Our environmental problems originate in the 
hubris of imagining ourselves as the central 
nervous system or the brain of nature. We're not 
the brain, we are a cancer on nature.
     - Dave Foreman

My spouse is a retired nuclear physicist. We've been watching the tragedy in Japan unfold for a week now, and he's horrified by what's going on. This morning, I heard him typing at his desk, and an hour later, an article by Daniel Holz from the "Cosmic Variance" blog on Discover Magazine's website appeared in my inbox.

The author has presented the information in a way that non-physicists can understand -- nuclear power, and the mechanics of fission and meltdown explained in laymen's terms.

Now that I understand what's really been happening, I'm horrified, too. Misery loves company. As much as I hate sending readers away, I encourage you to read the article, "Don't Lose Your Cool," in its entirety. Here's an excerpt:

This is by far the most dire situation on the planet at the moment. It has the world’s attention. We’ve had almost a week. Why can’t we just fix it? There are a number of serious complications. First, there’s the issue of radiation. People are unable to walk up to most of the buildings and see what’s going on, lest they get immediate and severe radiation poisoning. There are remote sensors and cameras, but fundamentally everyone is guessing as to what’s happening inside. Even if we knew exactly how things looked, it’s still a major engineering feat to get the appropriate amount of water running through these highly complex systems to do the cooling. There have been explosions, there are stuck valves, there are broken pumps, there are ongoing fires. The world’s resources are focused on this problem. Millions of lives potentially depend upon the outcome. And, thus far, progress has been haphazard and halting, despite heroic efforts on the part of the Japanese crew. The engineering challenges may simply be too great.

Excuse me. I'm off to find a Shinto shrine where I can offer up prayers for those who died, and those who will die, due to our human arrogance and stupidity.

R.B.

All animals are created equal,
but some animals are more equal 
than others.
   - George Orwell, Animal Farm

Sometimes the story just has to reach you in pictures. Since my page design doesn't allow the full display I've provided you with a link to another page where the image does properly appear.

I promise, it's worthwhile to click the link:

"TSA Gone Wild"

The whole, horrible history of our collective insanity when it comes to the quest for security.

Excuse me. I have to go burn my bras. They don't protect me from the TSA.

R.B.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks 
were striking thirteen.
   - George Orwell, 1984

Two days ago, I received an email invitation from President Bill Clinton asking me for a donation of $5 or more to help pay off his wife's campaign debt. To sweeten the deal, Mr. Clinton said that for as little as a $5 contribution, I'd be entered in a drawing to win a free trip to New York City to spend the day with Mr. Clinton. He wrote, "I know you share my pride in Hillary's achievements, and I know how much your continued support means to her. That's why I want to offer you this special opportunity."

After I got over the shock of being asked to repay a rich woman's debt when I've been unable to find work for more than a year and am quickly running out of cash to repay my own debts, I sat down and wrote a reply, which I sent to Mrs. Clinton at the State Department.

Thank you, but no thank you. I won't be traveling anywhere in the near-term, and I won't be handing over $5 as a sign of approval for a person who apparently has less control over affairs of State and diplomatic protocol than the Department of Homeland Security. 

I'm very upset about what is going on with the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the TSA enforcement of ridiculous regulations this week against a member of India's diplomatic corps. This, coming less than a month after Mrs. Clinton joked about how she'd avoid the TSA pat-down if she could ("I mean, who wouldn't?"). The answer is obvious -- the TSA needs to be dismantled. Immediately. The DHS needs to be scaled back dramatically, and the focus for solving the problems of terrorist activity against our nation needs to move from being reactive to proactive, and from treating symptoms to treating root causes (believe it or not, exploding planes and buildings, or men wearing explosive materials in their shoes and underwear are symptoms, not causes). The goal of our activity should be to address the root causes, and stop this insane "Spy vs. Spy" escalation. 

