Royal beaver

This is the closest thing I could find about beavers and royalty without getting truly obscene. Not that a give a darn about royalty. And exactly what is the function of these modern day slackers? Hey, do us all a favor and get a real job would ya? At least beavers have a function in life.

And now that the deep republican south has been ravaged by tornados those "by your boot straps" folks are changing their tune. Paybacks are hell aren't they? Now maybe you'll understand (to use a Red Green expression) "we're all in this together". Maybe your republican buds on capitol hill can get you a voucher. And why am I so hard on some of these folks? Because they don't seem to realize that our standard of living is based on a whole lot of sharing or as they'd call it socialized programs put in place many years ago that they would like to eliminate. Don't like social programs? Well then how about anti-social programs instead. Enough said.

Bank fails later.

Side show Bob

Gets his two minutes of fame by claiming it was he and he alone that caused Obama to produce his birth certificate. Wonder if the Donald required his barber to produce certifications before placing scissors to hair? Inquiring minds want to know.
And while the circus continues, we all know the show must go on, hundreds if not thousands fall out of the safety net known as unemployment insurance. Oh but I forgot that's an entitlement as if that were some dirty word. Hey clowns, that's what entitlement means, you pay for something therefore you are entitled to it. I guess that's true unless you're middle class or poor then it's give me your money and you get nothing in return. All sales final, no COD s, void only when we say it's void.
Yet this birther thing is just another example of smoke and mirrors to direct your attention away from the plan to steal your medicare and gut social security. Where's the money going you might ask? If it were to balance the budget or pay off the national debt and that was your guess then you get the prized Golden Stiffy award for today. (Tim you really need to bring that back it was a winner) Oh no those of the party of greed have more nefarious plans for your hard earned bucks. Seems they need another vacation home in the Bahamas because the first one is either too small or maybe one is just not enough. Or perhaps the giant Ponzi scheme know as Wall Street can't keep up the image. Haven't we seen this just one too many times to not know the outcome? Shall I refresh your memory? Not exactly sure of the order but Savings and Loans, gold, internet/tech, housing, banks, oil, gold, oil (yes I know I said oil and gold twice but they've happened/ing twice). And we all know what goes up must come down but not until some computer program has sliced off a nice profit before the bubble burst and woe be to him without a chair when the music stops because it sure hurts when your life savings is gone to some smart ass greedy Wall Streeter who uses a computer that's faster than anything you can afford.

But I digress the show goes on as the clowns are pigging the stage and the pick pockets need not even place their greasy hands in your pocket. They have your bank account number. Hell they run the bank and the rules are now all on their side.

Need a new house?

As sad as this may sound one will be floating your way in about three years.

A debris field 69 miles long some 2.2 million square feet in area is floating off the coast of Japan and headed our way. It's expected to make land fall in 2014, This field consists of houses, boats, cars, and everything else that washed out to sea from the tsunami. Sadder still is the fact that many bodies may be in that debris field as some 10,000 people lost their lives from the quake and tidal wave that hit Japan. When you see photos of this mass of debris it's hard to wrap your head around the enormity.

I had more but Bogger is being pissy this morning and loosing my content.

The rites of spring and other spiritual stuff

Many of our silly cultural traditions come to you today by way of ancient superstitions. The Christmas tree is said I believe to have come from some Nordic practice of bringing evergreens indoors in hopes that the winter gods would not perpetuate snowy dark nights for the rest of the year.
Easter and all of its symbolism came mainly from pagan rites and symbols of fertility, things like eggs and rabbits being the centerpiece. All of this focusing on rebirth. I believe only the Mexicans and the Japanese have any celebrations of death and the here after. Although I've never really researched that subject very much.
I think a lot about our customs and rituals and wonder exactly why we do the things we do. I'm sure that someone from another planet might think we're crazy on observation. So much of what we do has it's origins in ancient superstitions and rituals it's not funny. Even our dress has some trappings of very old ideas. Exactly why would any sane man want to take a long piece of cloth and tie it around his neck with a large knot at the throat and why is that a requirement for doing a non physical job? I hear the origins come from the Turks who used this attire to protect against beheading. Sorry but I'm not some 12th century Turk getting ready for battle.
Then there's the issue of high heels. Why would any sane woman want to slip into a foot covering that throws all the body weight forward therefore causing great pain after extended usage not to mention blisters and callouses and the possibility of ankle injury?

