Trouble At Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Power Station:

                  THIS IS NOT GOOD!                                                                     

     This is a picture of the Ft. Calhoun nuclear power generating station, with some obvious flooding concerns. Ft. Calhoun is located along the Missouri River about twenty miles from Omaha, Nebraska. Recently, due to the historic flooding of the Missouri River, Omaha Public Power District officials have taken measures to ensure the safety of the facility. "I want (people) to understand the plant is safe (and) will continue to be safe," said Dave Bannister, an OPPD nuclear plant officer. Officials said on Friday that the plant is on the lowest emergency status, but they are prepared if the river were to rise another ten feet. This is according to reporting by KETV ABC 7, Omaha's local ABC affiliate. Where is the national media on this one. Still covering Representative Weiner and his transgressions?
     Well, nothing to see here folks, move along. After the destruction the world has witnessed at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, I think we should all be concerned about images like this one. God forbid something were to go wrong at this facility. The Missouri River could potentially be contaminated by leaking nuclear materials. The Missouri drains to the Mississippi, which in turn drains to the Gulf of Mexico. Everything downstream of the facility would potentially be in the path of this oncoming radiation. People, crops, animals, everything could potentially be affected. That would be a disaster on a scale that is just unimaginable. 

     We really need to start looking at how we generate our electricity. Nuclear power is not safe, mainly because even the smallest leaks can have devastating consequences. Germany has committed to doing away with their nuclear facilities by 2022, and I think we should follow their lead. We need to start coming up with a comprehensive solution for replacing our nuclear energy with clean sources of power generation. 

     A nuclear accident is not the only concern for nuclear power generation. After the fuel rods have exhausted their life span in the reactor, they are stored in cooling pools to keep them from contaminating the biosphere. Spent nuclear fuel remains hazardous for many, many years. We have no permanent solution to this problem yet, however, different options are being looked at. No matter the solution, we will still have radioactive waste somewhere, buried, burned, who knows. 

     I'm not going to go all crazy environmentalist on this post, but, we have got to look at the potential damage we could produce by our insatiable energy consumption. We had better start investing more into clean energy initiatives before we have a catastrophic incident that puts not only our lives in jeopardy, but also the lives of future generations. I am confident the planet will heal itself of any man-made cataclysm, however, it would be nice if the human species is not responsible for nearly destroying the earth. Good Luck America!! 

Social Security Is An Easy Fix:

     Lately, with talks of reducing the debt and deficit, Social Security has come up in many conversations. Most people will tell you Social Security is bankrupt, and that by the time they are going to retire there will be nothing left for them. According to ABC News' Tahman Bradley, Social Security will be exhausted by the year 2036. That certainly is not welcome news if you are planning on being alive beyond the next twenty-five years. What should we as a nation do to address this problem? Raise the retirement age to seventy? Cut Social Security benefits for those that will be very well off in their twilight years? I don't think so.
     The simplest and fairest solution is uncommonly easy. Raise the cap on Social Security deductions from it's current level at about 106,000 dollars of annual income. Currently for those of us that are lucky enough to make more than 106,000 dollars, Social Security does not receive anything from the excess income. By raising the cap on deductions there will be more revenue put into the system to ensure it's solvency for a greater amount of time. People can still retire at sixty-seven, and Social Security will continue to be a viable source of income for our seniors.
     Think about this for a minute, someone making 50,000 dollars a year and contributing roughly five percent of gross income, will generate about 2,500 dollars for Social Security. At 100,000 dollars a year the contribution would be 5,000 dollars. Remember, the current cap is at 106,000 dollars, any additional income beyond that figure contributes nothing to Social Security. So the person making 1 million dollars a year still only contributes about 5,000 dollars of their gross income. This certainly does not seem logical. If the numbers are broken down the individual contributing 5,000 dollars of 1 million dollars worth of income is only contributing about 1.0526 percent, while the individual making 50,000 dollars is contributing about five percent. When both people retire they are going to get the same amount monthly from Social Security. So why should the person who is generating less income be contributing at a greater percentage. If we move the cap on Social Security to 500,000 dollars for example, we will generate nearly five times what is currently being generated. Simple fix.
     Not only is this a simple way to fix a huge problem, it also makes the system a little more balanced based on income levels. Yes, there is an argument to be made that the wealthiest among us probably will not need Social Security by the time they retire. If they are not going to need this insurance, then why pay for it? This is my opinion, most people do not generate enormous sums of wealth by themselves. It should be part of ones social responsibility to look after the worker bees that helped you manufacture the wealth you have accumulated. It's not like society is going to steal all your wealth, most people just don't want to be homeless and starving, if they actually get to the point of retirement. People are all very different, however, we all pay into social programs to help us out when we become to old to contribute by our own means. We had better not forget that the average worker is the very person who put in the sweat and muscle so the above average entrepreneur could amass great sums of wealth. Henry Ford didn't turn every bolt on his Model T's, however, he made sure all of his employees made enough in a year to purchase a Model T. Sound wisdom, from a master capitalist. Good Luck America!!

