Eric Hoffer,"What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist."

Wednesday Morning EDT/
Wednesday Evening Japan Time
Mixed Up Confusion Update

With the words of longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer July 25, 1902 – May 21, 1983
He made things seem so simple, pretty pretty simple,
Maybe a little too simple. 

"People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them."-Reflections on the Human Condition, aph. 141 (1973).

Finally admitting the obvious, the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported officially to the government today that the nuclear fuel in reactors 1,2 and 3 had partially melted. The SeattlePI reports today that the Japanese government will begin strictly enforcing the exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi complex. Former residents and visitors (reporters) will no longer be allowed to come and go freely as has been the case. Authorities are concerned over radiation risk and the possibility of looting in the area.

"Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. . . . The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of their inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is in their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it."-The Passionate State of Mind, aph. 41 (1955)


The Mainichi Daily News  reports that TEPCO was totally unprepared for the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi despite simulations in identical reactors that showed meltdown would begin one hour and forty minutes after cooling water was no longer available to the reactors.
Here is an idiotic statement from a nuclear engineer in an earthquake prone country. 

"No one, including myself, ever imagined all emergency power generators would be wiped out. We could not imagine this worse-case scenario. We should radically review the design guidelines and the state's screening process."-Tadashi Yoshida, a professor of reactor engineering at Tokyo City University

The Asahi Shimbun, April 19 offered some polite criticism of TEPCO's plan for stabilizing the Fukushima Daiichi plants by January. The newspaper wondered where TEPCO would get enough workers to safely carry out this ambitious project in such a highly radioactive area. 

"The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it."-The Passionate State of Mind, aph. 61 (1955)

On April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded hurling radiation all over the world and ultimately killing upwards of one million people before their time. The containment vault is now cracked. The Ukranian government held a conference in Kiev Tuesday to organize the collection of one billion dollars to repair this monstrosity reports International Business Times. 

"The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America."-Reflections on the Human Condition, aph. 53 (1973)

The International Monetary Fund's Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard expressed concern today in the French journal Le Monde about the United States deficit. It looks like the international bankers who have facilitated the free spending of United States for so many years  are now ready to pull the plug on the USA and the dollar if their demands are not met. Of course, they will suggest that social programs be cut. They need the US military too much and make too much from those who profit from it to suggest that weapons and men under arms are a colossal waste of money.
Why do we not just honestly declare the US military a mercenary army available to the highest bidder?
That would resolve the deficit.
Or let's just surround the international banks, our and the world's greatest enemies, with tanks and let them know who is boss.
Or maybe I'm just looking at things a little too simply.

"There are reasons to be worried. The United States lacks a credible plan, for the medium term, to reduce its budget deficit.Concrete decisions have yet to be taken."-Olivier Blanchard


"We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves."-The Passionate State of Mind, aph. 70 (1955)

"Satan Bike" Misaki Kawai, 2007