© 2010 Stan Spire
Your choice: a Republican or a Democrat: the evil of two lessers. (The Democrats are less evil.)
Article in the (news)paper referring to that Democratic debacle in Massachusetts over the US Senate seat race. After Ted Kennedy died, the legendary liberal Dem icon, it would seem that a Democrat would easily win that seat. Wrong. The Dems got overconfident, didn't campaign hard enough, and lost, those jerks. Republicans don't get elected as much as Democrats lose the election.
The headline to the article:
"After Mass. defeat, Dems focus on jobs"
Sure -- they're focusing on their jobs, how to stay in office.
As for the average American, screw your job, if you still have one.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Another True Fact
(C) 2010 Stan Spire
When I wrote my "Aren't Facts True?" post about the Vermont Yankee nuke power plant, I inferred the corporation that owns the facility, Entergy, was a bunch of liars.
At that time -- and I haven't seen it on lately -- Entergy was a running TeeVee ad with a PR bimbo going on how she wanted people to know about the "true facts" about Vermont Yankee. I'm always suspicious when someone has use "true" as an adjective for "fact."
The other day VY revealed that it made a "misstatement" regarding the existence of underground pipes circulating radioactive liquid. Originally it denied such pipes existed. But -- oops -- now they admit such pipes do exist.
In the past traces of tritium have shown up in water samples taken from groundwater outside the plant but Entergy said no underground pipes were causing the problem because such pipes didn't exist.
But Entergy wasn't lying -- it was only "misstating."
Vermont Guv Jim Doug-ass -- a Republican corporate shill -- looked upset and stunned on the TeeVee evening news regarding the underground pipe revelation. But despite the "misstatement," he still supports renewing the operating license of the aging nuke deathtrap.
Anyway, here's a fact for you, a true one.
At the EPA website it is stated:
"As with all ionizing radiation, exposure to tritium increases the risk of developing cancer. However, because it emits very low energy radiation and leaves the body relatively quickly, for a given amount of activity ingested, tritium is one of the least dangerous radionuclides. Since tritium is almost always found as water, it goes directly into soft tissues and organs. The associated dose to these tissues are generally uniform and dependent on the tissues' water content."
OK, tritium is less dangerous among cancer-causing agents, but is it still good for babies and other growing things?
Source: http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/tritium.html#peopleshealth
When I wrote my "Aren't Facts True?" post about the Vermont Yankee nuke power plant, I inferred the corporation that owns the facility, Entergy, was a bunch of liars.
At that time -- and I haven't seen it on lately -- Entergy was a running TeeVee ad with a PR bimbo going on how she wanted people to know about the "true facts" about Vermont Yankee. I'm always suspicious when someone has use "true" as an adjective for "fact."
The other day VY revealed that it made a "misstatement" regarding the existence of underground pipes circulating radioactive liquid. Originally it denied such pipes existed. But -- oops -- now they admit such pipes do exist.
In the past traces of tritium have shown up in water samples taken from groundwater outside the plant but Entergy said no underground pipes were causing the problem because such pipes didn't exist.
But Entergy wasn't lying -- it was only "misstating."
Vermont Guv Jim Doug-ass -- a Republican corporate shill -- looked upset and stunned on the TeeVee evening news regarding the underground pipe revelation. But despite the "misstatement," he still supports renewing the operating license of the aging nuke deathtrap.
Anyway, here's a fact for you, a true one.
At the EPA website it is stated:
"As with all ionizing radiation, exposure to tritium increases the risk of developing cancer. However, because it emits very low energy radiation and leaves the body relatively quickly, for a given amount of activity ingested, tritium is one of the least dangerous radionuclides. Since tritium is almost always found as water, it goes directly into soft tissues and organs. The associated dose to these tissues are generally uniform and dependent on the tissues' water content."
OK, tritium is less dangerous among cancer-causing agents, but is it still good for babies and other growing things?
Source: http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/tritium.html#peopleshealth
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Aren't Facts True?
(C) 2010 Stan Spire
The TeeVee ad blares:
"Act now and receive a free gift."
Funny. I always thought gifts were free. I mean, if someone gives me a gift, I don't have to pay for it. If the giver tried to charge me a fee, I would kick their ass.
I'm always suspicious of the redundant adjective. If they tell you that a gift is free, then something else in the deal ain't.
Controversy on the other side of the lake in the Green Mountain State. Entergy, the corporation that now owns the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, has been running slick TeeVee ads. Vermont Yankee wants to yank the taxpayers by letting it keep operating the plant twenty years beyond its present license. Problems: part of a cooling tower collapsed back in 2007 and nuke waste keeps piling up with nowhere to permanently store it.
But don't let those details stop a VY spokesgal, a young professional cutie, to go on in TeeVee ads about how she wants people to know the truth, the facts, about her company. If if someone doesn't agree with her, she still wants them to know "the true facts."
If the old VY nukie gets a license extension, I have a question:
Three Mile Island or Chernobyl?
The TeeVee ad blares:
"Act now and receive a free gift."
Funny. I always thought gifts were free. I mean, if someone gives me a gift, I don't have to pay for it. If the giver tried to charge me a fee, I would kick their ass.
I'm always suspicious of the redundant adjective. If they tell you that a gift is free, then something else in the deal ain't.