We're training our entire country to be mistrustful of the person next door -- and frankly, that's a country in which I don't want to live. I was on the MBTA heading into Boston yesterday, and read an advertising placard. It said, "If you want to understand God, you must first strive to understand men." The ad went on to speak about the importance of communication, compassion, and treating others with simple human dignity. I was jarred when I read the sponsor -- the Islamic Society of Boston. So, I now live in a country where my government treats its citizens as enemies, and the people the government wants me to believe are my enemies greet me with friendship? There is something very, very disturbing and wrong about this. 

Manhandling diplomats who are here as the eyes, ears, and mouths of their sovereign nations speaks volumes about the USA's inability to control what is rapidly approaching a police state mentality in this country. That ignorant, ill-advised single bad act on the part of a TSA employee has done much to make the USA even more hated in the world than it already is, and possibly set the stage for retaliation against US citizens who travel abroad for either work or pleasure. It would not surprise me to learn that on Madame Secretary's next trip to India (or a sympathetic nation), she's greeted by blue-gloved people who take her away from her entourage for the purpose of strip-searching her. 

If Mr. Clinton and Secretary Clinton are serious about providing leadership to this country, then I suggest they worry less about fundraising, and more about protecting the U.S. Constitution, its amendments, and the Declaration of Independence, all of which contain the principles upon which this country was founded. The last I checked, what is contained in those founding documents is meant to exist for all citizens, at all times -- and not be checked away when I travel by public transportation. 

I still believe in those founding principles, and I intend to do whatever I can to protect them, until I can do nothing more. Do you, and will you? Until I have an answer, don't expect money or votes from me. 

Sincerely yours,
R.B.
U.S. Citizen

I know my letter's probably headed for the circular file, but I don't care. I believe that President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and every person who lays eyes on the letter on its way to the trash needs to understand that I feel deeply about what has happened to my country, and what is going on right now. I believe in protecting my civil liberties and rights, and those of my fellow citizens. We're all in this together.

That's what compassion and simple human dignity are all about.

Apparently these things are in extremely short supply up on Capitol Hill.

Excuse me. I have to get back to my job search. Nobody's sending me unearned money to pay my debts.

R.B.

All power tends to corrupt,
and complete power tends to 
corrupt absolutely.
   - Lord Acton

Here's a later-breaking update of my last update. The comments are back up. As of right now, more than 1,900. I guess they can't decide which is worse; taking them down, or leaving them up.

Curiouser and curiouser.
R.B.

# # #
Here's a late-breaking update.
As of 7:00 PM (-5:00 GMT), there were in excess of 1,300 comments on marie claire's Maura Kelly post about the "fatties." As of 8:30 PM, there are none.

However, the post and the lame apology still exist. Don't bother visiting the website. I'm telling you -- sometimes the only recourse is to redirect all the attention away from bigots and bullies in order to drain their power. But you can decide that for yourself, right?

So long, Maura. Have a great life. Don't forget to turn out the lights when the magazine folds, okay?

Excuse me. I'm going back to my book. Try one. You might like it.

R.B.

Maura Kelly is a very provocative 
blogger. She was an anorexic herself 
and this is a subject she feels very 
strongly about.
   - Joanna Coles, marie claire Editor-In-Chief

Plenty of people are up in arms across the Internet today over the blog posting Maura Kelly wrote for her editor Kate Schweitzer at MarieClaire.com. Tempers are frayed, hot accusations are being hurled, and howls are reaching the heavens of cyberspace.

I'm repulsed by the content and intent of Kelly's post, and by her editors' audacity in permitting the post, titled Should Fatties Get a Room (Even On TV)?, to remain live for more than two full days in the face of copious and condemning comments--more than 950 as of this morning. For this reason, I have no intention of encouraging anyone to go to the marie claire website to read the offending material, or of providing you with any links to the article. Every time anyone lands on the page, a counter gets bumped, and it makes advertisers believe that the magazine's readership is increasing. If you're so inclined, you can read excerpts of the article on plenty of other websites and still get the gist of Kelly's puerile, cruel assessment of people who are obese--she finds them disgusting.

