In 1960 there were 60.1 robberies Per 100,000 Inhabitants
In 2004 there were 136.7 robberies Per 100,000 Inhabitants which is more then double. Which is down from a few years before that but the amount per 100,000 Inhabitants has steadily increased when you look at the entire time line.
So sure, the pop-media can say crime is down from last year when you compare 2004 to the last few years. And, while this may give you and some others a warm fuzzy feeling that crime is under control, smart people who know better.
Now, when you compare crime today to what it was 20 or more years ago, the overall trend is up, and it is up in all catagories, even though crime has been decresing somewhat since around 1996.
So, why is this overall trend up? We have been discussing one of the reasons. Kids today are being desensitized to crime, death, murder, robbery and to each other. How? One reason is a bombardment of violence and sex in movies, on television and in games.
It is concerning how many people cannot make this correlation.
More like it will go way, way up as software manufacturers raise prices to cover the costs of longer development cycles and legal liability and hardware manufacturers raise prices to cover the costs of certification and proper driver development (low-cost hardware and "free" software would most likely become unviable).
Maybe retail prices will go up for awhile. But in the long run the free market will set the price. And if the guy next door can deliver a better product at a cheaper price then consumers will vote with their money.
An analogy: Any new technology (like plasma televisions for an example)will be expensive when they are first made available to the public. But then economy of scale kicks in and prices go down.
Your reading skills may need some improvment. My point was, and still is by the way, is that the ACLU should choose a better battle. Because the battle over powers/kings/etc.. spying on non-powers/citizens/etc.. has been raging on for thousand of years.
Have you tried the "Sylvarn" learning method? It may help with that reading comprehension.
"most of those who object to the current use of this spying object not necessarily because said spying is being used to supress disent, but because it can be used to supress disent"
Your point is understood and i feel the same. We saw some of this type of supression early on in our current conflict over seas.
"Also, as far as the founding fathers not facing this kind of threat, you would be desperately mistaken- not only did the British engage in many forms of terrorist activites, and encourage many of the tribes working with them to do so as well-"
You are 100% correct, and when recalling history and making a correlation to today, and i stand corrected.
OTOH,
My entire point is the 'spying' issue has been with us so long that the ACLU could and should pick a better battle to fight. And that is half of winning a war after all... Choosing your battles carefully.
Do you actually believe the crap at that link? You seemed smarter in your postings.
If crime was not on a major rise in this country, then explane why we had bills passed in congress (during the clinton Administration, a 30 billion dollar 1994 crime bill)
See http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-mr-3.html) that increased law enforcement budgets across this country in astronomical amounts?(because people were afraid, thats why)
And why did almost every major police force across America go to a "no-tollerance" stance? (because people were afraid, thats why. Do a google on "no-tolerance + law enforcement")
And why do we have a trillion dollar budget to deal with drug enforcement?(because kids are unsupervised after school and latter become adult offenders. And, what does that do?? --Come-on...You should know by now... It makes people afraid, thats what it does.)
See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4503555
And finally,..Why have most prisons been privatized?(its a multi-billion dollar industry today because the government could no longer justify the expense of building more prisons and still please the --afraid-- people-- by not raising taxes.)
http://nicic.org/Library/017518
Movies, Video games and the Mass Media are partly responsible for this mess. I do not recall there being an such an urgency to respond to crime in America when Ms.Pac-Man was the video game of choice or when the best movie around was Star Wars. But dont ask me,
Ask any qualified and truly concerned psychologist.
BY THE WAY,
Please explain how this affects your link:)
Or is your link just more of the PoP-Media's propaganda and bullshit that we have become so use to in America today?