Controversy on the other side of the lake in the Green Mountain State. Entergy, the corporation that now owns the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, has been running slick TeeVee ads. Vermont Yankee wants to yank the taxpayers by letting it keep operating the plant twenty years beyond its present license. Problems: part of a cooling tower collapsed back in 2007 and nuke waste keeps piling up with nowhere to permanently store it.
But don't let those details stop a VY spokesgal, a young professional cutie, to go on in TeeVee ads about how she wants people to know the truth, the facts, about her company. If if someone doesn't agree with her, she still wants them to know "the true facts."
If the old VY nukie gets a license extension, I have a question:
Three Mile Island or Chernobyl?
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Wordplay Scam: Democracy
(C) 2010 Stan Spire
Here we go again. Another article saying we need mainstream journalism to keep our democracy alive.
Posted at the Nieman Journalism Lab site on Jan. 6 with a pompous title -- "Eric Newton: Shame on us if we don’t take the steps needed to feed knowledge to our democracy" -- it goes on about how universities can help by teaching "news literacy." That provoked me to leave this comment:
= = =
News literacy? How about citizenship literacy?
"Shame on us if we don’t take the steps needed to feed knowledge to our democracy"
Our democracy? What country do you live in? Pay attention the next time you recite the Pledge of Allegiance. We live in a republic. If we really lived in a democracy, Al Gore would've been elected president back in 2000 (popular vote).
I find it amusing how mainstream journalists go on that we need newspapers to protect "democracy."
= = =
There are many reasons why newspapers are dying out. The main one: They suck. They keep repeating lies about "our democracy," giving the average American roob the illusion he has some sort of real say in what his leaders do through voting or writing a letter to the editor.
The Founding Fathers were concerned about democracy because it could lead to "mob rule." Instead, we have this republic run in part by Mob rule -- organized crime.
= = =
Here's the link to the Nieman J Lab, www.niemanlab.org, article I was yakking about. Copy and paste it; I don't have time to screw around with HTML link crap.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/01/eric-newton-shame-on-us-if-we-dont-take-the-steps-needed-to-feed-knowledge-to-our-democracy/#more-11795
Here we go again. Another article saying we need mainstream journalism to keep our democracy alive.
Posted at the Nieman Journalism Lab site on Jan. 6 with a pompous title -- "Eric Newton: Shame on us if we don’t take the steps needed to feed knowledge to our democracy" -- it goes on about how universities can help by teaching "news literacy." That provoked me to leave this comment:
= = =
News literacy? How about citizenship literacy?
"Shame on us if we don’t take the steps needed to feed knowledge to our democracy"
Our democracy? What country do you live in? Pay attention the next time you recite the Pledge of Allegiance. We live in a republic. If we really lived in a democracy, Al Gore would've been elected president back in 2000 (popular vote).
I find it amusing how mainstream journalists go on that we need newspapers to protect "democracy."
= = =
There are many reasons why newspapers are dying out. The main one: They suck. They keep repeating lies about "our democracy," giving the average American roob the illusion he has some sort of real say in what his leaders do through voting or writing a letter to the editor.
The Founding Fathers were concerned about democracy because it could lead to "mob rule." Instead, we have this republic run in part by Mob rule -- organized crime.
= = =
Here's the link to the Nieman J Lab, www.niemanlab.org, article I was yakking about. Copy and paste it; I don't have time to screw around with HTML link crap.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/01/eric-newton-shame-on-us-if-we-dont-take-the-steps-needed-to-feed-knowledge-to-our-democracy/#more-11795
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Limbo
(C) 2010 Stan Spire
No sunshine in NENYland lately. Just a series of gray snowy days. Limbo.
This blog is in limbo. Low hits on the counter. No one reads it. The lemmings must be all over at Facebook, writing pithy bits of nothing and exchanging cute little digital gifts.
So maybe I should change my writing style. Be really funny, not so negative. Yeah. Fat fucking chance. If I want to write to an audience, I might as well work at a newspaper. Or try the mainstream publishing route again, sending out short stories and novels to win the approval of a no-talent editor, a gatekeeper with all his taste in his mouth and all his brains in his ass.
I write for myself. (Just don't repeat statement to your creative writing teacher in college. That concept will blow his mind, man, inducing a tumor in his ass.)
So I'm going to treat this blog as my "private" journal. If anyone else reads it, fine. At least it might end up as a message in a bottle from one man treading water in the first half of the 21st century.
No sunshine in NENYland lately. Just a series of gray snowy days. Limbo.
This blog is in limbo. Low hits on the counter. No one reads it. The lemmings must be all over at Facebook, writing pithy bits of nothing and exchanging cute little digital gifts.
So maybe I should change my writing style. Be really funny, not so negative. Yeah. Fat fucking chance. If I want to write to an audience, I might as well work at a newspaper. Or try the mainstream publishing route again, sending out short stories and novels to win the approval of a no-talent editor, a gatekeeper with all his taste in his mouth and all his brains in his ass.
I write for myself. (Just don't repeat statement to your creative writing teacher in college. That concept will blow his mind, man, inducing a tumor in his ass.)
So I'm going to treat this blog as my "private" journal. If anyone else reads it, fine. At least it might end up as a message in a bottle from one man treading water in the first half of the 21st century.
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