DTV Doomsday

I keep seeing these dark, dramatic, end of the world commercials about the switch from analog to digital television signals. The tone of these ads is that unless you take steps to make sure your television is capable of receiving a digital signal you world will end. All will be lost. Armageddon. Forget the terrifying thoughts of a potential McCain Presidency or the idea that Sarah Palin could be President. Those possibilities are silly in comparison. The only problem is that most of the commercials I see are on cable channels. They aren't on local network channels or Telemundo. They're on cable. Cable. If you're watching cable then your television is fine! Why the hell do they need ... holy shit: I'm watching Comedy Central while I write this and they are airing an ad--right this minute--featuring a local Fire Chief explaining that if you don't check to see if your television is cable ready (I"m fucking watching Comedy Central for chrissake) then your house will burn down and your pets will die because...hell, I have no idea why. The point is, as I started to say before, if you're watching cable then your damned television will work just fine. You can't watch these channels with rabbit ears. Who's the genius making these ad buys anyway? McCain's campaign strategists?

Directionally Challenged

I've always had issues with directions. I generally do OK out in the woods or wilderness or whatever. I have a good sense of where it is I need to go. But put me in a city, especially an unfamiliar one, and I'm useless, just lost. While I could probably do a passable job of placing the names of states on a map of the U.S., maybe not as well as a fifth grader, but passable, I still get screwed up when I think of where things are. For instance, probably because we took a trip there from Michigan when I was a kid, I still think of Salt Lake City as "way out west." That's just the way it is programmed in my head. If you were to ask me where Salt Lake City is, I'd say "out west." Of course, I know it's in Utah. And when pressed to think about it, I know that Utah is actually north of here. But I just looked at Google Maps and it still freaked me out that Salt Lake City is damn near due north of Tucson. Almost 800 miles due north. I still find that odd to think about.

David Letterman

I used to love David Letterman back in the day. Wouldn't miss him. But then, you know, as relationships sometimes do, we drifted apart. I have to say now, however, ever since Sen. John McCain screwed Dave over in order to do his Katie Couric interview, etc., and "rush back" to Washington to "fix" the economy (some 22 hours later, it turns out, and with no success, either)...

I LOVE DAVID LETTERMAN!!!

Nuke-YOU-ler Energy, The Real Silent Killer

John McCain has been calling for 40 new nuclear power plants. Obama, while less ambitious, certainly hasn't taken nuclear off the table. There's a two part question I'd like to ask of the candidates, one that neither has bothered to answer and, more likely, is able to.

First, explain to the American public the costs of subsidizing nuclear power and the nuclear industries in general. The current number is astronomical, what would it be to bring forty more plants online? The free ride currently in place protects the companies who build and operate nuclear facilities from prosecution or any other responsibility for accidents, toxic waste cleanups, or other malfeasance. So, even if the company is horrendously negligent in their actions, the taxpayers have to pay the price in ever way--economically, environmentally, and physically. As it stands there have been countless "accidents" that aren't publicized. The reason you don't hear about most of these is because they are at the front end of the process. There's no China Syndrome or Chernobyl or Three Mile Island action, it's just mining contamination of water sources, the atmosphere, and the land in general. Most of these go unnoticed because they are either in the desert or on an Indian reservation somewhere--places America doesn't bother to care about, in other words. Mine talings and waste storage facilities leak and fail on a regular basis. That is, the ones that were ever not expected to in the first place. Much of the four corners region is affected. The Rio Grande and other major rivers have all been contaminated. Nevada might as well be written off. Groundwater sources in many areas are chock full of radioactive isotopes--liquid carcinogens waiting for you to drink 'em up. Nobody wants a storage facility built anywhere near them, the NIMBY Syndrome, because they always fail. The one that was supposed to be fool proof for three hundred years? Failed in fourteen. And this waste is radioactive for thousands of years, not hundreds, not decades. The most likely place is the infamous Yucca Mountain site (of course, on Indian land). Guess what? Yucca Mountain is in the midst of an actively volcanic region sitting on several fault lines. Comforting. Very comforting. It's only a matter of time before the Colorado River is hopelessly contaminated, eliminating the supply of drinking water for much of Nevada, Arizona, parts of northern Mexico, etc. And that's with the stuff we already have.

So, aside from the cost in the form of subsidies and the inherent risks associated with mining and storage, what do we do about the waste? There is absolutely no such thing as waste free nuclear energy. Even if you never had to mine another gram of uranium. Even if you never had to take any more uranium to a processing plant for refining. Even if all you had to do was build the plants, fuel 'em up, and flip the switch, there will be waste to deal with. Radioactive waste. So-called "spent" fuel rods are highly radioactive and deadly. Even with the seemingly magical "reprocessing" that McCain refers to there is more than enough radioactive waste from a single power plant to kill every person on earth. Seriously. I'm not kidding about that. What are we supposed to do with the waste from forty more plants? If you think too many people are dying from cancer now, just wait. Within fifty years cancer rates will skyrocket and even the Government will have trouble blaming it on something other than exposure to radioactive materials. If you want to talk about a "Silent Killer," radiation more than fits the bill.

There is no such thing as safe nuclear power.

