The Club of Rome:
Eugenics is a lot like all the other arrows in the quiver of the social engineer. Francis Fukayama’s book The End of History and The Last Man is a powerful reminder of how much ‘absolute religions’ are mere tool for the elite, and I think everyone should read what he bluntly states. In order to design or engineer a quality environment we must have ethics or principles that allow decisions to be made that benefit all life on earth rather than a few elites who operate to benefit their cronies and share a little with their paladins in some Physiocratic ‘trickle down’ approach to the governance and resources or opportunities that humanity has the duty to fulfill according to some over-riding purpose. That purpose might be divine but it must make sense and be commonly apprehended or shared. I happen to think there is an intelligence and collective conscious design. I also think we are part of this design and can make mincemeat or a thorough botchery of it. We are individually responsible for being like gods as Jesus (John 10:34) and all so many adepts have made eloquently apparent. We are part of God and should help she/he/it achieve what is RIGHT.
Is that an elitist attitude? Maybe it is at some point, because I am not one who caters to the destruction of the human gene pool or one who thinks anyone deserves a free ride at the heart of it. That is not to suggest that I think everyone should not be enabled and encouraged far more than has been done in the WASP world of history in the last two millennia and more. I probably share more with Thomas Paine and his New World Order types than I share with bleeding heart nave do-gooders who seek something they have not fully examined. I think helping babies exist and take food from the mouths of others in India was not a godly or good thing, for example. The Club of Rome and I share a great deal in terms of how we view the opportunities and problems that our leaders must address. Here is a good point they make.
“Systems of education are less and less adapted to the new issues, to the new emerging global society we are presently involved in. New priorities force us to redefine the role of education, which should be conceived as a permanent learning process. Transmission of knowledge is no longer sufficient, and new objectives such as developing one’s own potential and creativity, or the capacity of adaptation to change are becoming essential in a rapidly changing world.
The Club of Rome considers that education is both part of the global problematique and also an essential tool to become an effective actor in control of one’s own life and within society. If there are “Limits to Growth”, there are “No Limits to Learning” (titles of two Reports to the Club of Rome).” (1)
Their recommendations to limit population growth can be seen from many points of view but their prognostications of doom and gloom have not considered various technologies which continue to make it possible that the outcomes their reports have predicted will occur. In fact there are technologies I think they are not even aware of if you go by what they say on their web site.
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Just as everyone has breathed a sigh of relief at the end of 2004 presidential campaign, I would like to take a quick look ahead to 2008. Unless George W. Bush is unable to complete his second term, 2008 will bring the third open presidential election (no incumbent running) in 20 years. Even though that’s still four years into the future, the campaign will be unofficially getting underway almost immediately. Therefore, many of the potential candidates can already be identified and there should be no shortage of them on either side.
Today, I will be taking a look at the potential Republican candidates. Among them are Arizona Senator John McCain, Tennessee Senator Bill Frist, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, Virginia Senator George Allen, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
John McCain is probably in the best position to capture the GOP nomination, should he decide to run. He was beaten by Bush in the 2000 primaries, but he has since been one of the President’s most loyal supporters, despite some differences of opinion. McCain is one of the most popular politicians in the U.S. and won re-election to his Senate seat last week with more than 70% of the vote! Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans have a history of sometimes awarding their nomination to someone who has waited his “turn.” A case in point is Bob Dole, who was rejected in his bids for the nomination in 1980 and 1988, only to finally get it in 1996.
Bill Frist is a surgeon is who was first elected to the Senate during the “Republican Revolution” of 1994. He is now the majority leader of the Senate and should benefit from the GOP’s pick-up of four additional seats in this election cycle. Frist seems to be well liked by all factions of the party. He would probably have the inside track to the Republican nomination if McCain decides not to run.
Jeb Bush would like to continue a streak that the Republicans currently have in place. Since 1976, they have featured either a Dole or a Bush on every national ticket. That’s eight straight presidential elections! The fact that he was able to help his brother do better than anyone expected in Florida (winning by five percentage points) bodes well for him. That alone should greatly improve his stature within the Republican Party. Having family ties to the White House won’t hurt either.
Dick Cheney has said he probably will not run for president (and there are even rumors that he might even resign before the end of Bush’s second term). If he doesn’t run, or if he does run and subsequently fails to get the nomination, the 2008 election would be the first without the inclusion of a sitting president or vice president since 1952. However, politicians have been known to change their minds. I still think he might ultimately decide to run. If he does, unlike most sitting vice presidents, he will have an uphill battle for the nomination. However, his popularity with the far right wing of the party would play to his advantage and could ultimately give him the edge he would need. There’s still a question mark as to how evangelicals within the party would react to his support of his gay daughter.
