🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:09:53 GMT, dfte <steknospam@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>"Karen Y Byrd" <kybyrd@pobox.upenn.edu> wrote in message 

>> Just read some history. Don't you have a lot of free
>> time???
>>
>> It might help you understand how recent "negative changes" that
>> you are so worried about are nothing compared to living 100-150
>> years ago before there was even dependable electrical service
>> for instance. You or I can't even imagine living in that
>> kind of environment. I mean we freak out when we lose
>> power in storms. Imagine not having electric power as a way-of-life!
>> Where if you were lucky all you did have was gas for lighting.
>>
>this is true

Yes, it's true. Just like it's true that in the not too distant past,
every year, people were terrified of polio epidemics. I'm old
enough that I can remember the last big polio outbreak we had
in the 1950s before the Salk vaccine was out. Do you ever think
about polio now? No. I rarely think about it either which is 
remarkable since I remember quite  vividly the fear it used
to create.

Imagine a time when we had no antibiotics where a scratch could
mean death. Although we've over-used them, with the result being
that some bacteria have evolved to be resistant to them, I still
DO NOT want to live in the world my grand-parents grew up in where
they didn't exist.
 
> so its a matter of accepting your cup half full or half empty

All I'm suggesting is that you try to compare today with what
the past was really like without trying to romanticize
that past. 

You mentioned that it used to snow a lot in Phila. The inference
being that you were worried about that as a sure sign
of global warming.

 Sure it
has snowed a lot in some years. But I read something very interesting
today concerning local snow amounts in January: there have
been 20 Januarys, since 1885, where we've had an ONE inch or less
of snow. So you see not having much snow isn't that unusual.
And I remember the winter in the early 70s where we
had NO snow at all. So you've manufactured fear and worry
about the lack of local snow when there's no reason to
actually worry about it.

>I would rather compare to every city in the US today,

Like you've spent sufficient time in *every* large
city in the US today to make a sensible comparison
between any of them. You have to *live* in them
to say anything sensible and real about any of them and not
trust what some "news" reporter or somesuch
says. 

>>> Many
>>>people from midwest talk as if none of this is happening.
>>
>> Given that I have friends in  Nebraska I can tell you that
>> their frame of reference is indeed different than our
>> own but that doesn't mean that they are free from
>> modern problems like drug addiction. It's just that they
>> don't smoke crack, they use crystal meth and alcohol.
>> And the "decent world" you think exists out there is
>> illusionary.
>
>You might think differently someday .

I doubt it.

Steve, I've been to these places out in Plains and Mid-west:
Scottsbluff, Gering, Alliance, Lincoln, and Omaha, Nebraska.
Torrington and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Denver, CO. Oklahoma
City, OK. Lawrence, KS. and Sioux City, IA.

Where have you been out there?
 
>There are variable changing conditions 
>in the US cities . 

True. But this is just generalizing.

>To some extent we have people who base reality only on 
>the cities where they exist and make conclusions.

Of course! You're doing it all the time by accusing 
Phila. of being completely dysfunctional by ignoring that it's
only dysfunctional for people who are actually dysfunctional 
*themselves*. They'd be fucked up no matter where they
were.

>I was watching a news feed from Britain and they were talking about one 
>murder as if this was unusual and it top story.

It's hard for private citizens to get guns in Britain. That's
the difference. But the number of people getting guns there is
increasing. 
 
>So you see reality is very contrasting and some people live very much better 
>lives , 

Sure they are. What separates you and me, obviously, is that I'm
doing exactly the latter right here.

>I can guarantee heredity has less impact then you 
>think compared to pollution

I don't believe that at all. We already know that DNA
differs in individuals. Why can I breathe essentially the same
air as you and never suffer any respiratory illnesses?
I'm almost 60 years old. If the air was going to sicken
me it would have by now.