Earthquakes Don’t Kill Haitians – Underdevelopment Does
by Phelim McAleerIt is only a matter of time before Environmentalists and some scientists blame the Haiti earthquake and its massive death toll on Global Warming. They have already laid the groundwork with this Sept 2009 article in the UK Guardian newspaper. According to Professor Bill McGuire of University College London an upcoming scientific conference would show how “global warming threatens the planet in a new and unexpected way – by triggering earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches and volcanic eruptions.” Despite these claims the earthquake in Haiti was not caused by Global Warming.
And the death and destruction was not because Haitians had made a pact with the devil.
The reason so many people died in Haiti is because its people live in poorly built houses and have not benefited from development which brings with it cities and houses which can withstand earthquakes.
But guess who are the most active opponents of cities and modern concrete housing?
The environmental movement, sees cities and growing urbanization as “unsustainable” and something that must be stopped. Mark Fenn, the head of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Madagascar, believes development, in the form of jobs and prosperity, will be a negative for some of the world’s most impoverished people. These environmentalists view development as an evil – destroying indigenous cultures. As the millionaire Hollywood actor Ed Begley Jr. says they may be poor, but they seem happy and development might threaten this happiness.
For Begley rampant child mortality and horrible deaths in inadequate houses during earthquakes are small prices for others to pay as long we can visit them on eco-holidays.
Environmentalists call this sustainable development but the only thing sustained is poverty. In the face of this massive earthquake it has meant visiting death and destruction on some of the poorest people on the planet. Shame on environmentalists, and shame on Ed Begley Jr.
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288 Comments
Mr. McAleer,
Good article. You were prophetic, but you will be surprised at how quickly it happened. The illustrious scientist and Hollywood leftist Danny Glover has come out and balmed the earthquake in Haiti on Climate Change. They are so predictable, it was only a matter of time. "When", not "if."
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/...
Climate change, has nothing whatsoever to do with tectonic plate shift. Any scientist in Geology 101 knows that. I can only wait for Algores statement…………..
What a load of BS. Partisan hacks using this event to whip up some hate on one of their favorite nebulous targets of "environmentalists." Sure, sure, Haiti's condition is the fault of bearded granola eaters insisting on a horrible thing like sustainable development. I mean, are you serious? Do you expect rational people to swallow this pretzel logic?
Jonah Goldberg wrote about this and the Iran quake some years ago. Not a new idea.
The reason so many people died in Haiti is because its people live in poorly built houses and have not benefited from development which brings with it cities and houses which can withstand earthquakes.
This is not necessarily true. Cities can not withstand earthquakes like this. Why was the Presidential Palace destroyed? Good construction saves lives, to a point. This was a big earthquake. It would have made very little difference. And yes, I am a civil engineer.
If a 7 hit New York, it too would be devastated. It is not designed for that kind of threat.
Your good point about development and safety ought to have been made without the emotion grabbing and totally bogus headline.
The Left blames anything that happens which is bad on either Global Warming or George W. Bush, sometimes both.
Of course all the dear poor people are happy when the free-spending Hollywood granolas are around because that means they might have enough money to eat that day.
These are the same people that think the world is overpopulated and we should somehow (kill people) reduce the worlds population. These are the same people that think abortions are okay. These are the same people that support the non-existent death panels in the health care legislation.
And we should listen to them why?
" Partisan hacks using this event to whip up some hate on one of their favorite nebulous targets of "environmentalists."
Youse people are simply too much, and such easy targets.
While we are on the topic of partisan hacks, and since you brought it up, do you mean Partisan Hacks like Danny Glover? It is about time for Harry Belafonte to chime in, and Jimmah Carter also.
The famous Ramzpaul said something very similar – I like his comparison to Japan.
Some NSFW language, however.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBC3wSgQZBc
Thanks for that This is the kind of sound reasoning that destroys superficial partisan tripe.
