• Now showing

    If your office temperature up to this point was perfect, and you were given the choice between an unobstructed view of Tampa Bay AND a ten degree change in temperature, OR the same temperature and a view of the woods; what would you choose?

    I didn’t get a choice. The trees came down under the cloak of a weekend, and I’m looking at Tampa Bay, boiling in my own juices. Sure, I could lower the thermostat – at the expense of those with interior offices. Ah, but there I go thinking about other people again.

    I’m sure there was a perfectly good reason for chopping down the trees (increasing property value), but I miss the shade. Maybe the trees were diseased? No, we have it on good authority that they were perfectly healthy. Word on the street says the folks on the fourth floor wanted to see the water, and they had a lot of money to do a lot of free speaking, so four to six healthy trees came down. A combined 200 years of tree growth came down, because of the whims of a few folks who felt bad because they couldn’t see the brown haze on the horizon over Tampa Bay. Say what you will about modern environmentalism, and the rights of humans coming before the rights of those lower on the food chain. Think about this in purely pragmatic terms. Those trees can’t be replaced in my lifetime, but whims can change at the snap of two well adorned fingers. What if those folks change their minds? What if they decide the trees were better than the heat, the haze, and a view of a busy bridge and a power plant? What if they decide an obstructed view of the power plant was worth a 15% reduction in their cooling costs?

    You say you need a permit to cut down a healthy tree? What tree? I don’t see any trees.

  • Evolution of a debate

    The latest battleground in the “teaching Evolution in public schools” debate is a sticker. That’s right, stickers are not just for scratching and sniffing anymore. The Cobb County School Board in Georgia decided to place a sticker on science textbooks, which “,advised students that evolution was a scientific theory, not a fact, and urged students to use critical thinking in reviewing the materials on this subject.” As a true blue liberal, you’d think I’d be on the verge of stripping naked and shrieking hysterically into the night, “CHURCH AND STATE, CHURCH AND STATE, THE JESUS FREAKS ARE COMING, THE JESUS FREAKS ARE COMING!!”

    But I’m not.

    It’s a shame they felt the need to spend time, effort and money on a sticker. Here’s a novel idea – set a curriculum and have the teachers present the information. I was listening to this story on the radio, and the story centered on the age old “evolution vs creationism debate.” But what struck me was what a slap in the face this was to the teachers. Talk about a lack of trust. Don’t trust what they’ll tell the students? Why don’t you make ’em wear one of those stickers on their forehead? When I was in school we were always required to cover our books, to help preserve them. Wouldn’t it be funny if all the carefully thought out stickers were covered up with school required covers? Regardless, I must admit that it (the sticker) is mostly accurate. It is the “Theory of Evolution.” We don’t call it “Darwin’s Law of Evolution.” Further, heaven forbid we ask students to engage in “critical thinking.” That could be more dangerous than teaching evolution. Geez, that could result in a real discussion of the issues, or (gasp) an honest to goodness debate. Now that’s just taking education too far.

    Author’s note: like a good liberal, I’m a disciple of Darwin, but I’ll qualify that by saying that I’m one of a rare breed that believes science and religion are not mutually exclusive.

  • This week on 20/20

    I’m up late with the baby again. That’s really the only reason I’ve got Monday Night Football on. Anyway, I was sitting here enjoying a late night sloth session with the boob tube when a commercial caught me unawares. It seems that 20/20 has an exclusive beat on top tier celebrities that command extravagant appearance fees to appear at charity events.

    Now that’s a scoop. CNN, eat your heart out.