Right Wing Radio Has Made You Dumb:

     I have noticed that the faithful listeners of right wing radio are losing the information battle. From time to time I turn on AM hate radio just to see what the neanderthals are whining about. First of all, they all get their talking points from the same place, Heritage Foundation, Fox News, right wing blogs, Family Research Council, Cato and so on. Then on a daily basis they hype the talking point and get their listeners all worked up and inflamed about some issue that really has no basis in the real world. Let's take for example the notion that President Obama is a hard left liberal. Two and a half years into his presidency, after hooking up Wall Street, after backing off of comprehensive immigration reform, after getting a watered-down healthcare bill passed, and after killing the top terrorist in the world, Osama Bin Laden, he still is viewed as a hard left liberal. Please, are you kidding me, it's not like the guy is smoking weed and letting his freak flag fly. If you listen to the hate on the radio however, you would think he is.
     I am so tired of having a political conversation, and I use the term conversation lightly, with the loyal fans of right wing radio. The dumbest shit is peddled as gospel, things that are so easily debunked it is laughable. Yet no matter how much proof is shown that their argument doesn't hold water, there is no changing their opinion. Rush Limbaugh said it, it must be true. Or I get the really dumb rebuttal which usually goes something like, "why do you hate freedom." Yeah moron, I hate freedom, that's why I didn't support George Bush and his warrant less wire taps. It really does get old. I could have a better conversation with a three year old by simply saying,"I know you are, but what am I."
     I have no problem with an opinionated conversation, we are all entitled to that little nugget of freedom. I do have a huge problem with those amongst us that refuse to realize there is only one set of facts. The facts can be debated, opined about, and dissected to the ends of the earth, but in the end, the facts are the facts. Right wing radio likes to twist the facts in the same manner that they like to torture biblical versus. As long as one little inkling of truth is left in their mantra of the day, they scream it at fifty thousand watts. Do these tools on the radio realize that the core of their listeners are not exactly Harvard material. When you spread lies and false statements to the least educated among us you are doing this country a disservice. You are creating an entire group of people that truly do not know what they are talking about, they are just repeating some opinion that has been peddled as truth. I am not saying that everybody who listens to the likes of Rush or Hannity is a complete moron, however, they probably have an agenda that suits right wing ideology. Think about this. Why would these guys rail against taxes on people who make more than a million dollars? Because they make twenty and thirty million a year. They don't give two shits about you or I, it's all about them. They tell us everyday that this nation needs to cut the very programs that keep the least of us from literally starving and dying. Where is the shared sacrifice? What the hell ever happened to," all for one, one for all." Can't have those damn welfare-queens pulling up in their Lexus to receive their WIC benefits.
     The biggest argument I have with right wing radio is the absolute racism that is blurted out by the hosts. If President Obama even acknowledges the fact that he is half black these morons chime in, "he is anti white", or "this is reverse racism." What a load of crap, I have heard Rush Limbaugh play a song called Barack The Magic Negro, blatantly racist. I have heard Rush refer to Barack Obama as, and I quote,"man child." Yesterday, Neil Boortz on his radio program said, and I quote," we got to damn many urban thugs, yo, ruining the quality of life for everybody. And I'll tell you what it's gonna take, you people, you are-you need to have a gun. You need to have training. You need to learn how to use that gun. You need to get a permit to carry that gun. And you do in fact need to carry that gun and we need to see some dead thugs littering the landscape of Atlanta. We need more dead thugs in this city." This man just broke a major law, he is inciting violence. And he is not clever about whom he is referring to, urban thugs, yo. So should the people of Atlanta lock and load and go find some black people and start shooting them. This is pathetic and highly dangerous. I would hope that the FCC would take some action against dangerous rants of this nature.
     This era that we are living in is special, we have all the information we need at our finger tips. If you hear someone talking about certain issues, take five minutes and see if there is any truth to what is being talked about. If we are not careful, we will become a nation of corporate dictators with a populace to under-educated to even realize we are wage slaves. Ask questions, do some homework, and most importantly, take some time to become educated. Parrots are a dime dozen. All they do is repeat the same shit everyday. Good Luck America!!

