Apparently not all current nuclear problems are in Japan. Mexico too has nuclear power and it does not seem to prosper there.
This is a fascinating article which was very much a surprise to me. But that’s the great pleasure of the thousands of internet sites – the opportunity to learn.
James Pilant
via The Mex Files
I really enjoyed this blog.
I think we can all join in the thoughts enunciated in the letter sent below to nuclear regulators in the United States.
It’s a call to learn from the Japanese disaster and to address the problem of nuclear waste.
James Pilant
via Eslkevin’s Blog
I found this provocative.
I believe our blogging friend wanted that effect.
Why don’t you see if it has that effect on you?
James Pilant
via Eslkevin’s Blog
Excellent news story well illustrated.
Look at it if only to observe the beautiful layout of the blog.
James Pilant
Very short video of a newscast. JP
Of course, we don’t know the whole story. The United States’ EPA monitoring stations were only partially functioning. Does this make you feel that the U.S. government is taking nuclear safety seriously?
James Pilant
Absolutely, there should be international rules and they should be tough standards as well. A coal fired plant, wind energy, etc. have little change of crossing national borders but a nuclear disaster can travel across nation after nation.
(Another little factoid, advocates of nuclear power leave out. I, for one, believe that endangering lives and land in other nations is irresponsible behavior.)
James Pilant
From BBC –
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for clear international standards on nuclear safety in light of the ongoing crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Speaking in Japan, he proposed that nuclear safety authorities from the G20 countries discuss the issue in May.
Radiation detected in the sea near the stricken plant has again risen steeply.
Meanwhile, the UN has advised Japan to consider expanding the evacuation zone around the reactors.
Mr Sarkozy is the first foreign leader to visit Japan following the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on 11 March.
From further down in the article.
“The problem is more about establishing safety norms than it is about the choice of nuclear energy, for this there is no alternative right now,” Mr Sarkozy was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“We must address this anomaly that there are no international safety norms for nuclear matters. We want international standards because the world is a village and what happens in Japan can have consequences elsewhere.”
This stuff is popping up all over the place. I’m going to put a number up but there is a definite change in the blogosphere from viewing the crisis as serious to viewing the crisis as an imminent catastrophe.
I recommend you watch these two videos.
James Pilant
The Individual Mandate.
President Obama took universal health care and converted it into an insurance company bonanza. The President claims a great victory and says he has accomplished what many Presidents failed to do. Quite a victory. It reminds me of a quote about a war “They take a wasteland and call it peace.” Well we have the wasteland.
We live in a country where you can at penalty of law be forced to buy medical insurance.
It’s a great precedent. Think of all the things Congress might decide you should buy. From the innocuous like an emergency medical kit to disaster insurance (only if you live on the coast) to forced retirement accounts only in Wall Street Investments (We wouldn’t want the Chinese to get American money). The government has the power to force Americans to make any business profitable.
Back in the days before the Civil War, many people called the new industrial workers, “wage slaves.” What does that make us, “insurance slaves?” Taxes are one thing. I understand that civilized societies need to do things, defense, education, etc. But when did business get to collect taxes? Because that’s essentially what this is. The government mandates that you buy a service whether or not you want it. Everyone has to pay out the money, no exceptions. That’s a tax.
Individual responsibility.
They always cry out this one phrase, whenever they take something from you. Now, they say, once you’re buying insurance, you’ll be compelled to act responsibly. No free riders (Brush those teeth, eat right). You’ll be part of the system. I don’t think I have to worry about you being fooled.
This is an insurance company mandate.
There is no universal health care here. Forced consumers are powerless consumers. What do you get when you have no bargaining power? Tell me, if you have a $4,000 deductible, how inclined are you to get medical problems looked after? Not having insurance is a set of problems. They are formidable problems. Having this kind of insurance is a set of problems. They have you like so many rats in a trap. Bewildering sets of rules, denials of insurance claims, endless games and financial penalties aimed at American citizens. There is indeed insurance here, the insurance companies are insured against loss. They are insured against their own incompetence, stupidity and failure.
They’re too big to fail. Could the government allow an insurance company to go under? Wouldn’t that interfere with the smooth delivery of services? What’s a few billion here or there to keep the system running. And the government will have new ways to make insurance companies on the backs of Americn taxpayers.
How about profit? Let’s have a look.
This is a superb post by one of my favorite bloggers, J.N. Nielson on his blog, Grand Strategy: The view from Oregon.
How about the money?
How much cash flow are we talking about as a result of the individual mandate? I did some very rough calculations — literally on the back of an old envelope — and if we take the frequently cited figure of 47 million Americans without health insurance, and divide this by average household size of 2.59, we get more than 18 million uninsured households. I found figures cited between $46,000 and $50,000 as the median US household income in 2010. I took the lower number of $46,000, and found estimates between 7.5 and 12.8 percent of household income to be spent on healthcare (the Urban Institute’s report cited above gives a rate of 2.5 percent, but this is not to be taken seriously). If we pick a number between the two percentages cited, between the high and the low figure, we get about $4,650.00 annually for health insurance per household. This is an unrealistically low number, but I’m doing a conservative calculation. With these conservative numbers, we find that the individual mandate would funnel another 83.7 billion dollars into the coffers of the insurance industry annually. This is cash flow that they can leverage even if they have to pay out a little more than 83 billion in claims.
83.7 billion dollars. Pretty good chunk of change, courtesy of the United States government.
Once again another policy recommendation that would free the banks and their mortgage foreclosure lackeys for any responsibility for their acts. It never stops. It never will. A citizen would be found in contempt and thrown in jail for what they have done. A citizen would have been tried in court for selling property they did not own and covicted of fraud. And if a citizen went to court and said we don’t need any legal documents from the court house, we have a computer system, they would be laughed to scorn.
Read Rortybomb and get the full scope of these apologists’ recommendations.
James Pilant
via Rortybomb
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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