Gee, Dubya drunk, maybe snortin' again?! Cheney back in the bunker after surgery? Karl kowering as multiple prosecutorial Juggernauts converge on him??
Are the boyz loosing their edge?? Could this get any better? You bet!!
Friday, September 23, 2005
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Rude
Djever notice that when people ask a question of a stranger, they often only thank the person they're asking if they get the answer they wanted? If the answer isn't what they wanted to hear, they just look kinda pissed-off and walk away? Hey, it's not my fault that this isn't the 6:05 to Ronkonkoma!
Friday, September 16, 2005
The Fear-Market Economy
Where would the right-wing be without fear?
Fear of Death: This fear drives the religion market. All good marketing seeks to leverage the fears and insecurities of the targeted consumers. The fear of death is the ultimate human fear; religion is the ultimate marketing scheme that has taken advantage of that fear since the dawn of man. Just add some charity and brotherhood boilerplate to soften the image and you're good to go. It's the ultimate bait-and-switch: Just give them your complete fealty in this world and you'll get paradise in the next! No, really! (sucker).
Fear of the Different: This fear lies at the heart of racism and nationalism. We can't let 'those people' (if you're gracious enough to concede that they're actually human) impose their immoral culture on us, sleep with our women, sully the purity of our bloodlines. Have you heard that noise that they call music?! This is a basic fear from the depths of our animal origins that probably served us well in some capacity as we evolved. Now, it's a holdover from pre-civilized times, and it can only hurt us.
Fear of Insignificance: Ah, a fear delivered from the depths of our subconcious egos. This may be the fear that drives all the others. We are the center of our personal universes; how dare impertinent scientists and philosphers suggest that reality does not revolve around us. We are the Chosen Ones, occupying a central place in the schemes of our Creator. Yes, we must have been created; we're too important to have 'just happened'. There is a bright demarcation between us and the lowly animals. We are uniquely endowed with Souls, no mere animal could have a Soul. We're part of a grand Plan, a Plan too vast and complex for us to ever understand, bu we're central to it, make no mistake. There must be a purpose to our existence, because without an externally-imposed purpose, we would collapse in despair and confusion, unable to discern which way to proceed, unable to distinguish wrong from right. We are all flawed from birth, yet we are the chosen ones who will enter paradise if we can remian worthy. The hubris serves to deaden the fear of insignificance and papers over the self-loathing that religion can pound into people from birth to keep them in their place.
Refuse to be ruled by fear.
Fear of Death: This fear drives the religion market. All good marketing seeks to leverage the fears and insecurities of the targeted consumers. The fear of death is the ultimate human fear; religion is the ultimate marketing scheme that has taken advantage of that fear since the dawn of man. Just add some charity and brotherhood boilerplate to soften the image and you're good to go. It's the ultimate bait-and-switch: Just give them your complete fealty in this world and you'll get paradise in the next! No, really! (sucker).
Fear of the Different: This fear lies at the heart of racism and nationalism. We can't let 'those people' (if you're gracious enough to concede that they're actually human) impose their immoral culture on us, sleep with our women, sully the purity of our bloodlines. Have you heard that noise that they call music?! This is a basic fear from the depths of our animal origins that probably served us well in some capacity as we evolved. Now, it's a holdover from pre-civilized times, and it can only hurt us.
Fear of Insignificance: Ah, a fear delivered from the depths of our subconcious egos. This may be the fear that drives all the others. We are the center of our personal universes; how dare impertinent scientists and philosphers suggest that reality does not revolve around us. We are the Chosen Ones, occupying a central place in the schemes of our Creator. Yes, we must have been created; we're too important to have 'just happened'. There is a bright demarcation between us and the lowly animals. We are uniquely endowed with Souls, no mere animal could have a Soul. We're part of a grand Plan, a Plan too vast and complex for us to ever understand, bu we're central to it, make no mistake. There must be a purpose to our existence, because without an externally-imposed purpose, we would collapse in despair and confusion, unable to discern which way to proceed, unable to distinguish wrong from right. We are all flawed from birth, yet we are the chosen ones who will enter paradise if we can remian worthy. The hubris serves to deaden the fear of insignificance and papers over the self-loathing that religion can pound into people from birth to keep them in their place.
Refuse to be ruled by fear.
GM Foods: Proceed with Caution!
I consider myself a skeptic, a fan of scientific method and a member of the reality-based community. However, I have some reservations about the use of GM crops that are mainly based on distrust of large corporations and their cozy relationship with the US and other governments.
Time and time again, industry has sought to ignore safety regulations and even common sense when profits are threatened. They cannot be trusted. The current administration shows even less enthusiasm than previous ones in enforcing existing regulation, far less implementing new ones. If it doesn’t involve human embryos, heck, it’s a green light all the way!
Simply identifying the risks and applying regulatory lip-service advances the public good not at all. How many superfund messes were left behind for taxpayers to clean up, long after permanent physical damage was done to local residents?
Are there risks involved in the use of GM food? Almost certainly. Have we identified those risks? Probably most of them. Does the potential for catastrophe exist. Again, almost certainly, although it may be small. Can we trust Monsanto and ADM to deploy their products wisely and responsibly? Certainly NOT!
If an airplane crashes, hundreds can be killed. If GM crops cause widespread ecological damage, millions could starve. At some point, the analogy fails. The risk is likely the greatest for the already beleaguered citizens of developing nations, many of whom are trapped in countries with true, predatory governments which won’t for a moment consider the welfare of their populations.
Please consider that ther are human and political issues involved with deployment of GM crops that prevent the reality from approaching the scientific ideal. Are the FDA and OSHA run any better, or with less patronage and cronyism than FEMA? Don't bet your life on it!
It's bad enough that we let the nuclear energy genie out of the bottle. Can you imagine North Korea using agricultural blackmail instead of nuclear blackmail? And it could be a much cheaper and easier blackmail to commit!
Time and time again, industry has sought to ignore safety regulations and even common sense when profits are threatened. They cannot be trusted. The current administration shows even less enthusiasm than previous ones in enforcing existing regulation, far less implementing new ones. If it doesn’t involve human embryos, heck, it’s a green light all the way!
Simply identifying the risks and applying regulatory lip-service advances the public good not at all. How many superfund messes were left behind for taxpayers to clean up, long after permanent physical damage was done to local residents?
Are there risks involved in the use of GM food? Almost certainly. Have we identified those risks? Probably most of them. Does the potential for catastrophe exist. Again, almost certainly, although it may be small. Can we trust Monsanto and ADM to deploy their products wisely and responsibly? Certainly NOT!
If an airplane crashes, hundreds can be killed. If GM crops cause widespread ecological damage, millions could starve. At some point, the analogy fails. The risk is likely the greatest for the already beleaguered citizens of developing nations, many of whom are trapped in countries with true, predatory governments which won’t for a moment consider the welfare of their populations.
Please consider that ther are human and political issues involved with deployment of GM crops that prevent the reality from approaching the scientific ideal. Are the FDA and OSHA run any better, or with less patronage and cronyism than FEMA? Don't bet your life on it!
It's bad enough that we let the nuclear energy genie out of the bottle. Can you imagine North Korea using agricultural blackmail instead of nuclear blackmail? And it could be a much cheaper and easier blackmail to commit!
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
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