Our News Media Is Terrible:

     The news is officially dead! For two weeks now, the top story on virtually every news outlet has had something to do with Congressman Anthony Weiner and his Twitter transgressions. I ask, who gives a crap how many pictures of his penis and or other body parts he sent around the internet? Did he do something illegal? Did he actually have an affair with someone? What the crap is the story the media is peddling? As far as I have heard all the guy did was have sexting sessions with women, and send them pictures of his twig and berries. Does this really deserve two weeks of media attention? No!
     Is it really any surprise to find out another politician is kinda sleazy? I think not. In the last ten years there have been so many stories of political malfeasance that no one should be surprised. We have Elliot Spitzer paying for high end hookers. We have had Mark Sanford and his South American honey. Think John Ensign, Mark Foley, John Edwards, Larry Craig, Bill Clinton, David Vitter, Newt Gingrich, and the list could go on and on. Most of the people I have named above did things that were a whole lot worse than Tweet his package. Well, personally I don't really hold Bill Clinton to the fire either, all he did was get a little oral loving from a fat chick. It's not like he was trying to pick up dudes at an airport bathroom. Arnold Schwarzenegger cheated on his wife with the housekeeper, fathered a child with this woman, and he is usurped by the media machine by a guy who sent lewd pictures to women. By the way, as of this post, I have not heard any of the women he spoke with accuse him of anything illegal. So why the hell is this even a story?
     The media does not want you to be well informed. They want you to look at the shiny thing over here while their corporate masters are making campaign donations to members of congress so they can get their agenda made into law. This is bullshit! We should demand that media give us news, real news. Last week five of our bravest were killed in Iraq from rocket attacks by Shiite militia. That was a ten second news story. Not the headline, not below the fold on the front page, a ten second story, buried by Congressman Weiner and his, well thats just to easy. I am tired of having to go to BBC or Al Jazeera to find out what is actually going on in the world.
     American media is a joke. As a nation we are more concerned with the tabloid crap than actually educating ourselves about the world we live in. The rest of the world is watching us fall behind in strategically important fields like, science, mathematics, and engineering. While they are watching us fall behind they are also laughing at us. We have people who can't tell you how to do a basic algebra problem, but they sure know who Lamar Odem is waking up next to. Wake up man, time is precious, we fall to far behind, and before you know it we are not the consumer nation anymore, we become the slave-wage nation. This is no joke, if you think the corporations that own the American media empire want us to be well educated and asking thought provoking questions you are high. They want us as dumb as possible. An educated electorate may challenge their power, can't have that, that would get in the way of profit margins. God forbid your bottom line is not as fat because you actually play fair!
     The media is broken, boycott the media, go to internet sites that actually research their journalism, and site their sources. Read print media, the news papers are not perfect, however, they are far more balanced than most of what you see on the television. Educate yourself, take an arithmetic course at your local college, read, read to your children, takes the reins, education will always provide salvation.
     This post started with Rep. Weiner and his Twitter problems. Do you see the deeper issue here, we are being dumbed down. So many issues could stem from this one topic, we need to have the conversation before it becomes to late. I don't know about you, but as an American, I like being the greatest nation on earth, and I for one will not tolerate the bullshit that is spoon-fed to us by our media. Do a little research, and I guarantee you will be surprised by what you find, then and only then, you can start to ask the question of why is this getting no coverage. Soon you will find that the shit that is being fed to you is just that, "SHIT." We better wise up and start asking the tough questions before it is to late. If we don't, get ready to be number two! Good Luck America!!

Ten Reasons Land Surveying Has Been A Cool Career:

     I decided to post ten things I really enjoy about being a land surveyor, mainly because I am bored today, and it's kind of crappy outside, but it also reminds me that the day to day grind and minutia of a career does have many highlights. So here goes.

10: You get to spend every day outdoors, enjoying fresh air and ever changing scenery. I don't know if I could sit in office cubicle all day playing the office politics game. Just my opinion.

9: Every job is a unique experience. Not every job I do is fun or cool, but, they are all different for varying reasons. Some look super easy and turn out to be a pain in the backside, and some seem incredibly daunting and turn out to be a slam-dunk.

8: Surveying is a profession practiced not only nationally, but everywhere on the planet. I have not had the experience of working in other countries, however, I have worked in many different regions of the country. It's very nice being able to live wherever you like, and being able to stay in the same career field.

