This Could Rattle Your Day. Or Week. Or Month.

I just saw this article:

The Center for National Security and Arms Control at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M.

Nuclear weapons labs hit with sizable fines for new security violations

Just a couple details:

A classified material was missing for years before anyone noticed, and a lab official's public slides included bomb design data

You're in charge of the nations nuclear weapons and you can't keep track of the inventory?

And check this out from that same article:

In 2004, the laboratory’s director suspended the lab’s operations to fix problems that included the loss of classified computer disks, and in 2006, police responding to a domestic violence call at an employee’s home discovered thumb drives from the lab that contained classified information, along with illicit drugs.

That's enough to make you feel all warm and fuzzy, there, isn't it?

Try to have a great weekend, campers.

Missouri, Learning Nothing From Neighboring Kansas

First Kansas slashes taxes on the wealthy and corporations--you know, the old Right Wing "tickle down" ideas--on the promise it will bring business, people and money to the state and its coffers.

It fails miserably.

You think Missourians in Jeff City would see and learn anything from it?

Not really. They still wanted to slash those taxes down at the Missouri State Capitol.

Now?  It seems Missouri wants to do the same thing, again. That is, Missouri legislators are proposing already-sponsored legislation Kansas enacted and has some experience with.  First, what's being thought of and maybe proposed in the Show Me state just now:

Lawmaker wants 75 mph limit on some Missouri roads

And as I said, Kansas beat us to this. And here's their results:

Fatal crashes spike on Kansas highways after speed limit climbs to 75 mph

Folks? May I ask a question? Please?

Can we learn nothing?

And another.  Why would we go down this path?

Yet more brilliance out of Jefferson City

There's an article in today's edition about what's called "novelty" helmets motorcycle riders are wearing and to their peril:

Motorcycle riders, beware 'novelty' helmets

From the article:

Even as more than 800,000 novelty helmets are sold in the U.S. every year, and as motorcycle crash deaths mount, federal regulators have never acted with urgency to crack down on the popular but flawed headgear. Proposals to limit sales of novelty helmets have been delayed over and over.
So here's an article pointing out the hazards of wearing these cheap, "pretend" helmets and the damage or death they can cause, yet what is the Missouri legislature considering lately?

Missouri motorcyclists could go helmet-free in August under proposal

Brilliant.

Texting and driving: A prediction

I'm amazed at the frequency with which I see people texting and driving as I go down streets and highways. It's nearly constant. And it got me to thinking. I believe that either one more, huge accident is going to take place, like the one on the East side of the state that involved a school bus, or a series of accidents will and suddenly, the nation will be ready for tough laws on texting while driving. It seems that's what it's going to take. We'll see, eh? Here's how the laws were, state by state, in 2009:

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texting_while_driving; http://www.caranddriver.com/features/texting-while-driving-how-dangerous-is-it; http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cell-phone/statistics.html

The very racist United States of America

Please press for justice for Trayvon Martin. Call for prosecution, in a court of law, of his assailant, George Zimmerman.

I expected KC on this list

A report is out today on Yahoo! News, listing the "15 Dangerous Cities for Driving" and, to my surprise, anyway, the Kansas City metropolitan area isn't on it. Thank goodness. As it turns out, Florida is the worst state overall with the South "over-represented." I'll leave that alone here. What was most interesting and noteworthy to our area, I thought, too, is that Little Rock was number 4 worst, and Tulsa was 13 and Oklahoma neighbor Oklahoma City was 15. On the far more positive side, neighboring Lincoln, Nebraska was ranked 6th safest city in the nation while Omaha was number 9. Link: http://autos.yahoo.com/news/15-dangerous-cities-for-driving.html

A sleeping air traffic controller is the least of our concerns, apparently

From The Washington Post and NPR, just now:

A White House plane carrying Michelle Obama came dangerously close to a 200-ton military cargo jet and had to abort its landing at Andrews Air Force Base on Monday as the result of an air traffic controller’s mistake, according to federal officials familiar with the incident.


First one sleeping air traffic controller, then a few, now this.


Makes you feel safe in the skies, doesn't it?  If the First Lady isn't safe, how would we be?


I wonder how long it took until this person was summarily fired?  Minutes?

Links:  http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/3873VC/S3HGXP/37VQZG/DH4IMT/ZIT5A/RF/h
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/04/19/135551528/report-plane-carrying-first-lady-in-near-miss-at-andrews-airforce-base?ft=1&f=1001
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110419/ap_on_re_us/us_air_controller_movie

Update: But wait! There's more! Much more!

New incident deepens FAA embarrassment

Texans: Seemingly hell-bent on killing each other

First it was guns.

In Texas, for Texans, it's "all guns, all the time."  We know/knew that, right?

Now, they're out-doing themselves.

They want the highest speed limit in the nation:

Texas House backs plan to allow 85 mph speed limit

AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas House approved a bill that would allow the speed limit on some highways to be raised to 85 mph, which would be the highest in the nation.

The Senate is considering a similar bill.

Forget the safety issues. 

Forget the fact that it burns up more gas.

It's Texas, where they want the biggest, the baddest and now the fastest.

It reminds me of the Oscar Wilde quote:   "Nothing succeeds like excess."

Except Texans wouldn't be having anything of Oscar Wilde.

