Nihil
Nihil's JournalAgreed - very good post.
> People are flooded with pro-consumption propaganda every day of our lives.
That has been the case (as you note) for decades so it's not that surprising that the
multitudes of unthinking proles (cliche but accurate) are totally bought into the new
religion of "Consume!" even more than any of the older ones of "Repent!", "Hate!"
or "Conquer!".
> Modesty and caution have been viewed as qualities that needed to be curtailed
> in the population. There are so many "live for today" messages in corporate ads
> and media over the last 40 years that the single-mindedness beggars belief.
That is apparent in the simple case of the perversion of the term "Conservative".
If you "conserve" things these days you are regarded as a "hippy", a "liberal",
a "tree-hugger" (as if such things were bad anyway) while if you actively support
the destruction of everything that surrounds you, you somehow gain the title/epithet
of "Conservative".
Efficiency, reduction, recycling, re-use, ... all these things have been slandered
across all media as if the act of doing these things in public is somehow treasonous.
I try not to comment on people's personal beliefs but "Prosperity Gospel"?
How is that any less oxymoronic than "Military Intelligence" or "Republican Think-tank"?
Oh, very carefully worded there old chap ...
> (Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner) Hewitt said the police
> position “is that, on balance, it is a more probable conclusion that there was
> no other person present when Gareth died.”
Even putting aside the weasel words ("on balance", "more probable"
the key
point in this "statement" is the phrase "when Gareth died".
It completes a nice hand-wave over the minutes immediately before he died
in order to project the impression that the entire thing happened while he
was alone.
The coroner was right. The corrupt copper is involved in yet another cover-up.
It's all OK ...
> Radioactive Water Streaming Out of Pennsylvania Fracking Waste Site
> Released into local streams has caused high levels of toxic contamination,
> including elevated levels of radioactive materials ...
>
> "We were surprised by the magnitude of radioactivity" downstream from the plant ...
>
> ... adding that other sites should be investigated.
I'm sure that this is just the harmless natural radioactivity rather than
any of that evil man-made radioactivity that causes such concern elsewhere
as otherwise we'd never hear the last of it and it would be shut down nationally
by hordes of "concerned citizens".
He has dirty hands because he is the *US* war crimes ambassador.
The reason why the different variations on "Why don't they arrest Bush first?" keep
arising is that no-one - seriously NO-ONE - in the US Administration is paying
any attention to getting US war criminals into the justice system but deliberately
and actively seek the advice of said US war criminals to generate the propaganda
necessary to kick off yet another illegal & immoral war (e.g., Kerry seeking advice
from Kissinger).
*That* is why the subject keeps rearing its head.
*That* is why people all around the world laugh with derision at the thought of
any American official accusing ANYONE from another country of being a "war criminal"
who needs to be "brought to justice".
We are sick of the "Look, shiny object over there - let's bomb it!" response from
successive US governments and the hypocrites who (willingly or unwittingly) keep
the propaganda going against "the other" whilst glossing over their own criminals
of far greater scale.
And the danger from doing that is ...
... a shitload less than the damage being done at this very moment in your own country
by something a lot less powerful than a typhoon:
>> “You have 100, if not thousands, of wells underwater right now and we have no idea what
>> those wells are leaking,” East Boulder County United spokesman Cliff Willmeng said
>> Monday. “It’s very clear they are leaking into the floodwaters though.”
(http://www.democraticunderground.com/112754117)
>> "Our concern is that all of these sites contain various amounts of hazardous industrial wastes
>> that are now capable of spilling into the waterways and onto the agricultural land.
>> Many of these chemicals are carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and known disruptors of the human
>> endocrine system.
(http://www.democraticunderground.com/112754098)
>> “There are over 20,000 oil and gas wells in Weld County alone,”
>> “Prior to the floods we knew that the oil and gas industry was left to police itself.
>> Now the rivers, agricultural zones and residences get to bear that decision.”
(http://www.democraticunderground.com/112754098)
If people would just step away from their superstitions about "scary radiation" and
recognise the far larger problems around today, the world would be a lot better place.
As it is, the fossil fuel spokesmen/women are just pissing themselves laughing at
how TEPCO is being (rightfully) pilloried for their gross greedy incompetence while
NO-ONE does a damn thing about the historic & ongoing health damage from their
own fortune-building careers.
Poor Anglo American, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical, ...
... Rio Tinto, Royal Dutch Shell, Suncor, Wal-Mart ...
