Redux?

Well ... let's stop and think about this for a second. What happened in Japan was horrible. I don't think there's any doubt about that. But could it happen here in Ohio? Possible. But not likely. Think of it this way: We're not that near a fault in Ohio, so while we could have an earthquake, it almost certainly won't be a 9.0 as what happened in Japan. We actually did have an earthquake back when I was in high school. It was in 1984 or 1985, if I remember correctly. I was laying in bed listening to music and the bed moved. I thought my father had moved the bed, but he wasn't in the room. Granted, nothing fell over and the movement was very slight, but it happened. So an earthquake in Ohio? It's already happened - but nowhere near a 9.0. Second, the tsunami - which literally means "harbour wave." Is it possible to have a tsunami in Ohio? Possible, yes. Just not likely. For one to happen an asteroid would have to crash into the ocean, something like what happened 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs got wiped out. What's the point? Well, many people are now getting worried about nuclear reactors. Granted, the worst hasn't happened yet in Japan, but it could very well get much much worse. " The Japanese government's nuclear safety agency has decided to raise the crisis level of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7, the worst on the international scale. " (*1) Still, the point is that here in Ohio, we're not likely to have a 9.0 earthquake or a monster tsunami, so our nuclear plants don't need to be built to withstand them. But many people are now getting worried about nuclear reactors. And then there's the problem of nuclear waste. But let's also consider this article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42539862 " The global overreaction from this rare 9.0 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami that followed may set back the safest and easiest way for this country to solve its energy crisis, investors said. “The Fukushima meltdown may mark a high point in anti-nuclear hysteria,” " Anti-nuclear hysteria. You can say that again. If you really really want to have something to worry about, let's consider something Dr. Michio Kaku said on Coast to Coast AM: " Well, I think we should first of all admit that the Atoms for Peace Program (*2) let the cat out of the bag. I'm a physicist. There's no law of physics really separating commercial from weapons technology - it's the same technology. You just increase the enrichment level from 3 per cent to 90 per cent - that's it, that's the difference. " The Indians (as in India, the country) discovered this, that's why they detonated their first bomb in the 1970's, using an experimental CANDU (*4) reactor. They took this Atoms for Peace Program, which was never designed to make bombs, but the physics is the same. The Indians were not stupid, they surreptitiously (*5) refined the nuclear waste and they detonated their first bomb in the 1970's. " And now we have this technology proliferating all over the place. Take a look at North Korea. North Korea has uranium technology, which shocked us, we didn't think they had uranium technology, and where did they get it? " The New York Times says they got it from Pakistan. Well, where did Pakistan get this uranium technology from? Essentially from Germany and the United States. We allowed that technology to flood into Pakistan during the Afghan War, when Ronald Reagan was opposing the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. And he wanted a billion dollars a day to go to the Afghan rebels, well, that's ok, but what happened was the Pakistanis wanted something in exchange. " When you really get your hands around it, the United States winked at Pakistan, Pakistan winks at North Korea, and then we're shocked when North Korea comes up with uranium enrichment technology. " A lot of countries are not stupid. They know there is almost no difference between weapons technology and commercial technology except the enrichment level, which of course affects the chemistry a bit. But it's basically the enrichment level (*3) that you want, and the Iranians, believe it or not, are absolutely correct in stating that all they want is commercially available technology from Russia. " And President Clinton was the first American President to admit that commercial technology, which is legally available, can be used to make atomic bombs. " And the Iranians were saying "Now, wait a minute. We obeyed the letter of the law. You set the rules. You made the rules. The West made the rules, we followed the rules, " and yeah, the Iranians apparently want to build an atomic bomb and they're using commercial technology to do it. " (*1) - http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_05.html http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/faq/?categoryID=1 (*2) - Atoms for Peace - http://www.iaea.org/About/history_speech.html (*3) - http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/intro.html A 'typical' nuclear reactor uses 3% enriched uranium. A 'breeder' reactor uses 20% enriched uranium. An atomic weapon uses 90% enriched uranium. (*4) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor (*5) - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surreptitiously

Those Damn Nuke Reactors!!