Kelly's irresponsible editors, from Schweitzer all the way up to Editor-In-Chief Joanna Coles, seem to think that anything that draws attention and links can't be a bad thing. I'm of a different opinion. I believe that writers have a responsibility to their readers, editors have a responsibility to their writers, and publishers have a responsibility to not inflict damage on the societies they serve. Having written such an ill-conceived, ill-bred essay, Maura Kelly has revealed herself as lacking manners, good judgment, and compassion toward her employer's readership. Having permitted this atrocious post to appear on the website and then remain there, Kate Schweitzer has revealed her indifference toward journalistic integrity and good writing. Having now publicly expressed her support of Maura Kelly's blog, Joanna Coles has revealed herself as irresponsible toward her employer's best interests.

Personally, I think the lot of them should be fired. However, in the likelihood that firing isn't going to happen, I'd like to suggest something else: express your disapproval through shunning. Ignore them completely. Behave as if they don't exist.

How, you ask? Simple. Stop reading Maura Kelly's writing, wherever and whenever you find it. Stop visiting Kate Schweitzer's marie claire website. Stop watching Project Runway, which marie claire sponsors. Don't invest your time and money in the products promoted by marie claire, and cancel your subscription to the magazine with a nice letter explaining why you are taking the action. Stop linking to their articles, and starve them of the attention they desire.

If you do this, you'll be making a clear statement to the parent organization, Hearst Magazines, that you're not going to tolerate bullying and bigotry. Not now, not ever.

Believe me, there are better things we can be reading than mocking, self-serving sneers about any segment of our society.

Excuse me. I'm off to visit the library, where none of the books are bullies.

R.B.

"Where love rules, there is no will to power, 
and where power predominates, love is lacking. 
The one is the shadow of the other."
   - C.G. Jung

A man in my town murdered his mother-in-law, his wife, and his two children (son aged 4, daughter aged 2) this summer. After his rampage ended, he stayed overnight in the house. He used his laptop to create and print more than one version of his confession, and also wrote another confession by hand that he left in the kitchen. Before he left the house, he called his son's private pre-school to say the boy wouldn't be coming that day, and answered a call on his wife's cell phone from her sister, telling her that his wife wouldn't be able to answer her call "for a while." He drove off in his SUV, heading north to who knows where, carrying the cell phones. He threw his wife's cell phone away after it ran out of power. A motorist recognized him from news alerts and facilitated the murderer's capture and return. He offered no resistance as he was taken into custody.

What we know is that this man had recently returned to full-time work after being jobless for over a year, that his wife was employed in a good job, that they lived in his mother-in-law's house in a toney Boston suburb. We know that the murderer's parents had been in town that day, babysitting their grandchildren. We know that the murderer's wife angrily confronted him about a bounced tax payment he'd made -- his parents later told police he'd remained calm and suggested that they could later discuss the matter privately and that the dinner table wasn't an appropriate time or place. We know that the murderer's parents left the house shortly after the dinner. We know that the murderer's mother-in-law had a telephone conversation around 9:00 that evening.

We know that somewhere between 9:00 PM and 7:00 AM, four people died by his hand.

The District Attorney proclaimed the scene as "horrific." The mother-in-law's body was in the entry hallway, covered by an area rug that had been dragged over her. The wife and son's bodies were also downstairs. The daughter's body was discovered upstairs in her crib. The reports suggest that she was the last to die. The information released to the public indicated that the murderer stabbed the victims repeatedly with "sharp objects." Because it was a stabbing rather than a shooting, the attacks were up close and very, very personal.

The murderer's assembled notes on his actions refer to his having "chickened out." We can only guess that he refers to the fact that he didn't kill himself, too. The police say there was evidence of "failed suicide attempts" at the crime scene. His notes say that his children are "better off" now, as their suffering is over, and they are "in a better place."

This family annihilator, this murderer who in a single night managed to wipe out three generations of a family, has entered a plea of "not guilty by reason of insanity." While I do believe that at the time he was stabbing into his victims he was in a deranged state, I'm not entirely convinced that he was insane during his rampage.

