Posts Made By: Tom Rodstrom

According to this article from a conservative site, the French aren't doing too bad.

It says that hourly French productivity exceeds that of the US. Rather than using that productivity to buy a bigger SUV, they take the time off. I am not a big fan of the French, but they may be on to something.

French Productivity

http://www.ncpa.org/iss/eco/2004/pd042604d.html

It appears that Bush is giving new meaning to the term "Political Science".

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Information on Power Plant Mercury Emissions Censored

The George W. Bush administration has long attempted to avoid issuing new standards to regulate mercury emissions by coal-fired power plants based on Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT), as required by the Clean Air Act. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can cause brain damage and harm reproduction in women and wildlife; coal-fired power plants are the nation’s largest source of mercury air emissions, emitting about 48 tons annually.

In February 2003, after nine months of delay by the White House, a frustrated EPA official leaked the draft report to the Wall Street Journal, including its finding that eight percent of women between the ages of 16 and 49 have mercury levels in the blood that could lead to reduced IQ and motor skills in their offspring.

In a more recent development, the new rules the EPA has finally proposed for regulating power plants’ mercury emissions were discovered to have no fewer than 12 paragraphs lifted, sometimes verbatim, from a legal document prepared by industry lawyers. Chagrined EPA officials contend that the language crept into their proposed rules “through the interagency process.” But Robert Perciasepe, who headed the EPA air policy office during the Clinton administration, stated the obvious when he called the wholesale use of industry language “inappropriate.” As Perciasepe told a Washington Post reporter, “The regulations are supposed to be drafted by the staff—the people in the science program and regulatory branches.”

Drawing upon interviews with no fewer than five current career employees, reporters at the Los Angeles Times have exposed in detail the process that led to the proposed mercury regulations. According to these and other sources, political appointees at the EPA completely bypassed agency professional and scientific staff as well as a federal advisory panel in crafting the proposed new rules.

Bruce C. Buckheit, who retired in December 2003 as director of EPA’s Air Enforcement Division after serving in major federal environmental posts for two decades, says that his enforcement division was not even allowed to review the mercury regulations prior to their release. As Buckheit puts it, “the new mercury rules were hatched at the White House; the Environmental Protection Agency’s experts were simply not consulted at all.”

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/page.cfm?pageID=1364

http://www.latimes.com/la-na-mercury16mar16,1,697620.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

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I wonder if this is one of the reasons Cheney doesn't want to reveal the proceedings of his meetings with energy industry leaders while he was drafting an energy policy?

I haven't seen much news about problems in Yemen. Perhaps this is the reason.

Koranic duels ease terror

In Yemen, a theological contest cools Al Qaeda hotbed.

SANAA, YEMEN - When Judge Hamoud al-Hitar announced that he and four other Islamic scholars would challenge Yemen's Al Qaeda prisoners to a theological contest, Western antiterrorism experts warned that this high-stakes gamble would end in disaster.

Nervous as he faced five captured, yet defiant, Al Qaeda members in a Sanaa prison, Judge Hitar was inclined to agree. But banishing his doubts, the youthful cleric threw down the gauntlet, in the hope of bringing peace to his troubled homeland.

"If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle," Hitar told the militants. "But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2352&ncid=2352&e=14&u=/csm/20050206/ts_csm/oduelingclerics

In any case this is an example of how to defeat a movement based on an idea. Show them a better idea. That is why we must always take the moral "high road" if we are ever going to beat terrorism. It is also a reason why mistreatment of Muslims in Iraq and Guantanamo and debacles like Abu Ghraib are so detrimental to our cause.

On Edit: Changed title from "Al Qaeda defeated without firing a shot" to "Al Qaeda defeated in Yemen" in order to lower the blood pressure of our more militant conservatives.

This is a fascinating article and goes right to the heart of what I think is wrong with America. I think that there is a "class war" for income and I think we have lost. How much easier was it for your parents to make a comfortable living? Are you working harder for less?

THE MATTHEW EFFECT AND FEDERAL TAXATION

http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/lawreviews/meta-elements/journals/bclawr/45_5/02_FMS.htm

My company has shipped tens of thousands of items to the US and a few hundred internationally. We have had more trouble with the international shipments than all the rest.

Some problems are:

1. Slow payment.
2. High cost or returning an item if there is a problem.
3. Shipments lost in the postal system.
4. Customers who want the cheapest shipment method and then complain that it is slow.
5. Customers who ask us to lie on customs forms.
6. Slow claims process with the Post Office.

We now ship to US addresses only, but we will sell to international customers if they can provide a US address.

This forum is for astronomers and (giving some the benefit of the doubt ) all of us know which end of a telescope to look through so there are no idiots in this forum. Name calling serves no purpose and makes the caller look childish.


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My father died May 12th at the age of 89 after a long struggle. I think that a for profit hospital killed him. Here's why.

