What Will Homer Simpson Do?

If his workplace should suffer something similar to the Fukushima disaster; what will Homer Simpson do? Would he do as the extremely heroic, three hundred or so, atomic workers in Japan have done which is basically sacrifice their lives? Have they such an have a overreaching sense of responsibility or is it a genuine concern for community that prompts them to stay on? Japanese culture and American culture may have different basic attitudes that need examination in advance of disaster.

If a meltdown was happening now at Indian Point, NY, or Turkey Point, FL or the Diablo Canyon reactor in California, what would Homer Simpson do? Granted, Homer Simpson is imaginary (sort of ) but he is our everyman, also imaginary (sort of ), so in that sense Homer reflects our national character, our collective psyche.

What will Homer Simpson do? Will his union pull him out stating hazardous working conditions?
Will his insurance carrier threaten cancellation if Homer remains in harm's way? Or will our court-of- last-resort, the National Guard in space suits, with bayonets leveled, keep Homer working?
Will the corporate CEO with his top staff jet in, roll up their selves and pitch in? Perhaps several bus loads of shareholders, anxious about their investments and just a little guilt-ridden will arrive to help. (Perhaps Bart Simpson ( he's not imaginary! ) will sneak past the cordon to "help the old man get out before he's toast, d'oh!")

Should re-licensing agreements for nuclear facilities include Homer Simpson profiles to predict who will stay in an emergency and who will bolt?

So, what will Homer Simpson do? Will he stay or will he run? I would. Would you? Stay tuned.

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Top-notch Second-Raters Rule!

America could very well be the very last nation to experience major uprising and rebellion. The reason we as a nation will not resort to revolution is because we are so terribly well adjusted to our society. Unfortunately our society may be in fact, insane.

Aldous Huxley had this to say in Brave New World Revisited;
"The really hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal."

The noted philosopher-psychiatrist, Dr. Erich Fromm : "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as neurotics do."

So then, if we are so crazy, how come we can manage three wars, survive a devastating financial crises and have next to zero, civil disturbance?

This is because our totally sane, top-notch second-raters, who are charged with nudging along the ship-of-state have learned two lessions in the past half century. These may be the only things learned, but they have served well. These master-minds of the national inertia we call progress determined there was to be no repeat of the sixties. i.e.

Firstly: Never under any circumstances risk repeating the chaotic sixties by re-instituting the military draft. Even if this requires recycling and rehabilitating one single, albeit well-armed, regiment, forever. What Nixon (blessed be) wisely took from us; let no Selective Service System reinstall.

Secondly: Never promise any minority group anything at all... ever. LBJ cost us several cities
nearly toasted, countless riots, and a decade of unrest because of empty promises never intended to be fulfilled. No more promises.

Thirdly: Ignore totally Jefferson's plea, "No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one will ever be." Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, September 9, 1792. Strive always to keep the Major Media in as few Corporate hands as possible. Insure that a free press remain an archaic remnant never to been seen here again.

With these major impediments to tranquility removed from the national scene, rest assured the streets will remain serene. All will be well. Ours is a well trained constituency who have responded faithfully to suggestions from our leading media to behave well and consume nicely. And so we shall. We have no choice, for deviant behavior is anathema; is Un-American in fact.

Follow the Money

To the Shores of Tripoli Our old friend "Deep Throat" provided a road map to so many of the major puzzles of our era with those infamous words. "Follow the money" indeed, this time to a continent sized pile of gold. Forget the oil barons, small change. Look instead to the real players in this nasty little war.

" It seems that the rebels might actually be under the overall supervision of the international banking industry, rather than the oil majors". Alexander Cockburn

If you thought you had seen about every perversity imaginable in the business of killing for profit dig this:

CNBC senior editor John Carney asked, “Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power? It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era.” and this; “According to a Russian article titled “Bombing of Lybia – Punishment for Ghaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar,” Gadaffi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar. Gadaffi suggested establishing a united African continent, with its 200 million people using this single currency".

