momusradar

Bill Wolfe was surprised to read the New Jersey Environmental Federation endorsed Republican candidate Chris Christie for Governor:

So to get a little understanding, I just went to the Christie website, watched the 1½ minute Christie video, and read his “entire plan” –

At a fundamental level, Christie feels that DEP has become “too intertwined with business life” in NJ (his words) and needs to shrink and disengage on the regulatory front. This language should set off all sorts of alarm bells for those who follow environmental affairs – it represents a sort of kinder and gentler (yet actually more conservative) “Open for Business” mantra.

This endorsement by New Jersey’s largest environmental group may be an asset for Christie. But as Wolfe outlines in his post, Christie’s policy declarations are seriously flawed. Combine this with the concern regarding his insubstantial plans for the state’s finances and it seems pretty clear that Christie is a poor choice for Governor.

As reported by the N.Y. Times:

In a mainly party line vote of 240 to 179, the House held that by shouting “You lie” during the president’s speech Mr. Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, committed a “breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House.”

Yet they can’t get their shit together to hammer out proper healthcare reform.

Jacob Weisberg raises the question:

Why are Republicans trying to kill America’s old people? After all, senior citizens are more likely to vote for the GOP than for Democrats. They were the only substantial demographic segment John McCain won in 2008. You’d think Republicans would want them to hang on as long as possible. The problem is that because of the Democratic programs Social Security and Medicare, the aged are expensive for government to keep around. Some years ago, my former colleague Jodie T. Allen suggested a reason for what she called the GOP’s “pro-death” policies: Faced with an unpalatable choice between cutting benefits and raising taxes to pay for the growing costs of entitlement programs, Republicans gravitated toward a third alternative—restraining growth in life expectancy. If you want lower taxes and aren’t willing to risk cutting spending, you need fewer beneficiaries.

News Junkie Post covers a compelling study that should be read by all:

Senator Ted Kennedy’s brain cancer could have been prevented if he had not used his cell phone so much. At least that is the argument being raised by health advocates who released a new study that concludes that too much cell phone use could lead to brain cancer.

The study, “Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern, Science, Spin and the Truth Behind Interphone” was released by the International EMF Collaborative this week to counter another study funded by cell phone industry giants (The Interphone study), which minimizes the risk of cell phone use.

More perplexing than the theory behind the knife are the slew of comments about said knife. Such as:

Tell me, please… what will you do when a criminal breaks into your house and points an illegal gun at your child’s head?—Carrie, Virginia, USA

Really? Are there hordes of armed criminals entering homes in Virginia & taking children hostage of which I am unaware? Assuming she has planned for such an event, what exactly would Carrie do in that situation?

The real problem is the cost of living is so high that people have to work so much they don’t have time to raise their children, who grow up without values and commit crimes.
Fix the real problem not the symptoms.—Mahhn, Nonevyourbiznes, usa

One could write a sociology thesis based on this comment.

I heard about it on FSRN during my drive home from work:

About 40 miles west of Knoxville, Tennessee, millions of gallons of ashy sludge have broken through a dike at a coal-fired power plant, flooding homes, burying roads, and threatening rivers and drinking water. Tom Kilgore is the president of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which owns the power plant: “I fully suspect that the amount of rain we’ve had in the last eight to 10 days, plus the freezing weather might have had something to do with this.”
The holding pond contained about 70 acres of fly ash – that’s the residue left over from burning coal. It often has elevated levels of toxic metals. And according to the EPA, the spill has released about 525 million gallons of the sludge – that’s nearly 50 times the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

An article at Scientific American notes:

The residue of millions of tons of coal burning at Kingston Fossil power plant in the Watts Bar Reservoir in Tennessee burst the bounds of the pond in which it was contained, burying as many as 400 acres of land in up to six feet of sludge.

Disturbingly, I haven’t seen or heard this headlined anywhere else, but I’ve seen plenty on the water main break in Maryland.

Listening to Bernie S. on Off The Hook talk about his local PBS television station’s digital transmission notice reminded me of another analog to digital switch of interest.

If you own or use an emergency distress beacon on a boat or on a plane, you should know that starting on February 1, 2009, the older beacons that transmit only an analog signal (121.5 or 243 MHz) will no longer be “heard” by search and rescue satellites. Just like checking your TV, you need to ensure that your distress beacon is capable of transmitting a digital signal (406 MHz) in order for it to be recognized.

There is more detailed info about this at the U.S. Coast Guard’s website.

Mattel is to recall over three-quarter of a million Fisher-Price toys and Barbie brand playsets due to continued concerns of their containing lead paint. CEO Bob Eckert said,

I apologise [sic] to everyone involved. No-one likes to have recalls. But the fact is the safety of children is the most important thing here. So we want to inform the public of our new standards.

What he meant was, “Damn it! We don’t give a rat’s ass about your little ankle biters. If we did, we would have been monitoring the quality of the products all along. But that crap costs money we didn’t want to spend. It’s all about profits you know. So now, in order to punish you all for caring, we will suggest that quality checks are in place and raise our prices. And you will just roll over and accept this because you know damn well you wouldn’t want to deprive little Billy and Sally of our toys. You wouldn’t want them to be the lame kids for not having our cool toys. Right? I didn’t think so. Now eat, stupid.”