7 Comments so far

1. srelf March 11th, 2007 5:44 pm

   Important article, and well-researched. Yes, out-of-sight, out-of-mind! Unfortunately, humans have gotten to be such a visually-oriented species, that if they don’t see it, it isn’t there. Like Albert Einstein said, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” It doesn’t HAVE to be that way, but we all need to “cowboy up” on this one!

2. critojazz March 11th, 2007 10:16 pm

   Yet another reason — as if we need more — to reject war in all its forms.

3. ctrew March 12th, 2007 12:10 am

   We are learning so much more than we ever wanted to know about the evil of unchecked power. How can they sleep? They are made of different stuff than most of us it seems. Which is why all of our “logic” and “common sense” can’t find it’s way into their skulls.
   This insanity goes right along with the FDA wanting to allow cattle to be given the only antibiotic which can still fight most drug resistent bacteria at this point. Which means that the bugs will begin to develop resistance to it before the human epidemic that I assume it was created for.
   And also reminds me of the companies that buy the reduced debt of poor nations (from their creditor countries) and then dun the debtor nations for the original unreduced amount, thus further worsening the impoverished state of it’s people.
   Then there are landmines, cluster bombs. The horror taking place in Darfur. The possibility that the conflice in Darfur is about oil.
   It makes me want to believe in Hell, and gets me in touch with the faintest whiff of the anger which must be felt by the people who are actively victimized by this callous greed and stupidity.
   It is pretty overwhelming when considered all together.

4. bell March 12th, 2007 8:03 am

   It should be pointed out that something with a half life of 4.6 billion years is for all practical purposes not radioactive. As for the chemical effects of uranium I can only speculate as I am not an inorganic chemist but I doubt that uranium mimics chemically anything that the body might use. More distressing to me is that U235 can be burnt in certain type of nuclear reactors and we are therefore wasting our precious reserves of nuclear fuel. What documentation do you have supporting the claim that field commanders can use atomic wheapons without Presidential approval?

5. walkingbear March 13th, 2007 2:01 am

   Over the last 35 years the populations of PineRidge and Rosebud reservations have been decimated by the Nuclear War that is being waged on Indian land (sorry to use that term).

   cattle are contaminated, rivers and drinking water contaminated, still-born children. Workers suffering from the effects of working for the uranium companies…the facts and figures are already out there on the internet…look em up. But as a taster go read a brilliant article at:
   http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/31686/

   then work out who really is the victim of US Nuclear policy. AND its been going on for the last 50 years.
   Wake up WASP America…you are now part of the problem like the Red people have been for the last 500 years. The virus needs feeding and you are now on the “food list”.
   Stop the virus that is killing us all..GREED, WANT,TAKE. Please
   Its not about Bush, its not about personalities or senators its about a mind set that kills the Spirit of who we are as Human Beings on this planet.

   Ho WalkingBear

6. Beagle17 March 21st, 2007 4:07 pm

   Nice post Ho Walking Bear. Some good perspective, that is.

   To bell:

   DU does have a long half-life but this doesn’t make it safe. It is an alpha-emitter. An alpha particle is an entire helium nucleus–two protons and two neutrons. Being so big and charged, they have trouble penetrating things like the infamous piece of paper than can supposedly protect you from DU radiation.

   Theoretically, any danger from DU is only from using it in bullets and bombs, though you notice it would be ideal for executive paperweights and we don’t see it being put to that use, do we?

   The bullets are bad because DU is “pyrophoric” that is, it oxidizes intensely at fairly low temperature, such as while the bullet is passing through the air, punching its way through armour or incinerating the occupants of enemy tanks.

   A lot of dust is produced,much of it ionized which keeps it in the air, and some of it essentially “nano-dust” which we should expect to get deep into our cells because uranium is a heavy metal, and that’s what they do. This internalized dust is never going to show up on the urine tests the government likes to point to. But a single alpha particle is enough to cause an unrepairable DNA defect that leads to a mutation that can cause cancer or be possibly transmitted through sperm or egg cells.

   Thank God depleted uranium (U-238) does have a long half-life, because the millions or billions of alpha particles a speck of it does give off, are each potentially fatal in the right body tissue.

   This is the dust model of DU harm. If you don’t believe it, you should be able to list some reasons why not, right? Nearly all of the government and industry produced studies that supposedly show DU to be “virtually harmless” ignore the implications of this model. They never actually try to disprove the widely agreed upon model that critics of DU are presenting.

   So what about the effects then? Well, we have Gulf War Syndrome that we are forever told is a mystery illness. How much longer will the public accept that level of science?

   In Iraq, there are countless doctors reporting huge jumps in birth defects and cancers. But they must be politically motivated by their anti-Americanism we are told.

   The US military simply refuses to do any further studies on the matter. Its early studies found a strong need for special care and handling and restrictions on battlefield use and decontamination procedures. Rules were drawn up and ignored. To learn about this, just Google the name Douglas Rokke.

   Here is a link to a Web site I made devoted to depleted uranium. Unlike other sites, it has a BBS so this complicated debate can be organized and recorded for posterity.

   http://www.dubbs.info

   I believe the science against DU more than stands up to the science supporting it as a legitimate weapon. It should banned following the model of landmines. In fact, Belgium has recently just done so. Please read about it here: http://www.gnn.tv/H13584

7. bnninuhonery December 12th, 2007 4:29 pm

   titnovinanuxe…

   exxyxehavohy…

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