Posted on 03/11/2012 7:40:44 AM PDT by Jeff Head
Confessions of a Former Tree-Hugger (By Amy Lutz)
These threads go hand in hand, and hers is nicely done.
(BTW...I think she avoided the dreaded blog-pimp accusation by posting the whole thing...:)
I saw “Happy Feet”, and was unprepared for that “message”. It disgusted me, besides just being a lousy film. Since then, I vet these things before I go.
It is one of the reasons I never went to see Avatar, even though I follow computer animation. I didn’t want to waste my money on liberal environmental claptrap.
The career hire people put into these agencies stay in long after their appointees are gone. It takes a long time to see them go away.
Bush 2 had to go to great lengths to overturn reports that came out during his term of office from “scientists” whose studies were later proven to be junk science issued during his term.
That’s what the Klamath Farmers faced, that’s what the San Jauquin farmers face, that’s what timber companies faced in the NW over the spotted owl, that’s what the ranchers faced in the Jarbidge area of Nevada, that’s what so many mining operations face all the time, that’s what the irrigators along the Missouri faced, that’s what the Texas and New Mexico farmers faced, and the list goes on and on.
You may believe what you want and find all the data necessary from the environmnetal lobby to support it...it’s what they do...even after it is proven that they have fixed numbers and doctored reports to support their position...ie. the global warming is caused by humans mantra, the spotted owl, the sucker fish, the mites and snails, etc., etc. along with administrative rulings that change the ESA from dealing with whole specieis to sub species, to species within very small and specific individual drainages, etc.
They do the same thing here.
As I said though, the timber companies are not killing all the forests, your own lieing eyes can tell you that on any drive through the mountains, and despite all their claims the amount of trees available for harvest and in reserve is increasing due to the causes I mentioned.
And the total amouint of area is on the increase as well, due to the trees by the tens of millions planted in urban and suburban areas all over the country...as well as the reports from the south and northeast where whole areas are going back over to timber. Heck, on my folks onw ranch, where I was raised, the bottom land where we used to work hay, now that we are all gone and not farming it any more, has all gone back to hardwood forests...as almost any land in the south, southeast, mid-atlantic and northeast, as well as the entire Ohio valley will do if left to its own devices...and in fairly quick order too.
So, in the end, I’m glad I can impart these truths and information to my grandkids so that they are better able to crittically analyze such movies and messages as presented by the Lorax...and will continue to do so, all your talk and condescending attitude and that of the environmentalists and liberals notwithstanding.
Well, those are DU buzzwords if I've ever seen them. Are you sure you didn't click on the wrong link this morning? I'm sure that you meant to log in to Democratic Underground.
"Socially responsible" indeed ...
If you saw Disney’s Pocahontas, then you saw Avatar.
“You may have mentioned it, but be sure to tell the kids trees live on Carbon Dioxide. Without CO2 the trees and plants die. Without trees and plants making oxygen, we all die. “
As I recall, that’s basically what Reagan said, and was accused of being wrong. He was right, of course, but the liberals (idiots) said that trees were bad. Now, they claim we shouldn’t cut them down.
""We have more forests in the US now than they did 300 years ago in Colonial America."
You'd think.
"Unfortuately, it seems like only the extremists on both sides are heard."
True. I like to think they sound equally nutty so kind of cancel each other out.
FYI, the old Suess classic “The King’s Stilts” is also heavy on the conservation theme but a little more cognizant of interrelationships. That gives it some balance. Oh, yeah; it doesn’t rhyme!
Well, like many people from those areas where the graph shows the worst depletion, the Northeast and the South, have been telling you on this thread, the amount of forest land has been increasing despite the numbers being shown.
When I was back in Mass in 1999 with my wife and youngest son visiting my wife’s brother and his family, we went into Boston and visited the USS Constitution. (On a side note, as a result I have several older documents and histories of that marvelous vessel, and have a 44” wood, museum quality model in my front room of her now). We then took the rest of the day and traveled the battle road out of Boston to Lexington and Concord (which is now a National Park). I was struck by the drawings from the period. Where the ground in that area was mostly open back then and under cultivation with stone walls seperating fields (from which our founders took cover and fired upon the British, or from behind the few trees on the hilokcs at the time), it is now covered with forests.
I take issue with the charts you show because in so many areas, where we have documented evidence of how it looked back then, in colonial times, and how it looks now, there are clearly a lot more trees now.
So you can believe projections made by scientists, many of whom have an agenda (sort of like the Fish Biologist in the Bureau of Reclamation where I worked who told those of us who maintain the dams that she already knew that the endangered trout below the dams were doing badly and she just needed to do her studies in such a way as to collect the data to document own fore-gone conclusions). This happens all the time, and in this case, the Federal “Anglers” they hired were about the worst fishermen I had ever seen. Our electrician had to show them which lures to use and how to cast and where because they couldn’t catch a thing and therefore calculated that the population was low and very distressed. Once they learned how to fish in the area, like our electrician, they pulled them out all the time...upsetting the biologist’s calculations...which she then altered with other data to “prove” her premise anyway. It was quite unbelievable and brazen. As I say, in such cases, you can either believe their reports, or believe your own lieing eyes.
Go to those places in the South and in the Northeast. Look at the old pictures as residents on this very thread have told you, and then look at what you see now. They do not line up with the grpah.
Anyhow, as I said, you can believe what you want...I teach my kids and grandkids the truths as they are and to question projections, theories, and scientific charts that do not line up with reality, or that help push agendas...and to not take them at their face value.
Anyway, as I also said, you can find data on both sides of the isuue and argue it till the cows come home...but I will keep teaching those kids exaclty what I taught them and help counter the indoctrination and propogandizing that is going on from the various sources.
