[Philster]

Okay, NPR had on some gardening stuff, so I surf the am dial and find Rush yesterday. These are not exact quotes but the sentiment is accurate:
"What's this about Campbell river salmon being endangered... All Salmon are the same, there's no difference between the Campbell river salmon and any other salmon, it's just an excuse the environmental wackos use to put honest hardworking fishermen out of business and stop lumber operations... There's plenty of salmon out there, can you name another endangered species we eat?" And finally the, piece de resistance:" I say we should eat every endangered species, because if we did, capitolism would enter into it and ensure there would be plenty of that species in order to ensure longterm profit" Wow... There was of course more, but I passed out and awoke hours later in a ditch muttering "ditto... ditto... ditto..." Imagine what he could have done on Monday Night Football with thinking like that...

 

[juro]

I believe in a good balance between conservative and liberal thinking with concern for environmental issues - and that the right answers are somewhere between the extremes of chaining one's children to a tree and raising them to believe Ronald Reagan's Star Wars initiative was brilliant.

Then there's Rush. They say that humans are 80% water. This bodes well for Rush Limbaugh, it means he is only 20% a**hole.

The fundamental problem with people like him is a lack of appreciation for the solitary oasis in the cosmos where life exists and thrives, it's priceless beauty, it's wild steelhead and salmon, not to mention a 24/7 life support system for his inflated ego. Those on the expliotative right act as if they are separate from nature, "above" it - with all sorts of inalienable rights to "harvest" and "commercialize" and "reap" what has never been sown with the care and stewardship they owe for the privilege.

I think if Mother Nature was into vengeance, she'd take back that 80% water from the unappreciative Limbaugh, leaving a big pile of a**hole dust.

.02

 

[Fred Evans]

I also happened to hear the RushMan's spouting and had a good laff. He's one of the best entertainer's around; stand up comidy at it's best. You may not agree with him but he states day after day "I'm here to get you to think and react." And he obviously does if EIB is willing to pay hime $250 million bucks over the next 10 years and CNN wants to throw more money at him.

In this case he's wrong; "man" has already well proved we can wipe out anything we want .... many times even when we're not trying to. But his 'point' is/was that envioronmentalist take their point to outragous extreams. Witness the 4 firefighters who died because it took so long to get the ok to take water from a stream that may have held an 'endangered' fish of some kind. Personally, I would not have had a moments hesitation as to 'who was to be/not to be endangered.'

Fred

 

[Eric]

Re: Environmentalist Extreme Positions: I think the sad part is that you must take an extreme position if you ever hope to meet somewhere in the middle. If you start out bargaining from a reasonable postion, you'll inevitably wind up in an undesireable compromise. It's all power politics, it just depends on where you're coming from.

It would be nice if the Rush Limbaugh's of the world could see our reason; but, they can't, so we move to polar extremes to accomplish our (we believe) reasonable ends.

The "enlightened self-interest" argument pushed by Limbaugh on this one is probably the original false premise. The Campbell river strain of chinook, and winter steelhead, and resident rainbows and cutthroats, were destroyed by mine operations in the upper Campbell watershed. This despite strong commercial interests tied to preserving both commercial and recreational fishing in the area (not to mention all manner of stream-quality laws that were overlooked and disregarded). The Campbell River chinook was one of the largest strains on the coast, averaging about 30 pounds and hitting maximum weights over 70. The fish have been the focus of a decades long special sport fishery and tournament. The loss of these magnificent fish is a biological tragedy.

As I understand it, the runs in the Campbell are being rebuilt with Quinsam river fish and there might have been a few Campbell River fish that survived, but the Campbell is a lesson to us all that we can never relax our vigilence and we should never trust politicians to do the right thing without our continual strident input.

End of sermon,

Cheers,

Eric

 

[Fred Evans]

Eric,
No arguement on your points from me. They well point up the silly (and darn dangerous) positions we all are forced to take. Far to often "things" are viewed as a win-loose situation.

Usually, this means everybody lost, just question of degree. Win-win, when it happens is a wonderful thing to behold.
Fred