They ripped Robertson a new one for his comments, tactless and incompassionate as those comments were, but at least Robertson had a wee bit of fact on his side. The Haitians DID perform vodoun rituals before the slave rebellion to help succor success. Some Haitians and others still worship and honor the voudoun spirits. Still, Robertson was slammed, just as he was for his comments following hurricane Katrina.
Danny Glover has substituted God and Satan with the Leftist god entity Gaia. Glover's comment is no less tactless or insensitive, but it is less offensive (maybe not at all offensive!) to the Left because God and Satan are not mentioned. There's no "right" or "wrong" , no "sin" brought into the event- unless you count the existence of man and his act of industrial development as sin, which the Left does.
Oh yeah, and what about the mid-ocean ridge…? I suppose Global Warming is causing lava to expel from the earth 5 miles down because we drive fossil fuel powered vehicles! Perhaps there is a good reason that there has only been one trek to the bottom of the Marianas Trench (the deepest 'hole' on the planet) since the late 50's. They discovered new meanings to how life was, and is created with the absence of light. If further study was conducted, it could easily prove that with out a doubt "Global Climate Change" as it's being presented is a farce. But climate alarmists don't want to argue that point. They know they don't have a leg to stand on. We spend BILLIONS per year on NASA for them to just back the climate alarmists, and try to paint a picture of galactic chaos if we don't curb greenhouse gases on THIS planet…It's a freaking joke! Why, oh why have we not ventured back to the most uncharted parts of this planet to learn more? Why do we as a society care more about what we cannot reach (in space) then what gives us life and allows us to inhabit this little rock??? Guess that's not in the script huh?
Haitian cities are built like a house of cards. You're a civil engineer? You don't kow that there are essentially NO building codes in Haiti? Amazing.
You are an idiot, but on occasion even a blind hog will find an acorn. Your video was a gem. I loved it!
Sometimes, the truth is startling.
You are correct, but not having any buildings up to the equivalent of our California codes anywhere in Haiti (that I know of) just means MORE devastation when a big one hits.
Sloped armor doesn't repel all incoming shells, but it repels more than armor that isn't sloped, etc.
We get it. You're the sassy new media.
But this is a human tragedy of epic proportions. Show some decency and don't get cute with the headlines.
And just maybe… you could wait until the countless piles of human bodies have stopped burning before you try to shoehorn this event into a trivial ideological point.
Danny Glover (Great Hollywood Thinker) has already proclaimed the quake is punishment from Mother Earth/God for not passing climate change. Case closed! Knowledge has spoken!
Haiti is too big to fail!
We need a Haitian bailout!
Seriously, donate what you can. Please don't go through the WH website- cut out the middleman, donate directly to Red Cross or whoever you like.
The Episcopal Church's ERD (Episcopal Relief and Development) will not only give food, water, clothing and medical supplies, but they stay long AFTER everyone else has gone home in order to help rebuild schools, hospitals and lives. My diocese is devoting the next 2 Sundays as extra collection days to raise even more funds especially for Haiti. That's my shill for ERD.
There are still people who believe in "climate change"? How out of touch…
Well JPA, did we force Mr. Glover to make his idiotic statement? And if all conservatives are to be blamed for the rantings of Pat Robertson, how come Danny "I Love Hugo Chavez" Glover isn't representing all of the Liberal Left? And I also seem to recall the Liberal Left ridiculing GW Bush for sending aircraft carriers and other military assets to southeast Asia in response to the tsunami? Double standards anyone? If you'd like to blame anyone, blame the French. When the "gave" Haiti its independence, it demanded and received "reparations" of something like 85 million dollars (an astronomical amount at the time), most of which was provided by clear-cutting the island and shipping the wood to France to build their houses. But I'm sure you'll have no trouble blaming this all on the Evil Bush©. Do you expect rational people to swallow your pretzel logic?
Someone hurt your feelings a long time ago, didn't they? What else could explain your insistence on using your verbal fists instead of your logic wits?