Senate Resolution 636: McCain's Cynical Trickery

There are new ads out urging voters to call and urge Sen. Barack Obama to stand up and support Senate resolution 636. What a crock of shit. This cynical piece of fluff is the brainchild of Sen. Joe "I'm In The Closet, Don't Bother Me" Lieberman and Sen. John "You Can't Question Me, I'm a Former P.O.W.!" McCain. And what does this landmark waste of time accomplish? It "acknowledges" the "success" of the almighty SURGE (that's an energy drink, isn't it?). Oh, yeah, and, um, while we're at it, let's add in a very special "thanks to the troops." The whole thing is a cynical, disgusting ploy to try and force Sen. Obama to "admit" that the surge has worked--which is only true in John McCain's head. Sure, the surge accomplished some military points, as even Obama admits; however, the purpose, or "goal" of the surge was to effect political stability and resolution between the various Iraqi factions. Mission not accomplished. McCain, who hasn't bothered to show up for work the last several months and has missed at least one truly important vote on alternative energy (it literally lost by one vote), had someone who can still actually function mentally--albeit in an evil fashion--come up with this idiocy as yet another unfair attack on Barack Obama. The Republican/Repugnant 527 group "Vets for Freedom" group are responsible for this horse shit. (How any intelligent vet could vote for a man who has done nothing but work against veterans is a never ending mystery to me. But these aren't intelligent vets, these are "Vets for Freedom." Yeah. Right.) How does it work? Well, if Obama doesn't vote for it or doesn't show up for the vote McCain and Dumbfuck, er, I mean Lieberman, will start howling that Obama hates the troops, doesn't appreciate the troops, is unpatriotic, and doesn't believe we should thank the troops for their service. How do these evil douche bags get away with this shit? It pisses me off to no end.

Oracle By Bike

I decided to turn a recent training ride into more of a mini-tour; I took photos, checked out the sights, did some geocaching, and had a generally good time. I was surprised by how many roadside "memorials" there are out there. This is essentially a 30 mile stretch of road, and as you can see, there are quite a few. There are also a couple of photos of a dead coyote with his tongue hanging out. You never saw that in The Roadrunner, did you? The other thing is the coyote gourds. I used to see all kinds of them along the way here. This time around I was surprised to only find one little patch with three ruined gourds in it. I did find a pretty nice patch on the other side of the road coming back, though. I grabbed four nice ones. The idea is to dry them out and then decorate them. I have brought them home before for the same purpose but Joan keeps throwing them away on me! Here are my pics from my "tour":

WE Campaign Ad, "Free US" / Electric Cars

The folks over at We can solve it, the people who run the "We" campaign (of which I am a member) have a new ad out. [You can view it here]. It's called Free US. It kind of bugs me, though. It basically asks the government to act as a methadone clinic and do it all for us. It fails to really put the onus on us. Sure, it says "we demand," but we're not petulant children. Come on. If we really want change we have to actually start taking the steps. Conserve. Use alternative forms of transportation (public transit, walking, biking, etc.). Put our money where our mouths are and buy the most efficient vehicles available. Etc., etc. We can't just whine for the government to take responsibility for us and make everything A-OK. It just isn't going to happen. It hasn't yet. We've known this day was coming and we did nothing. We went blissfully along our way expecting the government to take care of it for us. Well, that doesn't happen. Washington has proven that over and over again. Their idea is to drill, drill, drill--supposedly in addition to developing the alternative energy sources they claim aren't yet ready for prime time. But all they will do if we allow this path is drill, drill, drill until there isn't anything left. And then they'll think about developing those alternatives they've been paying lip service to.

A good example is the electric car. According to Washington and Detroit, the technology isn't there yet. The batteries don't work. So on and so forth. Never mind that we had them once and they worked great. That doesn't count. All the people who drove them and loved them? Delusional. Mistaken. Washington, under the Bush administration, has been funneling money into Detroit for "research and development." Only problem is, there were no strings attached. They didn't actually have to produce anything beyond vaporware (i.e., Chevy Dolt...er...I mean Volt). Never mind that a company like Phoenix Motor Cars is already producing electric cars that are currently available and rated at over one hundred miles on a charge (two and a half what Chevy is promising from the I'llbelieveitwhenIseeit Volt). They go from 0-60 in 10 seconds, too. These aren't little tin cans, either. They're nice cars.

So what's Detroit's problem? I don't suppose it's something that rhymes with effin OIL. Hell, they can't even get their heads around higher CAFE standards, how do we expect them to actually do something good for America? There was a time, back before America stopped holding itself up to a higher standard, when this wouldn't have happened. At one point Detroit would have freaked if they knew foreign auto makers were producing better cars with higher mileage. They would have put out a car that outdid all of them. But those days are gone. Now they just whine and ask the government to increase import tariffs on foreign automakers and they cling to big trucks and SUVs because they can still be competitive there.

Why doesn't someone go into Detroit and say, "Look, people, fuck the Big Three. You have plenty of empty factories. You have plenty of unemployed auto workers. You have the skills and the know-how. Here's what we can do for you. Let's build some cars." Couple that with a government that's more inclined to support real alternatives rather than the status quo of the Big Three and Big Oil and it could be one hell of a revolution.

Vote accordingly.