Dog want-ad — Free puppies: half cocker spaniel, half sneaky neighbour’s dog.
Working together for the good of all.
A headline surfaced in one of my paper pingoes today: “Global Warming Has Saved Mankind!”
The catch phrase reads: “Left to it’s own devices, our planet would have long since reverted to it’s preferred state: a frigid Ice Age.”
The First Post is its name, The Online Daily Magazine is it’s game, and Robert Matthews is the writer’s name.
His point, which begins with the above quote, continues: “Fortunately, a new climactic influence kicked in around 8,000 years ago to stop the Ice Age from reasserting itself.
“It’s called Homo sapiens. By indulging in the sinful practices of crop-planting, tree-clearing and biomass-burning, we have boosted levels of greenhouse gases and darkened the surface of our planet, thus increasing the amount of sunlight trapped by the Earth.
“Of course, we should take care not to over-egg things — but so should the eco-doomsters.
“Have we changed the planet? You bet. And it’s all the better for it.”
Unquestionably most people, especially our East-centric Canadian chattering class and politicians right, left and centre, will say Matthews has jumped on a bandwagon heading the wrong way on a one-way street.
At least he has raised the point there are at least two sides to every question, hopefully leading us into an intelligent debate, not the incessant, unmelodic condemnation choruses aimed at one another we’re subjected to.
If we’re lucky, it could pull us, and especially them, up short, opening the door allowing a large dose of common sense to penetrate the farcical Chicken Little impersonations they’re enmeshed in so deeply these days.
Boy, if talk could cut greenhouse gas emissions we’d have it made in the shade, the world over, eh?
For decades we’ve been treating scientists as if they were in the same league as the little boy who cried wolf, not objective men and women without an axe to grind.
In a backhanded way we, Joe and Josey Public, are there too. The push is on for us to retrofit, to buy green and who is to disagree?
Then I watch leaders in all fields of endeavour on the boob tube, climbing into their big-boy toys, and remember Jimmie commenting, “if they’d lead by example, I’d find it easier to swallow and follow.”
In reality, on this file at least, I’d like to see a political all-party sit-down and begin working together for the good of us all?
But there I am back in Chicken Little land crying wolf, barking at the moon, finding an out, reaching for my wallet to “offset” my anti-green sins.
Dog want-ad: “Free Yorkshire terrier! 8-years-old. Hateful little dog. Bites!”
A vet’s experience …
“My examination revealed the 10-year-old Irish wolfhound named Belker was dying of cancer. I told the owners, Ron, Lisa and their four-year-old son Shane, there were no miracles I could perform, and offered to perform euthanasia in their home.
“They wanted Shane to be there, feeling he would gain from the experience.
“The next day, I had the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family sat with him.
Shane, petting his dog for the last time, was so calm, I wondered if he understood what was happening.
“Belker slipped peacefully away, and Shane accepted his transition with a calmness equaling his parents’.
“We sat together wondering aloud why animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, listening quietly, piped up, ‘I know why.’
“Startled, we asked and his answer was wise beyond his years. I’ve never heard a more comforting explanation.
“He said: ‘People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right? Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.’”
On 2 x 4s
A man bought a donkey from another who returned it the next day to complain it wouldn’t do anything for him.
The seller picked up a 2 x 4, whacked the donkey on the head yelled “Giddyup!” and away the donkey trotted.
Turning to the buyer he said, “You’ve got to get his attention first!”
A tip of the hat to the World’s Scientific Community. It seems they’ve found the right 2 x 4.