Remember, when you don't know what you're talking about, it's best to keep quite about it rather than think it's a badge of honor.
Climate change causes the earth to cool and then warm. When it happens too quickly, the earth cracks like a big piece of glass. Glass is made from earth so you know I'm right about that. Because of our impure hearts, the crack ONLY happens where very poor people reside, killing them. I will follow up with charts later. It's time to file my grant papers and compost my grandmother.
This is a brilliant observation. Another case where we will be able to prove the bias in the media.
No doubt, earthquakes are strange creatures as to the characteristics of the motion. Example, sudden lurches in directions that cut against support structures, intensity of S wave and P wave, depth of epicenter and the country rock the structures are built on(effects of liquifaction).
However, we're talking small single/double story structures in Haiti. There is no wany this place should have sustained this much damage with proper constuction techniques. Death toll in Haiti should be a fraction of what it is.
Foreign governments have dumped $100's of millions of dollars/year into Haiti and they don't even have running water and ecectricity.
This damage and death is the result of years of a failed government run by Marxist leaning dictators that have been given a pass by the Communist soft underbelly of officials from the US, France, and the UN.
So I can assume you pretty much scanned the headline, made no effort to read the article, and had your opinions on the topic decided before you even began typing?
I'll indulge myself and assume so.
"they may be poor, but they seem happy and development might threaten this happiness"
Yeah, money does NOT buy happiness. But it does buy better quality food, medicine, sanitation, and shelter, not to mention plain old clean drinking water.
Interesting article on this and past quakes here:
http://www.sphere.com/world/article/three-million...
I'm beginning to think the climate change is cerebral for these leftists, happening only in the sphere between the ears.
This is tongue in cheek but I'll give it a go.
Since mankind has come on the planet they have consumed vast amounts of non-renewable energy sources; coal, oil, wood. These non-renewable energy sources have been converted from a solid state into a gaseous state. Because of this conversion the earth's crust has become lighter. Because the crust is lighter volcanic activity is increased; the crust can no longer hold it in. Further, since we have pumped so much oil out of the earth, we have imperiled the natural lubrication in the planet. This natural lubrication allowed the tectonic plates to slide more easily against one another. These effects have been accelerated by the policies of the Bush administration. We are doomed. Mankind must go.
Your reading comprehension needs a lot of help, you "special" child.
The catastrophe in Haiti was magnified by poverty and the resultant shoddy substandard building. No surprises here, Hait is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. And, no, the tree-huggers didn't cause Haiti's poverty: that is the product of two centuries' worth of scumbag kleptocratic dictators.
The point of the article, which despite being empblazoned in bliking red neon you managed to overlook, is that the only way *in the future* to prevent similar tragedies, given that we can't prevent earthquakes, is earthquake-resistant construction: but development, indeed anything that smacks of horrid prosperity, is something you Birkenstock-wearers have set yourselves squarely against.. Instead the fruit-flake-and-nut crew touts "sustainability" as their euphemism for what sane people call "grinding poverty."
Climate change causes earthquakes! If so then all the participants of the Copenhaugen (FIASCO) conference are guilty of mass murder. When can we start the trials!
Anybody repeating Ed Bagley's world view should also be tried for crimes against reality!
Danny Glover is an actor not a statesman, Did the kings of old take their advice from the court jesters? If so then nothing has changed.
Remember the GREENS (New slang for stupid) want "you" the little people to sacrafice for the greater (COLLECTIVE) good.
Maybe the rapid climate change caused their HEADS to crack.
FYI…the 1989 earthquake that hit San Francisco during the World Series was a 7 as well. 63 people died (40-something of whom were on a double-decker freeway at the time). While San Francisco suffered billions of dollars in property damage, it was nothing compared to the devastation in Haiti, where the fatalities are expected to be in the tens of thousands (if not more).
