That’s what reader Vanessa said when I linked her to the news story: MSNBC reports today that a dog was cloned. The son and daughter-in-law of NASCAR’s founder just couldn’t bear to be without their golden Labrador Lancelot, so they paid about $155k to get the dog redone as a new dog. Yeah. They now have a lab Lab. Hah. I just made a pun^†!

Lancelot Encore, as he is being called, reminds me of the time, a couple years ago, when I saw this TV show called “This American Life.” Their first episode had a story about this guy who couldn’t be without his beloved bull so he had the bull cloned. Everything seemed fine and dandy until the bull kinda went crazy and attacked its owner. Twice.

So what’s going to happen with the new lab? The old one got along with a farmload of animals the Otto’s own, and you know what? Lancelot Encore took an immediate liking to them, too. Then again, Second chance (the cloned bull) used to sit in the same spot in the pasture before attacking the farmer. So, we gonna declare Lancelot Encore a successful clone for two years, before the grandkids come over and get attacked?

Ever since someone cloned a sheep and it was big news, people have been quietly cloning other animals, though human clones are apparently still science fiction. I say apparently because there is no real evidence that human clones exist in the real world. Except when the CEO of Bioarts International decides to say, “People think that cloning dogs is a stepping stone to cloning people. Dogs are actually harder to clone than people.”

And how exactly would he know? Has he cloned people? Are there clones of people already running around town, country, nation, working jobs and earning livings? Maybe they’re stuck on an island, waiting to win the lottery to get off the island and be harvested for body parts? Is there a doppelgänger of Vanessa? Or maybe Brady? What about me?

The idea of cloning has been a hot topic for years, decades, longer. Can you really reproduce an exact copy of a living thing? And even if you could, what are the cultural, philosophical ramifications for pulling such a stunt? I mean, two of each of us. Many of each of us. An army of the same person. An army of one.

I personally don’t care, as long as you used my clone to regenerate a lost arm should I ever get into a freak milling accident.

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^† Well, with Brady’s accidental sabbatical, someone had to make the bad jokes!