New Subject
On the way home from buying Forever Stamps-- the stamps that the USPS says will always be good, regardless of how many rate increases they make in the future, which come in a slab of 20, which should certainly last us forever-- I heard yet another reason we shouldn't be so incredibly goddamned ashamed to be Americans.
The Chinese, in the face of increasing complaints about lax food & drugs standards & approvals, have decided to execute the head of their version of the FDA. According to the Beeb story (linked), this is a guy who was ejected from the Commie party last year. The Beeb story includes some interesting tid-bits about what defects have been observed in some Chinese products, but they neglected the bits reported on the NPR report I was listening to on the way home. Like the pesticides and poisons that have been found in dog and cat food, not to mention-- God forbid we should mention-- TOOTHPASTE. Sure, as Americans we can worry about our carbon footprint (the Wifey and I have measured ours) and despair that the by-products of industry and produce are poisoning the environment. In China they don't bother, just shove the poisons right into the products. Cut out the middle man! And when the news comes out that they're selling poisons, not only to their own people, but across the globe, they pick their man and, what? Sanctions? Fines? Impeachment? Nah! Just go ahead and kill the bastard.
Don't go and paint me all Johnny Rah-Rah, though. I know we're not perfect over here, either. America, God bless 'er, does have her faults. But at least when the state kills someone over heare, it takes 15 years and some of us still think it's a mistake. Call that the rationality of the national animal, anyways.
OK, OK. New subject.
Last night I watched a very interesting documentary called Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus. The majority of the film consists of the kind of fish-in-a-barrel documentarising that you would probably expect to find in this day and age-- and no, it isn't Michael Moore's fault; suprisingly little actually is Michael Moore's fault-- but the thing that came most to light, repeatedly, is how close the original proponents of intelligent design and the bedrock evolutionists (a contradictory notion in itself) are in their actual thinking, and how the whole intelligent design question doesn't really become objectionable until it gets hijacked by right-wing hacks bent on fomenting bile in one constituency or another, including the shadowy PR machine ( a for-profit campaigning company that refused to show it's face to the filmmaker) hired to convince school boards and educational "administrators" (don't blame me, it's what they call themselves) that "Intelligent Design" means "Prayer In Schools."
Fact: Evolution is a theory. Fact: no one has a complete map to the Origin of Species. Fact: That doesn't mean evolution is Satan worship, and it surely doesn't mean your God is right and everyone else is wrong. To hell with me? To hell with you!
The Chinese, in the face of increasing complaints about lax food & drugs standards & approvals, have decided to execute the head of their version of the FDA. According to the Beeb story (linked), this is a guy who was ejected from the Commie party last year. The Beeb story includes some interesting tid-bits about what defects have been observed in some Chinese products, but they neglected the bits reported on the NPR report I was listening to on the way home. Like the pesticides and poisons that have been found in dog and cat food, not to mention-- God forbid we should mention-- TOOTHPASTE. Sure, as Americans we can worry about our carbon footprint (the Wifey and I have measured ours) and despair that the by-products of industry and produce are poisoning the environment. In China they don't bother, just shove the poisons right into the products. Cut out the middle man! And when the news comes out that they're selling poisons, not only to their own people, but across the globe, they pick their man and, what? Sanctions? Fines? Impeachment? Nah! Just go ahead and kill the bastard.
Don't go and paint me all Johnny Rah-Rah, though. I know we're not perfect over here, either. America, God bless 'er, does have her faults. But at least when the state kills someone over heare, it takes 15 years and some of us still think it's a mistake. Call that the rationality of the national animal, anyways.
OK, OK. New subject.
Last night I watched a very interesting documentary called Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus. The majority of the film consists of the kind of fish-in-a-barrel documentarising that you would probably expect to find in this day and age-- and no, it isn't Michael Moore's fault; suprisingly little actually is Michael Moore's fault-- but the thing that came most to light, repeatedly, is how close the original proponents of intelligent design and the bedrock evolutionists (a contradictory notion in itself) are in their actual thinking, and how the whole intelligent design question doesn't really become objectionable until it gets hijacked by right-wing hacks bent on fomenting bile in one constituency or another, including the shadowy PR machine ( a for-profit campaigning company that refused to show it's face to the filmmaker) hired to convince school boards and educational "administrators" (don't blame me, it's what they call themselves) that "Intelligent Design" means "Prayer In Schools."
Fact: Evolution is a theory. Fact: no one has a complete map to the Origin of Species. Fact: That doesn't mean evolution is Satan worship, and it surely doesn't mean your God is right and everyone else is wrong. To hell with me? To hell with you!
posted by Bobo the Wandering Pallbearer at 6:17 AM
2 Comments:
If you're not a fan of environmental or health regulation, China's the place for you! Apparently this helps keep costs down? Keeps people down? Keeps them getting down with their bad selves? In any case, they sure stick to it.
For kicks lately, my loveliest and I have been looking at all our stuff, to see if it does or doesn't bear the ubiquitous "Made in China" label. It doesn't take long to get silly. Pick up the cat, turn him over: "Yep. Made in China." My feet. Little tiny American flags for sale at the Michael's.
One single objection: "Evolution is a theory."
True.. but that denies the concept of "theory" in scientific terms.
After all, gravity is "a theory".
I grok the larger point of the post (that is, the second half), but to imply that scientific theory is on the same footing as magic is... difficult.
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