Monthly Archives: July 2018

Book Review: We Almost Lost Detroit (1975)

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A prototype for how NOT to do energy [reviewer’s subtitle]
By John Fuller (1913-1990)

The motivation to read this book arose from simply the fact that I had heard the book title so many times, I live in the Detroit area, and now work part time where sometimes my route takes me to Monroe, Michigan, where the Fermi plant was built on (in 1966 called) Lagoona Beach of Lake Erie. The book was written in 1975 and reads like a thriller…  though as it states on the cover in the form of a subtitle: This Is Not a Novel.

I wanted to get the inside skinny on whether or not the title is true. My conclusion is that, yes, on October 5, 1966, in development since 1953, the Enrico Fermi liquid-sodium-cooled fast-breeder nuclear power plant (Fermi 1) experienced a meltdown of some fuel  assemblies. At the time of the incident it was unknown how many fuel elements had melted and whether a secondary accident of catastrophic proportions—meltdown of the core, subsequent explosion, violation of containment, and dispersion of radioactive plumes covering 10s of thousands of square miles (including metro Detroit some 50 miles from the site)—was imminent.

You can skip to Chapter 12 thru the epilogue to get the short story of what happened during the early days of October 1966, then subsequently as teams tried to determine what exactly had happened while trying to reach a stable condition where the threat of secondary meltdown was rendered minimal. They were able with extreme, tedious effort to remove the damaged subassemblies by May 1967, then it took another several months to determine the fundamental cause of the overheating: some flow shielding that had come loose and prevented coolant flow to those sections of the core.

About two years later, Autumn 1968, the debris had been cleaned up and estimates for resurrection of an operable reactor were a year and a half down the road. By May 1970 Fermi 1 was nearly ready to resume operation, then in July 1970 the reactor was fired up and, in October 1970, four years after the incident, Fermi reached its designed 200,000 Kilowatt power rating. License renewal loomed in January 1971, the AEC reluctantly did so. But the public was voicing increasing concerns, and Detroit Edison was looking at Fermi increasingly as a major load on its bottom line: Continue reading →

Movie Review: The China Syndrome (1979)

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The China Syndrome ___ 10/10
Precautionary, thrilling Hollywood tale

[Originally reviewed on the Coffee Coaster: 5/11/2007]

Written by Mike Gray and T.S. Cook
Directed by James Bridges

Jane Fonda … Kimberly Wells
Jack Lemmon … Jack Godell
Michael Douglas … Richard Adams
Wilford Brimley … Ted Spindler

Trying to stay with sort of a weekly theme, I cast about for environmental movies outside of Al Gore’s documentary.  During my read of the book for this week, The Weather Makers, I discovered a few notable scientists—chiefly James Lovelock (author of the Gaia concept)—argue for nuclear energy as a the only realistic means for escaping the global warming conundrum.

Needless to say, Lovelock has many critics.  Certainly his nuke hypothesis is reasonable, especially with the advent of fail-safe pebble-bed reactors.  But I think most environmentalists see renewables (solar, wind) and other methods (biomass) as fully capable of replacing carbon-intensive sources.

At any rate, one movie that offers a warning, at least on the current “fail-deadly” technology of nuclear power, while at the same time providing top-notch entertainment value is The China Syndrome.  In a profound case of life imitating art, the Three Mile Island partial core meltdown occurred 12 days after the US release date (March 16, 1979).[1]

The plot centers around Kimberly Wells (a very young, and hot Jane Fonda) an LA TV news reporter, who feels stuck doing ridiculous human-interest fare.  In her features capacity, she gets a chance to travel to the (fictional) Ventana Nuclear Power Plant to perform what amounts to a puff piece on local atomic energy. Continue reading →

Guest Column: CDC Conflict of Interest Extraordinaire

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CDC vaccine science covers up giant conflict of interest
By Jon Rappoport [Original column link here]

If you wanted to buy a product…

And the main safety-researcher of the product was the company selling it to you…

Would you automatically assume the product was safe and effective?

But you see, that’s the just the beginning of the problem. Suppose the company’s research was cited thousands of times in the press, as the authoritative standard of proof—and anyone who disputed that research was labeled a conspiracy theorist and a quack and a danger to the community and an anti-science lunatic.

Would you begin to suspect the company had awesome media connections? Would you suspect some very powerful people were backing the company?

This is exactly the situation with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Read these two quotes:

“The government’s Vaccine for Children Program (a CDC organization) purchases vaccines for about 50 percent of children in the U.S.” (The Atlantic, February 10, 2015)

“The CDC currently spends over $4 billion purchasing vaccines [annually] from drug makers…” (Health Impact News, October 24, 2016)

Continue reading →

Donut Whole: Two Would-Be Supremes, Either a Disaster for Liberty

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Scuttle Raymond Kethledge as Job One, Kavanaugh is Bad, Too
via Pete Hendrickson at Lost Horizons

Scuttling Raymond Kethledge Is JOB ONE For This Rule-Of-Law Community (Updated)
It’s “Get Busy– RIGHT NOW– Like You Really Mean To Win” time, people…

LAST TUESDAY I ADDED A SPECIAL POST to the Mid-Edition Update which had been posted the day before. The post was prompted by Donald Trump’s release of his “short list” of candidates to replace Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court, among which was Raymond Kethledge, a Sixth Circuit judge responsible for the outrageous, Constitution-defying ruling in Doreen’s appeal issued in 2016.