And I'm not really sure what's so bogus about the headline. Underdevelopment did cause much of the devastation you see in that photo. And if you think it's bogus to claim that environmentalists often stand in the way of development in poor nations, I would encourage you to watch Philem McAleer's documentary "Mine Your Own Business." It opened my eyes, and exposes the hypocrisy of environmentalists (who own half a million dollar boats) who have the gall to tell someone who lives in desparate poverty that he doesn't know the true meaning of the word "poor."
Oh, I believe in climate change. In fact, the only thing we know with certainty about the climate is that it changes. Has for billions of years before we showed up, and will keep a-changin' long after we're gone.
But the dupes who think humans have diddly-squat to do with it? They're way, way out of touch.
If they're so happy, why do so many of them build boats, sail past Cuba, and come to America for a better life? I'm wondering how many Cubans escape Cuba in the same way and float to Haiti for a better life?
No, you've got it all wrong. You see, by pumping tons and tons of CO2 into the atmosphere we increase the weight of the air, which puts pressure on the earth's crust….
You think I made that up? I didn't. I heard that from a Greenie who thus explained, with a straight face, the Indonesian tsunami.
Well JPA, did we force Mr. Glover to make his idiotic statement? And if all conservatives are to be blamed for the rantings of Pat Robertson, how come Danny "I Love Hugo Chavez" Glover isn't representing all of the Liberal Left? And I also seem to recall the Liberal Left ridiculing GW Bush for sending aircraft carriers and other military assets to southeast Asia in response to the tsunami? Double standards anyone? If you'd like to blame anyone, blame the French. When the "gave" Haiti its independence, it demanded and received "reparations" of something like 85 million dollars (an astronomical amount at the time), most of which was provided by clear-cutting the island and shipping the wood to France to build their houses. But I'm sure you'll have no trouble blaming this all on the Evil Bush©. Do you expect rational people to swallow your pretzel logic?
Ah, you must be talking to Danny Glover…
The best type of residence to have for earthquake situations are log cabins…The climate change carp is such a worn out record for me….but their agenda must be stopped…Who's going to replace Al Gore if and when he goes to hell? Obama's brother, in Kenya lives in an earthquake proof residence…a straw hut.
Environmentalism, or an easy way to keep poor people poor?
true story: I was recently standing in line at the DMV in NYC. They care about us so much here that to keep us occupied during all this line-waiting, they provided a screen which scrolls important messages, PSA's, and interesting trivia. I read a blurb about how environmentally conscious Cuba is. It said that Castro gave land to private citizens to farm, so long as they agreed to use only farming animals, and not powered equipment. While the implication was that this was such a great thing, my first thought was why would the leader of a country do anything to encourage citizens to be less productive with the same amount of work? Basically, these farmers would work just as long and hard with an ox, but produce less crop than those using tractors.
The enviro's want the whole world to revert to a "3rd world" level with a few of the elite running things from above the fray. How about the millions that they have been sickened due to the bans on DDT and the resulting plagues of malaria in Africa?http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12430328877904856...
I have work in building code administration and with building code policy for 24 years. I have heard people in the media blaming the death and destruction on the lack of building codes in Haiti. The truth is that there is no building code because of the poverty. It cost more money to build building to withstand these loads, money they don’t have. Even if they had an adequate code on the books they would not be able to enforce it because of the poverty and the ensuing corruption.
The U.S. has pumped huge am'ts of money in Haiti….We should have given them building plans, city lay outs and tools, and let them have their own DIY project. There was something on History channel about the huge Missouri earthquake, back in the 1800's, maybe 1850 or so, whereby the Mississippi River flowed backwards for three days. I think that major cities on that fault line are working on earthquake proofing major structures.
You'd like that wouldn't you?
Let us be nice and do the nice and respectful thing… not any more we don't.
You and your kind have no respect or decency, and you capitalize on any event to push your twisted agenda. At least what is being said here is truth. The global warming mass murderers will claim that they could have stopped this and it is the world causing this, when the problem is that if they had modern construction… which the Gaia worshipers fight against the earth quakes wouldn't have caused this much damage.
I'm not going to use the phrase gliobal warming or climate change ever again. I will now refer to Global Warming/Climate Change as Gaiaism, and I will refer to global warming supporters as Gaia Worshipers.
We are getting sick of it, too….Pray Al Gore out with Psalms Ch 91….this helps to stop liars and enemies
Nah, I'm just pointing out the absurd pretzel logic that leads to the author's ideologically-driven conclusion.
I hope the big, bad wolf doesn't show up at George's hut in Kenya.
"He'll huff, and he'll puff, and he'll blow the house down"……………………….
No, I read the article, which was really easy since it was so short and contained no references to anything factual. Just partisan blathering.
Sorry, but I don't see why this is being down dinged. The simple fact of the matter is that he is correct. I live in California, and I know enough about engineering and how Earthquakes work to know that regardless of how well or how dutifully you prepare, you aren't going to save someone walking in the street from having a construction pulley falling on their head if the quake is large enough.
And the point is valid. The Haitian disaster was directly caused by the earthquake, and all deaths as of yet are directly tied to it. But it alone was not responsible for what we saw in Port Au Prince. The disaster was magnified by poor planning, insecure housing, lack of sanity regarding urban development, and the corruption that radiates through much of Haitian governance, and it is the latter facts that will be the cause for most of the issues we are going to be seeing there. The Earthquake naturally didn't cause any of these issues, but it will reveal these things quite quickly. The simple fact is that we Californians and the Japanese get these things three times before lunch any given day, and a large minority of them are dangerous. But when that happens, we shrug and get to work, and within a month at most, the area is all but cleaned up.
New Orleans would be a more fitting comparison, because official incompetence and the breakdown of the thin veneer of law helped damage the city more than even geographic fate could, but this will make New Orleans look like a dog jumping in a pool, not only from the scale of the disaster, but from the sheer corruption and inefficiency that we are going to witness.
If we could just persuade the Greenies to hold a big demonstration and hold their breath until their faces turn purple….
Yes, mankind is certainly the plague of this planet, except for Liberals, they are all above us therefore deserve to have the Earth to themselves. Similar to the Mormons view of Heaven. I do consider myself a spiritual person, but the Bible was written by people that thought the Earth was flat after all, and Climate Alarmists aren't much different.
The truthful thing about all of this is that we just don't know for sure, one way or the other. For anyone to claim they have a definitive answer about climate, the earth, existence, etc..is just preposterous. One thing we do know for a fact is, that the Earth has been around for a very, very, very, very long time, and it's doubtful that we will ruin the Earth. The Earth will ruin us first…And there isn't a damn thing we will be able to do about it when and if that time comes…!
I still can't believe it, but I saw on TV…that NASA is going to be dismantled at the end of this year! Our Astronauts will use Russian Rockets, in Russia for their future flights…This is so unbelieveable…We are getting a new nasty situation every day! No more Cape Canaveral….In the past, no one believed the bible story that the world's biggest mountain could be cast into the sea and not be seen…We don't have enough carbon emissions, right now to fight the latest cold snap….let's go outside and Phart.
Poor Danny Glover! Is he really this stupid?!
Sure, begin with insults. That's par for the course from the right-wing echo chamber.
Um….no, the point of the article was not "future" development as you claim. The author pretty explicitly states that environmentalists are to blame for what already happened in Haiti.
"Environmentalists call this sustainable development but the only thing sustained is poverty. In the face of this massive earthquake it has meant visiting death and destruction on some of the poorest people on the planet."
Are you the "special" one? Hehe, nah, I shouldn't stoop your level.
The point of the article was a cheap attempt at using a tragedy to vilify a group of people the author doesn't like. And an absurd attempt at that.
Gee, all I see here are standard vapid talking points. Got anything of substance?
