Ed FirmageUtah is the Nation’s Time Bomb
After sixteen pages of ads and some news of various sensibility, the Salt Lake Trilbune with its new ownership, informs us that EnergySolutions wants to add 83 feet of nuclear material…..That’s four or five stories high, folks, all above ground, better to reach and to serve you. Through your water, in your air, and in the ground they originally stole from you. This “low-level”nuclear waste, tick tick ticking away, only lasts, a lot of it, for two million years half-life (”half” life means forever). So of course, the buccaneers of private industry will be here, trust us folks, to see that you’re safely irradiated long after the children of your children’s children, from Adam to Zarathustra, are mouldering in radioactive dust.
Fellow citizens. Utah is the only state in the whole nation which allows private companies, let alone the pirates of the entire private sector, to own and regulate the continuation of life on this tiny blue planet, this little bit of life, this only bit of life of which we know in all God’s cosmos. Are we nuts? Or just corrupt? Choice three eludes me. I’ll assume, via Occham’s Razor, that following the money, honey, is damned good advice. There, we find both secular corruption, rampant; and ecclesiastical corruption, called Simony, after Simon the Magician, who tried to buy priesthood power from Peter and John. He failed. Everyone since Simon succeeded. Apostacy.
In our state, in our nation, the gift of Tom Jefferson’s democracy is for sale. We’ve the best little state legislature money can buy. And it has. Lock, stock, and blatant ugliness. As ugly, as my Grandfather and Mr. J.C. Penney used to say, as ugly as a mud fence, folks. Envirocare, by whatever name, has bought members of the Utah and federal bench. Many law firms. Many members of the United States Congress. Ownership and support for Envirocare extends into many church structures in our nation and in this state. Most especially the dominant religion, as we quaintly say, for us Mormons. Church leaders are of the firms that have Envirocare as their clients. The CIA is represented in those august circles, not only Senator Bob Bennett, to see that the right people don’t get in to see the right people. One MX mistake, in their book, is quite enough for one generation. If I’m wrong here, folks, sue me. So I can safely name names, in court.
A suggestion to those of you who, like me, prefer Thomas Jefferson’s brand of democracy. As in his Declaration of Independence (our first and best Declaration of War), and the United States Constitution: watch carefully the incessant television commercials done by EnergySolutions. The old owners were evil and crude. I preferred them that way. The new owners, inclined to the good old boy church and state we’re used to, are slick. They hire the best PR firms, run in other words, just like a church. Watch for example, the golf tournaments they sponsor. AND THEN BOYCOTT THE BASTARDS WHO MAKE THEIR MONEY OFF THE BACKS OF OUR WATER, OUR LAND, OUR AIR, AND OUR KIDS. Like Channel Two. And a final suggestion for EnergySolutions (other than drop dead). Hold the golf game at night. The players, and the audience, given a little time, will all glow in the dark. A real energy solution. Save electricity. Go nuclear. Like the Mills Brothers, always my favorites sing: “glow, little glow worm, glow and glitter.”
Ed Firmage
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Additional facts from:
SLC Mayor’s Office
SL Weekly
October 12th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Ed,
Have you ever been to thier storage facility? I would guess not, but I’ll tell you what. Every one of Utah’s legislators have visited the place, and last time I checked, they represent the people (including the “kids”).
So Ed. Please. Educate yourself before you go out there and bash another Utah company.
October 12th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Whenever I see those Envirocare (oops Energy Solutions) ads on TV, full of green meadows and laughing children, I wonder: what do they want NOW? Something has to pay for these ads.
October 12th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Fred,
Glad you got to visit the waste site, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe. We could fill a library with books about all the things we’ve been told are safe by our elected leaders that turned out not to be so.
I also wouldn’t trust the legislature with my life, especially in this state where all you have to do to get elected is to be a member of the “one true” party. Our elected officials in Utah have the freedom to be as corrupt as they please, knowing that short of changing parties, they can do anything and they’ll be re-elected year after year by unquestioning constituents.
We also have a lot of ignorant and uneducated in our legislature. This past session was a prime example — remember the stink over evolution that Chris Buttars made?
Energy Solutions is now owned out of state, so it’s not exactly a Utah company. Even when it was, there’s no reason for Utah to be the nation’s dumping ground for this dangerous stuff.
Fred, you can get educated about this stuff by going here: http://www.healutah.org/ — this is a non-profit group so their interest is in the public health and not in making profits.
You can educate yourself about Energy Solutions aka Envirocare at
October 12th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
Yo Fred,
And Iraqis are still going to start throwing boquets of roses at the feet of US soldiers.
PS Got a bridge for sale that spans the East River in NYC. Interested?
October 12th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Ed, if it’s good enough for that budding flower of democracy that is Iraq, isn’t it good enough for us? We’ve got so much of this D.U., waste and other by-product that it’ only fair for us to hold up our end so that the large corporations can continue to profit. Then we can relocate Momens’ ‘Tree’ to the top of the pile. That should help break up the boredom that is the West Desert (it’s pretty much history anyway). Are we nuts or just corrupt? Who’s to say we can’t be both. To paraphrase our war-criminal pResident, ‘What, me worry about the future? I’ll be dead. So will my kids and who knows, maybe there won’t even be anything after that.’ As for me, I’m just looking forward to cashing that check for my share of selling off our heritage. Should be worth a utility bill or maybe a little bit more. By the way, wasn’t Brigham Young somewhat of an evironmentalist? Certainly a Conservative? What happened? I rant. Forgive me.