" Looking back at my company, 10 years ago, our machines were connected directly to the Internet, no proxy, no firewall, no antivirus software. Today, my company's proxy server blocks access to: 'bad' web sites (such as Google Groups; our 'antivirus' software prevents our machines (even machines that host production applications) from carrying out legitimate functions, such as the sending of email via SMTP; and individual employees are forced to apply security patches with little or no notice,"
Of course its out of hand. Companies, as well as individuals pay alot of money for computers. If we bought a car that needed patching every week to run properly it would be called a lemon. And we have lemon laws. If we bought a TV that needed to be patched every week to work properly we have a warantee to help resolve the issues with that product.
While the computer itself works fine, its the OS and Applications that need constant patching. When the OS makers and Application sellers are held to the same standards as other products are, then maybe you will see your cost of doing buisness with computers go down.
"You want to debate me with a story about a little league dad who freaked out and hit the ref? You have GOT to be kidding me!"
No,i'm not kidding you! But i do want to debate you that violence in games, movies and in the media contributates to the rise in violence we see today. If i am wrong, then explane what you think is the reason for this rise in violence.
"The best you came up with was a lame-o urban legend about kids beating homeless guys to death with baseball bats."
This was no legend. It was on all the national news networks withing the last few days. Video's were shown and everything. Next you will tell me that George Washington was just an urban legend!
There is one problem with your post. The example i used was the reasons why " kings and other powers-to-be" used spying, i did not state that spying was being used on the American people because the prez wanted to prevent an overthrow. This was an example as to how far back this has been an issue.
So, It seems that is you that it is you that cannot read. Or perhaps you simply cannot comprehend what you are reading and therefore misunderstood.
But, since you have brought up the subject...
The founding fathers would have passed an admendment to their thinking if they have known that we would face the type of enemy we face today. These were not men of a foolish nature. They would have done what was right for the good of many and not just for the few.
"It's not about getting as much stuff on the page as possible," he says."
I was at a web site to day that was loaded with the most valuable and useful information on its topic. But the damn thing was just too hard to read. There had to be 100 or more topics cramed into the middle with advertising on the fringes. Every fraction of the page was used.
Some web masters are more intrested in showing off their skills and making money from advertising then they are in making a useful web page that people want to come back to.
Kinda reminds me of some teachers in college that loved to hear themselves talk so much that the information they taught became useless.
On the other hand, we have teachers that inspire students to eargly listen and want to learn. This the approach web masters should take.
1)Can a version of windows be made that allows the owner to choose which features to install? For those that do not want the caculator, the web browser, the mail program, or whatever..etc...
2) Can a more user friendly way to manage settings, permissions, and admin functions be implimented for those that do not have the experience in Sys-Administration?
3)Can MS make a built-in virus program that does not need a subscription for continued protection?
4)It would be nice to have linux type full user accounts on windows. Is this possible?
5)Can windows make a tool that cleans the registery and works like the/SFC tool?
Thanks for taking time from your hectic schedule to consider these and the other questions on SlashDot.
---
The ACLU should pick a better battle, because the "spying" on citizens issue goes back as far as biblical times and was used by kings and other powers-to-be to prevent overthrows. So believing that the right-wing or the left-wing has an exclusive on spying in america is a moot argument. This is simply more Left-side-Right-side of the isle mentality that is giving all of America a black eye..
"For the most part the Jobsians just ignore the ranting and get on with enjoying their carefree life and laugh at all the sneezing, coughing and hospitalized Gatesians."
"chimpanzees have been known to murder the young of other chimpanzees to ensure that their own line succeeds."
But they do not murder for fun as we have seen kids do on national news lately.
"at least they're not murdering the neighbor's kids with a rock."
No they are not.
But they are beating homeless people to death with baseball bats as we have seen all over major national news reports. And they are taking guns to school and killing everyone in their sights. Fathers are taking their son's into the baseball field and beating up ref's during games. The list of violence i could name is huge and growing.
Movies, games and music today are desentizing children, as well as many adults, to violence, death, and murder.
Even monkeies and chimpanzees can see its is true.
Sure OSX needs an occasional patch.
