Mustang Rambles

Reading the paper today, I learned about another potential crisis that could have terrible ramifications on Earth, a SOLAR STORM. It seems that the sun is scheduled to enter into a period of higher sunspot activity. A sunspot is a solar storm. The newest wacko scientist says a terrible solar storm could do awful things here on earth. Yes, it could, just as it could any given day in our history. Some storms have been worse that others, but, generally, most of the damage is limited to spectacular shows of the Aurora Borealis. There is no panic today in my household.

Just the other day, I read where some scientists, when faced with a wimpy swine flu, announced that a “mutated swine flu” could be really bad! The flu might actually mutate into a KILLER! True, it might, but probably not, and my household hasn’t bought a mask yet. I fear the normal flu much more, and have a much higher dread of nationalized health care, having been subject to military health care for forty years.

These scares are typical of our scientific community and have been exhibited over the past few decades as we worry about the killer quake that will break California off from the continent, the killer asteroid that will destroy the earth, the killer tsunami that will overwhelm the East Coast, the super volcano in Yellowstone that will destroy the human race, the super bugs that will kill everyone because we have no immunity, and the super failure of banks that will cause us all to starve and go to war with each other. All these things have been predicted and the alarm raised by scientists who fear the great RATIONAL REALIZATION that the tons of money pouring down academia’s research grant funnel may be turned off.

While there is a very, very remote chance that any of these things will happen, there is even a remoter chance that we can significantly change the outcome if something does happen. I think that the odds are getting greater every year that I will attend a scientific conference and flail all these alarmists with a frozen mackerel. Let’s see them publicize that disaster!

Just as it happened to “The Boy Who Called Wolf”, respect for the scientific community is lost every time a new catastrophe has its alarm raised.