> Pete, there is plenty of evidence that bees are not going to go extinct due to varroa.  To the best of my knowledge, the only place that this has

Nowhere in anything I have ever said have I implied or suggested that Apis mellifera is liable to go extinct. Other species of bees have been identified as critically imperiled or possibly extinct (Bombus franklini).

> Actually, evolutionary pressures are generally increased, due to selective breeding.  

Breeding makes use of the mechanisms of evolution (eg adaptation) but it is not evolution. Evolution is non-directional, it's a race and the outcome is not predictable. Breeding is deliberate, isolates the population from the normal pressures of disease, environment, etc. Evolution has produced many amazing, resilient and bizarre species, but it is doubtful whether many of the man created breeds would have ever arisen in nature. 

> I can't think of any other livestock requires continual suppression of a parasite that would otherwise lead to the death of that animal in a relatively short time.

I have been told by several dairymen that they couldn't keep their herds alive without antibiotics. Now this may be due to the fact that they are kept in extremely close conditions, rather than free ranging, but that is the condition they are in.

> I'm just not buying all the weak arguments of the naysayers. 

You sound like a proselytizer here. Skeptics are essential to science, they aren't welcome at pep rallies.

* * *

The Difference Between A Skeptic and a Cynic

Skeptic, one who maintains a doubting attitude with reference to some particular question or statement. Also, one who is habitually inclined rather to doubt than to believe any assertion or apparent fact that comes before him.

1870   M. D. Conway  A Sceptic, then, is one who shades his eyes in order to look steadfastly at a thing.

Cynic, A person disposed to rail or find fault; now usually: One who shows a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions; a sneering fault-finder.

1879   G. Meredith  Cynics are only happy in making the world as barren to others as they have made it for themselves.

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