Lets say you've just had a 100 year flood. Which of these power plants would you rather have in your neighborhood? (Also, guess which one has privatized profit and socialized catastrophic risk?) Don't worry, if the nuclear industry has a major meltdown in the U.S., Joe Barton will organize the apology committee.
Sometimes you need a girl who loves to fish. (Song starts at 1:53. You'll love it if you're a 14 year old at heart like me.)
People who profess to believe in a fully de-regulated and unfettered laissez faire free market economy could learn something from this Onion satire piece: "Well, I Guess I'll Just Take My Business To Another Soulless Multinational Corporation" Caveat emptor has its place, but it doesn't cover all real-world situations. Here in the real world, laws are needed to ensure product safety and consumer protection. Sure, your family would probably quit buying from the grocery store who sold you that tainted meat, but if you're dead, what good is buyer-beware?
There will be a smart, educated, reasonable, well-supported, well-connected candidate in the race to follow in David Thornhill's footsteps and continue the progress he worked for. I can't say who just yet, but I wouldn't want to be self-financing a campaign against him.
Lewisville ISD is making progress on getting video of meetings online for public viewing after the meetings. They've now broadcast several meetings live online, and I've now stopped videotaping anything but special meetings and workshops where the camera setup they have wouldn't work.
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Anonymous
Posted: 2011/9/14 12:41 Updated: 2011/9/14 14:05
Re: Thoughts and Links on Tuesday Night
I wonder if anyone told the people on the flights that crashed into the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania to "cowboy up" [good god, that sounds like something Rick Perry would say by the way!] I understand that we don't want to go crazy but there were credible reports that something was going to happen on 9/11 so I can understand the sensitivity to odd events on a plane. It wasn't too long ago that the plane landed in the Hudson River and scared people half to death because they immediately thought plane + flying low = terror attack [again]. I can't blame them for reacting that way either. Luckily in all 3 events it wasn't terror attacks but what if it had been and nothing was done. I think we need to be cautious but not paranoid and drop the "cowboy up" attitude. It really doesn't help.
I think you and I agree in principle that we need to be cautious but not paranoid. But I think in this case, we disagree on what constitutes paranoia. I think this was just paranoia - and not very smart paranoia at that.
When you fly, and you're stuck in a middle or window seat, and the guy on the aisle gets up to go to the bathroom, it only makes sense to go at the same time so you don't have to disturb him later when you get up. I've done this a hundred times - though not while brown. Flight attendants fly enough that they should know this. But these wusses let their prejudice and fear take the lead over their intellect.
I firmly believe that aviation security these days is 95% theater, and 5% caution. Reinforced cockpit doors is what ended the threat of 9/11-style attacks.
The thing is that we react to yesterday's threats by hardening yesterday's targets, but there are still plenty of soft targets that a terrorist could hit if they were sufficiently motivated. We could go down the road of hardening all events and all public places, but we'd never be able to cover them all. At some point, we just have to decide that 99.99999% security is just not so much better than 99.999% security (the rough percentage of Americans who stayed safe on 9/11) as to be worth the expense and loss of liberty. Instead, we could be taking some of that money and paying for food or healthcare that would actually keep more Americans alive.
I'm with you on this one Steve. If we had diverted 10% of the money we've spent on terror prevention/homeland security since 2001 toward improving traffic safety in this country (via improved safety features and stepped-up/smarter enforcement), I'm betting we could be saving three times as many lives each and every year as were killed due to the 9/11 attacks.
Re: Thoughts and Links on Tuesday Night
