Tragedy strikes twice sad, sad!
Firstly because another Canadian death has been reported and secondly because the person involved, Major Michelle Mendes is from Wicklow. The pic to the left came from the G&M site - sue me; and shows Major Mendes in obviously happier times.
Just when are we going to stop this waste of life and money?
Sean Penn makes a very good case for sensible spending and policy
Just when are we going to stop this waste of life and money?
Sean Penn makes a very good case for sensible spending and policy
18 comments:
“The battle to feed humanity is over. In the course of the 1970s the world will experience starvation of tragic proportions – hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.” So it was written in the Introduction to one of the most influential books ever written on world hunger by none other than the prophet, Paul Ehrlich, in The Population Bomb, published 1968. Leftist social activists gullibled up this crap to the tune of 3 million copies.
Ehrlich denigrated what he called the “professional optimists”, asserting “They say, for instance, that India in the next eight years can increase its agricultural output to feed some 120 million more people than they cannot after all feed today. To put such fantasy into perspective one need consider only...”
Well, as it turned out, the number of 120 million did not hold water, because eight years after he made that prescient prediction, India produced enough food for 144 million people. It might be noteworthy to add that India’s population had grown by only 104 million, which means that there was more food to go around.
Another leftist idiot, Lester Brown, president of WorldWatch Institute, wrote in 1965, that “the food problem may be one of the most nearly insoluble problems facing man over the next few decades.”
The fact on the ground is that agricultural production has more than doubled since 1961 and in developing countries it has more than tripled. At the end of the century the UN declared that we have produced 23 percent more food per capita world wide than in 1961. Additionally, the growth in agricultural crops per person in developing countries has grown by as much as 52 percent; meat per person has grown by 122 percent, yet despite this dramatic increase in demand, the price of food fell by more that 2/3rds from 1957 to early 2001.
There is more good news like this, if you chose to educate yourself. A good start would be Bjorn Lomborg’s readable The Skeptical Environmentalist. This good news about fewer and fewer people starving throughout the world deserves a momentary pause, then off to finish the job. This increase in productivity was brought to us by scientists and entrepreneurs with capital to invest. There is enormous profit to be had by feeding more people, and feeding them better.
This was no accomplished by leftists, who are so bankrupt with ideas that all they can think of is to take money away from earners to purchase food and distribute it. Do leftists fall easily for the crap espoused by Sean Penn? Sure do. Look at the March 30 posting to see how easily Ben Burn fell for such ideas:
I thought this was the BEST idea. I think this guy nailed it. Patriotic retirement: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force; pay them $1 million a piece severance with stipulations:
1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed. 2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage- Housing Crisis fixed. All this and it's still cheaper than the "bailout".
Then some anonymous idiot commented, “Brilliant. I agree wholeheartedly. Plus it’s guaranteed to work...”
40 million multiplied by 1 million results in a cost of 40 trillion dollars. Simple math. And this is what leftists not only fall for, but proselytize. Idiots.
So Wally you obviously support the wasting of huge sums of money and denigrate ideas put out by those that you detest!
"Idiot" ... how poetic Wally.
Oh, and the 40-year-old examples you spout – meh, how about some facts/figures that come out after Nixon was in office.
Absolutely untrue, Ben.
All it took was 40 million multiplied by 1 million (a grade school student could do this in less than a minute) to realize what a fraud that idea was. You are the one who applauded the spending of 40 trillion dollars, not me. You were the one in this instance that supported the wasting of huge sums of money.
I don't know of anyone who has a better perception and with a richer insight on municipal affairs than you do. When you write on that, I take notice and heed it. Your positions are impecable. So I don't comment on them -- there is nothing I can add that would have any vaklue.
I can flatter you on some other stuff as well, but the point is that YOU ARE NOT DETESTED BY ME. I've also posted elsewhere about the high regard I hold for some of your ideas in this regard, but I don't intend to ransack for them.
I am aware that you and other people are against denigrating ideas of political communities. I mean, you would never do such a thing as denigrate ideas would you?