You can and should see that article here. What it presents remains the first order of business for this community, in my view, and I think if you read that post through you will both understand why I say this, and will agree with me about the critical importance of the effort in which I am asking everyone to participate.

The only thing I will add to that post here is a recommendation of a careful re-reading of the article below, with which the June 25, 2018 newsletter began. The proposed elevation of Kethledge– even if he ultimately is not the actual nominee– is as perfect an example of the point I am making in this previous post as there ever could be.

BTW: This campaign remains as vital into the next several weeks or months even if Trump puts someone else forward as his first choice when he makes that announcement. The chosen candidate may be rejected, and Kethledge might then come up for the slot. Continue reading →

Book Review: Palestine: Peace not Apartheid

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by Jimmy Carter
2006, Simon and Schuster, 250 pages
The Israeli garrison state continues to cough up humanitarian fur balls

CarterEditor’s note: This is sixth time (previous: 1/12/18) I’ve reposted the original review.

Editor’s note: I’m replaying this book review from the old version of my site because of its timeliness and what I have learned very recently about political Zionism and the state of Israel,[1] especially regarding false flag operations and crimes against humanity[2][3]… which it certainly would appear are happening, as we speak, in the Gaza Strip. My goodness, this book was written 12 years ago! Time flies. I remember how the so-called Israel Lobby raked ol’ president Jimmy over the coals for this mild-mannered, modest expose, as if he were pushing for rekindling the Nazi death camps. Au contraire, as it turns out, Mr. Carter was simply shedding light on the ongoing programs of war and ethnic cleansing—Carter never refers to it as such—by the ‘Israel Mob.’ Valuable work.

###

My review as written, April 2007

If I had to use a single phrase to identify the main thrust of this timely, richly humanitarian book, it would be a message to the Israeli government: tyranny in Palestine ill befits you… and tyranny in Palestine is arguably the largest impediment to peace on the planet today.

Carter’s benevolent yet insistent message is the Israeli government must step up and live up to agreements it has made over the previous 60 years: Continue reading →

Movie Review: V for Vendetta (2005)

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Inspirational classic (to be) on social justice 10/10
Reviewed by Brian R. Wright [original review 20070622]

Screenplay by Andy Wachowski,
Larry Wachowski
Directed by James McTeigue

Natalie Portman … Evey
Hugo Weaving … V
Stephen Rea … Finch
Stephen Fry … Deitrich
John Hurt … Adam Sutler

People should not be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of their people.—V

Editor’s Note 7/4/2018 — There is none higher for an Independence Day moviethon; I also recommend Last of the Mohicans and a fair number of the other movies I review.

Editor’s Note 4/4/2011— I’m using V for Vendetta in lieu of my regular column this week. Every time I view the movie, I get more out of it. Pick up little statements or nuances missed the previous time. For example, on this most recent occasion (yesterday) it dawned on me how close American society is approaching the police state methods of this fictional theocratic-fascist England of the future: black bags, beatings, SWAT teams with benign mottos, warrantless searches, breaking down doors, hauling people away without trial never to be seen again, the complicit media, and the docile, cowering population. I wish for a real V to right these wrongs and fight for justice, free the political prisoners. Growing impatient am I for the restoration of the Republic. [Note, it also occurs to me how parallel the fictional government’s intentional killing of its own citizens was to our own government’s orchestration of the self-murderous 9/11 attacks.] — bw

In the early days of Free State existence we were all excited by the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix) next cinematic innovation. What better to follow a work of sci-fi Kung Foo mysticism than a work of sci-fi swashbuckling libertarian justice. (I include a passage on our night to out to see V in Merrimack, in my book New Pilgrim Chronicles.) Continue reading →

Guest Column: Independence Week Brief

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Educated Federal Income Tax in Three Easy Steps
By Pete Hendrickson [Thanks to Tim for posting in the Virginia CtC Forum]

We all need to determine whether our earnings fall under the category of taxable income, which is to state, as a consequence of federal privilege… or whether they are ours by right, hence not income (as defined by the statutes and regulatory code). I’m referring the following checkpoints as a public service.

When our earnings are not income, then please do not treat them as such: Learn the process by which to retain and/or reclaim all rightfully earned property. DO NOT PAY WHAT YOU DO NOT OWE! Our republic depends on it.

Image courtesy Doreen Hendrickson, who has mercifully been returned to us by kidnappers of the DOJ and judicial prosecutocracy. Please distribute the brochure that this image graces to everyone you know and care for… especially liberty-oriented pundits and commentators of stature. Hard copy here:

http://brianrwright.com/CtC.pdf

Entire Legal And Practical Truth About The Income Tax In Three Short Sentences

Focus on these simple points and you can teach anyone the truth about the tax.

  1. The income tax is an excise.
  2. Excise taxes are taxes on the gainful exercise of privileges.
  3. You probably didn’t earn your money by exercising any taxable privilege (or earned very little that way).

Inarguable (and nowhere disputed) proof of the first two statements above can be found concisely spelled-out in this little seven-page document. Whether the third is true for any particular person can be determined by consulting this guide to understanding “income-taxable privilege.”