Diane Francis offers a modest proposal
Canadian Diane Francis suggests that China’s wonderful one-child-per-couple rule be extended to the entire planet, the better to combat all the environmental ills that the dastardly human race has inflicted on the earth:
A planetary law, such as China’s one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently, which is one million births every four days.
The world’s other species, vegetation, resources, oceans, arable land, water supplies and atmosphere are being destroyed and pushed out of existence as a result of humanity’s soaring reproduction rate…
For those who balk at the notion that governments should control family sizes, just wait until the growing human population turns twice as much pastureland into desert as is now the case, or when the Amazon is gone, the elephants disappear for good and wars erupt over water, scarce resources and spatial needs.
You can’t make this stuff up (although apparently Ms. Francis can). And no, it’s not the Onion (I’m getting tired of having to add that disclaimer).
And lest you think Diane Francis is some crackpot on the extreme fringe of political thought, take a look at her bio, which appears fairly mainstream, including “Shorenstein Fellow in fall 2006 at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government….[and] Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University’s Rogers School of Management.”
Massive government intrusion into human affairs prompted by environmentalist panic? Check. No concern whatsoever about an outdated old idea such as liberty? Check. Know-it-all academic claptrap? Check.
And if you’re not aware of the source of the title for this post, “A Modest Proposal” was the name Jonathan Swift gave to his famous satiric essay of 1729, in which he proposed and fleshed out (pun intended) in great detail his suggestion for the alleviation of poverty and starvation in Ireland: that the Irish eat their own surplus babies.
(Hat tip: Drudge.)
Hypocrisy much?
Saw these two items over at Small Dead Animals:
Diane Francis, February 2006 – I got married to a Brit, Frank Francis, at 19 years of age and one year later we immigrated to Canada, or Toronto to be precise. We started a graphic design and typesetting business, Francis Graphics, which became very successful. I left the business to stay at home with our two babies, Eric and Julie, for six years.
Diane Francis, December 2009 – “A planetary law, such as China’s one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently, which is one million births every four days.”
As SDA says, so which is it, Diane? Eric or Julie? Take your time.
You know, I’d be a lot more impressed with her “arguments” if they weren’t re-warmed versions of Paul Ehrlich (Sp?) ‘s claptrap.
And they’re wrong. ALL of them. I suspect the UN is cookign the population books. We know most of the industrial world is in population free fall and I think that the non-industrial world LIES. Partly because the UN gives benes per capita, partly out of macho pride.
Most Americans don’t understand that as spotty as our own census is, it’s probably the best in the world. Okay, maybe England and OZ are good too. Don’t know. I DO know that in all the other countries it’s mostly guess work and inflation.
From traveling I think that worldwide population is already headed down. Births certainly are, and when the boomers start dying, we will see total figures moving down. Fast.
Part of the reason we tend to think population is still growing, is the “invasion” of western countries by adherents to Islam, but no. It’s not so much that their population is sitll exploding. It’s more that they are THAT bad at providing for their people.
So, this is another cure for a problem that’s the opposite of what liberals think it is. Uh. JUST like climate. Cures for AGW while we are at risk of an ice age if the sunspot cycle doesn’t resume.
I see wrongheaded people!
I agree. There need to be fewer people on the planet. Since they came up with the brilliant idea, why don’t people like Ms. Francis lead the charge and undergo reproductive surgery?
There’s really no way to prove this, but I have the feeling that more carbon dioxide has been emitted from the mouths of angry environmentalists than from the activities of the energy companies they condemn.
– G
Of course, a “planetary law” requires a “planetary government” with a “planetary police force” funded by “planetary taxation”. Eventually it will require a “planetary military force” as well.
Those old John Birch Society types from the 1950s and 60s sure were paranoid nutcases, weren’t they?
Societies need relatively young people to do physically demanding tasks and dangerous work. They are also needed to pay the taxes for the elderly who require services. Societies (e.g. Japan) that do not have adequate fertility are eating their seed corn.
