my, how things have progressed since I posted last night and went to bed..(well-fed)....

Ceitagh...I, too, am wary of plans to 'contain population growth'...and I said 'third world', because growth HAS slowed a lot in the US and Europe...gradually, the ratio between the 'developed' and not-so-developed countries is changing...and the have-nots now HAVE TV & internet and can SEE what they are missing...I have no idea who is to say what the 'proper' ratio should be, either in population or calories.(Well, actually, I do...in a perfect world, EVERYONE would have enough room, food and fair access to what they needed for a fulfilling life...)but we passed the population level for that possibility about 1937.

It ain't easy...there are NO simple ways to feed us all, even if catspaw mails ALL his spare spuds to poor folk, and...even if manna fell from Heaven every day...(anyone ever read Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld"?), there is simply a finite amount of room for malls, graves, golf courses, and condos.

I sure don't want the job of **DECIDING** how to reduce the population, but at some point, the population WILL be reduced, if not by plan, then by nature. (ever follow the progress of a bunch of rats in a cage as they overbreed?...even when they are fed enough, it is not a pretty sight. And the Earth is simply a rat cage on a very large scale without an infinite food supply)

Kim has a point, of sorts...better distribution of available food is a fine idea, but we cant GET food to central Ethiopia when we try!...and 'enough' food is even in doubt...have you read the articles about the overfishing of the Grand Banks?..Do you WANT to eat nothing but spiced soy and plankton?...Did you see the movie "Soylent Green"?....silly?..maybe in your lifetime, but your great-grandchildren may be asking "Why didn't they DO something back then?"

...and I'm telling you something you really need to be aware of...hungry, desperate, crowded, angry people will behave like rats in a cage in certain circumstances. If YOU have a potato, and HE has none and wants it...how far will YOU go to keep it from him? will you share it? Will he setttle for half a potato? Could I be wrong about how serious it is gonna be? Maybe...but we can't afford for me to be right, can we?

Gee, I started out to throw a few jokes into this post, but it didn't seem to work that way, did it? Sorry, folks...I have several buttons. Definitions of folk music is the easy one.....this pushed the serious one...