Global Cooling/Warming, Climate Changing to Extinction - So let's review. In the past 45 years or so, we have evolved from "global cooling" in the '70's that was going to kill us to "global warming" in the '90's that was going to kill us to the less specific "climate change" around 2008 that will kill us. [That last one came about because, well, the global warming numbers just weren't adding up.]. Just in case none of that has scared you enough to recycle, the lastest scientific report out of Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley universities (as reported on HuffPo) has now gone full-on "imminent extinction". Yeah, as if things weren't bad enough, now we are going to go extinct in some unspecified time really, really soon...
"Avoiding a true sixth mass extinction will require rapid, greatly intensified efforts to conserve already threatened species and to alleviate pressures on their populations -- notably habitat loss, overexploitation for economic gain,* and climate change ... However, the window of opportunity is rapidly closing."The opportunity is rapidly closing, people! Okay, I am not an anti-science/global cooling/warming/climate change denier and I really do believe that we must be much better caretakers of our natural world. We have been doing a pretty good job since the tearful Native American Indian and "Don't Mess With Texas" PSA's were aired in the '60's in cleaning up our lakes and rivers and finding ways to not kill the forests off. And by all accounts, we have saved the whales from extinction. But really, now they are hawking full-on extinction?
Personally, I have no doubt that they may be right about human extinction, but it's not going to be because of "overexploitation for economic gain" [at the same time they are extracting more grant money from the global community for their own "economic gain"]. It's going to be because Mother Nature tires of us and shakes and quakes and blows us off her face like the annoying gnats we are. Or maybe it will be a giant comet slamming into the Earth like the one during the 5th mass extinction that took out the dinosaurs. That's just me, but what do you think?
End Hate Now - Let's talk about the Confederate flag. In light of the most recent attack on the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in her state, SC Governor Nikki Haley has finally announced that she will pass whatever legislation it takes to remove the Confederate flag that flies high on the lawn of their state capital. Even though I am a quasi-Southerner, I have absolutely no emotional connection to the Confederate flag, so I say burn the dang thing if it makes people feel safer. I have long had my own thoughts about the kind of person that wanted to display that flag because as my Mother says, it really is no different that the swastika. It is time for its extinction and to be relegated to the giant dustbin of history.
All that aside, I am so proud that, instead of fueling more hate after the death of nine of their parishioners in a senseless and stupid mass murder, the good Christians of that church and the families of the victims chose forgiveness. It was a breath-taking moment. Instead of fueling more senseless violence and hate, they chose to come together with so many others from around the country to hold hands and stand up to "the devil" and call it by it's proper name - Evil. Because it was an evil act brought on by a hateful monster whose hateful message should not be fed, but starved out of existance. And that can only be done by good people standing up to it. It is a moment that would have made Martin Luther King proud. By the way, did you notice that Al Sharpton and all the other race hustlers have been deafeningly silent? Maybe love and forgiveness can win.
And finally -
A "Pie Factory"?? - Okay, this has nothing to do with extinction, but I need to correct a grievous wrong and just outright lie by our very own Andrew. It was not as Andrew stated in a comment on his post yesterday, a "pie factory" in the most famous episode of "I Love Lucy". It was a chocolate candy factory. Dear Lord, how will we recover from this disgrace?
*[emphasis added]