Re: OT reducing your carbon footprint

[RP Collier <skeptikalist@gmail.com>]

On Sep 3, 2008, at 1:04 PM, Jeff Larson wrote:

>>  -- a resistance or refusal to adapt and adjust to the
>> changing conditions and needs of the evolving planetary situation.
>> (Hence archaic brutal traditions like genital mutilation, whaling
>> etc...)
>
> I love how we can make a connection between some average
> Joe-Fox-News-Watcher-Baptist in rural Ohio and genital mutilation.




Well, don't forget those darn rural Ohio whalers.

:-)

The liberal blogoshpere does not seem as toxic to me, they mostly  
seem to respond to the constant right wing manipulations of  
nationalism, patriotism and the demonization of liberals that has  
gone on for more than thirty years now.
Bill O'Reilly seems more toxic than Michael Moore but I have only  
seen snippets of them on tv. I have never seen a Michael Moore movie.
I prefer Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn to the corporate media display  
personalities.

Sure, the extreme Left can be insufferable bullies, thuggish and  
coercive.
But I think a large part of the Right is those with an Authoritarian  
mindset as well as a tendency to think in binary Good vs. Evil terms.  
A particularly toxic brew when it comes to solving problems and  
getting along with people.

I think the Reagan/Conservative revolution has brought America to  
failure.
It does not make sense to put all your cash into military budgets and  
allow the infrastructure (including education!) to crumble.
I don't think fair and balanced means that Creationism should get  
equal time with Evolution.
It means there is something very wrong and it has been going on quite  
a while.

I found this wistfully interesting:
http://www.counterpunch.org/miglio08222008.html

In any case, the vehement efforts to debunk climate change are a  
distraction and miss the point which is that human impact is  
excessive and unsustainable.
I personally think the healthy carrying capacity of the planet is  
about 3 billion people and we are way beyond that. Some think the  
capacity is one billion.
But this is not the forum to hash such things out and these are just  
my impressions and non-expert opinions.

Jeff, you seem to have a good attitude and a healthy skepticism. But  
if you think of yourself as in the middle and viewing all sides  
equally, then I would suggest you might consider that the middle has  
actually been pulled to the Right for decades.

And of course, at the end of the day there is no left/right red/blue  
whatever, it is just us monkeys and the ecology that birthed us.


BobC