For the Record By Billy Rojas For the record, I am: Pro-environmentalist Yes, global warming is real -even if I do not think that alarmism does anyone any good; there still is time to fix the problem and we should do so in a measured and effective way. If this isn't urgent it nonetheless is important and there is no time to lose if we are to be successful. However, the evidence is certain as soon as you look at the photo histories of a representative sample of the world's glaciers; over 90% are in serious retreat, some drastically, and in places like Glacier National Park most glaciers have disappeared as seems certain to happen on Mt. Kilimanjaro. But it is pure nonsense that we can expect sea-level rises at any time in the next century to exceed a few meters, that isn't realistic even if, for sure, if nothing is done all bets are off for the years after 2100 AD. I am aghast as the idiotic priorities of the Left, however, whose minions are rabid with anger at plastic bags, which essentially are a non-problem, while entire mountains are destroyed in Appalachia to extract cheap coal. In fact there are two outrages here, the Left's indifference to the destruction of huge parts of Appalachia, and the ludicrous view that paper bags for shopping solve a major problem; they do no such thing, they make our problems worse. Similarly, the Left's ridiculously misplaced obsession with fluorescent light bulbs and irrational hatred of incandescent bulbs, which not only produce light but help the environment in the Winter since, with incandescents "on" you do not have to run space heaters nearly as much. Meanwhile, we can have clean, safe, and cost effective nuclear power, which the Left also hates, AND we can and should maximize alternative energy sources like solar, wind turbines, tidal turbines, and all the rest, a solution to the problem that, while it can only solve maybe 1/4th of our energy needs, can, in fact, solve that fourth of our needs. I also favor use of natural gas and extraction of biocarbons from fracking. We need to start to ration these substances, however, because they simply cannot last forever. And what of future generations? Current energy-use policy is irresponsible in the extreme. But we need to get there, and the "bridge" that is available to us is today's oil abundance, if only we manage it wisely, and that means smart energy policy in our political world. Hence, we should have built the Keystone pipeline years ago, it has been idiotic in the extreme not to have done so. I support stringent regulations on deep sea fishing since there are looming crises everywhere due to over-fishing; whaling should be limited to an amount that controls sea mammal populations with no possibility of additional kills. All poaching of endangered species -this means elephants, rhinos, tigers, etc- must be stopped even if this means killing poachers on the spot In so many words, I generally support the views of the Left on environmental issues. However, the Left consists of so many crazies for whom the environment is their religion, that it is nearly impossible to talk with any of them on a rational basis. The Left has declared was on Styrofoam cups, another non-existent problem, while saying nothing about over-pumping of ground water from aquifers in the desert Southwest that are lowering water tables dramatically. If it is true that far too many people on the Right are climate change deniers, far too many people on the Left consist of raving idiots, children, really, who over-simplify all issues and refuse to deal with the worst problems because they are hard and require serious research and political mobilization. For the record, I also am: Pro-evolution Indeed, about this, I consider evolution to be proven fact and likewise think that anyone who does not accept the facts of evolution for what they are, is completely wrong, for which there are no good excuses. This said, it makes sense to me to think that what best explains how we have turned out as a species has been "unseen intervention" in the evolutionary process. Darwin was mostly right but where is there some sort of necessity to believe that evolution must somehow be an Atheist science? Darwin, at that, wasn't an Atheist, he was an Episcopalian Christian. My view here derives from three sources, (1) a principle of the Baha'i Faith that is congruent with teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism, (2) experiences talking with some very smart New Age people in Arizona many years ago, including people associated with the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, plus (3) the lengthy discussion of this possibility in a 1966 book by I. S. Shklovskiĭ and Carl Sagan, Intelligent Life in the Universe.
The argument is pure probabilistic science. I know of no other book that supercedes this one. However, while Sagan and Shklovskii only allowed for physical intervention courtesy of "little green men," that outlook seems to me to be unwarranted and, indeed, things make better sense if we posit spiritual intervention as prior to any kind of extraterrestrial intervention. If there are LGMs, why would they intervene for the Good? What would be their motivation? That problem vanishes if we presume that they, too, receive guidance by the Holy Spirit, or s'il vous plait, from the Tao or whatever this reality may best be called Regardless, the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. This necessarily means that the science of sociobiology, which has become the leading edge of evolution, necessarily must figure in our calculations. Which says, further, that to the extent sociobiology is true, which I think is substantial even if all kinds of questions are still unresolved, then a major premise of the Age of Enlightenment -that we are purely rational and set apart from all sub-rational nature- is patently false. We are superior to all sub-rational nature, for sure, but what sociobiology says is that we carry with us many survivals of our evolutionary past, just as do probably all other species. Therefore, we need to "get in touch" with our "inner fish," our inner salamander, our inner lemur, and our inner pre-historic primate, perhaps Australopithecus, in any case, we have distant cousins in the tropical rainforest. This means that rationalistic equality, the view that the only difference in the sexes is our plumbing, is totally false. What we need, instead, is solid scientific understanding of who we are as civilized primates, and that means -just as the Bible says- appropriate gender roles, appropriate gender values, and appropriate gender responsibilities. Hence the importance of evolutionary psychology. Guess what? Men and women are not interchangeable, they are -blush- different. Which any idiot can tell you -except political Leftists. And the worst offenders of all are gender feminists. This overall position is neither Left nor Right, it is the goddamned truth. More briefly, for other issues- For the record, I am: Pro-Historical Geology, and if I ever had any doubts they were destroyed during the time I was a tour guide at the Grand Canyon. I don't know all that much about the subject but, for certain, I love historical geology. The Earth is about 4 - 1/2 billion years old and you can see about 1-1/2 billion years worth at the canyon. Pro-NASA, pro-Space Exploration, pro-Exobiology, etc Pro-theoretical physics, pro-Quantum Mechanics, and even if this theory turns out wrong, at least for now, pro-String Theory. Pro-chemistry, pro-microbiology, pro-mineralogy, pro-meteorology, etc Do you get the idea? I am pro-Science up and down the line. I reserve the right to demur about this or that, such as unnecessary surgeries when they really are not objectively called for, and there are major questions about funding Big Science, but in general I am " yayyy, rah-rah" science, all the way. What else would you expect from a serious Saint-Simonian? Henri Saint-Simon insisted that scientists of all kinds, including social scientists, could become and should become our most important political leaders in the future. I concur. Billy R. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