I have spent most of my adult life hanging out with dissidents and learned that political ideas, regardless whether they are left, right, NDP, Conservative, Liberal, are to be challenged, vigorously, rigorously. It seperates wheat from chaff.
All of the stats I presented above come from the Food & Agricultural Organization of the UN. The stats you rely on come from a movie star.
For the record: I detest the wasting of huge sums of money. You are simply filling in the blanks with your prejudice. The same for the groundless accusations that I support the invasion of countries for the purpose of forcefully conforming the inhabitants to Western ideas.
For anonymous:
The 40 year old examples I provided come from leftist idiots. They are direct quotes.
The other facts and figures come from the FAO and are current to within ten years.
You and Ben Burd, can't come up with any facts and figures, so all you can do is take a verbal personal swipe. I have no problem with this -- I've been called worse by far better people than "anonymous" cowards
Ben, Grandpa Bill, Debbie all have the courage to take ownership for their remarks, and some of them I have regarded as good. I recall concurring with some of Debbie's opinions, not often, but I have. And I was as personally courteous to her last September in Cobourg when she asked me for directions. She didn't recognize me, but I recognized her. The courtesy wasn't reciprocated.
For several years, I was a court reporter. I watched lawyers go after each other tooth and nail in the courtroom. Outside the courtroom forum, it was all conviviality.
None of you, absolutely none of you, have the graciousness nor generosity to ever give a single credit for anything I have ever posted. It has been anti-Wally from the get go.
But I will try to remember that ideas are not to be denigrated, and I am sure Ben Burd will live up to his stated credo that denigrating ideas is a bad thing to do and he will never do such a thing on this blog nor any other. I'll be watching to see if he denigrates any ideas espoused by conservatives for example. I wouldn't want Mr Burd to have a double standard or be hypocritical.
My credo? Ideas are there to be mocked, denigrated, examined, autopsied, challenged, especially stupid ideas, regardless of whether they are right, left, or whatever.
If the battle to feed the world's hungry is over, why are almost half of us going to bed hungry every night?
Put another way, if the food is there, what is the problem preventing people from getting it? Is the problem the same locally as it is in the developing world?
Now there is something useful to figure out...
DJO
I did not make the assertion that the battle to feed the poor is over. That was Paul Ehrlich and he was dead wrong..
You assert that 50% of humanity on the planet is going to bed hungry. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations asserts otherwise and provides the stats to prove it. I noticed in a letter to the editor to the Cobourg paper a few months back that you challenged someone to produce stats or backup for their assertion. It would seem that you should follow your own expectations of others.
You fly off making groundless accusations that I support the invasion of countries and forcing people to follow a certain path. That was your prejudice about me, and it was a prejudice.
The leftist installed Mugabe dictatorship of Zimbabwe has a severe hunger problem. It might be beneficial to ask him about this particular case. Darfur starvation is caused by another dictatorshit with Islamic inhuman rights. The mass starvation of another country in Africa, was caused by the leftist dictatorship of Said Barre
The fact remains that over the past century more people have more food at a cheaper price than in all of human history.
Over the past century, the most lethal starvation involving countless millions was caused by the left regime in the USSR and the leftist regime of the Peoples Republic of China.
Food banks? I support them. About 15 or so years ago I found myself in a situation where twice I had to use a food bank. It was no one else's fault. It was a situation I found myself in because of a reckless spouse who bankrupted me and fled back to her home country with my son. When he turned 18, he returned to be with his father by his choice.
"My credo? Ideas are there to be mocked, denigrated, examined, autopsied, challenged, especially stupid ideas, regardless of whether they are right, left, or whatever."
That's good because I believe in non-denigration, that absolute idiocy of peoples' remarks will do that for them. If anybody wants to spout rubbish, and that includes me - go to it!
Ideas are not people. I reserve the right to shine a bright light on rubbish, because not everyone has the intelligence of yourself to discern rubbish.