Well ... let's stop and think about this for a second. What happened in Japan was horrible. I don't think there's any doubt about that. But could it happen here in Ohio? Possible. But not likely. Think of it this way: We're not that near a fault in Ohio, so while we could have an earthquake, it almost certainly won't be a 9.0 as what happened in Japan. We actually did have an earthquake back when I was in high school. It was in 1984 or 1985, if I remember correctly. I was laying in bed listening to music and the bed moved. I thought my father had moved the bed, but he wasn't in the room. Granted, nothing fell over and the movement was very slight, but it happened. So an earthquake in Ohio? It's already happened - but nowhere near a 9.0. Second, the tsunami - which literally means "harbour wave." Is it possible to have a tsunami in Ohio? Possible, yes. Just not likely. For one to happen an asteroid would have to crash into the ocean, something like what happened 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs got wiped out. What's the point? Well, many people are now getting worried about nuclear reactors. Granted, the worst hasn't happened yet in Japan, but it could very well get much much worse. " The Japanese government's nuclear safety agency has decided to raise the crisis level of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7, the worst on the international scale. " (*1) Still, the point is that here in Ohio, we're not likely to have a 9.0 earthquake or a monster tsunami, so our nuclear plants don't need to be built to withstand them. But many people are now getting worried about nuclear reactors. And then there's the problem of nuclear waste. But let's also consider this article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42539862 " The global overreaction from this rare 9.0 magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami that followed may set back the safest and easiest way for this country to solve its energy crisis, investors said. “The Fukushima meltdown may mark a high point in anti-nuclear hysteria,” " Anti-nuclear hysteria. You can say that again. If you really really want to have something to worry about, let's consider something Dr. Michio Kaku said on Coast to Coast AM: " Well, I think we should first of all admit that the Atoms for Peace Program (*2) let the cat out of the bag. I'm a physicist. There's no law of physics really separating commercial from weapons technology - it's the same technology. You just increase the enrichment level from 3 per cent to 90 per cent - that's it, that's the difference. " The Indians (as in India, the country) discovered this, that's why they detonated their first bomb in the 1970's, using an experimental CANDU (*4) reactor. They took this Atoms for Peace Program, which was never designed to make bombs, but the physics is the same. The Indians were not stupid, they surreptitiously (*5) refined the nuclear waste and they detonated their first bomb in the 1970's. " And now we have this technology proliferating all over the place. Take a look at North Korea. North Korea has uranium technology, which shocked us, we didn't think they had uranium technology, and where did they get it? " The New York Times says they got it from Pakistan. Well, where did Pakistan get this uranium technology from? Essentially from Germany and the United States. We allowed that technology to flood into Pakistan during the Afghan War, when Ronald Reagan was opposing the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. And he wanted a billion dollars a day to go to the Afghan rebels, well, that's ok, but what happened was the Pakistanis wanted something in exchange. " When you really get your hands around it, the United States winked at Pakistan, Pakistan winks at North Korea, and then we're shocked when North Korea comes up with uranium enrichment technology. " A lot of countries are not stupid. They know there is almost no difference between weapons technology and commercial technology except the enrichment level, which of course affects the chemistry a bit. But it's basically the enrichment level (*3) that you want, and the Iranians, believe it or not, are absolutely correct in stating that all they want is commercially available technology from Russia. " And President Clinton was the first American President to admit that commercial technology, which is legally available, can be used to make atomic bombs. " And the Iranians were saying "Now, wait a minute. We obeyed the letter of the law. You set the rules. You made the rules. The West made the rules, we followed the rules, " and yeah, the Iranians apparently want to build an atomic bomb and they're using commercial technology to do it. " (*1) - http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_05.html http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/faq/?categoryID=1 (*2) - Atoms for Peace - http://www.iaea.org/About/history_speech.html (*3) - http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/intro.html A 'typical' nuclear reactor uses 3% enriched uranium. A 'breader' reactor uses 20% enriched uranium. An atomic weapon uses 90% enriched uranium. (*4) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor (*5) - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surreptitiously

Sorry 'bout that!

Well, the formatting was really screwy on that last post, wasn't it? Sorry 'bout that!

NY Times Op-Ed Gets it Wrong - in my opinion

The link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/opinion/11mon1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion You'll notice, I hope, that it is an Op-Ed piece. That means we're about to get the writer's opinion. And what an opinion it is. " The federal government survived the hostage crisis created by House Republicans, but emerged staggering from the deal struck Friday night. The compromises were damaging, the amount of money cut from a sickly economy was severe, and the image of Washington as a back-alley dogfighting garage will not soon fade. " And it went downhill from there. This was a "...hostage crisis..." that was created by those damn Republicans! Really? Let's examine this: $14,000,000,000,000 or 14TRILLION in debt. And about 4T of that added on Obama's watch. That's more debt than was created by all Presidents from Washington to Reagan ... combined. But let's take some time and do some math, here. Chuck Shumer called the Republican cuts "extreme." But just how "extreme" were they? " The cuts represent less than 2 percent of the total budget, less than 4 percent of the deficit, and less than 5 percent of discretionary spending, which rose in real terms by 75 percent from 2000 to 2010 and by about 9 percent in each of the last two fiscal years. " (*1) (Link is left intact) And yet the NYT had this to say: " The worst aspect of the deal, however, was the momentum it gave to Republicans who have hoodwinked many Americans into believing that short-term cuts in spending will be good for the economy. After the agreement was reached, President Obama actually patted himself on the back for agreeing to the “largest annual spending cut in our history.” " Hoodwinked? Come on. The worst will be yet to come, however. Mr. O'Reilly on Fox News called that Op-Ed piece "marching orders" that the media will follow. He said, rightly so in my opinion, that many "impartial" journalists will do stories about how bad the Republican's cuts will make things. He's right on, in my opinion. So much for the "impartial" and "unbiased" media. (*1) - http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/extreme-budget-cuts/

An Open Letter to Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Dear Rep. Kucinich;

Mr. Kucinich; for reference, my correspondence with you today will focus on several articles both in newspaper and in Internet form.