But nothing like an MS-OS. Even some of the commerical flavors of linux have become 2nd place to MS's first place with the patch-n-prey mentality.
I wonder what computing would be like today had it been Apple as the #1 supplier of personal computers in the world.
I want the Geeks, The whole Geek and nothing but the Geeks!
YOU CANT HANDLE THE GEEKS!
__________________________________________________
Will the real slim-shadey.. err.. reeel-geeks please stand up, please stand up...
"the Constitution, our binding agreement, states that I have this freedom."
If you feel that the Constitution is a binding agreement that we have this freedom to speech, then we are using the same vocabulary regarding freedom. Now here is the catch, in order to keep that "right" to have freedom of speech, and to not have that right curtailed by new laws that can amend the constitution to our freedom of speech,-- we must respect that freedom and not abuse that freedom.
I see your point now however. You feel that in order for a freedom to be a real freedom, then nothing and no one should be able to take that freedom away from you. And i feel the same way.
But this is the real world and our constitutional freedoms have been under attack for quite some time now. So what i am saying is this: if we do not want new laws restricting freedom of speech then we need to guard our freedom of speech with prudent behavior while using that freedom of speech. And the best way we can guard our freedoms is to not abuse our freedoms.
So, regarding violent games, i feel that it would behoove the vid-game industry to use some type of basic common sense and moral restraint system when it comes to gross violence, else they just might face some oppressive constitutional restrictions in the future regarding their free speech freedom. IOW piss-off enough parents and they complain loudly to their elected representatives. And if enough representatives get complaints new laws get passed.
I'd in fact post that's part of the definition of freedom. Obviously, mileage varies
Are any of us really free? Some have more freedoms then others, and some have rights that others do not have. But when it all boils down to it, we all answer to someone somehow. And that even includes video game makers.
--
Do you really have a freedom if you can't make use of it without it being taken away?
Sure ya do.
Because there is a distinct difference between freedoms and rights. I have the freedom to steel an automobile, but not the right to do so.
My moral values tell me that steeling is wrong. So I refrain from steeling a car. But since we have people that do not have the same moral value about steeling that I have, we need laws against steeling cars. Likewise, the media industry, which includes game makers, has the freedom to make the most violent games or movies they can possibly image. But this does not give them the right to do. So if they respect the freedom they have to make games, they should use some type of internal restraint system that tells them violence can be taken to far considering their target audience
If they oppose self-limits and common sense practices, then laws will are needed to limit the violence in games just like laws were needed to limit the amount of car theft.
IOW, to put it simply, having the freedom to do something does not give the right to do something. Some type of value system has to be used in conjunction with freedom or laws will be needed .
You can loose your freedoms via laws if you abuse your freedoms.
What happened to simply telling parents that they're responsible...
Nothing. Parents should indeed be responsible for their children and for their children actions. However, times have changed quite a bit just in the last 20 years. Children now have access to, television programming, games, books, porno, magazine, drugs and an entire gamete of information that was simply not readily available to them in the past. So parents could use some help as well as some self-restraint from the makers of movies, music and games.
Good values applied to our freedoms are important now more then ever to our society. Parents cannot do it all considering today's mass media world. And they cannot do it by themselves.
I did not have the time to address each of your points, so I picked out two of the larger ones. Thanks for your point of view.
"The world is comming to an end alright, but there isn't a living soul that can tell when. There isn't anyone who even has a clue as to when anyone might even know. Has anyone considered a meteor shower that can wipe us all out?"
I had to chuckle a bit when i read this post.Because i agree with you so much. On the one side, we have right-wingers who are of the opinion and think the earth could never naturally select mankind out of the
equation.(because we are too smart of course) Then, on the other side we have the left wingers who are convinced mankind and his behavior is dooming us to destruction. But guess what? BOTH are wrong. The earth got rid of the dinosarsus, the earth has gone through many ice ages, the earth has gone through more evolution than mankind can imaging and the earth can get rid of right-wing mankind too should it choose to do so naturally. But, not because left-wing mankind is correct by thinking our behavior is to blame.