If only they had paid a consultant to advise them on "green" policies & processes
(and other greenwashing activities), ideally from an independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit
"think-and-do tank" over the last 30 years then maybe they wouldn't have been listed
in the "Top 50 emitters" who threaten the Global Climate Change efforts ...
What's that? They *did*? *That* one?? Oh dear ...
Oh hush, you and your inconvenient facts ...
> And nobody seems to talk much about the non-radioactive and persistent (half life of forever!)
> toxins the Tsunami spilled, or all the people who were crushed or drowned in the rivers of debris.
They'd much rather chatter on about the "potential" deaths that "might" be related to radiation
than even "trouble their beautiful minds" about the tragic truth that happened and is happening
every day.
All the crocodile tears for the workers that TEPCO hasn't been caring for and nothing for the
~16,000 deaths (15,883 deaths, 6,145 injured, 2,656 missing) of whom over 14,000 drowned
without even having the chance to worry about a potential cancerous tumour 50 years later.
People panic and get hysterical about the possibility of the tuna in their West Coast sushi having
*RADIOACTIVE* cesium traces whilst completely ignoring all of the other man-made shit that
has been poisoning them through the same route for years. If you are that paranoid about radiation,
buy a geiger counter and test the food before eating it. Then try to think of a similarly trivial test
that will identify the more toxic (and already present) mercury, arsenic, heavy metal & carcinogenic
pollutants that will kill you long before the effect from any cesium in its brief transit of your body.
Yes, TEPCO screwed up completely - before, during and ever since the event - and yes, there is
most definitely a clear & present danger from the ruins of the Fukushima site. No, it doesn't have
anything like the impact of Bhopal (for a single incident), the damage to the Gulf of Mexico (from
Deepwater Horizon, every other polluting oil & gas rig and the algal blooms from the appalling
agricultural pollution) or the ongoing devastation from fossil fuel extraction & consumption.
Just a "potential" that gets people soiling themselves in ignorant panic whilst allowing everything
else to merrily continue ...
Isn't that a damning indictment of the evils of greed?
> For business reasons, Chen said, SZCG chose to ignore the problem for seven years
> cadmium poisoning had sickened hundreds of people and killed two in villages near the Hunan city of Liuyang.
> For business reasons, Chen said, SZCG chose to ignore the problem for seven years
> about 10 percent of all rice grown and sold in China had failed to meet government standards for cadmium.
> For business reasons, Chen said, SZCG chose to ignore the problem for seven years
> Shaken by the Liuyang report and fearing a market backlash, SZCG sent samples of its recently
> delivered Hunan rice to the Shenzhen Municipal Quality Inspection Research Institute.
> For business reasons, Chen said, SZCG chose to ignore the problem for seven years
> Tests found excessive levels (of) cadmium.
> For business reasons, Chen said, SZCG chose to ignore the problem for seven years
One of the factors? Maybe. "Key"? Hardly.
> The spread of nuclear energy is one of the key factors in advancing police state
> policies today. You can count on that.
The real "key factors" in advancing police state policies today are the increasing
ignorance of the general public coupled with the unparalleled opportunities for
unrestricted greed on the part of the (nominal) lawmakers.
Beat those drums for war, war, war based on cowardice, panic, xenophobia & stupidity.
Get those peasants to love Big Brother as the alternative would require rational thought.
When the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act and its successors get repealed, then we might look
into whether a dying energy industry is managing to overpower the informed will
of intelligent people but, at the moment, you have neither enough "informed will"
nor "intelligent people" capable of making a difference. And the nuclear industry
is such an insignificant player in the process of maintaining your ignorance that
it is pathetically comical to see you ignoring the real "elephant in the room".
Excellent points ...
... and, furthermore, when someone is raised in an isolated cult with irrational & destructive
standards, they will be so totally immersed in it that not only do they see nothing wrong with
their way of life, they will actively strive to make their own behaviour "the best" by those lights
and exceed past records of depravity & excess.
That is the state that most politicians, board members, "expert economists" and their ilk
have reached over the last generation: total tunnel-vision with regard to both the real, physical
cost of their activities and the obscene levels of self-indulgent greed that they value as "good".
The course that has been set and is being deliberately followed by the "fraction of 1%" who
steer the ship of the modern world is insane according to the thinking of rational humans
but the plans of the former have rendered the latter powerless to do anything other than watch
in horror.
Time to hit the reset button.
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