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government
There’s the tell. As far as I can see. that particular school is devoted to the nuts of the world. Holdren is another crackpot associated with that school.
Neo, perhaps you could have a “Not the Onion” tag to assign to posts like this. Then all the craziest (I want to use the s-word here but don’t remember if it’s okay on this blog) can be collected in one place. There would probably be no shortage of material but of course the tag would have the most impact if used judiciously.
Diane Francis:
The simple way to avoid that is for the human species to spread out and colonize space and other planets. And the best way for that to happen is to encourage freedom, which spurs human ingenuity; as opposed to a regimented society stifled by centralized regulation/strangulation.
There has been research showing that when births are limited, couples in some countries opt to have boys (females are aborted). This produces an oversupply of young men who create a great deal of instability. Here is one of dozens of reports on China:
http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/onechild.htm
Google effects of single child policy for more.
Here is a report frm Viet Nam, and there are similar ones from India.
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/2101
Catholic philosopher Alice von Hildebrand, wife of the deceased renowned philosopher Dietrich von Hildeband, argued some time ago that this was already a dark age. Meaning that on all continents the forces of darkness now seem to be stronger than the forces of goodness and truth, and the situation deteriorating steadily.
At the time I heard her say that I found it a bit strong. But when I read this (and many other things the last years) I more and more think she is correct.
Collective descent into evil is far more easy and rapid, than collective ascent towards goodness and truth. God help this spiritually confused and endarkened age…
This is one of the best proofs for how Orwellian todays liberalism has become. In no time in all of the history of the Christian West this kind of horrible government intrusion and oppression in the most intimate aspects of family life has ever been seriously proposed. In far poorer ages than this the ruling maxim always was: ‘the more souls, the more joy’.
This truly is a dark and evil thing.
Neo:
By the debased standards of the Canadian MSM, Diane Francis was considered to be a “conservative” voice. Of course many of these so-called conservatives were just the “B” team for when the stench of the Liberals and NDP became too much and the “Progressive Conservatives” were voted into power – socialist lite instead of socialist stout. Of course the bureacracy was solidly socialist so nothing ever changed.
Couldn’t wait to emigrate to the USA in 1999 to escape the tax gulag. Too bad I only got 10 years of freedom before statism caught up with me again in the last redoubt of true freedom on the planet.
Sadly this kind of elitist nonsense is commonplace amongst the international political class. Us dumb rubes need our betters to contol us for our own good and the good of the planet.
Let me guess, this Diane Francis probably thinks the Patriot Act was an infringement on our civil liberties.
“The simple way to avoid that is for the human species to spread out and colonize space and other planets.”
Let’s put all the progressives on a Golgafrincham Space Ark B. 🙂
“why don’t people like Ms. Francis lead the charge and undergo reproductive surgery?”
They can have a more immediate impact by putting plastic bags over their heads. 😉
If my jokes seem a bit harsh, remember what Thomas Jefferson said about the aspiring tyrants of his day: “I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny…”
When a postage stamp was issued with that quote, it was illustrated with a flaming sword.
Unfortunately, people like Ms. Francis are never the ones to do the right thing, lead from the front, and take one for the team, so to speak. She wants us to commit reproductive suicide, not her and her buddies. For our own good, you understand.
And Paul Ehrlich’s population theories were discredited years ago, but the left still cites them as if they were divine prophecy.
I’ll bet Ms. Francis would throw a fit if someone proposed outlawing all abortions.
But what she’s proposing is more draconian than that. And removes choice from the only people who should be making it.
Ah yes, she thinks everyone else should have just one child but she has two. Peter Singer thinks we should euthanize useless and sick old people, but he keeps his aged, ill mother alive. I see a pattern here but maybe I’m just a cynic.
On the other hand, the feminists will have nothing to say about this, which I point out just for anyone who thinks that when they say “pro-choice” they actually mean “choice.”
Some months back I heard about a Church whose female pastor was pushing the followoing two policies:
1) They would not seek new members .
