Yet, it's mostly "left leaning" folks who are working overtime in the hopes
that none of us "amateur" conchologists can ever again take a live specimen
(and most probably dead as well) and ruin the "beach experience" for the
rest of humanity........but most likely for themselves.

Chris Brown
----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Ross Mayhew" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 3:51 PM
Subject: No "venom" (or even snakes!!) involved.


> The sideways suggestion has been made that it is improper to hypothesise
> or opine in this *discussion* list, upon such highly relevant matters as
> the decline of interest in, teaching of, and basing of public policies (
> such as those which affect our oceans and other waterways, hence the
> molluscan populations they contain......) upon solid, relevant science.
> I submit that such discussions are indeed germaine to the interests of
> such a sceince-based pursuit such as Conchology, and that we shouldn't
> steer clear from  potential controversy in the name of sticking
> rigorously to a tightly-defined notion of what precisely is "on topic"
> for such a forum as this.  Granted, we should rigorously steer clear of
> such matters as partisan politics, but general references to "right" and
> "left" - leaning ideologies should not be out of bounds so long as the
> material being discussed is in fact relevant to the aims and interests
> of many on the list.     An overly-strict interpretation of exactly what
> is "permissible" to say in any discussion group, tends to send a chill
> throughout the entire discourse.  So long as a posting has significant
> resonance with the purposes of the group as a whole (for example,
> ecologically-based articles on coral reefs, where a large proportion of
> shell-bearing molluscs happen to live), i see no cause for taking
> offence or accusing people of being "venom-spitting" miscreants for
> perhaps stepping on a toe or two. (and "for the record", i do not see
> many "left-leaning" folks doing their share  of the heavy-handed
> science-bashing going on in our society as a whole.......  there does
> indeed seem to be a high degree of correlation between mistrust of and
> hesitancy to accept the validity of the scientific method in general,
> and certain varieties of ideological stance.)
>
> From a territory where there are no venomous reptiles at all,
> ross mayhew.
>
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