"The initiative was viewed negatively by the USA and the European Union, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy calling Libya a threat to the financial security of mankind; but Gaddafi was not swayed and continued his push for the creation of a united Africa." Ellen Brown

The unmitigated gall of this guy! Well, he's got to go. So three flat broke, but well armed bandit gangs, CNN vetted and found admirable, let loose the usual barrage of first, demonization and then rocketry we have come to expect; demand?. What did Muammar Gadaffi do that was so terrible, you ask. Well first of all:

"WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC GOLD DINAR?

A.D. 700 - A.D. 1924: From the very beginning, Muslims used a gold coin called a Gold Dinar as their form of money. The Gold Dinar remained the official Islamic currency until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1924... when it disappeared for 77 years. But on Nov. 7, 2001 -- less than two months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 -- the Islamic Dinar was officially re-launched by the Islamic Mint in West Malaysia and is now available to the public. Although a beautiful coin, the Gold Dinar could pose a serious threat to the U.S. economy! " By Craig R. Smith, CEO SATC

So that's the deal. And furthermore he needs to learn respect for his betters. So down he comes and his stinkin' Central Bank as well. Nobody tells our capos no. Nobody.

"One major problem for globalist banking cartels is that in order to do business with Libya, they must go through the Libyan Central Bank and its national currency, a place where they have absolutely zero dominion or power-broking ability. Hence, taking down the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) may not appear in the speeches of Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy but this is certainly at the top of the globalist agenda for absorbing Libya into its hive of compliant nations". Market Oracle, Eric Encina

So Quadaffi is to be toast and truth and freedom are to triumph again!

Quoth the Raving

18th Century: Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.

BenFranklin

21st Century: Without improvement, achievement and success, such words as continual growth and progress have no meaning.

Zero Gravitas

Can a Goy be 'Goldstoned'?

Probably not, but I've received a touch of it .

The treatment Judge Richard Goldstone received since the release of his committee report on possible IDF atrocities during the 2009-2010 "Cast Lead" Gaza operation was to the nth degree harsher than mine, but even a small dose of hateful tribalism is an attention getter .

"The UN commission which appointed him to head the inquiry into the allegations of war crimes committed during the operation was acting on a seemingly logical but actually foolish calculation. Appointing to the job a good Jew, and an avowed Zionist to boot, would disarm, it was thought, any allegation of anti-Israeli bias."...Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom

Anti-Semitism and inhumanity are both evil and despicable regardless of source. As is, to my mind, militant boosterism of any and all actions of a favorite 'cause' no matter how inhumane and biased it may have become. This is particularly so when truth and civility are among it's victims.

Uri Avnery: "The full fury of the Jewish ghetto against traitors from its midst was turned on him. Jews objected to his attending his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. His friends turned away from him, He was ostracized by all the people he valued."

To be sure, I have not been shunned by my friends nor ostracized as Judge Goldstone was for his efforts. But then I have not recanted, nor confessed I was wrong either. We all must answer for our actions or lack there of; so be it. Goldstone apparently searched his soul and changed his mind. I have not.

For me it was a comment I posted on Slate defending Christopher Hitchens from a vicious attack by Masada 2000 that prompted my banishment. The post in question went up, as all my previous posts had, stayed for several hours...then vanished. Assuming a tech glitch, I reposted...up it went; then soon gone. So it went. Since then nothing I submit ever appears. Alas and alackaday.

As a result of criticism aimed at the Masada 2000 organization, http://www.masada2000.org/list-A.html, the most virulent anti-semitic organization since Herr Doctor Joseph Goebbels went out of business, all of my postings to Slate have subsequently been barred.

If you are not familiar with this, Masada 2000, screed, be warned. Their second lede reads:

'Entering a Toxic Waste Zone'

and so it is. In spades.

The situation all through the Levant will fester and boil, more people will die and the distress will continue indefinitely until...and only until, concerned Americans have the courage to risk all wrath and avow, enough is enough and order it... resolved. Look for yourself. View that wretched Masada 2000 site again, or if you have not already done so, do so now; then declare, finally, that things have gone too far. It must begin in America; the Middle East is certifiably bonkers at this point. Hopefully, a trace of sanity can still be found here. Can it?