Left Wing Wacko takes hostages

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by whell

So, those on the left can't enjoy baseball, because someone exploited a tree to make a baseball bat?

isn't a tree renewable?

I understand that unbridled capitalism just destroys a forest but with government controls we can have all the baseball bts we need without destroying the forest.

just sayin'

[Deczor]

Well, he's dead now.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Boreas

I have a lot of sympathy for people like that. There must be terrible demons in their brain to drive them to that sort of desperate and deranged action. I wouldn't like to be them for one second.

That being said, sympathy is one thing. Tolerance is another. When someone does something like Lee did they need to be stopped before they can cause harm to another person. If that means a sharpshooter takes them out so be it. Quick and effective.

You said it better than I did. Agreed.

BTW, I have several friends and a neighbor on the Montgomery County SWAT team. These dudes are good and extremely well trained & professional (unlike their counterparts in Prince Georges County). I used to deer hunt with a couple of them. In fact, I may see one of them at the pool tomorrow. His insights may prove interesting.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by whell

So, those on the left can't enjoy baseball, because someone exploited a tree to make a baseball bat?

Of course not but your dismissive response does a pretty good job of confirming my original suggestion.

John

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by finnbow

BTW, I have several friends and a neighbor on the Montgomery County SWAT team. These dudes are good and extremely well trained & professional (unlike their counterparts in Prince Georges County). I used to deer hunt with a couple of them. In fact, I may see one of them at the pool tomorrow. His insights may prove interesting.

I'd be interested to learn what he has to say. And, yes, those PG county cops have been real cowboys for as long as I can remember. They were horrible in the '60s when I lived there. So were the Arlington County cops. Bunch of redneck assholes.

John

[whell]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Of course not but your dismissive response does a pretty good job of confirming my original suggestion.

John

I asked a question to clarify a pretty broad brush statement that didn't make much sense to me. A question doesn't constitute a response.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by whell

I asked a question to clarify a pretty broad brush statement that didn't make much sense to me. A question doesn't constitute a response.

Okay, let's use the tree and the bat. It's a fairly useful metaphor for my point.

An environmentalist, who I'm sure would be a Left Winger in your eyes, sees the tree and the bat. He sees that the tree qua tree has a value intrinsically and even that it has a "right" to exist - or rather that trees collectively do - simply because as part of creation (Creation?) they have innate and intrinsic value.

He also sees that a tree can have extrinsic value as a source of raw material for baseball bats. That being said, I believe that if the environmentalist were to learn that the production of baseball bats was going to spell the end of trees he would start to rethink this whole baseball bat thing because he would place a priority on intrinsicity.

Now, let's consider an industrialist, whom I would consider a Right Winger, and his regard for trees. I believe he sees them only as future baseball bats with a value determined solely by their value as a raw material. They have no value in any other sense. If he were faced with the end of trees he'd begin calculating how many bats or years of production he could get out of the raw material before they were gone. That way he could begin planning his next venture. Or he might just plow ahead, not thinking about the future until he made his last bat.

We see this mentality at work all the time. In its most basic form we see it in cattle ranching in the Amazon Basin or charcoal production in Madagascar. Both practices are spelling the end of the native forests in these places.

By the way, I'm only half serious about this. It's fun to try to make the case, though, and far preferable to trying to decide whether this poor guy in Maryland was a Right Winger or a Left Winger.

John

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Okay, let's use the tree and the bat. It's a fairly useful metaphor for my point.

An environmentalist, who I'm sure would be a Left Winger in your eyes, sees the tree and the bat. He sees that the tree qua tree has a value intrinsically and even that it has a "right" to exist - or rather that trees collectively do - simply because as part of creation (Creation?) they have innate and intrinsic value.

He also sees that a tree can have extrinsic value as a source of raw material for baseball bats. That being said, I believe that if the environmentalist were to learn that the production of baseball bats was going to spell the end of trees he would start to rethink this whole baseball bat thing because he would place a priority on intrinsicity.

Now, let's consider an industrialist, whom I would consider a Right Winger, and his regard for trees. I believe he sees them only as future baseball bats with a value determined solely by their value as a raw material. They have no value in any other sense. If he were faced with the end of trees he'd begin calculating how many bats or years of production he could get out of the raw material before they were gone. That way he could begin planning his next venture. Or he might just plow ahead, not thinking about the future until he made his last bat.

We see this mentality at work all the time. In its most basic form we see it in cattle ranching in the Amazon Basin or charcoal production in Madagascar. Both practices are spelling the end of the native forests in these places.

By the way, I'm only half serious about this. It's fun to try to make the case, though, and far preferable to trying to decide whether this poor guy in Maryland was a Right Winger or a Left Winger.

John

LET'S JUST CUT TO THE QUICK, RIGHT WING NUTS ARE JUST PRIMAL AND CAN'T SEE PAST THEIR IMMEDIATE NEED. tHE LEFT IS MORE CEREBRAL, FURTHER ALONG ON THE EVOLUTIONARY SCALE.

[whell]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Okay, let's use the tree and the bat. It's a fairly useful metaphor for my point.

An environmentalist, who I'm sure would be a Left Winger in your eyes, sees the tree and the bat. He sees that the tree qua tree has a value intrinsically and even that it has a "right" to exist - or rather that trees collectively do - simply because as part of creation (Creation?) they have innate and intrinsic value.

He also sees that a tree can have extrinsic value as a source of raw material for baseball bats. That being said, I believe that if the environmentalist were to learn that the production of baseball bats was going to spell the end of trees he would start to rethink this whole baseball bat thing because he would place a priority on intrinsicity.

Now, let's consider an industrialist, whom I would consider a Right Winger, and his regard for trees. I believe he sees them only as future baseball bats with a value determined solely by their value as a raw material. They have no value in any other sense. If he were faced with the end of trees he'd begin calculating how many bats or years of production he could get out of the raw material before they were gone. That way he could begin planning his next venture. Or he might just plow ahead, not thinking about the future until he made his last bat.

We see this mentality at work all the time. In its most basic form we see it in cattle ranching in the Amazon Basin or charcoal production in Madagascar. Both practices are spelling the end of the native forests in these places.

By the way, I'm only half serious about this. It's fun to try to make the case, though, and far preferable to trying to decide whether this poor guy in Maryland was a Right Winger or a Left Winger.

John

So, the only reason that the Forestry Industry is by far and away the largest planter of trees is that the what to assure continuity of raw materials for production? Henry Ford was, then, just an exception to the rule, by acting on the belief that land use was pivotal (his legacy is still in practice today)? How are the entrepreneurs and industrialists who are investing in renewable and green energy sources reconciled with your above statement?

[whell]

Originally Posted by noonereal

LET'S JUST CUT TO THE QUICK, RIGHT WING NUTS ARE JUST PRIMAL AND CAN'T SEE PAST THEIR IMMEDIATE NEED. tHE LEFT IS MORE CEREBRAL, FURTHER ALONG ON THE EVOLUTIONARY SCALE.

And Theodore Kaczynski would be the pinnacle of this evolutionary scale?