I think that at the moment the attacks began, probably with his wife as the first victim, the murderer was desperate to recover his sense of well-being and self-confidence. After the murder, the thought of his children's accusing eyes on him and their disappointment in him was just more than he could bear, so they had to die, too.

As the son of a successful man, he must have burned with shame at being denounced by his wife as a "loser" in front of his parents and children. She was angry about the bounced check, and in the heat of her anger, no doubt had a few choice words for him. Her harsh words may have caused his shame to boil quickly over into homicidal rage, held tenuously in check until his parents left. That evening, after his parents were gone, he took swift, sure steps to regain control of his situation -- thus ensuring she'd never be able to humiliate him again.

All three of his confessional notes, written while sitting in the presence of the four bloody bodies, attempted to explain and justify his actions, and to in some way control what those who discovered his crimes would think about him. The notes didn't contain apologies -- only rationalizations and excuses.

Narcissism is a terrible pathological disorder that we've woven into the fabric of our society, courtesy of our pervasive collective and individual sense of entitlement. Narcissists have a pathological need to control everything in their lives, and they truly believe everything that occurs is all about them. When things go right, they demand praise, and when they don't, they refuse to accept any blame. Tbe sad truth is, we're probably going to see more of these cases in coming years, not fewer. Arrogant, cruel, controlling, selfish people hide behind the diagnosis as a way to justify the entitlement they feel and the anti-social acting out they do.

Excuse me. I'm off to break every mirror in my house.

R.B.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
    - "Yip" Harburg, lyrics and Jay Gorney, composer

Even though our government is trying to make us believe that the economy's again on an upswing, I find that really hard to believe. The national Bureau of Labor Statistics provides compiled statistics that completely undermine the Administration's efforts to rally and cheer us. As of the end of August, 2010, the unemployment rate is stagnant at 9.6%, Payroll employment is down by 54,000, employment cost is up, and productivity is down by 1.8% in the second quarter of the year. What does that tell you? Not much, if you don't have a working knowledge of economics.

How about this, then? The same agency reported in the same time frame, government employment fell when 114,000 census workers were laid off. They also say that the "long-term unemployed" ranks, the people who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks, make up 42% of the total number. What is the total number? 14.9 million. Does that tell you anything?

I thought so. I'd write more, but you can get the full effect of these numbers from the Feds at the BLS website. If you go to the site, you'll read how the number of "discouraged workers" has increased by 352,000 from a year earlier. "Discouraged workers" are the people who don't look for jobs because they don't think there are jobs they can get. If you weren't discouraged before, you should be by now.

In my chosen profession, writing, there's something new and terrible going on, and it's getting worse. More and more ads are being placed in "Services Offered" for the writing of term papers, dissertations, college application essays, and book reports. All the things that students are supposed to do for themselves, and all the things that if others do for them, reduces the value of the grading system. We're talking an order of magnitude worse than a parent "helping out" with a homework assignment--this is just wholesale academic dishonesty and fraud. Professional writers know this, but it now appears a good many of them are willing to forego ethics and authorial integrity in order to put an iPhone in the pocket or bread on the table. I personally don't care why they're doing it--it's disgraceful, in both the buying and the selling. It's plagiarism, pure and simple.

What to do about it? This is one time when I think a "zero tolerance" rule is applicable. If you buy a paper and you get caught, you get expelled from the class with an automatic "F." If you sell a paper to somebody who gets caught, your name appears in a "Writers' Wall of Shame" in local newspapers, and any academic credentials you possess get rescinded on the spot, no exceptions.

This would solve the problem, I think, and would also improve the likelihood that the people who actually do their own work get graded on an even playing field, rather than against professionals. It would also ensure that if a person isn't up to doing the job, they don't get moved along and matriculated--thereby lowering the overall value of the credentialing. Really, it's not rocket science.

Excuse me. I have to write some letters to area college deans, asking them to investigate this issue and take aggressive steps to end the practice of academic papers for hire.

R.B.