Well, except maybe in Austin.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Link to original story:  http://www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_74c00fdc-61ff-11e0-beba-001cc4c002e0.html

Japan: Too little, tragically late

From the "far too late" file:

Japan vows to review nuclear safety standards

By MARI YAMAGUCHI and YURI KAGEYAMA, Associated Press

TOKYO – Japan's government vowed Tuesday to overhaul nuclear safety standards once its radiation-leaking reactor complex is under control, admitting that its safeguards were insufficient to protect the plant against the March 11 tsunami.

Okay, they didn't do this--they didn't have stringent enough "nuclear safety standards" in place and in effect.

Could we take this, as a country--heck, as a world?--and learn from this, now, ahead of time, far before anything remotely close to this ever happens again? 

We need to learn these lessons and we need to learn them now.

Link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake

As Gomer Pyle used to say: "Surprise, surprise, surprise!"

From the news yesterday:

Special Report: Fuel storage, safety issues vexed Japan plant

By Kevin Krolicki and Ross Kerber – Mon Mar 21, 11:37 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters)- When the massive tsunami smacked into Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear power plant was stacked high with more uranium than it was originally designed to hold and had repeatedly missed mandatory safety checks over the past decade.

The Fukushima plant that has spun into partial meltdown and spewed out plumes of radiation had become a growing depot for spent fuel in a way the American engineers who designed the reactors 50 years earlier had never envisioned, according to company documents and outside experts.

At the time of the March 11 earthquake, the reactor buildings at Fukushima held the equivalent of almost six years of the highly radioactive uranium fuel rods produced by the plant, according to a presentation by Tokyo Electric Power Co to a conference organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Okay, my thought and hope now is that I'm hoping some enterprising newspaper staff--or maybe a bunch of them--starts going around to their own local nuclear power plant and doing some hard research on how that plant is doing at what they do.  I'd like to think they'll go start asking questions.

Do they store their nuclear materials properly?

Do they do their safety checks?

Are their backup power generators in great working order?

Have they had any radioactive releases lately?

Are all their checks done, regularly and on time?

Is everything in order?

Are all their i's dotted and t's crossed?

I don't think it will happen but I hope it does.  I hope some newspaper staffs out there in this country are, right now, prepping their reporters to go do a check on their local nuclear reactor(s), its staff and their operations.

A challenge to newspapers, all across the country.

How about you, Kansas City Star?

Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110321/wl_nm/us_japan_nuclear;_ylt=AqR_1NtsN900p4j63C9YAVFH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTMwMjd1b29lBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwMzIxL3VzX2phcGFuX251Y2xlYXIEY2NvZGUDZ21wcmRlBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDMwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2hpc3RvcnlvZnNhZg--

Quote of the day--on the oh, so safe nuclear industry

June 2000

U.S. Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) led a field senate hearing regarding workers exposed to hazardous materials while working in the nation's atomic plants. At the hearing, which revealed information about potential on and off-site contamination at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio, DeWine noted, "We know that as a result of Cold War efforts, the government, yes, our federal government, allowed thousands of workers at its facilities across the country to be exposed to poisonous materials, such as beryllium dust, plutonium, and silicon, without adequate protection." Testimony also indicated that the Piketon plant altered workers' radiation dose readings and worked closely with medical professionals to fight worker's compensation claims.

Yes, by all means, rest easy, people of the world.  We're safe.   --The Nuclear Industry and your respective government

More here:  http://www.lutins.org/nukes.html

With yet another hat tip and thanks to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (see the blog) for the link.

On Texas and guns on their college campuses

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Thanks and a hat tip to Daniel for sending this link.  I think the students speak very well for the lack of sense it takes to add more guns to college and university campuses.

But that's me.

Have a great day, y'all.

Fortunately Transportation Secretary LaHood agrees

Driving Under the Influence of Facebook

By Jerry Edgerton

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood may not be friending General Motors — and certainly not at 60 miles an hour. Just as LaHood’s annual conference on combating distracted driving was about to start, GM’s OnStar announced it was developing ways to let you update your Facebook page from your car with voice commands. Secretary LaHood’s response: “Let’s put safety before entertainment.” In television interviews he said he thought Facebook in the car was a bad idea.

I mean, come on.  I don't care if you are big on Facebook, no one really needs to update their status that bad, even and maybe especially if they've had a wreck.  Please.

Common sense, anyone?

Link to original story:  http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/cars-money/driving-under-the-influence-of-facebook/1624/

Quote of the day--On corporations, costs and failures

"I have personally found the transition from an attitude of 'mostly working' to 'never failing' to be very intellectually challenging. Too often the critical importance of a 'never failing' attitude only becomes obvious to corporate boards and senior executives after a critical failure has occurred and earnings and stock prices have taken a hit. Not only is the corporate heart attack victim already at risk for not surviving, the corporate checkbook is wide open to attempt recovery while also doing what should have been done in the first place. Just as important, senior executive and board time will be diverted for months or even years dealing with governmental investigation and rebuilding public trust for their brand."

"On the day of the BP explosion plaques were being distributed to employees for seven years of uninterrupted safety."

Link to original post:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/25/oil-spill-engineering-technology-cio-network-bp.html?partner=seealso