2) Discourage births in order to save the planet.
I believe that is what you call organizational suicide.
Problem is, Western civilization is doing it even worse. They are following #2 while leaving the borders wide open.
NEo, or some other person here. What is the name for such widespread insanity – this push for civilizational suicide- that we see in Western Nations?
Even if every adult woman averaged two births, your population would still be in decline due to childhood deaths.
This is one of those things that angers me about the left. We are supposed to leave our borders wide open, then stop having children.
Bring back Shakers…
(shaking quakers)..
if ya need some pics i have some lovely ones of their empty homes…
Norman Borlaug. Google his name. A man who has received far too little recognition.
—
This woman is an idiot. She should sign up with the eco-freak societies that preach suicide. Maybe she will be happy to sacrifice her children on the alter of environmentalism?
But of course not! Do as I say, not as I do! Totalitarian nutjobs.
Dangerous.
Yes, Diane Francis says, “…just wait until the growing human population turns twice as much pastureland into desert as is now the case, or when the Amazon is gone, the elephants disappear for good and wars erupt over water, scarce resources and spatial needs.” And, you know, she’s right. Because wars have NEVER BEFORE erupted over water, scarce resources, or spatial needs!
Um. . . Lebensraum, anyone?
I must be getting senile. I thought the Left was big on womens’ reproductive rights.
The population density of the U.S. is about one-tenth that of western Europe. Much of the woodlands in the U.S. was cleared and used for farming two hundred years ago. We have lots of room for more people if we could just get them to quit living on top of each other. The idea that forests are a higher priority than people is daft.
bob,
they define womens reproductive rights only in terms of being allowed to prevent or off your own child. thats it. margeret sangers negro project renamed planned parenthood, whose purpose is the same eugenics as the one child idea. disguised as womens reproductive rights… however if they really were concerned they would not just stand up for much of what they claim, for only women. they would not give such bad advice that harms so many (and drives them to the abortionist or other ideas including lesbianism as a way to make a male free society).
so almost as long as the word feminism was created it has not been what it claimed to be! its ALWAYS been about socialim/communism. they play a neat trick extending it back to before them by pulling in others womens groups that would be appalled. its basis was a farce (meade) in the same way agw is a farce… except we dont know all the crap. we just know the marketing lines and what they claim, but we dont compare that with outcomes and with what women say they want.
funny, a race to the bottom by unleashing womens sexuality is not what they promised, they promised new hights of expression, poetry, womens energies unleashed. but they had read luckaks, and new about hungry and the process, and those listening to them didnt, and wanted to believe the end. just as everyone wanted to believe in obama the savior. hows that hopey changey thing?
once you understand that what these movements are, are mass lies that elites like to push on average people in their attempt to social engineer a future. forget now, bring tomorrow faster. and they can only think that the future should be made of such smart people like them. people who never make mistakes (just dont have enough resources), people willing to save the future (by killing the people that disgust them (despite loving their foods, and trinkets)).
for me they are a people that have a huge lack of vision and who have learned a false story about the world. why? because the trick they are thinking they are so clever playing on the average joe in some mass collusion against that. is the trick that real smarter people with real world knowlege are playing on them!! making them the tools in the way they claim as happens everywhere, but doesnt.
ah well.. back to my coffee…
i should mention that such people are testing the waters. they are trying to figure out whether enough children have been edumacated into these ideas and concepts that people will accept it. if she stood up and said that before the 60s revolution, what would be the outcome? in the 70s? how bout now? now we are freely discussing those kooky ideas they are crowing, before we would have been angry of them suggesting such a thing (as then we would have been able to compare and not reletivate)
no one is upset that van jones is still having input to these people in state, and they are thinking of connecting the gulag system to the economic system (ie labor camps).
meanwhile, they are not realizeing that the people outside the US are using them and will not let the US completely change into a communist state with such military power over all the others. they are right now first plucking the chicken…
Ironic that this very morning, 12/12, the Washington Post has an article on China’s problems resulting from 3 decades of one child policy. Their population is aging rapidly.