Next we have that small group of eccentric people who actually think that man himself is smart enough to prevent his demise with science/Nano/gene-splicing of plants , etc etc.. Just a few short years ago (when the time line and age of the earth are applied)science thought the world was flat and doctors thought that washing their hands before an operation was NOT the cause of their patients deaths.
Hell, antiboitcs are only 60 years old, and before antibotics, even the simplest of germs could kill off millions or mame them. There are dieases today that we cannot cure, but we search after dust in a comets tail. Whats wrong with that picture?
The very same Science that the eccentrics have so much faith in, is really worried about this next bird flu epidemic.(but politicans seem to be more worried about the economic impact) So much for our priorities.
I agree with you 100 and 10 percent when you say:"a meteor shower that can wipe us all out". Because it could. And there is not one thing we can do to stop it despite our egos or our "science". A virus from birds that makes a cross over to humans could kill millions and there are 1000's of situations in nature just as dire as the bird flu like eboli, flesh eating bacteria, AIDS, Cancer, etc, that is 100% beyond man's control.
Maybe believing in the idea that there is a supreme creator who could actually save us from ourselves is not as far fetched as believing that man can is to blame for the earths destruction, or that man can never be destroyed by nature.
Slashdot Mirror
Tsk..Tsk...
Ok, to prove my point, i will use one of your own links.(though i could have used something from all of them)
From:
"United States Crime Index Rates Per 100,000 Inhabitants" http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
In 1960 there were 60.1 robberies Per 100,000 Inhabitants
In 2004 there were 136.7 robberies Per 100,000 Inhabitants which is more then double. Which is down from a few years before that but the amount per 100,000 Inhabitants has steadily increased when you look at the entire time line.
So sure, the pop-media can say crime is down from last year when you compare 2004 to the last few years. And, while this may give you and some others a warm fuzzy feeling that crime is under control, smart people who know better.
Now, when you compare crime today to what it was 20 or more years ago, the overall trend is up, and it is up in all catagories, even though crime has been decresing somewhat since around 1996.
So, why is this overall trend up? We have been discussing one of the reasons. Kids today are being desensitized to crime, death, murder, robbery and to each other. How? One reason is a bombardment of violence and sex in movies, on television and in games.
It is concerning how many people cannot make this correlation.
More like it will go way, way up as software manufacturers raise prices to cover the costs of longer development cycles and legal liability and hardware manufacturers raise prices to cover the costs of certification and proper driver development (low-cost hardware and "free" software would most likely become unviable).
Maybe retail prices will go up for awhile. But in the long run the free market will set the price. And if the guy next door can deliver a better product at a cheaper price then consumers will vote with their money.
An analogy: Any new technology (like plasma televisions for an example)will be expensive when they are first made available to the public. But then economy of scale kicks in and prices go down.
RFID has obvious privacy flaws, why is the world pointed in the direction of RFID?" Destiny.
Can the S.Koreans really build something like this? It seemed Japan was far more advanced in Robotics.
Your reading skills may need some improvment.
My point was, and still is by the way, is that the ACLU should choose a better battle. Because the battle over powers/kings/etc.. spying on non-powers/citizens/etc.. has been raging on for thousand of years.
Have you tried the "Sylvarn" learning method? It may help with that reading comprehension.
"most of those who object to the current use of this spying object not necessarily because said spying is being used to supress disent, but because it can be used to supress disent"
:)
Your point is understood and i feel the same. We saw some of this type of supression early on in our current conflict over seas.
"Also, as far as the founding fathers not facing this kind of threat, you would be desperately mistaken- not only did the British engage in many forms of terrorist activites, and encourage many of the tribes working with them to do so as well-"
You are 100% correct, and when recalling history and making a correlation to today, and i stand corrected.