I will grant that we did a surperb job of dispatching that goofy MX missle boondoggle, in the day. We can do it again today. It’ll just take a bunch of work. But first, we’ve got to get this exposition of Diebolds’ corruptability, dated November 7, 2006, behind us. Then hop to everybody. We’ll find a suitable repository for all that Nukular waste somewhat to the north, east, south and west of Dick Cheneys and Don Rumsfields sense of decency. Thanks for the heads-up on this issue. Best, Caveat Emptor.
October 12th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Thanks, friend. Keep plugging away. I’ll follow your lead. ed
October 12th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Fred, the new owner took me out personally, along with our last Catholic Bishop. Fed us lunch, treated us well, patronised us a bit, and couldn’t answer any real questions regarding, for example, depleted uranium. And I’ve studied this since doing my doctoral dissertation on the horizontal and vertical spread of nuclear weaponry. And continued at the Geneva Arms Talks. And in talks with the Soviets in Moscow and Leningrad. I’ve seen the same stuff now at EnergySolutions, in photos, shown me by HH The Dalai Lama’s government in India, where they know the Chinese make the Tibetans mine nuclear material, test it on them, store in under them, and photo their children born with horrible birth defects. Go think. Rethink. Do you think, just perhaps, you may be mistaken? Thanks for taking this seriously, though, my friend. Dialogue beats the hell out of war. ed f.
October 13th, 2006 at 7:18 am
Are we really sure that we want to accept the assurances of prominent politicians or business leaders about the facility’s safety? I seem to recall hearing about some prominent politician or business leader in the 60’s who tried to insist that uranium was safe. As I remember it, the man (was his name Cal Black?) even wore a bit or uranium around his neck to prove there was nothing to fear. Eventually, he died of cancer.
Can anyone corroborate the story, or was this some dream of mine?
October 13th, 2006 at 8:14 am
I used to live in Monticello when Cal Black was chairman of the San Juan County Commission. The story then was he carried a chunk of uranium ore in his pocket. Whether that had to do with his eventual death from cancer, who knows? Although we were on opposite sides of the wilderness and nuke waste issues, I have the greatest respect for Cal Black. Before he got into politics, he mined uranium and did whatever else you had to do to succeed in rural Utah. His attitude towards radiation was acquired before it was learned that small doses could be dangerous.
October 13th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Well the nooklear waste has to go somewhere, and if we ever get our head out of butts we will reprocess and enrich waste so it can be fissile again. Like Europe does. I think France has 70 reactors, and Germany some 60. What is ironic is that the style of plants in those nations borrows from technology originally developed in this country.
With a large nuclear plant producing some 1000-2500 megawatts, nothing comes close for producing electricity currently. For example the state has allowed ANOTHER coal burning plant, right next to the OTHER one. I believe these toxic monsters are 600 megawatts each, for those not aware they are down southwest of Price, in the swell. the power gets sold mainly to California.
In addition, the burning of coal (on a megawatt basis) releases more radioactive materials DIRECTLY into the environment. At least I have read this. At least the nukes have most of the waste accounted for, sitting in a pool, until it can be placed somewhere safely in Utah, while we work on reprocessing.
Let’s face it, alot of Utah is not useable for much, the Sevier desert, wastes, etc. Match this with some of the dumbest politics and people in the US, and about the lowest median income, and you have a perfect place for CRAP storage in America.
Imagine, I personally know people in Utah that have the money and simply refuse to upgrade their houses, windows mainly, but insulation wouldn’t hurt. There is a little coal fire burning for you while you sit on your hands complaining about what is essentially a problem of every person in the State. Energy waste does not stop at the progressive doorstep.
David Suzuki has stated in his books that 80% of our energy usage is related to the building, maintenance, heating, and lighting of our homes. This is where the greenhouse gases we are all so concerned come from. YOU!!!Yes, the mostly empty 4000 square ft. houses piling up in the canyons, burning electricity and non renewable fuel to keep their pipes from freezing and their house plants alive. There are no greenhouse gases produced from nuclear plants. So REDUCE, or pick your poison, greenhouse gas burning(coal) which has no apparent solutions, or nuclear, which is being successfully used NOW, in Europe which is commited to reprocessing and safety.
Meanwhile, in all likelyhood, Utah is getting the waste, so be proactive about it. Being shrill won’t help, and at least for now Utah’s coal effluent is being dumped on Colorado, and all points east, in the manner of a hobo crapping in a stream. Wonderful.
My childhood home of Vermont is in the unenviable situation that all the fish in lakes are inedible, due to mercury contamination, brought about by the burning of coal in the mid-west. The State is currently in the process of suing those power producers that have contaminated their State wholesale, and the entire Northeast, for the forseeable human future. This is what Utah is currently doing to ALL of their eastern neighbors, so if you get some radioactive waste for storage, don’t cry, it is good to remember, what comes around goes around.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
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