Of course low birth rate is something of a problem throughout the developed world. Population explosion is a problem in specific parts of the world, and in specific sorts of cultures. But, to point that out would be profiling. Would it not?
i also should mention that this consensus method and set of ideals is EXACTLY the same as germany in the 20s. its a desire to improve the race by leaving the planet to the elites. its been reformed to be more palatable, but if you cant tell that abortion = eugenics, despite it starting as a eugenic invention (as was the pill), then you certainly cant see or understand a obfuscated version of social darwinism hidden in scientific socialism (communism).
go back and read the originators, and then when its understood what 2+5 is… then come to today and see what 5+2 is.. and dont make false dichotomies where there are none, and dont stitch up real dichotomies into irrelevency for this is how information becomes disinformation.
you dont actually lie, you distort.
you dont rip out the steering wheel, you pull it to one side at random times
Has anyone noticed that Ezekial Emanuel, the administration’s version of Adolph Eichmann, who desires to take the lead in artificially reducing the population of the elderly by denying them health care, has disappeared from public view while the House and Senate debate their monster health care bills. They probably have him stashed in some subterranean vault under the White House. He might even be chained to the walls so that he doesn’t escape and tell us the truth about what the administration wants to achieve in passing this unwanted legislation. Want to bet that he suddenly reappears in the news the day (or the day after) Obama signs some crappy health care bill into law, lauding the need for the new “death panels”, which he concedes are very appropriate names for the 114 or so new agencies to be created for the purpose of denying us needed health care.
Ms. Francis forgets that most of the the industrialized nations are experiencing population growth at or below replacement level and that the main actors in the planet’s population growth are the developing nations of the world.
So why is she preaching this tripe to us and not those who are multiplying like rabbits? More liberal guilt? Why, for that matter isn’t she taking her own advice?
It just reinforces my opinion that so called modern liberalism is based upon extreme self-loathing. Self-loathing coupled with cowardice and hypocrisy. Neo, you’re so right, you just can’t make this stuff up.
The only comfort, albeit small and cold comfort that I take from all of this is that in watching the ever accelerating pace of liberal/progressive stupidity and foolishness, I am beginning to sense a desperation. The desperation of those who understand that the game is up, so they furiously double down because soon they or at least their ideas are about to be consigned to the dust bin of history. (We will always have meddlesome busybodies who want to tell everyone else how to live.)
I await the coming elections, here and in Europe, especially Britain to see if my hunch is right or wrong. We either wake up and collectively bitch-slap these fools and tell them to go and mind their own business or we continue our descent into the new dark ages with these fools at the helm.
In her list of books:
http://www.dianefrancis.com/books.php
she has one that makes her look like a nationalist with conservative tendencies.
From the excerpt:
Underground Nation
The Secret Economy and the Future of Canada
ISBN – 1550136127
$21.95 (Paperback)
Canadians are leaving their country in droves. They are hiding their savings in offshore tax havens or, like Florida snowbirds, retiring south of the Canada-U.S. border. Heading in the same direction are firms fed up with the red tape and rapacious taxation policies of successive Canadian governments.
Meanwhile, millions of immigrants, refugees and illegal aliens have entered Canada specifically to take advantage of the most generous and comprehensively mismanaged system of health and social benefits in the world. Their cheating costs Canadians billions of dollars annually. Canadian governments either deny that it’s happening or helplessly wring their hands.
The fact is, Canada’s political leader have been so out of touch with Canadian reality for so long that a kind of resigned alienation has set in among the people they govern. The tax burden, bureaucratic over-regulation, unfair labor laws, and the obsession with Quebec have combined to divide citizens and rulers with results that may well be disastrous. Canada will not survive as a seperate nation if things go on as they are.