OTOH,
My entire point is the 'spying' issue has been with us so long that the ACLU could and should pick a better battle to fight. And that is half of winning a war after all... Choosing your battles carefully.
Thanks for your opinion
--------
"Please explain how this affects your theories.
Do you actually believe the crap at that link? You seemed smarter in your postings.
If crime was not on a major rise in this country, then explane why we had bills passed in congress (during the clinton Administration, a 30 billion dollar 1994 crime bill)
See http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-mr-3.html) that increased law enforcement budgets across this country in astronomical amounts?(because people were afraid, thats why)
And why did almost every major police force across America go to a "no-tollerance" stance? (because people were afraid, thats why. Do a google on "no-tolerance + law enforcement")
And why do we have a trillion dollar budget to deal with drug enforcement?(because kids are unsupervised after school and latter become adult offenders. And, what does that do?? --Come-on...You should know by now... It makes people afraid, thats what it does.)
See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor
And finally,..Why have most prisons been privatized?(its a multi-billion dollar industry today because the government could no longer justify the expense of building more prisons and still please the --afraid-- people-- by not raising taxes.) http://nicic.org/Library/017518
Movies, Video games and the Mass Media are partly responsible for this mess. I do not recall there being an such an urgency to respond to crime in America when Ms.Pac-Man was the video game of choice or when the best movie around was Star Wars. But dont ask me,
Ask any qualified and truly concerned psychologist.
BY THE WAY,
Please explain how this affects your link
Or is your link just more of the PoP-Media's propaganda and bullshit that we have become so use to in America today?
--------
" Looking back at my company, 10 years ago, our machines were connected directly to the Internet, no proxy, no firewall, no antivirus software. Today, my company's proxy server blocks access to: 'bad' web sites (such as Google Groups; our 'antivirus' software prevents our machines (even machines that host production applications) from carrying out legitimate functions, such as the sending of email via SMTP; and individual employees are forced to apply security patches with little or no notice,"
Of course its out of hand. Companies, as well as individuals pay alot of money for computers. If we bought a car that needed patching every week to run properly it would be called a lemon. And we have lemon laws. If we bought a TV that needed to be patched every week to work properly we have a warantee to help resolve the issues with that product.
While the computer itself works fine, its the OS and Applications that need constant patching. When the OS makers and Application sellers are held to the same standards as other products are, then maybe you will see your cost of doing buisness with computers go down.
"You want to debate me with a story about a little league dad who freaked out and hit the ref? You have GOT to be kidding me!"
No,i'm not kidding you! But i do want to debate you that violence in games, movies and in the media contributates to the rise in violence we see today. If i am wrong, then explane what you think is the reason for this rise in violence.
"The best you came up with was a lame-o urban legend about kids beating homeless guys to death with baseball bats."
This was no legend. It was on all the national news networks withing the last few days. Video's were shown and everything. Next you will tell me that George Washington was just an urban legend!
Cant you read? This is an example of how far back the issue goes..
Maybe the "goes back as far as biblical times" was not clear enough.
"Man, read a little or something-Jeez..."
There is one problem with your post. The example i used was the reasons why " kings and other powers-to-be" used spying, i did not state that spying was being used on the American people because the prez wanted to prevent an overthrow. This was an example as to how far back this has been an issue.
So, It seems that is you that it is you that cannot read. Or perhaps you simply cannot comprehend what you are reading and therefore misunderstood.
But, since you have brought up the subject...
The founding fathers would have passed an admendment to their thinking if they have known that we would face the type of enemy we face today. These were not men of a foolish nature. They would have done what was right for the good of many and not just for the few.
"It's not about getting as much stuff on the page as possible," he says."
I was at a web site to day that was loaded with the most valuable and useful information on its topic. But the damn thing was just too hard to read. There had to be 100 or more topics cramed into the middle with advertising on the fringes. Every fraction of the page was used.
