I have written about potassium iodide before (re-blogged a good source on it). But this is very good. It not only discusses potassium iodide but many other health related issues. I find the author to good at the craft of writing and very well-informed in these matters.
I am not medically or scientifically trained. In this case, I am happy to defer to an expert.
James Pilant
My thanks to Rhoda’s Natural Health Blog.
Time to do my grades – happens every semester. I’ll be posting again beginning Tuesday afternoon. I’m very sorry.
James Pilant
This is a good article and I always enjoy essays where the author struggles with difficult moral conundrums.
I teach college classes and I lean heavily on opinion writing because it’s difficult for students to speak in anything but their own voice. I have observed a great deal of teaching and while it varies in quality, I doubt if the principal blame lies there.
I believe the problem is the bleed of toxic philosophy from Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand. Isn’t buying a term paper an economic choice (Friedman) that maximizes shareholder worth while following the “rules of the game?” If productivity is the only measure of morality(Rand), shouldn’t our modern John Gaults enhance their productivity? Aren’t the unproductive sheep, the dead weight of society, the helpless proles, the creators of these rules designed to limit the productivity of the great minds, the only real producers of value in our society?
If rules are designed to create a level field and you don’t believe in a level playing field, you are not going to play by the rules. I am sure that many of these students are unaware of the origins of their philosophy about rules and choices but that does not make the connection any less real. Obviously there have always been rule-breakers. But have we ever lived in a time where the public ethos is so accepting of this kind of behavior?
I tell you it is always a weird experience to meet the prototypical John Gault, an individual who has discovered their own specialness and that humanity, kindness, compassion and brotherhood are limits placed on their success by the common herd. Or the weirdness of the Friedman follower who believes if only we gave people free choice about seat belts, air bags, food, drugs and inoculations, our lives would be enhanced.
You see, in their world, it is perfectly obvious that brotherhood is the enemy, common rules a bacteria weakening the human specie, and compassion, a tragedy, binding people to their own lack of success.
What is the rule on buying term papers but an annoyance to the superman, the new man?
Well, I await patiently for the John Gaults to ascend the mountain and leave the rest of begging, pleading our our knees, crawling on our insignificant bellies, that if only these paragons of production, the new successful breed of humanity, would only return to make society work and, in return, we would swear to no longer limit them by taxes and rules from their proper and obvious role in society. (Read Atlas Shrugged.)
I’m sure it fills the longing in my students to be special, kings and queens under the flesh. Humanity is hard. Being productive and resilient is difficult. Sharing and caring is a burden. But those are the things that make us significant, not a Nietzschean philosophy of destiny and specialness.
There are other philosophies in our nation: virtue ethics, several hundred variations of Christianity, citizenship, and the doctrines of honor, responsibility and chivalry.
When these are in place, we will solve many of our problems with obeying the rules.
James Pilant
via Just a Word
Let’s saddle up! The Wall Street Banks absorb every kind of benefit from being in this nation including taxpayer dollars. Yet, when it comes to taking any responsibility as citizens, they are notably absent. Is there a kind of vicious hypocrisy in absorbing benefits but paying none of the costs?
Let’s make these people know that we know they have failed to act in accord with basic patriotism.
James Pilant
My thanks to Livinglies’s Weblog.
I’m always pleased to see a blogger return to the struggle, in this case, a blogger’s most simple struggle, to be heard. Some of favorite bloggers have decided to hang it up and leave blogging to others. I know it’s hard to get an audience. You have to blog every day and I’m told you have to stay at it for at least a year. I read one blogger who said his blog is like an octopus that never lets go. You blog on holidays, you blog on trips and you blog when you don’t feel like it. (The last one of those is hardest on me.)
Our blogger is 56. I’m 54. This means we are both kinda’ scary looking and women have learned to ignore us. So, we are blogging compatriots.
Welcome back!
James Pilant
This is a sort of quiet well informed and literate outrage. I don’t see a lot of this kind. It’s a great pleasure. The lead in, discussing zombie ants, is one of the most original I’ve seen. I would read it just for that story if nothing else. But there is more, I was unaware of the situation with the California librarians. (I have a soft spot for librarians having grown up hanging around the stacks of books. I have maintained an interest in librarians ever since.)
Good writing. I am happy to have an opportunity to share. I’m going to return and have a look from time to time.
James Pilant
My thanks to The Conflicted Doomer!
I fully agree with the author. Fairewinds has been the best source of information about the disaster that I have been able to find. I am a subscriber to the site and I recommend you sign up as well. It’s intelligent and full of information usually backed up by photography and films. I visit regularly.
James Pilant
This is a good business ethics story. It has the usual elements, offers, counter offers, money and opportunities. We read these in business ethics. It always boils down to the end of the story – do they take the money and do the right thing? Or cast themselves into darkness?
Here we have the right thing. That’s nice. Sometimes the hero should win.
James Pilant
You should probably read the report and get your fill of the seamy side of capital hill. The combination of power and sexual access is intoxicating. It is hard to do the right thing when there is just so much money and so much temptation. That, of course, is not an excuse.
James Pilant
Special thanks to NotionsCaptital.
via NotionsCapital
Seldom has a politician been so up front about his contempt for the masses –
From the essay –
On April 26th, the 25th anniversary of the catastrophic Chernobyl accident, Berlusconi held a press conference with French president Nikolay Sarkozy in Rome. At this press conference Berlusconi made his radioactive intentions clear for all. “We are absolutely convinced that nuclear energy is the future for the whole world,” he said. He went on to detail how recent polls showed that the referendum to block nuclear power for decades to come could pass at this time and that by temporarily suspending Italy’s return to nuclear program the issue would be revisited when the Italian voters had been “calmed down” and returned to the realization that Nuclear Energy was the most viable and safe way to produce electricity. He went on to explain how the “leftists and ecologists” had manipulated the emotions of the Italian voters after Chernobyl and penalized the Italian people who have to pay higher electric rates than France that operates 58 nuclear power plants. Berlusconi explained that the “situation in Japan had scared the Italian voters” and that the “inevitable return to nuclear power in Italy” would not be abandoned nor would the collaborations between Enel and Eletricite de France.
You see voters have no wisdom and judgment. When they err by disagreeing with you, for instance, their failure to realize that nuclear power is “viable and safe,” that can be fixed. If you have the media, you just patiently convince them of your point of view. You don’t worry about their judgment because there is nothing that cannot be fixed by good PR.
It would be difficult to find more open contempt for the democratic process or the facts of the situation. If nuclear power is going to be safe, there is some work that is going to have to be done. If that isn’t obvious based on the last twenty years, where have you been hiding?
James Pilant
via Aletho News
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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