On 4/6/05, Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >Bottom line, you > > denegate "rich white liberals" for no particular > > reason other than to create your > > usual demons. > > Bob, what is it about you that makes you _unable_ to > credit people who disagree with you about honest > motives? I mean, really, this is why I'm so reluctant > to discuss things with you. I denigrate the "rich > white liberals" who made this decision because they're > the people who, consistently, make self-flattering > decisions that (in this case) have led to hundreds of > thousands, maybe millions, of deaths. You're a rich > white liberal. I don't denigrate you. >
The myth that humantiarians are leading the fight against the banning of DDT beacuase it has led to millions of poor people duying is a well-funded campaign by (surprise!) the large pesticide companies. A very well-funded campaign for a number of years. http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1998Q4/panic.html In 1997, ACSH released a "special report" in pamphlet form titled "Facts Versus Fears: A Review of the 20 Greatest Unfounded Health Scares of Recent Times." Compiled by ACSH Director of Media and Development Adam Lieberman, the list included DDT, cyclamates, the hormone DES in beef, the chemical contamination of Love Canal, dioxin at Times Beach, and asbestos. Lieberman's "study" devoted approximately one and a half pages to each "scare," including footnotes (which draw heavily on Whelan's writings). A mass mailing of "Facts Versus Fears" to journalists generated countless uncritical stories in which reporters, ranging from Jane Brody of the *New York Times *to William Wineke of the *Wisconsin State Journal, *repeated Lieberman's conclusions or simply quoted them verbatim. Paul Harvey described it as "meticulously documented." An editorial in the *Kentucky Enquirer *used arguments from "Facts Versus Fears" to conclude that "we have plenty of reason and experience to be wary of overreacting to issues driven by ideology rather than sound science." Not long after its publication, however, Lieberman himself underwent a political change of heart and published a confessional in *Mother Jones *in which he admitted that his own work was motivated primarily by conservative ideology. Morever, he noted, ACSH itself was engaged in fear-mongering. "I was placed in the position of suggesting that the future of society was in jeopardy if consumers rejected the use of the fat substitute olestra or the milk-producing growth hormone rBST in cows," he stated. I can get a cup of DDT from an environmental laboratory near here - wanna drink? Want to feed it to the neighborhood birds? Noisy critters anyway. That whole Mother Nature stuff is just so gay. -- Gary Denton Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