Rudy Giuliani rebuilt his image with his handling of the 9/11 aftermath. Previously, he had to withdraw from a potential Senate race against Hillary Clinton, because of health problems. That was the official line, but most people believed it was because of a nasty divorce and rumors about extramarital affairs. He is now a very popular politician, but whether he is conservative enough to win the Republican presidential nomination is questionable at best. He will likely be opposed by the evangelical wing of the party.
Before being elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002, Mitt Romney headed up the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee earlier that same year. He had also made a run for the U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy in 1994 and lost. However, he did so much better against Kennedy that most of his previous challengers had done, that his loss actually helped boost his political career. Since being elected governor, he has become one of the bright young stars of the Republican Party. His father, the late George Romney, served as governor of Michigan and sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 but lost to Richard Nixon. His father’s remarks made during the nominating process about having been “brainwashed” about Viet Nam ultimately cost him the nomination. Should Mitt Romney decide to run, he will want to avoid that kind of blunder.
Like Frist, Rick Santorum was first elected to the Senate in 1994. As Conference Chairman, he is now the third highest ranking Republican in the Senate. Santorum is a favorite of the Christian Right with his strong anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality views. However, pragmatic primary voters might shun him, feeling that he may be a bit too extreme to win a general election. Of course, four years before the 1980 election, many Republicans expressed those same sentiments about Ronald Reagan.
Tom Ridge was a very popular and effective governor of Pennsylvania before taking over Homeland Security. He was in his second term as governor when he resigned to take over that post. Prior to being elected governor, he served several terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ridge is more of a moderate Republican, but unlike Giuliani, seems to have some appeal to the party’s conservative base. Whether he has enough remains to be seen. He is pro-choice, so he will get some opposition from the Christian Right, should he decide to seek the nomination.
George Allen is another rising star within the Republican Party. A former state delegate and son of the late Washington Redskins’ coach of the same name, he was elected to Congress in 1990. However, his district was redrawn and he ended up in the same district as another, more established Republican congressman, Tom Bliley, by the end of his first term. He decided not to seek re-election in 1992 and was elected governor of Virginia in 1993 and then elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. He headed up the GOP’s Senate Election committee for the last two years. The extra seats that the Republicans picked up in the Senate last week will be a feather in his cap. He has strong conservative credentials but is relatively unknown nationally.
Before taking her current post, Condoleezza Rice had previously served on the National Security Council under President George H. W. Bush. She is not a career politician or lawyer, but comes from an academic background - she has been a member of the Stanford University faculty for over 20 years. She has never held elective office but has sometimes given indications that she has presidential ambitions. She has been a very loyal member of the Bush Administration and that has earned her a great deal of respect throughout the party. Where she stands on social issues is still uncertain. She might ultimately prove to be a better prospect for vice president than president.
Next week I will continue my look ahead to 2008 with the potential Democratic presidential candidates.
About the Author
Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, free-lance writer, and trivia buff from Hopewell, VA. He operates a website, http://www.commenterry.com, on which he posts commentaries on various subjects such as politics, technology, religion, health and well-being, personal finance, and sports. His commentaries offer a unique point of view that is not often found in mainstream media.
Cancer of the mesothelium is a uncommon cancer of the tissues that line the person’s internal organs. Nearly 2,000 brand new instances are detected each year in the whole United States. From these, aroundthree fourths of occurrences involve the sac that protects the lungs, called the pleura. This is known as pleural mesothelioma. In around 10 to twenty percent of instances, malignant mesothelioma may involve the tissue that encloses visceral organs, referred to as the peritoneal membrane, resulting in what is then referred to as peritoneal mesothelioma.
Being introduced to asbestos is positively the main cause for this rare sickness. Following exposure to asbestos, the time period to development of the mesothelioma disease may be twenty to forty years. Due to occupation exposure, cancer of the mesothelium is around 3 times more regular in men, than in women. Because the mass of cases goes up with your age, there are almost 10 times more instances in the men over age 64 than in the men in their thirties.
Getting Cancer of the mesothelium is a weighty sickness, which, at the current moment, has a incredibly poor rate of lasting survival. On the other hand, if it is pinpointed early, treatments are then obtainable that will significantly extend the patient’s life. Cutting edge therapies continue to be and are being developed through clinical trials.