Reason Morning Links: China Syndrome Nostalgia Edition

• The Senate prepares to debate a health care bill, with the public option's ever-fickle status looking poor again.

• Iran stages a defense exercise at its nuclear sites.

• The early stages of a Murdoch-Microsoft alliance against Google -- or, if you prefer, against News Corp.'s ability to attract audiences.

• Three Mile Island celebrates 30 years of fame with another radiation leak that doesn't kill anybody.

• Rhode Island's governor takes a stand against gay burials.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Gay folks can't make funeral arrangements for one another "if the deceased person left no pre-arranged funeral contract." So really, Governor Carcieri is just encouraging people to plan ahead.

[jester]

3Mile Island is a pet project of the press. Just like airline emergency landings and shark attacks.

[NeonCat]

Do newsies dream of a jet loaded with sharks crashing into 3MI?

I bet they do.

[jester]

'Democrats hold line, but cracks show'

So tighten your belts Dems. No one wants to see your cracks.

[TP]

http://treblig.net/Say_No_To_Crack.jpg

[Attorney]

LOLZ, jester lives up to his name.

[Hacha Cha]

as someone who lives relatively close to Three Mile Island, it really pisses me off the media uses small insignificant leaks that harm NO ONE to scare the shit out of people, which of course harms the cause of nuclear power. green power is here and it is working, its called nuclear energy.

[jester]

Scaring the shit out of people is the primary product of the Scare the shit out of people industry. How can it be any other?

[STSOOP Industry Spokesperson]

Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says investigators are searching for the cause. She says the radiation was quickly contained.

How can it be "contained" when the cause is unknown, eh?

[BakedPenguin]

Because cause and source are different.

[BlueBook]

Conveniently, anxiety from media overreaction to the non-story could cause physical symptoms, such as shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, etc. So it's sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy.

[MS]

In other news bananas are radioactive! K (potasium) will kill us all!

Other activities that expose you to radiation:
Flying in a plane (closer to cosmic rays..less atmosphere), TV (x-rays),living in a house (traces of U, Rn, Th, and K)

[MNG]

Bananas=Chernobyl!

[hmm]

The are also the best anti-atheist tool on the planet. At least that's what Kirk and that Comfort guy tell me.

[Kolohe]

She says the radiation was quickly contained.

Talk about burying the lede. Someone needs to tell the CERN folks that there are people in south-eastern Pennsylvania that can travel faster than the speed of light.

[BlueBook]

I've been wondering: if Israel does launch a preemptive air strike on Iran, wouldn't the shortest route take them through Iraqi airspace? If so, who is currently responsible for Iraqi air sovereignty, and what is their position on allowing or denying Israeli overflight? For that matter, what is the Israeli position on crossing third party territory to get at Iran?

Alternatively, would the Iranian nuke sites be within range of submarine-launched cruise missiles from the Gulf or the Arabian Sea?

[prolefeed]

I suspect that if Israel feels Iranian nukes are so imminent that an air strike is called for, asking hostile surrounding Arab countries for overflight permission is gonna be WAY low on their to-do list.

[hmm]

unintended below radar pun. is funny.

[jester]

In other news, the NY Times offers this:

Imagine that.

[jester]

Okay, sorry, dunno what happened:

DEBT-HIT U.S. FACES SURGE IN INTEREST PAYMENTS
Cost of servicing 'huge mortgage' may grow by $500 billion annually by '19

[Rich]

Warren, are you there?

[Mike M.]

I liked the quote in there by the guy who said America is currently on teaser rates, which I guess means China is our "predatory lender".

[Rich]

"It's not going to be a perfect bill, but it's going to be a very important starting point."

I keep hearing congresscreatures say this kind of stuff.

Inquiring minds want to know why -- given decades of "work", 2K+ pages, $1T price tag -- it *ain't* effin' perfect.

[Mike Laursen]

Their standard answer: Republicans.

[jester]

'Japan, Germany, Britain and other industrialized countries have even higher government debt loads, measured as a share of their gross domestic product'- from NYT

So, this bill wil help us play catch up. Oops, forgot. It WILL save us money.

[robc]

Flying in a plane

If pilots (especially long haul pilots) had to wear dosimeters on the job, they wouldnt be able to work the full year, they would reach maximum allowed annual radiation exposure well before the year was up.

[robc]

Kolohe,

faster than light

[hmm]

But what if VSL is correct? Then maybe the shuttle was just racing the slower c!

[Mike M.]

< a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx">Obama falls below 50% approval among all adults in the Gallup tracking poll for the first time.

[robc]

nice job sugarfreeing the link.

[Mike M.]

Link.

[robc]

Bluebook,

Im pretty sure the Israeli position on flying over 3rd party countries is "can we get away with it".

[BlueBook]

Yeah, that's what I'm guessing. 'Course, the Israelis could take a note from 24 and hire mercenaries to hit the nukes and make it look like someone else. Or someone else could hire the mercs to frame Israel. I'm not sure which one would make the better plot twist, but either way, Jack Bauer is our only hope.