As for the modern version of the Easter Bunny -- you know, an enormous rabbit who wears a bow-tie and looks very cute -- he's mostly taken from German traditions that stretch back to the 1500s. Again according to Mental Floss, "The Germans converted the pagan rabbit image into Oschter Haws, a rabbit that was believed to lay a nest of colored eggs as gifts for good children."

So I guess it all comes down to the amount of hormones and superstitions we hold dear. And since children don't have many hormones then they are stuck with the next best thing. Candy. They are more than able to create their own superstitions.

Now if someone would kindly stop doing the rain dance here I'd be most appreciative.

Bank fails

Seems I've been shucking my self imposed responsibility of reporting on the bank fails of late. No fails this week but there were 6 more last week and 2 the week before. I can't remember the exact figure (I think I lost count around 134) but that's still a lot of fails. In going back to the S&L debacle of the 1980 I find some very familiar territory as in "haven't we been down this road before?"

Here ya go again ya dumb monkeys

And in looking at our failures of the past (didn't some similar things happen in the 1920s before the market crash?) we're setting up for an even larger crash should the rethuglicon party have their way and eliminate yet more regs on the banks and business. Greed seems to be their mantra and woe be on anyone that gets in their way. I pity anyone who's made the mistake of moving to Florida thinking life will be just peachy as their state legislature has enacted so many new rules against the working poor and retirees. Don't believe me? Just pop over to the states' web site if they still have one and check out newly passed laws the puts a shiv in the less fortunate. Note that many of the fails happened in red states like Ga and. Fl.

And to those who wave the U.S. flag and cheer on the elected officials (and it doesn't matter if you let tea bags dangle from your three cornered hat or not) these officials do not have your best interests at heart. They are bought and paid for by the very people who control them.

As I see it the big banks will continue to gobble up the smaller ones as the little guys fail. The trick for the big guys will be how to package all that bad debt and sell it to some other sucker under the guise of some new whiz bang financial instrument. We are at a turning point. The frog is coming close to the boiling point (see how to boil a frog). Will we see $5 gallon gas or even higher? Gold is at $1500 an oz. so you know the bubble is close to breaking there. And in all of this developing poop storm our wonderful congress has yet to truly address the underlying problems. And no it isn't a problem about debt. We always have debt. People have a mortgage and they are not broke so don't give me that crap. The real problem is that like a transportation system gone wild most of the traffic signs and lights have been eliminated. Imagine that image for a while. Revving engines, screeching tires and the sounds of breaking glass and twisting metal only this involves real people and lives.

Easter beaver

Somehow the week got away from me minus a few posts. Time flies when you're having so much fun. Most of the news has been on recycle anyway i.e. protests in the Middle East, governments killing people in the Middle East, nuclear meltdown in Japan continues, floods tornadoes and fires here. So as we move forward hopping from one disaster to another little seems to change only the days. But there's one burning question I'd like to know in all this. Just who the hell stole our spring! Can it be that global warming is real and that we up here in the Northwest get all the crappy cold wet weather? (I know we are known for our abundance of rain but this is getting ridiculous) I think I'm starting to grow moss in the folds of my skin.

Bank fails later if I think about it.

It's about friggin time

Banking fraudster headed to jail
Want a deal on the Brooklyn Bridge? Then this guy is your man. He made a small fortune by borrowing money from a bank then convincing the bank to use already sold mortgage backed securities to cover the debt. Can you say fraud? I thought you could. And to add insult to injury he almost got away with 1/2 billion in TARP funds to boot. Humm? Wonder if I could interest you in the purchase of the Space Needle?

That's one down and how many more to go? If I have my way I'd give these guys a little Russian justice. Drag a few former Goldman Sacs slimes out and shoot them on the spot. Imagine the damage he did to retirees who thought they were set in their retirements only to find out their savings are gone with the wind. Remember IRAs aren't covered by FDIC.