Some web masters are more intrested in showing off their skills and making money from advertising then they are in making a useful web page that people want to come back to.
Kinda reminds me of some teachers in college that loved to hear themselves talk so much that the information they taught became useless.
On the other hand, we have teachers that inspire students to eargly listen and want to learn. This the approach web masters should take.
The goal of the Drug industry:
To see evey human on earth chemically modified for profit.
1)Can a version of windows be made that allows the owner to choose which features to install? For those that do not want the caculator, the web browser, the mail program, or whatever..etc...
/SFC tool?
2) Can a more user friendly way to manage settings, permissions, and admin functions be implimented for those that do not have the experience in Sys-Administration?
3)Can MS make a built-in virus program that does not need a subscription for continued protection?
4)It would be nice to have linux type full user accounts on windows. Is this possible?
5)Can windows make a tool that cleans the registery and works like the
Thanks for taking time from your hectic schedule to consider these and the other questions on SlashDot. ---
The ACLU should pick a better battle, because the "spying" on citizens issue goes back as far as biblical times and was used by kings and other powers-to-be to prevent overthrows. So believing that the right-wing or the left-wing has an exclusive on spying in america is a moot argument. This is simply more Left-side-Right-side of the isle mentality that is giving all of America a black eye..
"For the most part the Jobsians just ignore the ranting and get on with enjoying their carefree life and laugh at all the sneezing, coughing and hospitalized Gatesians."
What an brilliant/amusing post.
Next....
"chimpanzees have been known to murder the young of other chimpanzees to ensure that their own line succeeds."
But they do not murder for fun as we have seen kids do on national news lately.
"at least they're not murdering the neighbor's kids with a rock."
No they are not.
But they are beating homeless people to death with baseball bats as we have seen all over major national news reports. And they are taking guns to school and killing everyone in their sights. Fathers are taking their son's into the baseball field and beating up ref's during games. The list of violence i could name is huge and growing.
Movies, games and music today are desentizing children, as well as many adults, to violence, death, and murder. Even monkeies and chimpanzees can see its is true.
"Just a thought."
Thanks for the tought.
My BAD... Sorry!
Sure OSX needs an occasional patch.
But nothing like an MS-OS. Even some of the commerical flavors of linux have become 2nd place to MS's first place with the patch-n-prey mentality.
I wonder what computing would be like today had it been Apple as the #1 supplier of personal computers in the world.
To quote Jack Nickolson and Tom Cruise...
_
I want the Geeks, The whole Geek and nothing but the Geeks!
YOU CANT HANDLE THE GEEKS!
_________________________________________________
Will the real slim-shadey.. err.. reeel-geeks please stand up, please stand up...
"the Constitution, our binding agreement, states that I have this freedom."
If you feel that the Constitution is a binding agreement that we have this freedom to speech, then we are using the same vocabulary regarding freedom. Now here is the catch, in order to keep that "right" to have freedom of speech, and to not have that right curtailed by new laws that can amend the constitution to our freedom of speech,-- we must respect that freedom and not abuse that freedom.
I see your point now however. You feel that in order for a freedom to be a real freedom, then nothing and no one should be able to take that freedom away from you. And i feel the same way.
But this is the real world and our constitutional freedoms have been under attack for quite some time now. So what i am saying is this: if we do not want new laws restricting freedom of speech then we need to guard our freedom of speech with prudent behavior while using that freedom of speech. And the best way we can guard our freedoms is to not abuse our freedoms.
So, regarding violent games, i feel that it would behoove the vid-game industry to use some type of basic common sense and moral restraint system when it comes to gross violence, else they just might face some oppressive constitutional restrictions in the future regarding their free speech freedom. IOW piss-off enough parents and they complain loudly to their elected representatives. And if enough representatives get complaints new laws get passed.
