Exactamundo!

[Doctor Rock]

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Weekend. 

[Bizarro]

Mellencamp just murdered "Like a Rolling Stone" in a live track from 1992 they played on WXRT. My tolerance for him is pretty low now. I'm gonna have to hear four or five of his good songs before I can forgive him.

Jesus, this is awful.

[Doctor Rock]

http://overpopulationisamyth.com/

There's a conversation starter for you.

I started browsing that page, and my bullshit detector went "ding ding ding".  I have better things to do than to spend hours rebuking their hokum, but I am quite certain that overpopulation is mostly a problem because the Earth isn't vast enough to sustain the way we live (we being the rich and comfortable, westerners and third world elites).  Of course, if you decide that it's ok that vast numbers of people should have short, brutish lives of misery and toil, the world is far from being overpopulated. 

The trick is trying to give decent living standards to everyone in a way that is sustainable in the long term.  Also, a bit of affluence, together with easy access to birth control, usually brings on what is called the demographic transition.

I'll bet you a spent matchstick against a million bucks that that "overpopulation is a myth" page is connected in some way to right-wing think tanks and religious claptrap. 

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Telemundo!

[Doctor Rock]

I checked out a few things: the "overpopulation is a myth" web page is a "project of the Population Research Institute".   The Population Research Institute is a pro-life organisation (I went to their web page) which, according to wikipedia, has received funding from the Bradley Foundation, a well-known conservative foundation. 

In other words: wingnut propaganda. 

[Bizarro]

Well, obviously that's garbage. I just linked it to let you and/or Matthew do the work of id'ing who was responsible for this claptrap for me.

And neither of you let me down.

See also:

http://overpopulationisamyth.com/

There's a conversation starter for you.

That website is run by hardcore Catholic Republicans of Population Research Institute (PRI) connected to Human Life International (HLI), one of the world's largest Pro-Life organizations.

PRI and HLI were started in Virginia by Father Paul Marx ("Contraception is a pervasive, metastasizing moral cancer that destroys the Church, the family, the youth, and the nation. It empties seminaries and novitiates; it engenders runaway VD (think of AIDS!); it has no redeeming features whatsoever, being intrinsically evil or dishonest (inhones) ...", "While we need a variety of pro-life groups hacking away at the anti-life monster, it is enormously futile and indeed grossly shortsighted to overlook the chief source of baby-killing, which is contraception") and endorsed by Pope John Paul II. Their former PR director worked on Sam Brownback's election campaign, sometime after he ran the Young Republicans and Pro-Life Student Union at U of Hawaii, after which he was the chair of the ultra-conservative Young Americans for Freedom.

PRI also received funding from the Bradley Foundation, which also previously subsidized the Project for the New American Century; The Heritage Foundation; American Enterprise Institute (which housed the PNAC); Freedom House; the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF was a Christian Conservative coalition formed by the likes of Bill Bright and James Dobson); the Hoover Institution; Israeli hawk propaganda mill Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) that fed the media plenty of anti-Arab and Muslim stories during the reign of GWBush; The Cato Institute, Middle East Forum, as well as Global Warming-deniers at the George C. Marshall Institute, etc.

The PRI claims it helped close the door on hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to Planned Parenthood and even helped shut down US support to the United Nations Population Fund.

[Bizarro]

This new wave of "We'll just buy our own experts!" pseudo-science from conservatives is kind of alarming.

Have you seen this one?

Organic food not healthier, says FSA;
Report finds organic food provides no significant nutritional benefit compared with conventionally produced food

And who is the Food Standards Agency? Why they're an openly pro genetically-modified/corporate farming group from the UK.

[Doctor Rock]

This new wave of "We'll just buy our own experts!" pseudo-science from conservatives is kind of alarming.

Have you seen this one?

Organic food not healthier, says FSA;
Report finds organic food provides no significant nutritional benefit compared with conventionally produced food

And who is the Food Standards Agency? Why they're an openly pro genetically-modified/corporate farming group from the UK.

I have no problems with the claim that organic food isn't nutritionally superior to regular food.  An apple is an apple, after all.  All my fruits and vegs are organic, by the way.  However, I don't buy them for their nutritional value.  I buy them because I believe that they contain less insecticide and pesticide residues, because I think the way they are grown is more sustainable and because I get them through an organic food cooperative, and in the end I pay less, and I get more variety, than if I went to the supermarket.  The only downside is that I don't get to choose everything, since most of it is locally produced, and I mostly get things when they are in season.  No biggie, really, and I'm used to it now.  