Just when you thought it was safe to drink water

Maybe I should title this post "More on Fracking". What's that you say? Haven't been fracked today? To the corporate cronies who'd just assume poison your drinking water so they can make a few more greenbacks I say we need to pipe the stuff directly to their homes. After all they keep telling us it's safe so I'll take their word for it. They won't mind bathing in something similar to gasoline now would they? It'll leave your skin all silky smooth. That is until the cancerous lesions start to show up.
Fracking for those who don't know or forgot is the process of pumping toxic fluids at high pressure into the ground to extract either natural gas or oil. Exactly what's in this fluid is a trade secret but the EPA has tested several sites to find the basic components of gasoline or diesel. Okay I know what you're thinking. If they pump enough of this into the ground then we'll have high test coming out of our faucets. Sorry but what comes out is neither fit to drink nor able to run the family car. Fortunately this is only happening in a few red states at present but we all know the greed of the oil and gas companies. Just a matter of time before they'll want to drill under your house if they can. You won't mind trading your household water supply for a fast couple of grand even though you'll never be able to use the tap or shower again. Right?

Fracking idiots

And I just had a thought. With Japan dumping radioactive waste into the ocean and our American companies injecting toxic chemicals into the ground water then maybe a little fluoride in the water doesn't seem so bad now does it?

Wonder why air traffic controllers are falling asleep?

On August 5,1980 following the PATCO workers' refusal to return to work, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order and banned them from federal service for life. (This ban was later rescinded by President Bill Clinton in 1993.)

It took ten years at get enough controllers back on the job. In the interim they used military, non striking personnel, managers and nearly anyone else they could find to fill the positions. Now for the real coup de grace was when Bush threw his non scientific two cents into the formula. From their own controllers' web site we have:

A Nation-Wide Staffing Crisis

- As of March 31, 2009, there were 11,219 fully certified controllers, 27% below the scientifically-based staffing standard jointly authorized by the FAA and NATCA in 1998 and a 16-year low. According to an April 2009 report by the DOT Inspector General, the “FAA faces an increasing risk of not having enough fully certified controllers in its workforce – with 27% of the workforce now in training compared to 15% in 2004.”

- In order to conceal the staffing crisis, the Bush Administration’s FAA unilaterally abandoned the scientifically based standards and arbitrarily reduced the standard by 23%. The DOT Inspector General’s April report states that these vague staffing ranges, have yet to be validated and “therefore cannot ensure they truly represent the facilities’ needs.”

Now I couple this with what I've heard from the working conditions of the short flight pilots. You may know them as stump jumpers or milk run pilots. Their planes may say United or Continental but they're not. And their schedules would have killed me in my better days. Imagine having to share a crash pad with 6 or 8 other pilots because you can't afford a motel room near the airport and get only 3 or 4 hours sleep at times. And when it's all said and done you're making poverty wages. Wonder why some have been caught drunk? Because they never knew when they would have to fill in for some other sick pilot. Half way through a night on the town and you get a call that you have a flight in 3 or 4 hours. That was the one thing I really hated about emergency response work. You could never really make plans because the next thing you know the phone would ring and it was out the door and off to another exciting adventure.

For the controllers and I've known one or two, the stress comes in several forms. On the face of it they must look at a screen objectively with its' blips of numbers paying no attention to the fact that those little blips represent hundreds of passengers who's safety lies in the hands of the pilot and controller. Subconsciously there is a price to pay knowing that one wrong direction could result in many deaths. Then there has been the rotation of shifts and some working double shifts on a regular basis. I can speak from personal experience that air traffic has increased quit a bit in the last 15 years. There was a time when working at the airport meant that we could start work after the last flight came in from Hawaii at 11p.m. We would basically have the airport all to our selves with the exception of some sleeping layovers waiting for their morning flights. Everything came alive again at 6 a.m. Not so anymore with more international travel mainly from Asia. Not to mention it can take an hour or two to get through security. And someone must be there at all times for traffic control. Until recently much of the equipment they used that I saw was antiquated looking like something out of a WWII movie. The aircraft technology may have gotten better but the ground stuff doesn't seemed to have changed much. I recall at one airport they use hand written name plates to keep track of flight orders just as a precaution.
It takes three years to train a controller. I can appreciate that because it takes about three years to learn Haz Mat work and become proficient. So as you can see they just can't call up Labor Ready or temp agency for a bunch of help.

Scary times if you're planning to fly. Think I'll take the train.