In September 2003 he was scheduled for hip replacement surgery at Alvarado medical Center a Tenet hospital. My sister checked the credentials of the surgeon and he was first class. Sadly, the operation did not go well. Instead of about three pints of blood normal for this type of surgery it took twelve pints. As it turns our my father was taking some herbal supplements and his blood didn't clot properly. I cannot understand how any surgeon can cut on an 80 year old patient without first checking how well the blood is clotting.

As it turns out one of the hospital administrators was arrested for a kickback scheme two days before the operation. I understand that she was in charge of the lab.

The day after the operation, my father suffered a heart attack. He probably would have died, but a doctor from his normal non-profit hospital, Sharps Grossmont, was at his bedside visiting when it happened. It's quite possible that the heart attack was brought on by a blood clot created by clotting factor used to control the bleeding from the hip operation.

The hospital was obviously in disrepair with graffiti, broken electrical fixtures, poor paint, etc. In the intensive care unit most patients were unconscious in a vegetative state. When I asked for a television remote control for father, the intensive care nurse gave me a three foot wooden dowel with cotton taped to one end.

Alvarado did an angiogram and found that his heart arteries were up to 80 percent blocked. After a week Alvarado sent him home to recover (die). Fortunately father was admitted to Grossmont and after a lot of tests it was determined that he needed a triple bypass. It took three months as an outpatient for him to get strong enough for the operation.

During the operation after the surgery on the heart itself, while they were starting to take father off the heart lung machine, the surgeon noticed a discoloration in the aorta and put him back under. The aorta was delaminating and they replaced four inches with synthetic tubing. As I understand it, very few surgical teams would have the talent and expertise to successfully complete this emergency procedure. They were very good and we were very lucky.

He survived this operation, but he never really recovered from the first surgery at Alvarado. My question is: How does any hospital allow major surgery on a patient in his 80's with a history of heart problems (heart attack at 65) without checking his heart and his clotting factor?

I'm sure that if his heart had been checked, he would have had the heart surgery before his heart was damaged and that he would be alive today.

P.S. I told my doctor about Alvarado and he said he went to school with a doctor who operates out of Alvarado. Alvarado was the only hospital where that doctor could get privileges because of his history of aggressive treatment (read unnecessary operations). Recently Alvarado was advertising their heart surgery program on television. That stopped shortly after the newspaper printed a story showing that Alvarado had one of the very worst records of "unexpected adverse events" (deaths) in the county.

I just deleted the entire "I'm not leaving that easy, Rick" thread at Don's request. It was much more of a personal fight than a political discourse, it contribute anything to the forum, and I made a mistake that was the root cause.

Here's what happened:

1. Late Thursday night I accidentally deleted one of Don's posts while I was trying to edit one of my own.

(In my defense, the moderator's delete post button for someone else's post is the same color and it in the same position as the edit post on for one of his own postings.)

2. Don and Rick were having a heated discourse and Don thought that Rick had deleted it. Don did not think that his post violated the Terms Of Service and was naturally angry.

3. Wrongly assuming that Rick had deleted the post, Don responded with the "I'm not leaving that easy, Rick" asking if Rick deleted his post. Later in the post he made some pretty insulting remarks about Rick.

4. Rick refused to answer the question because of the language and the fight was on!

I feel bad that I triggered this whole thing, but maybe we can learn from it. Here are some lessons I see in this whole thing:

1. I must be more careful with the big red button! 8O

2. Personal attacks get you nowhere and most ofter just make you look bad.

3. Moderators must have thick skin and IMO have the responsibility to let the poster know why a post is deleted. For instance:

If Rick had simply said "I did not delete your post, and your insults are not called for." this problem would have gone away in a hurry.

Please keep in mind that IMO everyone currently active in this forum is a good, honest person. We have strong and differing opinions, but we all want what we believe is best for the country. There in no reason for personal attacks, attack the idea, attack the politician, but let's not attack each other.

There is something about posting in the Internet that seems to bring out the worst in people (like road rage perhaps), but face to face in a normal situation I think that most of us could easily become friends. For the record, everyone here would be welcome to break bread at my table.

I think that anyone who leaves a child alone with a Pit Bull should be CRIMINALLY RESPONSIBLE for any injuries caused by that dog. In fact, I think all Pit Bull owners should be held criminally liable if their dangerous, unpredictable animals injure any living thing. Owing a dog like this seems to be about as smart as playing Russian Roulette.

Mother Explains Fatal Pit Bull Mauling

"It's Nicky's time to go," she said in the interview. "When you're born you're destined to go and this was his time."

I think it is her time to go!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050612/ap_on_re_us/fatal_dog_mauling

Thanks, George, for making it very clear how our representative government works.

Ex-White House Official to Join Fuel Co.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cooney_exxon

A government of big business, for big business and by big business.