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Thursday 7 January 2016

Off the deep end II

From Animal Rights Activists, a Crazy Proposed Constitutional Amendment
Wesley J. Smith January 6, 2016 11:46 AM


The Humane Party, animal rights advocates, have published a proposed constitutional amendment. I quote it here not because I think it will be enacted, but because it illustrates the subversive belief system -- the absolutist ideology -- that drives "animal rights." From the press release:

Full Text of the Abolition Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude of any sentient being shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress may, from time to time, refine the definition of 'sentient being' for the purposes of this article in accord with advances in science, except that in no event shall this definition be altered so as to exclude from this definition any species or individual organism that is, or would have been if existent, classified in the kingdom animalia as of the date of ratification of this article.

Section 3. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Realize that flies are sentient. Fish are sentient. Even oysters are sentient, which is why they make a pearl out of an irritating grain of sand.

If enacted, this would mean no cattle ranching, fish farms, animal research, zoos, or pets. After all, our dogs and cats are owned by us.


Animal rights isn't about being nicer to animals. As the "Vegan Fox" explains above, it is about elevating all fauna to equal legal and moral status with humans. It's a frightening illustration of our dissipated times that millions of people support this nihilism.

Ps. Surely the fact that we humans can choose to cease being omnivores for whatever reasons we fancy puts us in a different moral/mental category from say dragonflies that routinely prey on weaker members of their own species.
Can anyone conceive of similar protest movements occurring among the carnivores of the animal kingdom.And let's not forget that in many poorer parts of the world man eating predators continue to be responsible for thousands of human deaths yet I've heard no reports of progressive crocodiles,for instance, picketing for an end to this slaughter in the Asian and African countryside by their fellow crocodilians.Just for the record I am fully aware that humanity as a specie is a far greater danger to our fellow travelers on spaceship earth than the converse but I am also convinced that given our technological superiority things would have been far worse if we had not sought to morally/mentally distinguish ourselves from the subhuman species with which we share our planet.There is of course considerable room for improvement but for this we must take our cue from above from not below from the angels not the apes. 

Out of thin air?

As an Explanation of the Cambrian Explosion, the Oxygen Theory Takes a Lethal Blow
David Klinghoffer January 6, 2016 1:43 PM 

The oxygen idea had already taken blows, including from us, but this would seem to be the end of it. The notion was that rising oxygen levels permitted and therefore somehow spurred the Cambrian explosion, the geologically abrupt emergence of complex animal life less than 600 million years ago. It is as if the possibility of breathing deep was so enticing as to coax a vast infusion of biological information, needed to generate most known animal body plans, from nonexistence into existence. "Oh, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad."

Now a team reports in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences that there was adequate oxygen long before, so long as to decisively blunt the oxygen theory. This seems definitive. From Science Daily:

Animals evolved by about 600 million years ago, which was late in Earth's history. The late evolution of animals, and the fact that oxygen is central for animal respiration, has led to the widely promoted idea that animal evolution corresponded with a late a rise in atmospheric oxygen concentrations.
"But sufficient oxygen in itself does not seem to be enough for animals to rise. This is indicated by our studies," say postdoc Emma Hammarlund and Professor Don Canfield, Nordic Center for Earth Evolution, University of Southern Denmark.

Together with colleagues from the China National Petroleum Corporation and the University of Copenhagen, Hammarlund and Canfield have analyzed sediment samples from the Xiamaling Formation in China. Their analyses reveal that a deep ocean 1.4 billion years ago contained at least 4% of modern oxygen concentrations.

How did they make the determination? The Abstract summarizes ("Sufficient oxygen for animal respiration 1,400 million years ago"):
The Mesoproterozoic Eon [1,600-1,000 million years ago (Ma)] is emerging as a key interval in Earth history, with a unique geochemical history that might have influenced the course of biological evolution on Earth. Indeed, although this time interval is rather poorly understood, recent chromium isotope results suggest that atmospheric oxygen levels were <0 .1="" 1="" 3="" a="" an="" ancient="" and="" animal="" approach="" are="" atmospheric="" bacteria="" biomarker="" block.="" bottom="" carbon="" china="" column.="" comprehensive="" consistent="" contrast="" cycle="" demonstrate="" deposition="" develop="" different="" distribution="" document="" during="" dynamics="" enrichments="" evolution="" explore="" formation="" geochemical="" green="" have="" in="" inhibited="" levels="" life.="" low="" ma="" marine="" metal="" metals="" minimum="" model="" north="" of="" our="" oxygen="" oxygenated="" patterns="" presence="" present="" redox-sensitive="" results="" reveal="" sediments="" show="" simple="" sufficiently="" sulfur="" that="" the="" thus="" to="" trace="" unit="" using="" water="" waters="" we="" with="" xiamaling="" yet="" zone.="">4% of present-day levels. Therefore, in contrast to previous suggestions, we show that there was sufficient oxygen to fuel animal respiration long before the evolution of animals themselves.
Emma Hammarlund encapsulates the bad news:

The sudden diversification of animals probably was a result of many factors. Maybe the oxygen rise had less to do with the animal revolution than we previously assumed.

But you know what, failed scientific theories that seem to lend support to materialism have a way of defying death. They stick around even well after the evidence has turned against them. I'd bet you that popular and even professional science sources will still be touting the oxygen theory years from now, as if nothing had happened.