Gilligans’s Island and suspension of disbelief

My kids have gotten hooked on “Gilligan’s Island.”  We bought the three-box DVD set, and they’ve been burning through them like a crack junkie on meth.

 In the midst of my own nostalgia, wistfully harkening back to the days when I used to watch the show, through the lens of my 40 years of worldly experience, I’ve come to realize a few things:

1. In the real world, about the 2nd or 3rd time Gilligan totally shot their chances for rescue by being a complete goober, the rest of the castaways would likely have staked him out in the sun and let the sand crabs have him.  At least set him  adrift on a bamboo raft with no water.
2. I never really realized what a complete hotty MaryAnn is. Those hotpants?  Yeeow!
3. I’m still trying to figure out why they brough all these clothes for a “three hour tour.”
4. Even after eating nothing but coconut, pineapple, and the occasional fish for moths, the Skipper doesn’t lose an ounce of weight. I think he’s got a secret stash of ho-hos he’s not telling anyone about.
5. I find myself wondering, in the real world, how long it would be before they started paring off with the two girls, and who the odd man out would be.  I suspect Gilligan, because like I said before, he would have been six-feet under pretty early on.

Carbon Dioxide, and other poisons..

Bush orders rules meant to curb greenhouse gases

So, Pres. Bush rolls over for the greenies.  {{heavy sigh}}

But, more than the carefully calculated political capitulation, what really bothers me about the linked article is what inspired the move:  a Supreme Court ruling no less.

Last month, the Supreme Court rebuked the Bush administration for its inaction on global warming. In a 5-4 decision, it declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases qualify as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act and thus can be regulated by the EPA.

The court also said that the “laundry list” of reasons the administration has given for declining to do so are insufficient, and that the EPA must regulate carbon dioxide, the leading gas linked to global warming, if it finds that it endangers public health.

Now, I’m no Rhodes Scholar, but neither am I Forrest Gump, and I must admit to a bit of confusion as to how exactly it has become the Supreme Court to makes such declarations!  I’m sure, if I took the time to look it up, that none of the Bio’s of the currently presiding Supremes includes degrees in atmospheric chemistry or environmental sciences.

Which, I think, is born out in the fact that under this “ruling,” the Supreme Court has just declared Carbon Dioxide a pollutant.  A toxin.  Something that might endanger public health.

So. Let’s all get on the bandwagon now to completely eliminate carbon dioxide, that toxic greenhouse gas bringing about the grim specter of global warming! 

‘Cept that, well, for this little thing called photosynthesis.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it.  It’s part of the process whereby plants convert CO2 into O-X-Y-G-E-N.   You know, that OTHER atmospheric gas on which all manner of life forms on this planet depend to remain “life” forms.

 Now please.  Some smart lawyer type like Patterico clue me in to how exactly it is that the Supreme Court can just up and arbitrarily declare this kind of stuff?  Strikes me as a bit imperious.  More of a “Hear Ye, Hear Ye” kind of thing.  Dare I say, a royal proclamation?  I believe we call it, “Legislating from the Bench.” 

In related news, the EPA has just announced that in light of the recent Supreme Court ruling, it will be levying taxes and/or fines on anything which creates Carbon Dioxide as a bi-product of something they call “respiration.”  Decomposition and ocean electrolysis are also being considered for extensive and burdensome regulation as well. 

Developing….

Archeology and the Bible

Israeli Archaeologist May Have Found Tomb of King Herod

“Stephen Pfann, an expert in the Second Temple period at the University of the Holy Land, called the find a “major discovery by all means,” but cautioned further research is needed.

He said all signs indicate the tomb belongs to Herod, but said ruins with an inscription on it were needed for full verification.

“We’re moving in the right direction. It will be clinched once we have an inscription that bears his name,” said Pfann, a textual scholar who did not participate in Netzer’s dig.”

It has long been assumed that Herod was buried at Herodium, but decades of excavations failed to turn up the site until now. The first century historian Josephus Flavius described the tomb and Herod’s funeral procession.

Herodium was one of the last strong points held by Jewish rebels fighting against the Romans, and it was conquered and destroyed by Roman forces in A.D. 71, a year after they destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Pretty cool!