Good morning readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.
Back when I was a real smart cookie I knew all manner of things needed doing to straighten out this country and this world. I used to sit around with others whom I allowed to be real smart cookies, too, telling one another how stupid everyone who disagreed with us. They thought they were real smart cookies, too, which proved how stupid they were.
During that general time period Their Majesties, Gerald Ford, then Jimmy Carter, were telling us we needed to turn down the thermostats, drive slower, become energy independent as a nation. Find alternatives to the conventional energy sources. I think my group of real smart cookies agreed with this, though I don’t recall anyone liking it much.
But one thing we did agree on. Nuclear energy needed to be developed and used a lot more than was happening at the time. Seemed the only thing that might fill the bill until something else was developed. Gradually we got so hardened in our opinions about it we made excuses and apologized anytime anything happened suggesting we might re-examine our opinions and debate points.
Along came Three Mile Island, and naturally we didn’t need to know much about it to agree among ourselves it was just a shrill scare thing. Hanoi Jane Fonda came out with a movie named “The China Syndrome” and a lot of monkey wrenches got thrown into the mix, people opposed to more nuclear plants.
Then that plant in the Ukraine went sour. Spewed all manner of radioactive crap into the sky for a longish while. We real smart cookies saw that as an indictment, not of nuclear power, but rather of Soviet technical, engineering and construction skills. Another indictment of Communism.
Somewhere back there I quit thinking about all that, didn’t bother knowing so much about it as I became less smart with the years. I sort of lost track of the whole issue, had no idea whether they were still building, not building, using, not using nuclear power plants.
About a year ago my friend, Rich, started telling me about a tsunami hit Japan, did all manner of damage. Some included nukes on the Japanese coast. I suppose I didn’t think a lot about it. Just another disaster somewhere for people to tell one another about while they waited for the coffee to perk.
But Rich kept updating me and the Japan nuclear part of the tsunami and earthquake began swelling into something trying to rattle how smart I used to be. Japan was letting a lot of ugly into the Pacific and into the sky. “Man, they need to do something about that crap!” I declared to Rich. “I feed my cats a lot of fish that might be coming out of the north Pacific.”
“Would you rather feed them fish out of the Gulf of Mexico? Fish coming out of there are loaded with carcino-whatchallits from the emulsifiers they used from the BP oil spill.”
I thought about that a while and decided I didn’t need to track down an instrument to measure the gamma radiation in the cat food. Trade a headache for an upset stomach, more-or-less.
But at least I don’t have to have all the answers anymore, don’t have to know what anyone ought to do about anything. Takes a lot of weight off, me not having to do anything but concern myself about what to feed the cats and chickens.
Old Jules
So Far From Heaven 