Sir, I do realize that I am not in your district, therefore the odds of my actually hearing from you are somewhere along the lines of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) actually producing a black hole. Yes, it is possible in theory and on paper. However, according to the equations, the odds against this are several hundred trillion to one against. Possible? Yes, in theory. Likely? It could happen but almost certainly not before our universe ends. The equations are complex and (at least to a physicist) beautiful, but they aren’t for the faint of heart. Which leads me to explain why I’m contacting you today.

The next part of my letter to you will reference the article located here: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/01/rep_dennis_kucinich_sues_cafet.html

As you can tell, it’s about your suing the cafeteria due to an olive pit in your meal. Mr. Kucinich, if a simple olive pit is going to sideline you, I shudder to think of how you’d react to some of the vitriol that no doubt makes its way into your email box. No doubt, you’d need an entire team of therapists to deal with it … and that is assuming you see it to begin with.

And this is the part that’s going to lead you (or one of your ilk) to possibly plunder my records yet again. I say yet again because it wasn’t only “Joe the Plumber’s” records that were plundered when he dared to question Mr. Obama. I wrote about it on my blog and I’ve no doubt that my records were also plundered. Do I know this and can I prove it? No. To both questions. However, when I dared to confront the AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) about their ‘tea-bagger’ advert, they sent me to a web site that doesn’t exist (and still doesn’t as of this writing) and then quietly deep-sixed it.

Allow me to level the playing field Mr Kucinich by taking both of your favourite playing cards off the table. These are the race card and the gender card. Here is a link to something I’m now very tired of reposting: http://gregb1967.blogspot.com/2009/08/article-let-them-eat-cake-democrats.html

Those are the facts and they haven’t changed since before the 2008 election. Those two cards are now off the table. I’m now going to mention health care reform, but again, I’m going to level the playing field. Your anti-reform card is off the table as well. Here is that link: http://gregb1967.blogspot.com/2010/06/dissecting-5-facts-about-anti-reform.html

On that posting, I gave Ms Miller three different chances to find one fact that is wrong. Only one. Mr Kucinich, I never heard from her.

But now your three favourite cards are off the table. For review, these are the race card, the gender card, and the anti-health care reform card. You cannot call any of these cards into play.

But I do have a couple of very serious questions for you, Mr Kucinich.

First, did you read the health care reform bill in its entirety?

Second, are you aware that the bill Mr Obama signed does indeed require me to pay to help fund abortions? As a Born-Again Christian (and this is where I take your ‘idiot’ card away … for that see the 5 facts article) I cannot morally agree with this. Again, Mr Kucinich your ‘idiot’ card is off the table.

I’m also going to take away your name-calling card and request that you (and I as well) follow Mr Obama’s call for civility.

Again, for review, your favourite playing cards (race, gender, anti-reform, idiot and name-calling) are off the table. You cannot call them into play.

My next question is are you aware that after 5 years at the same job you’ll be required to purchase the ObamaCare?

Next, are you aware that the bill Mr Obama signed requires me to pay a fine or face jail time unless I purchase the new ObamaCare?

And Mr Kucinich, if Mr Obama’s healthcare bill is so wonderful and will fix so many things and isn’t “onerous” then why has the list of waivers grown to over 700?

Mr Kucinich, I’m going to leave you by quoting from Jack Webb as he played Det. Sgt. Joe Friday in Dragnet.

“That isn’t what you told the investigating officers at the scene, fella.”

“Well, I had to protect myself. You understand, don’tcha?

“I understand that either you lied to the investigating officers or you’re lying to us now. Now how about it?”

“You want the truth, don’t you? Well you’re getting it. The least you could do is try to believe it.”


“You make it kind of hard to buy.”

Now how about it, Mr Kucinich? I await what in all probability will be a long and echoing silence.

Chertoff got sweatheart deal on TSA scanners; Claim

The link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH-dpkJZiOM

Article: Man arrested after punching TSA screener in Indy

The link: http://www.indystar.com/article/20101117/NEWS02/11170365/Man-arrested-after-punching-Indianapolis-TSA-screener?odyssey=tabtopnewstextCommunities

Here's the really laughable part:

" Jim Fotenos, spokesman for the Transportation Security Agency, said in an airport police report, "Our transportation security officers work on the front lines to protect the nation from a terrorist attack and physical violence against them is shameful. TSA will work with local authorities to see that appropriate action is taken." " (emphasis and colour added)

Apparently, they don't if you're a Muslim woman. Here's that link: http://gregb1967.blogspot.com/2010/11/obama-gives-pass-no-touch-muslims-junk.html

Now let's review.

The United States was attacked on 11-SEPT-2001 by people who crashed planes into the WTC and the Pentagon.

Were these people ... Catholic Nuns? Nope. But you sure can frisk them!!

Were these people ... Boy Scouts? Nope. But you can frisk them too.

Were these people ... Girl Scouts? Nope. But they've gotta be frisked also!

Were these people ... SCREAMING TODDLERS?!? (link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=77140&tsp=1 ) Nope. But they've gotta be frisked!

Can't frisk Muslim women, however.