7: Some of the most famous figures in American history were also land surveyors. The list includes President George Washington, President Abraham Lincoln, President Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Boone, and acclaimed author Henry David Thoreau. This list could literally go on and on.

6: You can advance your career for a lifetime. Surveying is a such a dynamic and ever changing career that you can spend a lifetime surveying and never get to do it all. New techniques and equipment are being developed every day. This creates an ever changing work environment that keeps things interesting.

5: Land surveyors are one of the most important links in the construction industry. In general it is the surveyors responsibility to interpret engineering plans into staking that contractors can build from. The surveyor makes sure all buildings, pipelines, concrete, and infrastructure are put in the right place. Without surveyors builders wouldn't no where to start.

4: Boundary surveying can literally transform into a history lesson. Sometimes when surveyors are doing deed research to establish the boundary of a certain parcel of land, it can lead to some very interesting finds. I have traced parcels of land on the east coast back to revolutionary times. I have seen paperwork drawn up by Civil War generals. I have found physical monuments that are well over one-hundred years old. It's pretty cool to stumble on these real life relics of the past.

3: Land surveying is one of the oldest professions known to human civilization. Since time began, there have always been disputes between people about the boundaries of their land. It has always been the surveyors responsibility to accurately define the true boundary lines. Surveyors were also instrumental in the building of the Pyramids in Egypt, the Roads of Rome, and the Roman Aqueduct. Without surveyors we might just be living in a cave still. I doubt it!

2: I have been able to see places that I would never get to see if I were not performing some kind of survey work. I have seen places at several international airports that the general population does not have access to. I have been on several military bases, and seen some of the awesome hardware our men and women serving rely on to their job. I have seen the inner workings of power plants, damns, buildings, landfills, bridges, refineries, and much more. Had I not been a surveyor I would have never been able to see these places.

1: The number one reason I enjoy being a land surveyor is my father taught me the profession. Ever since I was a boy my father would take me to job sites and show me little things here and there. Now that he has passed on I am so proud to carry on in his footsteps. I had the privilege of working under his guidance for many years, and the lessons he taught me have been invaluable. My father was a great surveyor, and I can only hope that he would be proud of my accomplishments so far. It is truly humbling to stand at some of the projects he accomplished. At the end of the day, as much as I miss my father, it is nice to know that I am carrying on his work. Our last name has spanned decades of work and thousands of projects all over the country. Thank you so much Dad!! Someday I will show my son how to pull chains. 

GOP Struggles For Candidate:

     So here we are, summer of 2011, and the GOP still can't find a candidate with the credentials to take on President Obama in the 2012 presidential elections. What's the problem Republicans? For years now you have told America that President Obama is going to be a one term president, he doesn't have the skill or the executive prowess to run the greatest country on Earth. One would think that since he has indoctrinated our children, lied about health care reform, so he could send grandma to the death panel, had his wife try and tell our children what to eat, and turned us into a socialist, communist, Marxist society, this guy would go down like a chump. So, Republicans, where is your contender? So far all I see in your field of candidates are soup-cans.
     I speculate the problem for the GOP is the fact that they let the Tea Party hijack their party. Any reasonable Republican contender is immediately shown how to exit stage left via the wacko-right. The Tea Party is not as popular as Fox News would like you to think. For the most part they are old white people who,"want their country back." I question, back from whom or what? Most of the people who support the Tea Party are the same people that have Fox News blaring in their living room all day. Fox is not overtly racist, but they love the dog whistle style of getting the masses all worked up over the small stuff while there coverage of actual governance is shaky at best. Think back to the health care debate, or for that matter, any piece of legislation passed in the last three years. Fox espoused the talking points rather than the facts of the actual legislation. This gets the Tea Party wack-a-doos all worked up, and before you know it you see someone on the TV machine with an assault rifle at a political event telling some hack journalist that they want the America they grew up in back. Once again, I ask back from whom or what?
     Truth be told, they want their country back from the black guy in The White House. Sure nobody is going to come out and just say it, but, if you have half a brain, do the math. This problem is exactly why the GOP can't find a credible candidate. If you don't agree with the Tea Party nuts you won't get on the Fox news cycle. If you can't get on the,"Fox News Cycle," the majority of Republican voters don't know who you are, or what you stand for. If you start selling out to the talking points of the weirdo right wing crackpots you lose the majority of educated voters. Quite thee proverbial conundrum!!
     Until someone stands up to the stupidity of Fox and the morons walking around in vintage revolutionary war costumes, the GOP will not have a credible candidate. You can't win an election by only garnering the vote of the most gullible amongst us. Sorry, too many of us have worked hard, and educated ourselves, to be duped, by the least educated among us. Next time you have a conversation with someone who is dribbling the usual talking points, ask them an easy question. Who is the speaker of the house? How many amendments are there in the Constitution? Is Omaha Beach in Nebraska? Trust me, you will be surprised by the answers you get, then you will be even more surprised by the dumb-ass logic used to back these answers up. Can we as a nation come together and be motivated by intelligence rather than allegiance to an ideology? I hope so, but for right now the dumbest amongst us have the debate tied to repudiating the ass-backward logic of corporate controlled media. To paraphrase the great Thomas Jefferson, " an educated electorate is the key to a successful democracy." Let us not forget that nugget of wisdom. Let us not forget what the founders of our democracy sacrificed so that we can even have this debate. Good Luck America!!