I'd in fact post that's part of the definition of freedom. Obviously, mileage varies
Are any of us really free? Some have more freedoms then others, and some have rights that others do not have. But when it all boils down to it, we all answer to someone somehow. And that even includes video game makers.
--
Do you really have a freedom if you can't make use of it without it being taken away?
Sure ya do.
Because there is a distinct difference between freedoms and rights. I have the freedom to steel an automobile, but not the right to do so.
My moral values tell me that steeling is wrong. So I refrain from steeling a car. But since we have people that do not have the same moral value about steeling that I have, we need laws against steeling cars. Likewise, the media industry, which includes game makers, has the freedom to make the most violent games or movies they can possibly image. But this does not give them the right to do. So if they respect the freedom they have to make games, they should use some type of internal restraint system that tells them violence can be taken to far considering their target audience
If they oppose self-limits and common sense practices, then laws will are needed to limit the violence in games just like laws were needed to limit the amount of car theft.
IOW, to put it simply, having the freedom to do something does not give the right to do something. Some type of value system has to be used in conjunction with freedom or laws will be needed .
You can loose your freedoms via laws if you abuse your freedoms.
What happened to simply telling parents that they're responsible...
Nothing. Parents should indeed be responsible for their children and for their children actions. However, times have changed quite a bit just in the last 20 years. Children now have access to, television programming, games, books, porno, magazine, drugs and an entire gamete of information that was simply not readily available to them in the past. So parents could use some help as well as some self-restraint from the makers of movies, music and games.
Good values applied to our freedoms are important now more then ever to our society. Parents cannot do it all considering today's mass media world. And they cannot do it by themselves.
I did not have the time to address each of your points, so I picked out two of the larger ones. Thanks for your point of view.
"One of the hallmarks of nonsense is "scientists" publishing theories in the mainstream media rather than peer reviewed journals."
And the phrase "Junk Science" was coined
You have been watching way too much Star Trec
"The world is comming to an end alright, but there isn't a living soul that can tell when. There isn't anyone who even has a clue as to when anyone might even know. Has anyone considered a meteor shower that can wipe us all out?"
I had to chuckle a bit when i read this post.Because i agree with you so much. On the one side, we have right-wingers who are of the opinion and think the earth could never naturally select mankind out of the equation.(because we are too smart of course)
Then, on the other side we have the left wingers who are convinced mankind and his behavior is dooming us to destruction. But guess what?
BOTH are wrong. The earth got rid of the dinosarsus, the earth has gone through many ice ages, the earth has gone through more evolution than mankind can imaging and the earth can get rid of right-wing mankind too should it choose to do so naturally. But, not because left-wing mankind is correct by thinking our behavior is to blame.
Next we have that small group of eccentric people who actually think that man himself is smart enough to prevent his demise with science/Nano/gene-splicing of plants , etc etc..
Just a few short years ago (when the time line and age of the earth are applied)science thought the world was flat and doctors thought that washing their hands before an operation was NOT the cause of their patients deaths.
Hell, antiboitcs are only 60 years old, and before antibotics, even the simplest of germs could kill off millions or mame them. There are dieases today that we cannot cure, but we search after dust in a comets tail.
Whats wrong with that picture?
The very same Science that the eccentrics have so much faith in, is really worried about this next bird flu epidemic.(but politicans seem to be more worried about the economic impact) So much for our priorities.
I agree with you 100 and 10 percent when you say:"a meteor shower that can wipe us all out". Because it could. And there is not one thing we can do to stop it despite our egos or our "science". A virus from birds that makes a cross over to humans could kill millions and there are 1000's of situations in nature just as dire as the bird flu like eboli, flesh eating bacteria, AIDS, Cancer, etc, that is 100% beyond man's control.
Maybe believing in the idea that there is a supreme creator who could actually save us from ourselves is not as far fetched as believing that man can is to blame for the earths destruction, or that man can never be destroyed by nature.
Anything else id just "junk science"
-----