So what's left to scare us?

not intended to be factual statements
There's a terrorist under your bed.
Mexicans are here to take all our jobs and use up all our resources.
The homosexuals are here to make everybody gay.
A Women's clinic is just there to preform abortions.
Thomas Jefferson was never really a president.
Corporations are really people who should never pay taxes. And that's because they created so many jobs the last ten years.
Grandma doesn't need Medicare or Social Security. She always seemed to have a few bucks when I was a kid.
Teachers are way overpaid.
Retirement plans are for sissies.
Gas prices are up because everybody is driving so much.
Meat doesn't contain that much staph bacteria.
Antibiotics in your food is good for you.
High levels of arsenic in drinking water won't kill you.
CO2 and Carbon Monoxide in the air won't hurt you.
Natural gas is clean. It must be if it's natural.
Oil spills are good for fish and marine life.
Radiation is good for you especially if you have a thyroid problem.
America was founded on the bible.
You just need to yell louder when talking to a deaf person.
The blind are really faking it.
Scientists don't know what they're talking about.
Taxes are only for the little people. Didn't Leona Helmsley say that once?

And lastly

I'm with the republican party I'm here to make everything right.

Gratuitous beaver shot

And why not it's Friday once again. So what's going on in the world today? Anything change since my seven hour nap? Nah. The Libyans want liberation. The Syrians are getting serious. And nobody is paying attention to Bahrain who want the same thing. For those of you out there who thing this is all about those warm and fuzzy concepts such as freedom, liberty, justice and a semi American way of life you'd be wrong. This has come down to a matter of basic human survival. As the fading memory of just why this all started several months ago ( you may remember a certain out of work street vendor torching himself in Tunisia) it amazes me how short memories are these days. He wasn't fighting for some abstract ideal or political party. He was just trying to survive another day when that small hope was dashed by a greedy and authoritarian government. What he started was the spark of rebellion in the Middle East, but I don't think this shocking show of desperation would have stopped what we are seeing had it not happened. When people come face to face with their own survival they will do whatever it takes to reach that goal rules, laws or social mores be damned.
And now we come to our own country. Just where are we in the long road to survival and where is the breaking point? I'm seeing yet more anecdotal evidence on the one hand of things getting better with friends and neighbors getting back to work yet on the other hand observing more cuts to the already shredded safety nets. Makes me wonder at what point we'll have a societal meltdown. Civility is a very thin veneer you know and a delicate commodity. If they continue to cut programs and the safety mechanisms of society such as police and fire etc. then it's an invitation for events we are now witnessing over seas. And that if you think about it is a very scary thought. To demoralize those who have the job of protecting us is not a smart thing to do. Remember they are just as much a part of the same system.

I have more but again time fails me.

Banks fails later maybe or not.

Money money money muney

A guy decides to mint his own tender thinking that U.S. money is worth little to nothing. You've heard all this before with the fringe elements of the right wing. You haven't? Just pop over to Idaho because they must have too much time on there hands there. They think up crazy stuff. Wonder if it's something in the water that makes them that way? Probably the years of mine run off but that's another story. At any rate this Von whatever his name is thinks that he's going to start making his own currency because he thinks the banks paper is worthless. The feds have other ideas about his operation and shut him down. Liberty dollars If the guy was rich enough ($7 million worth) to make coins he sure wasn't smart enough to call them artwork and sell them as such with a 5, 10, 20 or 50 marked on them without saying they were some type of currency (wink wink nod nod). And why try to make them look like American currency of the past? He could have made a commemorative type coin honoring a few presidents as artwork not legal tender (wink wink nod nod). The only problem he'd have in promoting such coinage would be their acceptance. If that were the only currency a town accepted then the plan might work much like the script workers were paid in to work the mines of the 1890's. They could only use the script for the company store. I've heard similar script was used by the U.S. military during the Korean War. I can't off hand think of why this was used other than it would be difficult to move that much cash overseas during a war. Not like today where we can take and lose pallets of greenbacks in Iraq that mysteriously disappeared.

Oh well it's only money.

I have more but the old clock on the wall is telling me it's time to prepare for work to make more of those funny green paper things we trade for food and the like.