For example, the idea of giving 40 million people 1 million dollars each to cure the economy. That old adage that bullshit baffles brains, took you in,and one other person in. It needed pointing out that the cost of that stupid idea exceeded the bailout billions. If you could be taken in by that idea, and you are no slouch, then many others would be taken in, until I denigrated the idea as a fraud.
If you think Wally that I put this stuff day after day just to prove how intelligent I am and to personally discern rubbish you are deluded and dead wrong. The spoutings of those i fenf to be interesting opinionated and Yes rubbish go up because they "spoutings" need to be illuminated. The fact that some of you may think that they are rubbish is secondary to the point that by themselves the spoutings are rubbish and when fully illuminated look even more so. BTW the instance you quote didn't show your brilliance, as much as you thought it did, just my bad math skills, something I have struggled with all my life!. The idea isn't a failure the lack of will to spend the money doomed it.
I thought the purpose of a blog is to share and debate ideas. If all I can expect back from a posting is a shrill and incomprehensible personal attack then what is the point?
Believe it or not, I actually think about what I am going to write before I post it. I want my ideas to make sense and I don't want to offend anyone. Doesn't seem to matter though, the result is the same - very disappointing.
DJO
Not once did I assert that you put this out to prove your intelligence. I also made no suggestion that my denigration of a foolish idea is a display of my brilliance. The proposal asserted a solution that was dead wrong.
Believe it or not, I also think about what I am going to write. I want my ideas to make sense. I don't wear dainty white gloves in the free market of ideas, and I am fully cognizant that I offend, for example, denigrating old white guys hollering at hockey games. In some instances in my public poetry performances, I am know it will be offensive.
I was suspended and expelled from CDCIWest several times for daring to question the teacher. Kicked out for having long hair.
"How do you know?" Never mind, just learn what I teach you. "But you should back up what you teach." So down to the office I go for "insolence" and suspended for two weeks.
I'm not a milqtoast. I'm not running for election. I never cared about being popular. Couldn't care less that not everyone likes me. I don't treat the one life I have as if I have to walk on eggs because of the dainty concern of not wanting to offend anyone.
If you actually thought about what you write before you post, you would not have made the groundless accusation that I support the invasion of countries to force people to conform to certain ideas. Especially, when I explained in the same posting just what I meant. You misrepresented my posit, and you knew exactly what you were doing. You weren't denigrating my idea, you were denigrating me. Hypocrisy.
And I am pleased that I had provided you with directions in Cobourg last September and did so with graciousness and courtesy. Once you found it was me, Wally Keeler, a reciprocal courtesy of "thank you" was not given. Reflects on you, not me.
Again you have proven my point.
DJO
How childish you are
When I read these "conversations" and so many others, I try to picture them as they might play out if they were happening in a face-to-face situation. I'm both amused and disturbed by the extra-strength emotions and the 'extra-cerbic' eruptions that seem to flourish when there feels to be some degree of removal and that a safe-zone exists in a forum such as a blog. They must spray all keyboards with some sort of "bravado-phy" before shipping them out. Perhaps a 'cologne-like' spray of the same mystery substance could provide for some stimulating one-on-one encounters in the flesh, so to speak.
It's a lover's quarrel. The great USAmerican poet, Carl Sandburg, wrote: "On my gravestone, let it be written that I had a lover's quarrel with the world."
Poets are usually denigrated by the world at large, largely because the world is filled with blandness, mediocrity, banality, and little square pegs that fit into little square holes. Then there is the non-conformist, or as the teachers at CDCI-West told my mother on parent's night: Wally is a round peg in a square hole. Despite their best efforts, I refused to fit into the mold. Someone has to be original.
Some of the most exhilerating conversations I had were over kitchen tables in eastern Europe during commie days. All my life I enjoyed freedom for free. So I went on a number of smuggling ops in and out of the commie counties. It brought me into the dissident community, where debates on issues were rigorous and vigorous. It is not a place for the timerous, delicate, and thin-skinned.
That was Robert Frost's epitaph, not Sandburg's
That's right. I'm wrong
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