To bomb or not to bomb

I don't know about you, but I'm not giving this US bombing mission my okay until I hear Colin Powell confirm that chemical weapons were used. Because he would never lie about something as important as this. We can trust him.

Religion shouldn't sully sports

This is the same thing as a pitcher praying on a baseball mound. The only difference is a matter of degree. Sports and religion have nothing to do with one another, and religion should be banned from all playing fields. Period.

Into Eternity

Yesterday I saw a documentary on Al Jazeera. "Into Eternity" chronicles the attempts of Finland to bury its spent nuclear fuel in a permanent underground bunker -- one that's way, way underground.

The documentary, which is an hour long, is similar to the French documentary called "Waste: The Nuclear Nightmare", which I wrote about here. Both are essential viewing. If you think nuclear power is "clean power", watch these documentaries.

It's a frightening topic. Both docs focus on how to keep future generations away from the permanent storage site. This stuff has to be protected for at least 100,000 years! Think how long human civilization has existed. We're a small blip on a 100,000-year span. The builders of the bunker can't even rely on civilization existing for that long a time.

Perhaps written language will fall by the wayside. How, then, can we effectively warn future generations to keep away from the site of this dangerous radioactive product? Pictographs? And how will these people of the future react to our cautions? Will they think the signs that say "Keep Out" are a scam, and there's really a treasure down there? Will they dig to get to it? It's an insane problem.

And this site will only address Finland's spent fuel. What of the spent fuel that litters our global landscape? Electricity and workers are necessary to keep the fuel rods constantly bathed in cool water. Will we be around to maintain those sites for the next 100,000 years? Doubtful.

"Clean" nuclear power is a misnomer. It's the filthiest and most dangerous thing we produce on this Earth. And yet new nuclear plants are being commissioned every day. We're killing the future.

You can see the whole documentary at the above link. Do watch it. We can't ignore this problem. We have to phase out nuclear power now, and begin to move the existing spent fuel into permanent storage -- unless we don't care about future generations, that is. I know we used to care about such things, but such sentiment is no longer in vogue. More's the pity. Because if we ignore this (and climate change, BTW) we truly are lemmings.

Kerry's little Syria chat

I found it difficult to watch John Kerry emote yesterday on the subject of Syria.

The whole bit stank. See, you can't assume the high ground when you're not standing on it. His words could just as easily apply to things the US has done repeatedly:

"What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear. The indiscriminate torture of random suspects, the launching of a pre-emptive war against the wrong country, the use of drones to attack people who may or may not be terrorists, and the consequent drone attacks on those who come to help the afflicted after such drone attacks, indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by waterboarding, drone attack chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable."

Sorry, John. The US doesn't get to talk like that anymore. Tell you what, why don't you just go sit in a back room and listen in on some American conversations? Maybe it's best to let, you know, the other countries handle this one.

America's decline has real-life consequences. The US no longer has the right to pontificate to other countries. So get off the high horse, John. You can't ride it anymore.

A drone that's kind. I think I like it.

In Canada, they're trying to push a flock of geese out of an area that people use. And they're using a drone to accomplish this.

Canadian lawmakers have enlisted a drone to disperse a large flock of Canada geese at a popular beach this summer, pleasing swimmers concerned about water quality.

The remote-controlled vehicle flies with six rotating blades, spans about 26 inches (66 centimeters), and is outfitted with lights and audio recordings meant to frighten the geese without harming them. The recordings include sounds of potential predators, including owls, fox, wolves and eagles, and play at varying intervals to prevent the birds from becoming comfortable with repeating repertoires of empty threats.

I like this. Finally, a way to get rid of geese without killing them. I hope NYC tries this method. Right now, they're murdering geese on a regular basis. It's nightmarish.

Mind you, New Yorkers will shoot at the drone -- but that's just part of the fun. They'd better not accidentally hit a goose, though. Take careful aim, people.

But religion is a good thing

The NYT has an article about the latest moves of the Egyptian military. It doesn't sound good at all. (Paragraphing is mine.)

The Egyptian military has enlisted Muslim scholars in a propaganda campaign to persuade soldiers and policemen that they have a religious duty to obey orders to use deadly force against supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi. 

Indeed, after ousting Mr. Morsi in the name of tolerance, inclusiveness and an end to religious rule, the military is now sending religious messages to its troops that sound surprisingly similar to the arguments of radical militants who call for violence against political opponents whom they deem to be nonbelievers.  

Dr. Abdel Galil said...“to use weapons when needed” against such foes was the duty of the armed forces. “The heart is at ease about this,” he said.

Ah, sweet, sweet religion. Always going about the world, doing good. It's marvelous, isn't it? That "god" fellow must be really special.

Unfortunately, because of god -- as usual -- another country seems about to fall into a bottomless cesspool of hatred, brutality and murder.

But since it's religious in nature, it must be good.

Monitor lizards, oh my!

In a short AP article lacking crucial information, we learn that a monitor lizard has been stalking the farmyards of Connecticut.

Reports of a large reptile roaming an eastern Connecticut town over the past few months have turned out to be true: A police officer shot a monitor lizard to death as it was attacking chickens at a resident's home. 

What's lacking is any mention of the "large" lizard's size. It could be a foot long, it could be hundreds of feet long, as far as the article is concerned. AP doesn't bother to tell us.

The story caught my eye because I recently watched a NOVA episode about monitor lizards. It was called "Lizard Kings" and it was really interesting. They're apparently quite smart. One researcher went so far as to refer to them as the "primates of the lizard world". They can count. You can train them. And they even respond to affection, sort of like a dog. Amazing. Anyway, it's weird to hear about one of them roaming freely in the US. Undoubtedly a pet fiend bought one, got bored and at some point let it loose.

Don't let your pets loose, kids. Especially when they're dangerous, aggressive animals.