Right on. Want a new twist? The over-development of the earthquake was the cause.
We have to, as they own the Major News Networks….Thank God for this Big Govt site and other ones too.
Why is it that any critique of the stuff put out by BigGovernment or Rush Limbaugh or the like is always met with grouping the person into a "liberal" or "left-wing" group and then disparaging that group? It's a classic fallacy.
And btw, Ron Paul is my man and he is no "lefty." I like to visit here every now and then because it's a gold mine for pseudoconservatives tarring the image of real, traditional conservatism.
They had hundreds of years to better themselves and had no model. They came from Afica…no bldg model there…They were taken to Haiti, no bldg model there…I wouldn't work on re-building their stuff…Send them the tools and have Home Depot and others open a supply house kind of thing….We do really need to offer survival supplies and such. These people have been sitting on their hands for a long time….If they won't do it for themselves which is their habit….why should we? and Right On donate thru private sources… The U.S.A. gave them a billion 1,000,000,000 USD thru the years, and look where they are at….The other side of the island is self supportive it appears…I don't know why.
Not to be mean about this. The Haitians came from Africa, probably Ethiopia or Kenya…ok, Maybe some of them could consider to go back to their homeland. This would relieve the societal pressure there, and cause a bldg boom in Ethiopia, on the Ocean side…No Hurricane threats either.
This would be the type of nation our illustrious scum bag potus would love for us to become. God forbid others rise up, it is easier to tear us down. May they all rest in peace.
What is YOUR point?
'sustainable development'is just another warm & fuzzy word that hides the anti-western anti-U.S. plan. You fascists want to force everyone to live in tiny apts., walk to work, labor in the community gardens & ride bikes. What we want is irrelevant because you are doing it "for the children" Well PI$$ OFF! I'll live like I want and we will see in November how popular hopey-changey is.
I believe in climate change. It is plate techtonics that causes earthquakes and hurricanes. Not CO@. It is also under water volcanic activity that can create ocean warming. The sun creates warming.
Glover is ignorant of science. so is algore. Sock puppet of Convicted felon George Soros is yammering about muslims bringing greeen to the enviironment. CAGW did not trigger this earthquake.
A rather involuted argument for ' urbanisation and development'. The problem with Haiti is not lack of urbanisation but unregulated and unplanned urbanisation. The poorest who live in flaky shelters dont get get crushed under the rubble, but those who can afford a concrete shelter but are not gaurded by a responsible government and administartion do. More urbanisation and 'development' may not necessarily be the way out, but yes the right dedelopment and progess is. This is the point that is lost in the rather over-zealous assault on the 'development and the environment wallas;
Uh — me and my kind? Right winger here. Climate change "denier" too. Hell, I'm even a Ford Excursion owner.
Today the story is one of suffering and compassion for over 100,000 deaths. To pre-argue against an environmental point (that nobody credible has made) is to minimize this tragedy and make a mockery of the massive amount of suffering.
So… grow a conscience.
Actually, you have this backward. The US supported the Duvaliers during the cold war despite their corruption because they were anti-communist. Afterwards, in Sep, 91 we supported a military coup that removed a democratically elected president from power. Clinton supported putting him back in – Bush supported another military coup that removed him. The current president was popularly elected in 2006.
Note – I'm not saying that the Haitian govt isn't corrupt – it is. But the dictators were anything but Marxist – their anti-communism is the whole reason that the US backed them in the past.
[sarc]
Shameful ! Attacking Danny Glover is clearly the desperate tactic of a tea-bagging racist !
[/sarc]
If by "real, Traditional conservatism" you mean bat-shit crazy post John Birch Society, RonPaulians, then yes, I agree with you…..
Didn't I say that in the first post? The article is a trashy attempt at using a catastrophe to paint "environmentalists" as the problem.
Wow, conspiracy theory anyone?
Yep.
Just wait until Harry Belafonte shows up to make his idiotic remarks. We'll slap the slobber out of him with the same tea bag.