Have a great week...and if you served on the Connie, God bless you for your service to the Republic.
The last time that I went to the battlefield, the growth of the forests was such that it was hard to imagine the actual flow of the battle and lines of sight. The Park Rangers even made mention of the fact that, to recreate the battlefield area to a condition similar to that just prior to the battle would result in wholesale cutting of trees.
If nothing else, that made me think of the image of the East coast after it was cleared for farming (and the cutting of trees for firewood and construction). It was, from all of the photos of that era that I've seen, quite bare when compared to the way that it is now.
Which begs the question, why expose your grandkids to such "indoctrination and propogandizing"? There is no way anyone could enter a theatre showing The Lorax and not know there's an environmental theme to the story. Your lengthy posts prove just how deeply you believe this conspiracy to go. So why expose these poor innocent kids to it?
The question is rhetorical. Please don't waste our time with a response.
"..and if you served on the Connie,"
"IF" I served on the Connie? "If"? Real nice......
Dude,..you ask what you call a “rhetocrical” question in essense questioning my judgement and reasoning, and then say there’s no need to respond.
Come on. I have eight grandkids. Five wanted to go to the movie which they’d heard about in school and on shows they watch at home I am told buy their parents, my onw kids.
Believe it or not, I never read “Lorax” so was not myself familiar with the story. So, since it was a Disney movie and rated G, I offered to take my grandkids because I enjoy spending the time with them and like to take them to decent movies and give them good memories.
I am not answering to you, Moe...I have no need to justify or explain myself to you other than there are ten or more lurkers on these threads for every one poster and I am happy for them to read these exchanges and decide for themselves...but because you asked and particularly because of the manner you asked, I am making a response. That’s the reason.
When I saw what the movie was about, I wrote this thread in an attempt to let others know about it (most apparently already did) and to tell them what I did about it.
You seem to have some kind of an agenda or need to prove this somehow all wrong, misguided, bad judgement, conspiratorial, etc., etc.
Fine, you have that right. But I’ll respond to your assertions and inparticular those that seek to belittel my own actions with my grandkids...and I will do so every time.
I meant what I said too about the Connie. I took it from your earlier post you may have served on her and if you did I sincerely wanted to thank you for that service...but that too you ahd to make an issue of. It was meant sincerley as thanks...nothing more or less...don;t somehow make it more than it was or try and turn it into some kind of insult because there was none intended, just a sincere thanks for your own service.
We’ve gone round and round. Liek I said I am glad to let others read for themselves and make their own decisions. It is clear we’ve said our piece regarding this ad infinitum and I ‘m satisifed for my part...unless of course, you try to further belittle or cast dispersion on my own involvement with or activities with my grandkids.
Your input was an added plus which will be very helpful when my grandchildren and I discuss the movie after. What I find helpful in any "propaganda" movie etc. that it provides a learning tool to explain to my children & grandchildren why it is propaganda, the opportunity to explain the truth and to help them to spot it in the future. In the past, my children use to groan but now they appreciate that I gave them the tools to spot propaganda whether it be movies, tv sit-coms, teachers, news, etc. As I always told them, if it does not make sense, if you are told you are not smart enough to understand it, or a "translator" has to come in to explain what you just heard and it ends in "ism" then it is propaganda.
Your grandchildren are very blessed to have you for a Grandfather. Old Friend, I always look forward to your posts and even though I not able to respond as often as I would like. You are truly one of the best Freepers around and an asset to Free Republic. God Bless you and yours.
moehoward, I think you are out of line. Jeff Head was attempting to be conciliatory with his genuine thanks for your service, and you interpreted it as some kind of insult.
You owe him an apology.
Well said.
I’m seeing The Lorax on Wednesday. I’ll let you know what I think of it ;)
You are correct about more trees. If you can find ANY books by Eric Sloane, BUY THEM for the kids. On topic is his “A Reverence for Wood” which addresses deforestation during the (worst culprit) building of the railroads and the reclamation of former N.E. farmland.
All of his books are wonderful and accessible to children of just about any reading age as well as adults.
Two-bits, my FRiend, thank you so much. Your words regarding me are too kind. I’m just a 56 year old grandpa now who want s his kids and grandkids to see and enjoy and experience the prosperity, freedom, and liberty that I have experienced.
As well as to be able to face and endure adversity when it inevitably comes, by relying on their own good sense, and especially upon their faith in God in HEaven and His Son, Jesus Christ and their Gospel and moral truth.
And, in the end, this is really what has made our prosperity and freedom possible...and I want to pass that on and make sure mine are in a position to vouch safe it as I have tried to do.
Amen to every word you said about how to tell if someone is trying to pull the woll over your eyes, or lead you down the primrose path.
God bless you and your’s, God’s speed to you.
May we all come together and help turn our nation around and away from the prcipice our foes have driven us to...and may we be awake and vigilant and not only turn it around, but ensure we don;t go down this tragic road again.
America at the Crossroads of Liberty
http://www.jeffhead.com/crossroads.htm
It’s why liberals love children’s minds. They have no history and no experience base for skepticism or doubt. They cannot understand why someone would move to a city slum and work in a sweat shop because they never had to milk a cow at 4AM with a 20 degree windchill or spend hours trying to save a lamb only to have it die anyway. Farm life is harder and that’s why people willingly moved to “better” conditions that liberal teachers frame as hell holes. Sure they were “bad”, but people don’t freely leave better for worse.
You’d like this book: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Robber-Barons-Business-America/dp/0963020315
and this documentary: http://www.amazon.com/Mine-Your-Own-Business-Environmentalism/dp/B0019A35G6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331693402&sr=8-1
They’ll never be read or watched in a government school.
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