alias Bruce.

The problem with nuclear power

is that its inherent danger – radiation – is simply too great a liability for it to be a viable long-term source of energy.

To be sure, no energy source is immune to natural or man-made disasters. Earthquakes happen. So do floods, tsunamis, accidents, malfunctions, human errors, fires, and terrorist and military attacks.

The difference between nuclear power and other major energy generators, though, is this: When a coal or hydroelectric or wind or solar plant blows up, there is a conflagration and a loss of power and perhaps an awful loss of life in the immediate area. But when a nuclear plant blows up or melts down, there is a threat to life for a radius of potentially thousands of miles affecting possibly millions of people for decades or longer.

A disaster with non-nuclear energy is a terrible thing. But for all practical purposes – as the jewelry ads once said about diamonds – a nuclear disaster is forever.

No matter what the nuclear industry and a corporate-corralled President Obama tell you about the "necessity" and the "safety" of American nuclear power, you should know that when some awe-inspiring calamity wrecks a nuclear facility in New York or Michigan or California, we will fare little better than Japan, and perhaps worse. Any gambler knows to never put more on the table than you are prepared to lose. Nuclear power, by its very nature, puts more at risk than we are actually ready to give up. It sets up consequences that we are unwilling to live with, and it, foolishly, props them up against forces we cannot control. It is a classic case of the worship of pure luck.

If we continue to significantly rely upon nuclear power, the question of a true nuclear disaster in America is not if, but when.

NYT: "Oil Soars as Libyan Furor Shakes Markets."

More than ever, it's time to shop for a hybrid or an electric.

"The newly elected House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday

promised a new era of transparency..." – New York Times, 1/6/2011

And if you believe that promise, you're proof that Americans are as dumb as much of the world thinks we are. This pledge of Republican-led "transparency" comes from the same folks who sat on their hands while Vice President Dick Cheney crafted energy policy in secret meetings with industry reps and defied subpoenas to reveal their names; who (like many Dems) have happily allowed corporate lobbyists to literally write the text of bills; who cheered President G.W. Bush as he lied the nation into war; and who continue to lie in service of the perpetually failed idea that giving the rich more money to put in the bank creates jobs. Transparency? Good luck with that.

BP's threat that an offshore drilling ban would prevent it from making oil spill payouts,

as reported in the NYT, is like something from a bad mafia movie.

How much lower can this bottom-feeder sink?

Laughing Gas.

Thanks to Darryl Moment for passing along this cache of cartoons: