Comments on: Full Body Burden: Memoir about family secrets, government secrets, and the risks of industrial pollution

By: thomas vesely

thomas vesely — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:08:00 +0000

what if you make sandwiches for bomb makers ?
or fill their tank ?
point being, economy very complex and interwoven.
is everyone guilty ?
yes
yes and
yes.

By: jessed

jessed — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 04:36:00 +0000

What a beautifully written review. This aspect of American culture has always fascinated me. Our relationship with technology has consistently been surrounded by a sort of “creepy” sense. We know so little about where it will lead us.

By: Jerril

Jerril — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:38:00 +0000

Yeah, the basic post is relatively coherent, but the “dihydrogen monoxide poisoning” overtone is very distracting.

By: Jerril

Jerril — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:38:00 +0000

s/civilization/species/ – we just have bigger hammers these days.

By: Mitchell Glaser

Mitchell Glaser — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:18:00 +0000

The Yuppie Nuremberg defense.
Love it!

By: Eric Garner

Eric Garner — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:06:00 +0000

“Making a Real Killing” :
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Real-Killing-Rocky-Nuclear/dp/0826327982 is a pretty great book about the history and problems at rocky flats. If Hanford is more your thing read ”On the Home Front”:
http://www.amazon.com/Home-Front-Legacy-Hanford-Nuclear/dp/0803259956

both of them leave you kind of sick inside

By: AnthonyC

AnthonyC — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:36:00 +0000

I agree with the metaphor of children growing up, but we’re not adults yet. We’re still adolescents, with poor executive function and poor long-term planning skills as a civilization.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:42:00 +0000

I’m guessing the bullshit can only be contained so much, before it comes out sideways.
Remember “Bowling For Columbine”, the fact that Littleton, Colorado, is home to one of Lockheed’s main missile factories was basically swept under the rug, everyone played “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and decided to associate that tragedy with gun control (the left) or video games/Marilyn Manson (the right), or “homosexuality in America” (the batshit loonies that make things even worse).

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:09:00 +0000

I’ll check this out and I’ll try real hard not to compare it too the quality of the review, because by comparison it’s going to have to be damn good. Beautifully written review; science articulated, humanity retained and clarity at the fore. Nice.

By: scav

scav — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:07:00 +0000

Er…just a suggestion, but maybe substitute the phrase “toxic chemicals” for the word “chemicals” throughout your post?

By: MadRat

MadRat — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:38:00 +0000

People like to think of radiation and anything that emits it as the most terrifying, world destroying substances in existence. While radiation is bad, non-radioactive chemicals are just as bad. I guess we don’t worry about chemicals because they’re laying around our house and we see them all the time. Rockwell let a way too much plutonium get into the environment and yes that’s a very bad thing. But let’s also remember that Rockwell used the pretexts of secrecy and national security to do things like allowing giant ponds of chemicals like toluene, acetone and benzene to just evaporate into the air, as just one example. There’s a reason why we have an Environmental Protection Agency with laws to keep chemicals out of the environment. If you go to the Wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Flats ) and look at the picture of Rocky Flats, you can see the black ponds on the right side about half way down the picture.

I’m looking forward to reading this book.

By: thomas vesely

thomas vesely — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:55:00 +0000

you have to download ocelot update.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:25:00 +0000

Ermahgerd. I never noticed that you could link to a particular quote before. How handy.

By: SmokingHeartDesigns

SmokingHeartDesigns — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:42:00 +0000

It’s all my ocelot will eat.

By: J. Brad Hicks

J. Brad Hicks — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:40:00 +0000

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427944/quotes?qt=qt0418062

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:54:00 +0000

And probably tastes better.

By: Scott Elyard

Scott Elyard — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:35:00 +0000

Plutonium looks sort of looks like a rice cake.

By: farcedude

farcedude — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:30:00 +0000

I used to live in Golden and work in Boulder a couple years back, requiring a commute along the western edge of Rocky Flats. I’m still amazed when I see the development that’s creeping in from the South and East – when your deed includes a stipulation that you aren’t allowed to have a garden, do you think there might be something bad for you in the topsoil?

By: anansi133

anansi133 — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 04:41:00 +0000

There’s a lot of community out there for people recovering from dysfunctional parents. Growing up under a dysfunctional government is a similar kind of wound, but it’s not so easy to escape that particular dynamic…

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 04:14:00 +0000

The punch line writes itself on that one.

By: Mitchell Glaser

Mitchell Glaser — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 04:01:00 +0000

Somewhere in America there are people working at factories assembling guns and bombs and death machines without even the poor excuse of defending our country. These people scare me. They are more concerned about having a job than they are about aiding some tin-pot dictator in pouring liquid fire on his own countrymen. What would these people not do? A lot of them go to church, some of them even vote. How am I supposed to act when I meet them at Disneyland, or Las Vegas?

By: mtdna

mtdna — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 04:01:00 +0000

What the heck’s Tom Arnold doing with that Plutonium!?