Something for Flat-Earth Religionists to Ponder
February 7, 2009
by Robert A. Letcher, PhD
[Author’s note: Reading George Thomas’ recent essay on two topics that the recently departed President left me thinking of as having nothing substantive to do with each other: evolution and Texas reminded me of an essay I wrote four years ago. My essay responded to a national effort led by—if I recall correctly—a person whose last name was Horowitz. In Ohio, Horowitz’s flat-earth program was being pushed through the Legislature by State Senator Mumper. The following is a verbatim transcription of a letter I wrote to the Editor of The Columbus Dispatch.]
To the Editor:
Subject: “BILL COULD LIMIT OPEN DEBATE AT COLLEGES: Lawmaker says profs are pushing agendas” (published: January 27, 2005)
History provides another “other side” to the debate over Senate Bill 24, the misleadingly titled “academic bill of rights for higher education”. Consider…
There was a time when most people thought Earth was flat… Until the 1500s, most people believed that Earth was the center of the universe, and Copernicus was excommunicated for arguing that Earth revolved around the Sun… Read more
Is ‘Shovel-Ready’ Ready Enough?
February 7, 2009
by David Boyd
David Boyd The recent frenzy surrounding the formulation of an economic stimulus package has injected a new phrase into the American lexicon — “shovel-ready.” The phrase’s current popularity traces back to statements by then-Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during the presidential campaign, capped off by Obama’s pledge, a month after his election, to launch his economic stimulus plan with a bevy of “shovel-ready” projects.
But assuming Congress soon passes the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, can all its infrastructure projects be truly “shovel-ready” — 100 percent completed plans, requisite environmental review and permitting processes in hand, plus the real estate acquired and prepared for construction? Probably not.
But we’re not without knowledge or capacity — if we use it — to fast-track the projects we need to bolster the economy and start putting people back to work quickly. Indeed, we’ve done it — and quite well — in a number of high-profile recent cases. Read more
Infrastructure? Sure, but Why?
February 2, 2009
by Robert A. Letcher, PhD
As support for infrastructure improvement grows among Americans of most stripes, it appears that “getting those shovels ready” is the surest way for a public officials at every level to curry favor with their constituents, in the face of what has been termed “an economic downturn” – you’ll get those sometime, you know, as if they were snowstorms coming east off the plains.
But, if all of those infrastructure projects are shovel ready now, it makes sense to me to wonder how many of those shovel ready projects were ready for shovels last year, or two years ago — or even earlier than that. And when I say “ready”, I mean urgently ready, as the Interstate-35 bridge in Minneapolis proved to be.
This leads me to a practical question: how in the world could we have not addressed the infrastructure problem earlier — say… before the I-35 bridge collapsed; before those fly ash ponds ran “amuck” in Tennessee and Louisiana; before the roofs of hundred year-old inner-city schools started leaking so badly; before so many students were left to learn from outdated textbooks, outdated classrooms and outdated techniques, and outdated computers (or none at all)? Read more
Making Republicans Misbehave - Or how I make Kay Bailey Hutchinson sound nuts
February 2, 2009
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
Back a few years ago when even right wingers were beginning to realize what a mistake Iraq was, one of the less lucid people on Usenet came up with a novel theory as to why my opposition to the occupation of Iraq was anti American. It was because the occupation of Iraq had hurt America.
Now, you might be wondering how it could be that if I opposed something that hurt America, that would be un-American. I wondered the same thing, and, being bored, asked.
The problem was that I was (and am) a known liberal who opposed (and still oppose) the occupation. If I had had the good sense to keep my mouth shut in 2003, conservatives wouldn’t have pushed so hard for the invasion of Iraq because they wouldn’t have known that it would annoy me.
Well, my word. I had no idea I wielded so much personal power. Had I known, I would have written George W. Bush a letter, urging him in the strongest possible terms to never, ever drive a car at 120 miles an hour off a 1,000 foot high cliff, and that I would be really, really irritable if he did. Really. It would just ruin my whole morning. Still would. Don’t do it, George. Read more
A $50 Billion Nuke Power Bomb is Dropping Toward Obama’s Stimulus Package
February 2, 2009
by Harvey Wasserman
The desperate, dangerous nuclear power industry has dropped a $50 billion stealth bomb meant to irradiate the Obama Stimulus Package.
It comes in the form of a mega-loan guarantee package that would build new reactors Wall Street wouldn’t finance even when it had cash. It will take a healthy dose of citizen action to stop it, so start calling your Senators now.
The vaguely worded bailout-in-advance provision was snuck through the Senate Appropriations Committee in the deep night of January 27. It would provide $50 billion in loan guarantees for “eligible technologies” that would technically include renewable sources and electric transmission. But the handout is clearly directed at nukes and “clean coal.”
The Stimulus Package is explicitly meant to create jobs within the next two years. But according to sources at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, no new reactors could be licensed for construction within that time. Nor could any new coal plants. And thus the funds in this rider are to “remain available until committed.” That means their “stimulus” might not go into effect for many years. Read more
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Bob's Bail Out Plan by bobl-tlm
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How Do You Like Deregulation Now? graphic politics by Dicky Neely