What – Rupert Murdoch is a leftist?
NASA isn't being dismantled. The shuttle program is coming to an end but there's a replacement vehicle called Orion in development to replace it. But that development is running behind schedule, so we'll use the Russian vehicles in the interim. NASA also is letting or investigating letting, contracts to commercial space operators like SpaceX – the guys who won the 10million prize for achieving privately funded space flight.
No no no not that….they need to be pharting right now to ward off the cold spell.
Cowboy, you have a chance to replace Jay Leno now….Gof for it! LOL
Yes, all those silly scientists tracking it around the world and looking at data. How dare they have an actual scientific opinion different from what the Saudis and big coal want them to have.
Seriously – what are your scientific credentials? All those scientists out there – all coming to the same conclusion that the climate is warming and that human forces are causing it. But you call them dupes so I guess we should listen to you instead of them.
I learned about global warming before I went to school….here in Cold WI….When the sun comes out, it is warmer..When it's low in the sky it is winter, hi in the sky it's warm summer. And they don't even teach that in schools…I'm still trying to figure out the moon….it doesn't warm us at nite….how cum? better ask algore to lie to me about that too…I'm sick of his usual lies…he needs some new ones.
Can someone tell me where the competent 'oversight' was, and WHO headed up the 'oversight', when tons of money was given to Haiti over the decades?
Where donations of our tax $$$ go ,in the name of 'benevolent' foreign aid, and also in the name of allowing certain Presidents (from both parties) to be puffed up and strut around the world stage, looking 'caring and good'….serious strings have to be attached, with a guarantee of accountability and transparency.
I nearly spit out my coffee when I heard Hillary Clinton say that she is putting, or has put, in place new methods to guarantee that we know how money like this is spent. Sounds like another financial miracle from the Cattle Futures Queen ! The 'Mid-Terms' can't get here fast enough!
Actually this is not in anyway similar to Mormons' view of Heaven. While superficial understanding of the doctrine might lead someone to believe this it is not really a fair comparison. Obviously you are free to disagree, but as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I think I understand my view (and that of my church leaders) of Heaven a little better. This is really not the place to get into a religious discussion about my view though. I just get a little annoyed when people throw out things like this. And I am not just talking about when it is done about my faith either.
I agree in part with your other point though.
Not me, I'm blaming the French!
It occurs to me that tons and tons of CO2 putting pressure on the earth's crust is just another way of saying "The sky is falling…"
Actually all the scientists in the world (and in the U.S. for that matter) have not come to the same conclusion. Just a lot of the ones that are interested in being considered for Federal and certain companies' money have. Oh I know that some others have as well, but there are many scientists that disagree with this idea of climate change caused by humans or at least question the idea, but those scientists don't get the same amount of media attention. But most of the people that read this site already know this.
"they may be poor, but they seem happy and development might threaten this happiness"
And development might make them a whole lot happier. (And they accuse US of being unfeeling?)
Yes, Haitians were originally brought here from Africa, but it wasn't yesterday, for pete's sake. They kicked out the French and freed themselves from slavery over 200 years ago. They are no more African now that you are English or German or whatever your 200 year old ancestors were.
Great article Mr. McAleer! If societies and countries could build cities and homes etc, long term, benefits would be apparent in these regions. The "sustainable" operative word has been attached to only "green" products that don't give a shit how there built or constructed, they just use "sustainable" products. If the greenies were half interested in workmanship as they are in truely sustainable homes the impoverished countries would be better off.
Haitians were brought over by slave trafficking from West AFrica. Not related to in any way Ethiopians or Kenyans, about four thousand miles, farther apart than Boston to Los Angeles and as close culturally and linguistically as Spanairds are to Russians.
