Do a web search on Picher, Oklahoma. One of he many lovely superfund sites on which I have visited when collecting soil and water samples. Picher is not far from Joplin, Missouri. It looks like a "Mad Max" setting. When a tornado struck Joplin several years ago, this crap was an additional layer of misery blown on top of the destruction.
Even in wealthy,upscale, destination towns, such as Durango and Aspen Colorado, mine tailings have been used for construction fill.
Break the news to parents of young children, that their kids require chelation therapy to get the lead out of their blood, bones and internal organs.
Good to get some firsthand observations. My brother worked at a cement plant in the early 1970s and lung infections were common and severe. Regulation cut into profits for the company but kept the employees out of the ER.
What I remember before the EPA was all the dead fish floating up on the beaches of the Hudson and the water stinking like burning rubber. Everything is much cleaner today and the corporations have not gone bankrupt.
Harvey, you're a smart guy, and a damn funny one too, so I'm at a loss to figure out how you could walk backwards from a dumb-ass point in a circle so far as to convince yourself that government oversight over industrial pollution or the E.P.A. (a legacy of the Nixon administration) is an encroachment on individual liberties. Would you even acknowledge the existence of industrial pollution, at all? Ever seen a dirty river? Would you acknowledge it might be a safety hazard for people? Do you expect corperations to be self-regulating in this regard? Read the news lately? You know Ayn Rand was a bullshit artist who accepted government-sponsored health care?
I've disagreed with every one of Harvey's opinions on history, science, politics... from the idea that global climate change is a hoax to FDR having people killed so he could get elected, to the Vietnam war being started by a Soviet invasion, to Iraq harboring the terrorists behind the World Trade Center attacks, to car safety bags being a bad idea. It's completely consistent.
But this is a pretty casual chat site. We don't have to agree.
I have read that Ayn had pretty hefty amphetamine habit and had a problem with B.O. But hey, if I dismissed artists for those two criteria alone, I would have missed out on a lot of good music and writing.
I have lived long enough to realize the hazard of meetings ones' heros.
Oh, yes, it is sometimes difficult to keep separate the artist from the art. There are a few writers who have been ruined for me by knowledge about their personal lives, but it's worth trying to enjoy art no matter what the creator was like.
Ayn Rand just seems to have been so wrong about human nature. The idea that people are all good or all bad has no connection with the real world as far as I can see, and her philosophy seems to be mostly justification for selfishness. But I haven't read her books, so maybe I am just ALL BAD (A=A).
Doc, excuse me, but Ayn Rand was RIGHT about human nature, in particular the way totalitarians want to control people. The problem is that she wrote Atlas Shrugged as a warning of how we shouldn't let the government micro-manage every little thing ordinary folks do, except that the government (particularly Obama and his evil crew) think it's a "how-to" manual
( ... )
Comments 9
Reply
Even in wealthy,upscale, destination towns, such as Durango and Aspen Colorado, mine tailings have been used for construction fill.
Break the news to parents of young children, that their kids require chelation therapy to get the lead out of their blood, bones and internal organs.
Reply
What I remember before the EPA was all the dead fish floating up on the beaches of the Hudson and the water stinking like burning rubber. Everything is much cleaner today and the corporations have not gone bankrupt.
Reply
Would you even acknowledge the existence of industrial pollution, at all?
Ever seen a dirty river?
Would you acknowledge it might be a safety hazard for people?
Do you expect corperations to be self-regulating in this regard?
Read the news lately?
You know Ayn Rand was a bullshit artist who accepted government-sponsored health care?
Reply
I get carried away sometimes.
Reply
But this is a pretty casual chat site. We don't have to agree.
Reply
I have lived long enough to realize the hazard of meetings ones' heros.
Reply
Ayn Rand just seems to have been so wrong about human nature. The idea that people are all good or all bad has no connection with the real world as far as I can see, and her philosophy seems to be mostly justification for selfishness. But I haven't read her books, so maybe I am just ALL BAD (A=A).
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment