This and That

Unwilling to Use the Brakes

SUBTITLE: The Amish survive

Humans are an invasive virus, he says:

Today, escalating human populations have vastly exceeded global carrying capacity and now produce massive quantities of solid, liquid, and gaseous waste. Biological diversity is being threatened by over-exploitation, toxic pollution, agricultural mono-culture, invasive species, competition, habitat destruction, urban sprawl, oceanic acidification, ozone depletion, global warming, and climate change. It’s a runaway train of ecological calamities.

It’s a train that carries all the earth’s species as unwilling passengers with humans as the manically insane engineers unwilling to use the brake pedal.

Whenever I read stuff like this, I (sorta, but not really) marvel that the writer is still alive.

But he is (or was anyway), and continued writing:

Humans are presently acting upon this body in the same manner as an invasive virus with the result that we are eroding the ecological immune system.

A virus kills its host and that is exactly what we are doing with our planet’s life support system. We are killing our host the planet Earth.

I was once severely criticized for describing human beings as being the “AIDS of the Earth.” I make no apologies for that statement. Our viral like behaviour can be terminal both to the present biosphere and ourselves. We are both the pathogen and the vector. But we also have the capability of being the anti-virus if only we can recognize the symptoms and address the disease with effective measures of control.

Amazing. Or maybe I mean weird. No, deceived and deluded is better.

We need to re-wild the planet.

[…]

We should not be living in human communities that enclose tiny preserved ecosystems within them. Human communities should be maintained in small population enclaves within linked wilderness ecosystems. No human community should be larger than 20,000 people and separated from other communities by wilderness areas. Communication systems can link the communities.

[…]

We need to radically and intelligently reduce human populations to fewer than one billion. We need to eliminate nationalism and tribalism and become Earthlings. And as Earthlings, we need to recognize that all the other species that live on this planet are also fellow citizens and also Earthlings.

In addition to the wild stuff, he does say some things that sound sane (at least to me). 😉

Who should have children? Those who are responsible and completely dedicated to the responsibility which is actually a very small percentage of humans. Being a parent should be a career. Whereas some people are engineers, musicians, or lawyers, others with the desire and the skills can be fathers and mothers. Schools can be eliminated if the professional parent is also the educator of the child.

Responsible, dedicated, career parents. Home schooling parents. All of them shoes of a perfect fit. (For somebody else?)

However, I don’t think anyone has the right or authority to impose any of that on others.

Oh, and he brings some of my fellow-Anabaptists into the picture:

We need to stop flying, stop driving cars, and jetting around on marine recreational vehicles. The Amish survive without cars and so can the rest of us.

So there you are.

8)

PS: I’ve seen some folks quoting him as saying Mennonites instead of Amish. So let me clear up some confusion for them: Amish and Mennonites are different. 😀

Pre-Olympics Clean-Up

China sweeping Christians out

More than 100 foreign Christians in China have been accused of being involved in illegal activities and have been expelled in just a 90-day period, the biggest assault on the presence of Christianity in China since 1954, according to a new report from the Voice of the Martyrs.

Most of those who have been expelled are from the United States, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Australia or Israel, and had been working in or visiting Zinjiang, Beijing, Tibet and Shandong, according to the VOM report.

A Christian who had worked in Xinjiang for 10 years told a VOM source that more than 60 foreign religious workers, many who had served people in the area for more than 15 years, were expelled from Zinjiang alone.

As WND reported a week earlier, officials also are reporting an increase in arrests of Chinese house-church pastors and leaders, who have been accused of being “suspects using evil cults to obstruct the enforcement of the law.”

VOM reported that the campaign against Christians is called Typhoon No. 5, and “is part of the Chinese government’s efforts to prevent foreign Christians from engaging in mission activities before the Beijing Olympics in 2008.”

Earlier, WND documented reports from VOM, which monitors and publicizes instances of persecution of Christians worldwide, that a Christian was jailed in China for no more than walking near the construction site of a hotel being prepared for the 2008 events.

“This is the largest expulsion of foreign missionaries since 1954 when the Chinese Communist government expelled all foreign religious workers after taking power in 1949,” reported a VOM source. “At least five different mission agencies and sources within the Chinese government report that in February, the government launched a massive expulsion campaign against foreign Christians.”

Not This Anabaptist

Ekklesia is reporting: US Anabaptists come out against depleted uranium weapons

A resolution against the use of depleted uranium weapons has been issued by the Church of the Brethren General Board. The action from the US Anabaptist came at a meeting held in conjunction with the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.

Declaring the use of depleted uranium weapons to be “a specific and compelling example of the sinfulness of war,” the resolution appeals for a halt to their manufacture….

Their headline would be more accurate with Some at the beginning.

I’ve not come out against depleted uranium weapons.

Just like I haven’t come out against any other specific weapon or weapons system.

That doesn’t mean I’m in favor of them.

It just means I don’t take that kind of stance.

I qualify as a US Anabaptist. In fact, I was one of the pioneering conservative Anabaptists on the Web with Anabaptists which I launched in June 1995, as I recall.

Use Caution…

…with digital communication.

Never consider email or text messages as private.

Also beware of personal photos and information you post online, especially if you’re a blogger.

I thought of that (again) when I read this:

Pew Internet: Cyberbullying and Teens

About one third (32%) of all teenagers who use the internet say they have been targets of a range of annoying and potentially menacing online activities – such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent; having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors about them spread online.

Here are some books whose titles look interesting. I have read none of them, so this does not constitute a recommendation.

To Catch a Predator: Protecting Your Kids from Online Enemies Already in Your Home     The Dark Side of the Internet: Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Online Criminals     Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn To Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly

Look Both Ways: Help Protect Your Family on the Internet     How to Protect Your Children on the Internet: A Road Map for Parents and Teachers     Cybersafety: Surfing Safely Online (Teen Issues)

Bomb? Inside or Out?

I took this picture in Woodburn (Oregon) yesterday morning. I have not photoshopped it.

Woodburn Terror Strike (?)

OK, you explosives experts (and wannabes, too) — was the bomb in the building or outside?

Click the image for an 800×400 version for better study of important details and potential clues.

And you photoshop experts, how would you fix this photo to look more like Woodburn was struck by terrorists?

Sadness in India

Nithin

The dead body of a 14 year old Christian boy was found on the railway track today near All Saints College, Thiruvanandapuram, the capital city of Kerala. He was a tenth standard student of St Josephs Higher Secondary School.

The boy identified as Nithin, was the only son of Napolean and Nirmala, residing behind G V Raja School. It was the local people who found the body today morning.

Sarita

A fisherman has saved a seven-year-old girl whose father threw her in the river because he could not pay the steep expenses necessary to treat her. Sarita has suffered from renal failure for three years and in recent weeks, she had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Mumbai. Her father, Bakheru Sonkar, a resident of the village of Devkali, district of Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh), is a vegetable seller and he cannot afford to pay for the long treatment, which according to police would cost at least 300,000 rupees. On 9 July, he accompanied his daughter to Mumbai, but he has been accused to pushing her into the river when they returned.

Fishermen rescued Sarita after they heard cries of “Papa, papa…help me.” The child was admitted to a local hospital after being rescued. The father disappeared and police are searching for him.

Sarita has returned home. Her mother is at a loss to explain what her husband has done, especially after he had been taking his daughter for treatment for five months.
Above all, love God!