Ntional Debt Is Not The Only Concern For Our Children! How About Some Love For The Environment!

     Why is it that the GOP talking points concerning our debt and deficit always seem to lead to the idea that we will be leaving our children and grand children with a terrible burden in the future? Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in shoring up our finances as a nation. However all the GOP has offered so far, are draconian cuts to much needed social safety nets, and then in turn, giving the savings that these cuts produce to large multi-national corporations. Our Supreme Court ruled last year in the Citizens United case, that these same corporations are considered people, and have the same First Amendment rights as individual citizens. That decision has brought about unprecedented campaign donations by these very corporate interests. These are the corporations who buy off our politicians, get them in lock step, and give them their talking points. Then it is just a matter of spin to convince us, that if we are to get out of this recession we need to give corporations more tax cuts so they can hire more workers. We can never raise taxes on the wealthiest among us. Oh and by the way, that clean air you like to breathe, your children may not have that same advantage. If we restrict what the giant multi-national corporations can do to the environment, all the jobs will dry up and we will be living in a job-less world, that happens to have a healthy environment. So back to my original question. If are children are fiscally wealthy thirty years down the road, what good will it do them when the ground, air, and water are polluted so badly that they are literally being killed by the environment surrounding them?
     What are we thinking? We give all this credence to fiscal responsibility, and yet we constantly pollute the environment with our insatiable energy needs. Ask yourself this question. If the world becomes so irradiated by a massive nuclear accident that our children are dying of horrible cancers and radiation related illnesses, what good is a balanced budget? We are the greatest energy consuming nation in the history of human inhabitation on this planet. It is time to take responsibility for the damage we have done.
     We all know about wind, solar and hydro-electric power, and yes these are great steps toward maintaining a healthy environment. Unfortunately these sources of power generation only make up about twelve percent of our consumption. We as a nation need to take a look backward to the "Space-Race." We were a determined nation. A nation that innovated itself from simple V-2 rockets to the mighty Saturn 5, to landing men on the moon. We need innovation and drive of that scale again. We have some of the brightest minds in this country. We can do this. What we need is a voice to espouse that ambition. What we don't need is corporate money constantly buying our politicians and squashing that ambition.
     We are on an unsustainable course as far as our energy needs are concerned. We basically burn things to make power. Whether it is coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power, we are simply burning various combustible materials to generate steam, which turns a turbine and generates electrical power. All fossil fuels generate green-house gases in varying degrees. These gases then trap excess heat within the atmosphere. Whether you think climate change is man made or not is beyond the argument. The fact remains that we are pumping hundreds of tons of emissions into our atmosphere, and we are not sure what the consequences of that will be. Already this spring we have seen some of the wildest weather on record. We are not sure what is causing the disturbing shift in our weather patterns, but would it not be prudent to at least put some of the blame on our energy production.
     The time has come to start making drastic changes. Lets stop funneling billions of dollars in tax breaks to the largest multi-national corporations. Start pushing our politicians to use that money to start innovating the way to real changes in how we produce our energy. I want to leave a better planet for my children. I want my children to be able to go fishing and eat the fish they catch. I want my children to enjoy the natural splendor of the mountains, the forests' and the oceans. If we don't start making big changes our children will be left with a smoldering wreckage of an environment. We have recently been reminded by the British Petroleum oil spill in the gulf and the nuclear nightmare at Fukushima of the grave consequences of our energy production. A hundred years from now, I do not want my great grand children to look back at this generation and see greedy, insatiable energy consumption. I want them to see a generation that changed the world. I want them to see a generation who innovated it's way out of a big problem. I want them to tell stories about how we did it, the same way we tell our children about going to the moon, proudly. We can do this! We are the greatest nation on the planet, lets get started proving it once again. Good Luck America!!