Survival of the fittest? A POINT OF VIEW

BBC ^ | 12 September 2005 | Harold Evans

[SeaLion]

[It's all Darwin's fault.] Especially global warming and AIDS. If I could get my hands on that guy ...

I'm writing from an office less than half a mile from his grave in Westminster Abbey, if you're looking for him. :-)

Last week, I was on business in Shrewsbury, his birthplace, where the local shopping mall is named the Darwin Centre, and the local library is fronted by a massive statue of the man. It sure didn't look like Kansas, Toto...

And on several previous occasions, I've been to his house in Downe, Kent, now a museum. In his study, there is on display a galley-proof copy of Das Kapital, sent by Marx himself, who wanted to dedicate the volume to him. Darwin politely declined this questionable 'honour'--odd for a scientist dedicated to Ending Civilization as We Know It...

[Beagle8U]

When the storm hit, and all those liberals knew they screwed up by not leaving, I often wonder if they were praying to Darwin when the big wave of water crashed into them?

[ladyjane]

It is astounding that in the past week:

the government rewarded thousands of people who refused to evacuate in the face of a Cat 4 storm.

then they punished the self-sufficient people by taking their means of self-defense.

I might add, those rewarded included sexual predators, looters, rapists and terrorists. They were the very people who interfered with the evacuation of babies, the sick and the elderly. It is disgusting.

[SeaLion]

Many thanks for the link to the Crockett/Bunce encounter. And I'm delighted to have extended my vocabulary to include the term "sockdolger"!

[CivilWarguy]

To prove that you don't have to be intelligent to comment for the BBC--Mr. Evans twice writes that "President Grover Cleveland" issued orders in 1877. Cleveland wasn't president in 1877. Hayes was. Cleveland wouldn't be president for another 7 years. He wasn't even in public office in 1877.

[SeaLion]

Cleveland wouldn't be president for another 7 years. He wasn't even in public office in 1877.

Well spotted! There's facility on the BBC site to post responses to the article--go for it!

[Sloth]

And I'm delighted to have extended my vocabulary to include the term "sockdolger"!

:-) More trivia: the last line spoken in Our American Cousin prior to Abe Lincoln being shot at Ford's Theater was "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old mantrap!" Evidently, this was the funniest line in the play (I guess you had to be there?) and Booth picked this moment because the audience's laughter would help obscure the gunshot.

[js1138]

I refuse to take moral lessons from countries that still have a class system institutionalized in law.

[CivilWarguy]

I've already posted the correction to the BBC site. We'll see if they broadcast it.

[ladyjane]

SeaLion - I read your name as SheLion and wondered what the heck you were doing less than a half mile from Westminster Abbey.

SheLion is the name of a freeper from Maine. She usually posts on smoking/anti-smoking threads and I was surprised to see her here.

If somebody starts screaming at you about smoking you'll know that another freeper has made the same mistake.

[SeaLion]

old gal - you sockdologizing old mantrap!

I had no idea Hilary was around way back then!

Run, sockdologizing old mantrap, run!

[SeaLion]

I refuse to take moral lessons from countries that still have a class system institutionalized in law.

I have a British colleague who once confessed that she sometimes woke up laughing because there are still Dukes in England.

The alternative would be to weep...

[furball4paws]

In the short run, Katrina will boil and burn some pols, some unnecessarily. But in the long run Katrina will only be a blip.

[shuckmaster]

the local shopping mall is named the Darwin Centre, and the local library is fronted by a massive statue of the man

Please submit photographic proof to Darwin Central.

[SeaLion]

Please submit photographic proof to Darwin Central.

Here's one link to the shopping mall http://www.gruts.com/darwin/images/photos/html/arcade.htm

Sorry--I need a lesson in how to post images directly

[Just mythoughts]

Interesting read and take on Darwinism. I keep reading that 150 year time allotted to knowledge coming into being as the salvation of Western civilization, however, the foundation of Darwinism is not a new recent idea.

The Heavenly Father did not create fully grown adult human beings (more than two) in the flesh body, is foundation from which the theory is hinged. Western civilization may well prove to be not all that civilized.

I think it a very good idea to apply the theory of evolution from bottom up to what Mother Nature uncovered for the whole world to see. Creationists cannot be blamed for what is as they have had little or no impact in the public education. Yet interestingly I kept hearing from many who survived a praise and thank you to the Almighty God for His protecting them.

Personal observation is certainly not what it use to be, especially when the evolutionary method of observation is not the tool used. Just tooooo many "stupid" willfully ignorant people, what's an evolutionists to do.

[longshadow]

-) More trivia: the last line spoken in Our American Cousin prior to Abe Lincoln being shot at Ford's Theater was "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal - you sockdologizing old mantrap!" Evidently, this was the funniest line in the play (I guess you had to be there?) and Booth picked this moment because the audience's laughter would help obscure the gunshot.

"Intrepid Reporter, to the First Lady shortly after Lincoln was assassinated: 'Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?'"

[mosquitobite]

The log came clearly into view again when turbulence in the wake of 9/11 led to the re-election of George W Bush. His instinct for low taxes and small government has been neatly encapsulated by the evangelical tax cutter Grover Norquist: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Uh, what alternate planet does this guy live on??????

[mosquitobite]

This article sounds like the MSM's playbook.