Almost Hump Day

Posting this early as time seems to be a premium these days. Got one of those new fangled cell phones, a talk and toss just in case I grow disgusted with the thing then I won't have wasted a lot of money on it. All I wanted was the ability to make and receive calls but OH NO can't have that. Even the cheapest come with voicemail web browsers and more functions than anyone needs. And of course they want you to burn your minutes writing ridiculous 149 character notes to people who probably won't read them. Might come in handy to summon help on the highway or something like that, but for the most part I see little need for one. Discussing which can of peas to buy at the market is just a waste of time and minutes. And they have become just one more of life's distractions. Driving home the other day in stop and go traffic I observed the woman ahead of me texting while paying less attention to her driving. If I could make the laws it would be perfectly legal to stop her car snatch the device from her hand and smash it on the ground, no questions asked. What on earth could be that important that you risk rear ending the car in front when a simple I'll be late would do and save so many lives? Odds are that she'll be dead in a few months because I just had to tell you abou.....

Nuclear plant update

I guess the took my advice from this blurb from Bloomberg news:
Fifteen engineers were able to return to the nuclear plant site after the April 7 quake. They continue to pump nitrogen into one of the reactors, part of an effort to prevent hydrogen explosions at the plant, Tokyo Electric said.

From my many years of haz mat work it is common practice to pump either nitrogen or CO2 gas into a tank first for cleaning. That renders any explosive gas or vapor inert. We are then able to cut into the tank for access without fear of explosion. In this case they are using it to prevent a hydrogen explosion. The problem though is that anyone working near the reactor will have to be wearing a supplied air system meaning they can only work for around 30 minutes at a time before coming out for a new tank of air. That's a tricky proposition when you have to decontaminate for radiation every time you need air. Those fully encapsulating suits they wear aren't cheap. A low end model for some chemicals runs $600. And as was stated before they were running out of everything including boot covers.

Funny how our really old models of nuclear reactors were much safer in that the fuel rods were attached to ropes. The ropes were routed up to a control room and held in a bundle with a large ax overhead. If the reactor were to start running away then a technician would literally grab the ax cut the rope causing the fuel rods to fall into their graphite holders stopping the reaction. This was know as S.C.R.A.M. safety control rod ax man.

And congress keeps playing their games

Death panels? You ain't seen nothing like a rethuglicon death panel. Grandma won't have a chance when they get finished gutting Medicare. Hey! And Grandma you better fork over the cat food because the boys on Wall Street want even more. Safety net? No more safety nets for you if something goes wrong.
Hold on to your wallets boys and girls because while congress is busy finishing off the last of the country's safety nets and robbing and future your kids might have, the boys in the corporate board rooms are planning on raising prices with the help of their Wall Street amigos. Speculation is in this year. My guess is that even though we've had one of the wettest springs on record they will call it a drought thereby jacking up food prices. We've already seen that with gas prices. No major increase in demand and an increase in supply but still they keep a going up. (there's a song lyric in there somewhere I'm sure). You'll just ride the bus you say. Ha! Increase fares and cuts in service is the new mantra. But I hope you won't mind a four hour daily commute if you don't mind wasting half your day waiting for the 710 to a job that barely covers the rent.
Just wonder with unemployment said to be falling just how many of the uncounted fell off the list and are now to the delight of rethuglicons "on their own". And just whom do they think will be paying taxes sans a job when they've hung the bill on those least able to pay? Are we beginning to see the breaking point with mass unreported and under reported protests in state capitols around the nation?

As for the current BS now reported as high level economic meeting in the halls of congress it's become a shell game of sorts. One side whining that a debt will be the end of the world while the other side keeps calling for a bipartisan compromise. It's bull I tell you. They are both on the same side fighting for their corporate masters. All of them! It works like this: One side makes a proposal while the other holds fast. Then the ones making the initial proposal cave a bit and the cuts get larger. The holdouts continue saying it's not enough. And if you guessed the proposal makers cave yet again you get the gold star for the day. So with that bit of info folks anybody care to wager where the final figure will be? That is seeing how the rethuglicons pulled the figures out of where the sun doesn't shine? And what's to become of these cuts? It's so that corporations will get yet more tax breaks that they don't need. Just how does GE need another tax cut when they don't pay any taxes in the first place?

And the circus continues. Please cue the music Maestro.