Do the organic food people claim that their stuff is nutritionally superior?  My farmers co-op never did.  To me, the way how that thing is written sounds a lot like the old strawman trick.  But I am not all that familiar with all the claims of the organic food people...

[Bizarro]

Yeah, it's sneaky that they argue nutritional merits when the main claim on organics is pesticide-free. Still, I wouldn't put a nickel's worth of faith in a study badmouthing organics put out by a corporate farming advocacy group.

It's a bit like a study doubting the claims of Nicorette... put out by Phillip Morris.

[Doctor Rock]

Yeah, it's sneaky that they argue nutritional merits when the main claim on organics is pesticide-free. Still, I wouldn't put a nickel's worth of faith in a study badmouthing organics put out by a corporate farming advocacy group.

It's a bit like a study doubting the claims of Nicorette... put out by Phillip Morris.

Yep!  As I said, I suspect they are building a strawman, which is a procedure typical of those arguing in bad faith. 

[Bizarro]

And let's not even go into this bullshit.

[Doctor Rock]

And let's not even go into this bullshit.

Only if you want to see me foaming at the mouth.   

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Experts for sale!  Get your hot buttered experts!

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

This new wave of "We'll just buy our own experts!" pseudo-science from conservatives is kind of alarming.

Have you seen this one?

Organic food not healthier, says FSA;
Report finds organic food provides no significant nutritional benefit compared with conventionally produced food

And who is the Food Standards Agency? Why they're an openly pro genetically-modified/corporate farming group from the UK.

I have no problems with the claim that organic food isn't nutritionally superior to regular food.  An apple is an apple, after all.  All my fruits and vegs are organic, by the way.  However, I don't buy them for their nutritional value.  I buy them because I believe that they contain less insecticide and pesticide residues, because I think the way they are grown is more sustainable and because I get them through an organic food cooperative, and in the end I pay less, and I get more variety, than if I went to the supermarket.  The only downside is that I don't get to choose everything, since most of it is locally produced, and I mostly get things when they are in season.  No biggie, really, and I'm used to it now.   

Do the organic food people claim that their stuff is nutritionally superior?  My farmers co-op never did.  To me, the way how that thing is written sounds a lot like the old strawman trick.  But I am not all that familiar with all the claims of the organic food people...

It's best and cheapest to eat local fruits and vegetables in season.

During our semi-glacial winters you can still get organic at the supermarket, but it's twice as expensive.

[Doctor Rock]

This new wave of "We'll just buy our own experts!" pseudo-science from conservatives is kind of alarming.

Have you seen this one?

Organic food not healthier, says FSA;
Report finds organic food provides no significant nutritional benefit compared with conventionally produced food

And who is the Food Standards Agency? Why they're an openly pro genetically-modified/corporate farming group from the UK.

I have no problems with the claim that organic food isn't nutritionally superior to regular food.  An apple is an apple, after all.  All my fruits and vegs are organic, by the way.  However, I don't buy them for their nutritional value.  I buy them because I believe that they contain less insecticide and pesticide residues, because I think the way they are grown is more sustainable and because I get them through an organic food cooperative, and in the end I pay less, and I get more variety, than if I went to the supermarket.  The only downside is that I don't get to choose everything, since most of it is locally produced, and I mostly get things when they are in season.  No biggie, really, and I'm used to it now.  

Do the organic food people claim that their stuff is nutritionally superior?  My farmers co-op never did.  To me, the way how that thing is written sounds a lot like the old strawman trick.  But I am not all that familiar with all the claims of the organic food people...

It's best and cheapest to eat local fruits and vegetables in season.

During our semi-glacial winters you can still get organic at the supermarket, but it's twice as expensive.

Supermarket organics are a rip-off.   We pay a fixed price for our stuff to our co-op.  This way, they can afford to make less of a profit during the colder months, when they have to import a larger part of their fruits and veggies, while cashing in during the warm part of the years, when they can buy more of their produce locally for way less.  I've calculated it: if I take into account price variations, going to the supermarket and carrying the stuff home (my co-op delivers to our door), plus the amount and variety of stuff we get, compared to before we went all organic, we're actually paying about 1/3 less for our fruits and veggies.

The only inconvenience is that sometimes I get stuck with cabbages I will never consume, and they give us way too much lettuce.  The fun part is that they go out of their way to expose their clients to stuff they wouldn't usually consume, and I got introduced to a lot of veggies I didn't know existed.  I'm eating way more fruits and vegetables now too.