Looks like California's cows have been getting a little something extra in their diet -- rocket fuel. It gives all new meaning to those "cows with attitude" California chees commercials, doesn't it?
Seriously, this is a direct result of not properly enforcing the Clean Water Act, which is in the process of being gutted by the Bush Administration -- along with most of our other environmental laws. I fully understand that the impetus behind stripping out environmental protection is that the big-business folks don't want to spend the money to do things right, and that the rapture-oriented conservative Christians of the George W. Bush and John Ashcroft mold think it isn't important because the end of world is nigh, but I would think that keeping this stuff out of our water would just be common sense. Why get sick before the "End Times" arrive because we couldn't be bothered to take reasonable precautions?
That, and I'm pretty sure that when God gave Adam dominion over the beasts of the fields, he didn't mean poison them. Of course, that's just my interpretation. I'm not being flip here. The interpretation of that passage can be (and has been) used to justify animal cruelty, mindless polluting, and hunting/fishing various species to extinction. Surely the Creator did not intend for us to despoil and pillage the planet.
So I have this question: does anyone out there know if "dominion" could be translated as "stewardship" or anything else in ancient Hebrew, Latin, or Greek? There are most definitely other disputes in translating bits of Genesis (the most glaring is the translation of "rib" when God creates Eve. Some sources say that it could also be translated as "soul", which is an entirely different animal.)
Posted by Chris at June 23, 2004 03:49 PM