Replies

Far be if from me to defend Dr. Lott, whose success in broaching the obvious about individual gun ownership needs no plaudit, but I do wish to offer this:

I wrote a book. It was the work of a lifetime. It cost me $400,000 in cash outlay and lost income and virtually ended my professional career. It has been a financial bomb, in large part because I have no money left to promote it. I did everything I knew to get others to review my data and my findings. I have NO IDEA how thorough those individuals were but I have my suspicions that they were blown away by the sheer volume of the data. I live in constant anguish that somewhere I might have made a "too-hopeful" conclusion or stupid error.

I don't have Dr. Lott's credentials. Lacking fame or money means that anyone you would want to review your book, won't. I have had to acquire reviews by sheer force of determination and the whole thing grows stale while they take six months to maybe read it, or tell you they don't have time (after you sent them a free copy). Given that it is an interdisciplinary work, it is almost impossible to get even the most supportive academic to put anything in writing.

I can thus easily understand the massive temptations that operated on John Lott. If he truly blew it, I feel for the guy.

Mr. Vande Pol (AKA Carry_Okie) was a leading contributor to the Santa Cruz County Local Agenda 21 Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management Roundtable. His purpose was to see rigorous science respected in policy.

6 posted on 02/05/2003 1:04 AM PST by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to be managed by politics.)

Naive?...Hypocrite? Or both?

I'm paying my car tabs next week and the week after I'm, once again, putting off assembling my reloading setup and spending that bucget (hinges and such from home depot) on your book.

I read Environmental Overkill years ago and gave it to some suburban mommie wannnabe environmentalist. I get the feeling after I get through yours I will be unable to find a suburban mommie who could understand it.