Monday, March 21, 2011

Sometimes I wonder

if I am just turning into a crank. Then I read a real crank and I calm down. Behold:
I just read part of a column by >Thomas Sowell, GOP propagandist. He was waxing dismissive about the rights of endangered species, and said something to this effect: "Frogs are a species; a given variety of frog is not a species." I just had to scream! Frogs are--off top my head--more like a sub-order! That is, "Frogs" refers to a group of species similar to each other but as distinct from each other as, for example:
a. the set of non-lemur primates: great apes, lesser apes, monkeys, and mankind (really a great ape with pretensions)
b. cloven-hooved animals: antelope, goats, buffalo, deer... would you consider all those a "species", too, Mr Sowell??

People who are this willfully ignorant about biology shouldn't set environmental policy, obviously. I submit that they shouldn't be syndicated either. Thomas Sowell should be banned from the newspapers. "Freedom of the press" is no excuse for damned lies!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Laugh'd Out Loud, Man. Thanks! ... My wife and I frequently remark that this or that just-spoken sentence or phrase (usually by me, but sometimes by her) has probably never been said before. "Frogs are--off top my head--more like a sub-order!!" Surely a hapax even translated into all languages living or dead.

Anonymous said...

The scarier aspect is that this crank would extend the possibly reasonable prohibition of "false news" (sc that a frogs are a species rather than more like a sub-order) to persons, and this with a one strike and your out policy. Cf Steyn being forbidden by human rights activists from speaking or writing on Islam-related topics again.

Thanks also for reassuring me too that I'm not a REAL crank.

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