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hardy  Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL> Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
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From: Adam Fikso <irisman at AMERITECH.NET>
Subject: Re: Arisaema griffithii
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Jim  . Maybe it isn't "politically correct" to note this here, but what i=s
politically correct is utterly unclear and lately a  subject of ridicule =all
by itself.  To cite global warming as a fact is not to say that it is
man-made.    (That's a separate and different question)..

It's a sad time when UFO has come to mean some kind of alien space ship. =It
only means: Unidentified Space Object. If certain folks believe that it
means more than this and then accuse the govenrment of suppressing
information about aliens, that's a problem in the thinking of those folks.


It's a sad day when acceptance of facts has become a measure of politica=l
correctness because people cannot tell the difference between facts and
opinions, and facts such as evolution  (not JUST a theory-- anymore than
gravity is JUST a theory) have been diminished in the public arena by
ridicule about  men being descended from apes-- (which Darwin never said =).
Evolution and gravity are both FACTS, and trying to pretend that they do =not
exist have consequences.  We cannot fly by flapping our arms,and when we
stumble we might fall down... and evolution continues--with  mutations oc=cur
that kill people  and affect various strains of the human genome
differentially ... whether one likes it or not.

Both gravity and evolution  have theories associated with them about the
whys and wherefores, causes  and placement of these in the general body o=f
science.   These will continue to be tested every day in the "halls of
science".

Electricity doesn't seem to be much of a problem for most folks, but it i=s
at least as fuzzy, scientifically, as either gravity or evolution. It jus=t
dosn't threaten our mythology.   Don't know why.  More miracles are
associated with it than the Vatican has EVER sanctified.

Daily, one  can push a button and  get toast, or a cooked meal, or kill
somebody with a Taser, or light up a building, even a whole football fiel=d.
How must this have appeared to someone in the 1st century, either B.C,. o=r
A.D. or C. E.?      The Bible hadn't begun to be collected into its books
until long after the birth and death of Christ.

Ae we going to talk facts here ?, or what we believe are facts in this
arisaema list, or cave in to some nonsense about "political correctness"
when it's not even clear what the hell it is, except something that the
Christian right fundamentalists decry?

I was trained as a scientist and I decry a false politeness, like the
false modesty that leads people to not check with their physicians when
they've got a sore in a "delicate place"  that they're embarassed about
which then leads them to die prematurely when they could have been
adequately treated.
I do not think that science and facts should be separated out and kept
apart from growing plants, making babies, talking about arisaemas,
educating our kids, or talking about religion.   If there are enough peop=le
on this list who object to ny position or my making these statements, thr=ow
me off the list.

Most sincerely, Adam Fikso, Ph. D..



----- Original Message -----
From: "J.E. Shields" <jshields at INDY.NET>
To: <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2006 4:41 PM
Subject: Re: Arisaema griffithii


> Hard to say what one would notice, given the variables.  It certainly
> appears to me that the great majority of climate scientists think globa=l
> warming is a fact.  I myself, not a climatologist, think it likely that
> anthropogenic global warming is a fact.  It is not politically correct,=it
> is a scientific hypothesis that appears to have much to support it.  It=is
> a reasonable working hypothesis.
>
> The proof or disproof, after the fact, will come long after all of us a=re
> dead and gone.  Taking cheap shots at it won't change the facts, whatev=er
> they may be.  This is probably not the best forum in which to debate th=e
> question.
>
> Jim Shields
>
>
>
> ************************************************
> Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5             Shields Gardens, Ltd.
> P.O. Box 92              WWW:    http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
> Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
> Tel. ++1-317-867-3344     or      toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA
>