Beavers make mistakes too

Okay I know I've used this photo before but it fits the post so here goes. To borrow a phrase from George C. Scott from the beginning of Patton you may recall him standing there discussing who wins wars and why I came up with a slight twist that seem pertinent to today's events. Okay I borrowed it as well but that's how this train of thought went yesterday whilst doing the link to link thing. It went:
“Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever succeeded by learning from his mistakes. He succeeded by learning from the other poor dumb bastard’s mistakes.”
And the thought also came to me that it fits todays' events quit well. Make the same mistakes and you are doomed to repeat them if you don't learn from them. A few examples:
Massive oil spill in the Gulf and what was done? If you guess nearly nothing you get a gold star today. A response team was set up that can respond to a spill within 17 days? Boy I'm just glad they don't run our local fire department because half the neighborhood would be burned to the ground before they arrived. In the past I've responded to emergency spills within 45 minutes. Most of that time was for travel and I don't have flashing lights on my car either.
Nuclear plant meltdown in Japan and what do we do? Okay we'll run a check of our own plants most of which are 40 years old and in need of replacement. It's alright though they're still standing so let's just recertify for another 40 years. There shouldn't be any problems with aging steel and concrete. Just like a shoe lace that you know will break any time now but hey it should last another day and what's a few radioactive fish worth anyway. Don't you have those new boots with dosimeters in them?
Stolen elections again? Funny how 7000 votes mysteriously appear in a very close election in Wisconsin. Also funny how the person in charge of keeping the count was tied to the guy behind. Where is that Rove guy?

There's more much more but no time now. Bank fails later

Pearls of wisdom

In stepping back from the days' events I capture a moment or two to reflect on other things. Sometimes things just get too overwhelming for ones' concentration. We are after all the result of the TV generation with the attention span (I'll let you fill in your own analogy). But in looking for just the right image to go with a new post often times takes one on the journey to some better ideas. Abstract concepts are more often than not difficult to convey pictorially so I give up and will just continue on as would Vonnegut. Never stopped him I'm sure.
Back to the tripwires of new ideas as a Randal Graves might put it. In looking up "more of the same" I find "Less is more". And I'm thinking "Less is not more". Less is less. Yes I know we as a nation are a wasteful lot but considering all the factors of the last three or four years I'd bet that we've all cut back to a bare bones operation substituting generics for that once sought after designer brand or saying the hell with it and doing without it all together. That can be verified with a trip to the local barber to find that people are holding off with even a once valued necessity. After all it wasn't like there was an important job interview in the near future. And who in the household would care? It's still me only with longer hair.
But in surfing for a different path and a new idea for which to write about (have we had enough of earthquakes wars and political battles?) I stumble upon some choice cherries hidden in an out of the way place if you know what I mean. The first is that well worn phrase (gulp, I hate the term) 'Outside the box'. You must think outside the box was the mantra for quit a while. No, that's wrong and I'll tell you why. We are always inside a box whether we like it or not. The box is part of us because we are what we are. We are a human package dictated by our physical existence. So when we try to think outside the box all we are doing is looking for another box. (Almost sounds like something out of quantum physics.) But I think there is a grain of truth to it. We are nothing more than slaves to our physical needs motivated by hormones and enzymes and proteins. So all I can suggest is be weary of those that didn't get their fair share of those items at birth or how may have lost them somewhere along the way.

So there's todays' thought. I hope it gives you something to ponder aside from the days' events. And who after all could come up with a photo to capture those ideas to go with this post?

Tomorrow post deals with mistakes if I don't mistakenly forget to post it. Now to find a beaver picture to go with it. It will be Friday after all.

Let the circus of illogic continue.

Three more planes found to have cracks in the fuselage. Houses sliding down hillsides. Old gas pipelines exploding. So where are we going to get the money for repairs? Oh, silly me, I forgot billionaires need more tax breaks so grandma will just have to forget the much needed hip surgery. She can just find a tree branch to use as a cane because after the rethuglicons get finished slashing Medicare there won't be enough left to cover an aspirin. And forget any end of life counseling that's a 'death panel' according to the other side.

Today is the day unions and other like minded folk take to the streets to show their displeasure with the taking away of their fought for rights like collective bargaining. I suspect that the Lame Stream Media will not show any of this on your local news. Wisconsin has been all but an after thought relegated to but a passing sentence or two minus even any photos. Can't wait for the next election cycle except for the obnoxious political ads. Guess there's a lot of money to be made in cranking out lies. It may be legal (which it shouldn't) but it sure isn't free. You just know the Kochhead brothers will be dumping tons of their buckets of cash into the ring with the loonies jumping at the chance to be the next millionaire buffoon. Hey what would you do for a million bucks if you had the chance? After all clowns are supposed to make people laugh.