Then again… in Diane’s blog
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/default.aspx
you see this ugly gem that shows how black Diane’s heart is:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2009/11/18/i-love-sarah-palin.aspx
excerpt:
Palin, former Republican vice presidential candidate, with her narcissism, loopy religious beliefs and latest book with its attacks on everyone and everything is the best “news” to come along for months. After all, Britney Spears is on meds and under control and the dysfunctional football players and rap stars are in jail or on parole for beating girlfriends or dogs or rival brutes.
Yes I love Sarah Palin because she will divide the Republican Party and marginalize it for a few elections unless the GOP gets its act together. She already demonstrated that she, with God and Todd on Her side, will vanquish those who trespass against those time-honored, minority views concerning abortion or universal health care.
Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/default.aspx#ixzz0ZUbQPjVw
The Financial Post is now on Facebook. Join our fan community today.
OK folks – there is no doubt
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2009/11/10/health-care-reform-will-happen.aspx
This post on U.S. Healthcare shows me a fascist socialist dictator type of person.
Freedom? Liberty? Free Markets? Not for Diane. She is so in love with her brain that she thinks she knows it all and can make every country better if only she were in power.
Excerpt:
These are the reasons why Republicans and the Senate should, and will, pass some form of health care reform. A Canadian or European-style health care tab would eventually shave 5% in costs off the U.S. economy of US$13.8 trillion and another 3% by eliminating litigious ambulance chasers.
This is not pie in the sky. Governments outside the U.S. deliver medical care better than does America’s mixed public-private sector system. The proof exists all over the world except in the minds of partisan ignoramuses defending the indefensible.
Time to do what’s right for America’s 307 million people.
First of all, Diane is so dumb and negligent – she doesn’t know that NONE of the D∅mana bills have tort reform in them.
Second, dumb is nice when she calls us all ignoramuses.
Is she smart? No. Is she civil? No. Is she becoming of a woman in the position she is in? No.
Neo writes with more clarity and civility than Diane by a factor of 100
Wow
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/francis/archive/2009/08/31/u-s-vat-tax-a-great-idea.aspx
Title of that post is “Americans are tax crybabies part II”
funny how people who live in a bad place think its good… but have little idea of what good is till they see it. and that people who live in really good places think they are bad because they are never good enough, and unlike the others, have no idea how good they have it till they no longer have it good and want it back..
= = = = =
It is New Year anniversary and an Old-age pensioner comes out with a placard saying: “We thank Comrade Obama for our happy childhood!!!”
A Liberal and a Community organizer rush up to him and say, “Have you gone mad? What childhood, old man? When you were a kid, Comrade Obama wasn’t even born!”. To which the pensioner replied: “That’s exactly what I want to thank him for!!!”.
= = = = = =
i am thinking of making a living performing on stage with rewritten soviet era jokes…
= = = = = =
here i will show you how well they work!!!!
A speaker tells his listeners, “The Obama ideal is already on the horizon.”
The audience silently wonders, “What IS a horizon?”
Answer: An imaginary line where the sky comes together with the earth; it moves off into the distance when you try to get closer.
thats another way to recognize the “change”
What’s the difference between communism and capitalism – under capitalism people exploit other people and under communism it’s the other way round
Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev has just returned from the US and is asked how Americans live. His answer: “Let them just try to build communism, and we’ll see how they succeed.”
The six dialectical contradictions of socialism:
There is full employment – yet no one is working.
No one is working – yet the factory quotas are fulfilled.
The factory quotas are fulfilled – yet the stores have nothing to sell.
The stores have nothing to sell – yet people got all the stuff at home.
People got all the stuff at home – yet everyone is complaining.
Everyone is complaining – yet the voting is always unanimous.
Without capitalism there’d be no Hollywood – yet filmmakers hate capitalism.
Filmmakers hate capitalism – yet they sue for unauthorized copying of their movies.
They sue for unauthorized copying – yet on screen they teach us to share.
On screen they teach us to share – yet they keep their millions to themselves.
They keep their millions to themselves – yet they revel in stories of American misery and depravity.
