intellectually with the public. They are an insult to the orderly processes of civilization.

• Winner: Congratulations to the American Fork High School marching band, which performed admirably Thursday in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. While band members may have wished the temperatures were a little cooler for their 2.5 mile march, their experience created memories that, no doubt, will last a lifetime.