Freddy, I am not really the idiot about statistics that you seem to think I am. I realize they can be argued on either side, and usually are!! I do think that if you follow the money, and understand underlying motivations, it is possible sometimes to weigh statistics regarding their inherent credibility.
The copy of the LA Times article I read was reprinted in "The San Francisco Chronicle". If there was any reference whatsoever to indoor air pollution in the original LA Times article, it was totally removed when it moved up here for perusal by the inmates of the outdoor asylum (incidentally, I thought that was a very colorful turn of phrase on your part, and really enjoyed it). If you still don't believe me, I can send it to you--I don't have a scanner yet.
Since the statistics I cite are all about factors regarding outdoor air particulate counts, etc., I'm not sure why you don't believe me. Are you getting your information from talk radio? I sure hope not!!
Or are you asserting that all the polluted air stays totally outdoors? Do you have any proof of that? OR, is the underlying motivation that your political views make it uncomfortable to accept that poor air quality might be affecting public health so adversely that the government might have to further curtail individual freedoms to improve it?
I think a lot of the real agenda here is about exactly how libertarian all of us are--most of us profess to be libertarians of some ilk. I think there are some areas where the interests of big business are so overwhelmingly against public health that government has to regulate. I would like to see as little of this as possible, since I like free markets, but I do not trust big business anymore than I trust government. This is my own personal opinion only, and EVERYONE is welcome to express theirs. Some people here would like total freedom--no government at all. And then there are liberals, who always want the government to decide everything, and totally redistribute all the wealth. I don't think there is anyone here who believes in that at all, but I think you may suspect that I lean further that way than I do. I am basically interested in facts, and then make very pragmatic decisions on a case-by-case basis about what I think might be viable solutions.
The statistics and the issues we are bandying about are really about this central dilemma of control as much as they are about the subjects we discuss. I think both debates are interesting, but motivations are particularly fascinating to me, because this is the Feelings thread or something!!
Does anyone here have any clothes left at all!!! I can't think of one person who hasn't had them all ripped off right before they were brutally declawed as well, or threw them aside while chanting around a boiling cauldron while doing a weird, mean-spirited ritual, or lost them at the degrading slave auction recently. I think I have always known that the Emperor didn't have any!! |