[hmm]

Or they could get a man inside to convince the military to plant trees on top of the bases to provide shade and keep the underground bases cool. nothing like target the patches of trees in the middle of the desert. It worked once.

[R C Dean]

"Japan, Germany, Britain and other industrialized countries have even higher government debt loads, measured as a share of their gross domestic product'- from NYT

By coincidence, they also have some variation on universal health care. Hmm.

[hmm]

Hmm.
yes?

[R C Dean]

Im pretty sure the Israeli the universal position on flying over 3rd party countries is "can we get away with it".

[MNG]

True, but not every nation has the US in its pocket like Israel does, giving them a mighty free hand to disaregard international norms and laws...

[hmm]

Like China? Or Russia?

The top dogs will always bend the rules for their allies.

[MNG]

Hey, where are all the right leaning libertarians who when discussing same sex marriage take about 2 seconds to say that its an affirmative right and government action the gays want? Here it seems to be straight uyp government interference between private actors. Surely you're infuriated???

[SugarFree]

Maybe all we need is civil burials to get the state out of the mortuary business once and for all.

[robc]

Just to make you happy, Im infuriated. Well, as much as I am about any stupid government law. I see no reason the state should be setting who should or shouldnt be able to make burial arrangements PERIOD.

[Mike Laursen]

That's not what right-leaning libertarians usually say. What they usually say is that government shouldn't be in the business of handing out marriage licenses, which is a high-minded, principle way of stepping aside and letting all the anti-gay laws continue without challenge.

[hmm]

Or they think the government shouldn't be handing out marriage licenses. Which oddly enough solves the entire problem at the root and isn't some superficial fix mandated by yet another government intervention.

[Zeb]

How does thinking that the government shouldn't be handing out marriage licenses solve the problem?

[Mike Laursen]

Theories about how things ought to be are important but of limited usefulness. You have to deal practically with what actually is. What I was describing above is commonly known as a "cop out."

[Andrew Lynch]

Mike Laursen, your stance on this issue is commonly known as "giving in." "Limited usefulness" is precisely what a coercive state hopes that its dissenters' positions will degrade to. Paine: A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.

It doesn't really matter for how long or in honor of how many traditions the government has been involved in marriage, it (the feds and, by virtue of its own constitution, RI) has no constitutional authority to engage in these (and so many other) acts. Saying that it's just the way things are is precisely the couch-potato thinking that prevents Americans from keeping their government(s) in check.

I'm a gay man and I'm adamantly opposed to queer activists relying solely on equal protection to keep up with the Joneses. It's unprincipled. Oh, it's "useful," by your definition, because that's the way things are, but it simply pits bad legal recourse against bad legislation.

[Mike Laursen]

You can think something wrong, but still deal in what is practically possible. I tried and tried, but finally realized the futility of trying to work with "idealist" Libertarians long ago.

[Andrew Lynch]

Mike Laursen, I share that sense of futility every time I try to reconcile my small-government beliefs with Austro-anarchism. I don't think I'm a neo-libertarian, but I think there's a role for government, one that even involves degrees of regulation (gasp!). But when it comes to contracts and negative rights -- all of which more than handily cover the aspects of public gay life Americans get so apoplectic about, I have to side with the ideal rather than the convoluted machinations and compromises of (often normative) practicality.

[Mike Laursen]

Well said.

[prolefeed]

It's a painfully ignorant and narrow-minded thing said governor is doing. Hope he loses his job over it.

[prolefeed]

Shit, that's twice in two days I've agreed with MNG on something.

Better go to the doctor, see if I'm sick or something.

[brotherben]

Governor Carcieri said "If the General Assembly believes it would like to address the issue of domestic partnerships, it should place the issue on the ballot and let the people of the state of Rhode Island decide.''

Am I a moron or isn't it the job of the general assembly to know the constitution of R.I. and of the U.S and act in accordance with them? It's really start to grind my gears when some homophobic moralist wins an election and thinks the people should vote to make the laws they like.

As an aside, there was a comittment ceremony at one of the local episcopal churches over the weekend. The small congregation has about 20 openly gay members in regular attendance.

[hmm]

Am I a moron or isn't it the job of the general assembly to know the constitution of R.I. and of the U.S and act in accordance with them?

Yes, that is what interns and staffers are for. You can't bother with the details when you have to worry about getting reelected.

[alan]

Now for something completely awesome.

http://hplusmagazine.com/edito.....grey-molly

This could be good news in meaning they are not going in the direction of sappy Hollywood love interest plot
that the director once indicated.

[alan]

Never mind, damnit, the link to this link indicated that it was about the upcoming movie, not it isn't 🙁

[alan]

not it isn't

but it isn't

[EscapedWestOfTheBgMuddy]

She says the radiation was quickly contained.

Talk about burying the lede. Someone needs to tell the CERN folks that there are people in south-eastern Pennsylvania that can travel faster than the speed of light.

The media generally uses "radiation" where they mean "radioactive contamination" because they don't want to (or don't have the chops to) explain the difference.

Par for the course on science reporting.