Haiti is a toxic mix of French colonial and post colonial goverance and West African witchcraft. Boiled down to a single bone to represent this combo, it's a society that culturally can dodge the concept of inidvidual responsibility – the State gifts to the people, and the religious message allows to blame others for your troubles instead of fixing them yourself. It's fertile ground for rampant corruption and lackidasical efforts. Manifests in such things as construction- skimping on cement, rebar, piss-poor foundations, no expense "wasted" on soil prep or site surveys for suitability for load bearing. San Franscisco had a comparable earthquake & less than 40 died – most on a span of one bridge. Actions have consequences. Haitia is poor due to corruption kleptocracies, so they COULD have built better, but the money went elsewhere.
I am really curious. Why is it that the people on this site despise environmentalists? Why isn't conservation a conservative value? How many of you would consider Teddy Roosevelt – the Republican president who started our national park system – a radical leftist?
I can understand if you all were to say that you think some environmentalists go too far or that you disagree with some of the policies that they recommend. But the virulent hatred and scorn everyone here expresses for all environmentalists is amazing. And I don't get it. Why the hatred?
Exactly. And/OR…will we now "annex" Haiti into the U.S. so the Marxists/Socialists/Communists have more votes?
Check out The People's Cube archives for the real skinny on man-made tectonic plate shift.
With all do respect nuttygirl…I would love to have some clarification on how you may know of my "superficial understanding" of the "doctrine" when you don't even know me! It just so happens that I live roughly 3 miles from BYU in Provo, UT. I know all too well about the Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial degrees of Heaven. I also understand the fear that LDS followers live if they do not follow the doctrine explicitly, that they risk not making it to their Celestial marriage where they will be god and goddesses themselves ruling over their own kingdom because everyone was sealed in the temple…It's all rubbish and for the book of Mormon to be considered 'divine truth', then the Bible must be discredited. So…My superficial understanding of the LDS faith, and their 'beliefs' of Heaven and the afterlife may be a little more educated than you first thought…?
You're assuming that Cuban farmers actually had some tractors to use.
I apologize for the rant, as I too agree that this is not the place for religious discussion. However, I don't take being told that I have a 'superficial understanding' of something lightly, that I clearly know I DO understand, probably more clearly than most! But, it's a good thing that you had the will to post what you did. Most Mormons fear discussion about their faith with anyone outside the church
The Global Warmists have no shame. They see their money drying up and will say and do anything to further the hoax.
What can I say about Danny Glover?
Luther Vandross had some killa' pipes.
The real conservationists are conservatives. The people who have really done the work for the animal kingdom are hunters and fishers. They have done more to protect wildlife and their habitat than any global warmist cultist have ever done.
If you actually believe that \”All those scientists out there [are] coming
to the same conclusion\” then you really are a dupe. The supposed
'consensus' that Gore and the carbon-trading racket want to sell you
consists of a cabal of roughly 60 academics who dominate the IPCC and have
colluded, successfully, to exclude the many, many dissenting scientists
and pretend they don't exist.
I hav nothing to say about the original article. So I apologize if this peeves the topic police. But….
I have been speaking harshly to the AP photo captions for three days now and your comment of this story being one of suffering and compassion and 'politicizing' the event made me wonder if the AP photo captions were total incompetence (as I was believing) or more 'political' than I had imagined.
I am sick of reading the word "Looter" in every photo of someone carrying out food from a destroyed store. These people are survivors of a major disaster. They are not 'looters' – I see none walking out with Plasma TVs and other electronics. They need food and water. They are trying to SURVIVE.
Today, the AP headlines are calling them 'scavengers'. Really? Why looters and scavengers and not survivors and victims of this major disaster? I'm not trying to read anything political into this – it just infuriated me every time I read it.
They are already detaining people for taking the food that is spoiling out of the destroyed markets. Really? Why?
Thought-criminal Redfield:
Report directly to the bus station for reassignment to the People's Beet Farm.
Indulging in surveying sites like this is not the type of conduct of a true prog.
Reform, or be denounced!
Jesus Pete. Can't you read?
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