Re: Proof of Danny's Alzheimer's

Posted by Dale on Feb 07, 2002 at 08:53
152.arc1.il-decatur1.fgi.net (204.212.222.26)

Re: Bringing it to the top with Dan -- Rethinking Dale's position (DA Morgan)

Rose: “If anyone wants to place bets, I'll offer odds on ad hominem attacks…”

Danny: “For the first time, perhaps, I aim to disappoint.”

Danny: “Dale is self-righteous. He is absolutely, fanatically, convinced he is right ... on any and every subject. That level of conviction does not make it so. It just produces angst and bile ... something I am not afraid to provoke ... but something I no longer will respond to.”

Wow, Danny, you couldn’t remember what you said for more than 60 seconds. :)

I absolutely agree. I just don't think the following equation is valid.
"doing something" = "we tank our entire way of life, our freedoms and our liberties, our standard of living"
I wonder why you do.

Probably because Bobba has seen the evidence. From today’s news:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/02/07/nfrid07.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/02/07/ixnewstop.html

“FRIDGE mountains will persist into next year and possibly 2004 because of crucial delays in complying with European Union rules requiring all ozone-destroying gases in fridges to be recycled.

The fiasco, estimated to cost more than £250 million, has led to 6,500 fridges a week being stored by local authorities without the technology to get rid of them or being dumped in streets or the countryside.”

What could have been done with that £250 million? We could have vaccinated every child on earth for DPT. We could have fed every hungry person on earth for a week. We could have funded the entire increase in security of the US borders for next year. We could have funded a national information network to better track disease outbreaks in the US. We could weatherize 30,000 homes. We could have increased the funding for all wildlife refuges by 600%! We could have funded the Reading First program for half a year to ensure kids know how to read. We could have provided all the US federal funding the states get for identifying potential education disabilities in infants and toddlers.

There are a lot of things we could do with all this money. Many lives could be saved. Many lives could be significantly improved. Yet the British are going to squander it on building mountains of refrigerators because MAYBE the foam in the insulation that has been used for many decades MIGHT get out of a landfill and contribute to an ozone hole in Antarctica even though the amount of CFC MIGHT (or might not) already be decreasing. And this British waste on a single problem is trivial compared to the worldwide waste on such nonsense.

THAT is why we think “doing something= we tank our entire way of life”. Politically we can't just do something like study to see if there is a potential problem that could be solved for less cost than the problem. We panic and insist we DO SOMETHING!!! ANYTHING!!! WHAT IF WE ARE WRONG AND THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!! We squander our precious resources on what-ifs and ignore real problems. We can't take the time to study global warming long enough to see if it really exists and if we can do anything to slow it down if it does. Millions silently die in the process but as long as they die quietly…

Follow Ups:


Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:

Subject:
Comments:

[ Forum ] [ New Message ]