If stem cell research is so promising, asks Forbes, why aren't private investors jumping at the opportunity? After all, embryonic stem cell research isn't banned; Bush simply limited federal funding for the unproven science.

But in California, a referendum promises to pick up where the federal government left off:

Besides selecting a president on Tuesday, Californians will be voting on the celebrated Proposition 71, a state initiative to fund stem-cell research that would eventually cost Californians $6 billion--$3 billion in bonds and $3 billion in interest payments for 10 years. If the prop passes, cash-strapped California taxpayers will be spending their money on a handful of second-rate biotech companies that the smart venture capital money housed around San Francisco's famed Bay Area already passed on. To the smart money, these companies had poor prospects and, in many cases, shoddy or highly speculative science.

That's not to say Wall Street's elite investors didn't make their own investments in stem-cell research. But after years of delays, disappointments, and dead ends, most of the venture capital that once flowed into these ventures is slowing down and awaiting better science to come out of institutions and academic research.

Since charity begins at home, those that are willing to tax their neighbors to pay for research should first dip into their own pockets. As a Libertarian, I disapprove of almost all bond referendums; embryonic stem cell or otherwise.

But since I am a betting man, five bucks says it passes.