Posted on the Constitution Party website. Excerpt:
by Mary Starrett
Constitution Party Communications DirectorIn 1934, a French mathematician concluded that bees should not be able to fly. After all, he reasoned, their small wing-to-body-size ratio showed they simply should not be able to pull off lift off. His empirical data showed that bees did not have what it takes to do what they did and had done for millennia.
Glad the bees paid no mind to Frenchy, because they might have taken the math whiz’s conclusion to heart and grounded themselves. After all, when all the calculations were in, the ‘facts’ showed bees can’t fly.
Of course, that’s nonsense, as anyone who’s actually observed a bee suspended in mid air knows. Bees can fly just fine, thank you.
Years later, a Caltech biologist worked on the conundrum and found that sure enough, honey bees don’t have an easy time of it because of their wing size and other challenges. He discovered that though bees have a harder time flying than other insects, they not only fly, but hover, even when loaded down with a full tank of nectar.
While most insects move their wings in long motions at about 200 beats a second, honeybees flap in short strokes at over 240 beats per second.
In other words, they have to work harder to fly.
In much the same way, nay-sayers have been busy as bees explaining why we could never expect a third party to get lift-off; that given the size of third party wings they should never be able to fly. But we who look beyond the ‘conclusions’ of the ‘experts’ say “nonsense.”
We must work harder to fly, but like the bees, we think it will ultimately be worth the extra effort.
8 responses so far ↓
1 hogarth // Dec 12, 2008 at 3:01 pm
“Glad the bees paid no mind to Frenchy…”
“Frenchy” seems rather … unnecessary here. Rude, even.
A blot on an otherwise engaging essay.
I just scanned the entire piece – it quotes Eric Dondero – approvingly.
2 paulie cannoli // Dec 12, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Starrett writes
A political writer named Eric Dondero recently opined that hot-shot political strategists’ post mortem on the GOP’s 2008 loss is way off base. He notes the “experts†say the GOP went down in flames because the party wasn’t “centrist†( read ‘leftist’) enough!
Based on that mistaken notion the writer warns:
“Move the (Republican) Party more to the Center for… 2012, and watch how the Libertarian Party and Constitution Party’s vote totals increase. Watch how many more voters on the Right get disenchanted with the GOP, and just stay home.â€
Americans are tired of seeing the supposed “conservative†party sell out on issues like gun rights, abortion, illegal immigration, undeclared wars, exporting of jobs through NAFTA and GATT and the great “bail-out†bank heist of 2008.
She should read some of what E*** D****** R******* has to say about abortion and those undeclared wars.
3 RedPhillips // Dec 12, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I doubt that Starrett is familiar with Dondero, but you know what they say about broken clocks.
4 Trent Hill // Dec 12, 2008 at 3:49 pm
……I’m going to have to email Ms. Starrett and warn her about quoting dondero,lol.
5 RedPhillips // Dec 12, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Everyone here knows how anti-PC I am, but I thought “frenchy” was gratuitous as well.
Anglo America has a long history of unjustified French hate, but much of the current French hate is ironically based on their refusal to toe the American foreign policy line on the War, a War which Ms. Starrett and the CP opposed.
http://etherzone.com/2004/phil112904.shtml
6 Trent Hill // Dec 12, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Red,
Very good explanation.
7 RedPhillips // Dec 12, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Thanks.
8 Melty Rox // Dec 12, 2008 at 11:05 pm
I, for one, am fond of slurs, like “frenchy.” I’m part French but mostly Kraut.
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