They revel in stories of American misery and depravity – yet they blame the resulting anti-American sentiment on conservatism.
They blame the anti-American sentiment on conservatism – yet conservatism ensures the continuation of a system that makes Hollywood possible.
these are based on a old formulea…
think of it as a modern day version of nursery rhymes…
Liberals have been in charge of education for 50 years – yet education is out of control.
Education is out of control – yet liberal teaching methods prevail.
Liberal teaching methods prevail – yet public schools are failing.
Public schools are failing – yet their funding keeps growing.
Their funding keeps growing – yet public schools are always underfunded.
Public schools are always underfunded – yet private schools yield better results for less.
Private schools yield better results for less – yet public education is the only way out of the crisis.
i figured if we cant do much, we can at least laugh
but i would advise you draw the curtains and dont let anyone see you. they might get jealous and have the state redistribute that happiness…
[you have the right to persue happiness… not to get it.. the state does all it can to make sure that this persuit is much like the rabbit at a race track. woe to the people when the state goes so far, that they dont think the rabbit worth it, and the card house falls]
‘Is it true that Marxism-Leninism is scientific?’ ‘No, surely not. If it were, they would have tested it on animals first.’
“How do you deal with mice in the White House?” “Put up a sign saying ‘collective’. Then half the mice will starve and the others will run away.”
Why doesn’t she do the right thing in reducing the surplus population by “offing” herself?…oh, right…they only want to “off” others. The Left loves to spill innocent blood.
Artfldgr I love you! Please keep writing. Any conservative that supports abortion hasn’t done their research… and you are spot on concerning government schools.
Horrifying. We have seen people from the academic Left who describe human beings as a “plague species.” This kind of talk doesn’t end well.
I bet a Progessive liberal would contend they know better than gravity what course a river should take.
Harking back to something Portia said at the top of the thread: If the leftists get what they want then next year the US census will also be rife with guesswork and inflation. It will be quite revealing to see which demographic segments will show growth. Hint: they will be tax receivers, and not taxpayers.
Someone remarked just today that all entitlement programs are Ponzi schemes that depend upon increased tax revenue from the coming generation to pay for promises made to their elders. Leftists like Francis are usually innumerate and don’t grasp that their redistribution programs require ever-increasing numbers of taxpayers to pay for the government’s ever-increasing obligations.
What a fool! If she paid attention to demographics, she’d know that population is decreasing.
“Just wait until the growing human population turns twice as much pastureland into desert as is now the case, or when the Amazon is gone, the elephants disappear for good….”
It’s not human population during pastureland into desert: it’s salination – some of it natural and some of it from just plain bad irrigation practices!
Elephants!? There is more money (resources) being poured into tigers, pandas and elephants then there is into AIDs. Not to mention, if she’s worried about species extinction, she should kill off CATS, which have been responsible for species endangerment in Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Not to mention, they don’t pay taxes or send remittances to their starving kind in other countries.
On a serious note, there is a tried and true method for reducing population: Get rid of vaccines and immunization for everyone except children and their legal guardians.
That will reduce the numbers of elderly, homeless, childless couples who live in McMansions, and half the Huffington Post.
Yeah, Diane Francis used to be the `conservative’ voice on some CBC programme years ago…
shows you how far to the left that organization was, even back then.
The other matter is, What planet is Diane Francis on?
Even the UN population lobby has been quiet these last few years, given the actual fact that without a higher birth rate, we’re going to see a collapse of population by the end of the century…
I wonder when these “population control” freaks are going to stop controlling the population? When there is no one left? After all, Germany had a population control measure that eventually wiped out 20 million people. And don’t forget the Russians who did in 40 million; and oh, Pol Pot–what six million? China is feeling its inability to produce female children; oh and India are killing their females as well–oh and what about the Muslims, who think females are second class humans. We can control populations by killing the females–yes that will work! Oh and maybe we can kill all black children (like Sanger wanted to do) and maybe just maybe we can finally control those immigrants by killing their children. We’ll have control over the human race–finally.