Unfortunately politicians have other ideas and not so funny.

From a Yahoo story on the radiation leak

Early on, the company ran out of full radiation suits, forcing workers to create improvised versions of items such as nylon booties they were supposed to pull over their shoes.

"But we only put something like plastic garbage bags you can buy at a convenience store and sealed them with masking tape," he said.

Masking tape? You'd think they could find duct tape somewhere.

He said the tsunami littered the area around the plant with dead fish and sharks, and that the quake opened holes in the ground that tripped up some workers who could not see through large gas masks. They had to yell at one another to be heard through the masks.

Sounds like they are using the wrong full-face respirators. The angle of view in anything I've worn is 120 degrees and I've worn just about every brand made. Never tripped unless it was very dark and didn't have a flashlight.

What they don't know how to speak full-face? That's our language in the haz mat trade. If it's too noisy then we use hand signals.

"It's hard to move while wearing a gas mask," he said. "While working, the gas mask came off several times. Maybe I must have inhaled much radiation."

Hard to move? Not if you know what you're doing and I've been in some tight places. As for the mask coming off then he didn't have the straps tight enough. In really dangerous situations we cinch them down pretty well. It will give you a headache but you'll still be around to talk about it.

What are these guys amateurs?

We're doomed!

Unemployed?

Looking for a career change? Looking for a high income salary and a boss that treats you with respect?
The Japanese are looking for a few good men and women for some clean up work. Enter the exciting world of high tech janitorial. Earn like never before with incomes starting at $5000 per day! Have that ugly body hair removed once and for all after just one day on the job. And the best part is no experience necessary. Just be willing to enter a nuclear reactor and seal up an 8" crack. What could be easier? No long training or college courses involved. Be the first in your neighborhood to become a martyr.

Okay okay I know this was just too snarky and uncaring but what are we to do?

I've finally got some figures as to what's coming out of the plant. Readings taken very close to the reactor are 1,000 millisieverts per hour. Two feet away from the entry point read 400 millisieverts. The 400 reading would be about 8 times the permissible exposure limit for a worker at the plant. But again they're feeding us a line when they say that by having the water dump into the sea will dilute it is a line of bull. It doesn't dissolve like sugar in coffee but sinks to the bottom to start killing the bottom life. And here's a note if you like halibut I suggest you purchase it now while you still can. Halibut is a bottom feeder fish which may soon become inedible.

So exactly how did the Ukrainians do in their situation you may ask? First their government lied to them and told them that levels were safe in the areas around the plant (sound familiar?). Then they had an exclusion zone. No one told them there were high levels in their dairy products until later. Soon vegetables were unsafe to eat. What to do? They said the heck with it and started eating the produce and milk anyway. It was either that or stare to death.

What can we expect from this situation? That's hard to say but one thing is for certain if they don't start encasing the reactor soon then a lot of people are going to die. Some a slow painful death. This to my thinking is far worse than any terrorist attack as millions could be affected.

On the bright side I guess we won't have to worry about e-coli or salmonella in our dairy products.

Beavers are back as promised

Spring has sprung and the beavers are back as promised. I must say they aren't to happy about the situation in the world. But at this time of year they may have other things on their minds seeing as how they are natures' fuzzy little lumberjacks that they are.

Still not much concrete information on exactly how much radiation is reaching U.S. shores. All I'm hearing is how much below accepted levels have been found in dairy and air samples. Would be nice to let us know exactly how much that is. Even a lowly haz mat worker gets to see lab results of what he's being exposed to.

Libya oh Libya what are you going to do when your generals leave you Momar? A nice incentive to use against an advancing army is to remind them that they could be held for war crimes later. Rebels trying to win a war against a trained army not even knowing how to load a weapon? Come now we know that the U.N forces will have to win this one for them.

And still nothing of the hypocrisy of supporting dictators in other countries with people fighting the very same fight. But maybe I've forgotten it's all about appearances and labels. While one is cast as a freedom fighter another is cast as a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer. Oh silly me I must have lost my ticket to the Tea Party Express. Isn't today the day we all wear our underwear on the outside? And no tongue in cheek or anywhere else for that matter intended. And no April fools' trickery intended there either.

Bank fails later or not.