Trish great story. I will miss seeing you walk up Amy and Scotts steps. Your a great writer and a kind friend. Best of luck to you.

Thanks Wendy! I will miss seeing you, too, but I'll be back around.

Much of what you say and a heck of a lot more is included in the Kindle book “Pot Stories and Humanist Essays” Renowned feminist author Barbara Walker includes a “Compilation of Biblical Quotes” that will astound even the most obstinate Bible thumpers.
When I first read the essay, I said to Barbara, “This is great. There’s nothing like hitting these people with their own belief system. They can see how ludicrous they appear.”
In the same book, Exodus, that God lays down the law “Thou shall not kill” he orders the murder of thousands of nonbelievers like a megalomaniacal Mafia don.

See ya soon. 41 - MD

I am sorry the Bible doesn't fit your needs but it is a moral code developed by a divine God, its not contemporary literature with new editions. You come across hateful, too. Christians get killed, too, everyday. Coptic Christians were killed in Egypt. Minority Christians were killed in Mosul. Christians are suppressed in Russia. Animals were at peace in the Old Testament Kingdom, they weren't warring factions agst. God like the mood you create. What is your moral authority?

The just are God's chosen.New Living Translation
"I, the LORD, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will take you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you to my people, Israel, as a symbol of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide the nations Isaiah 42:6
If you are not called you won't understand living in God's righteousness. You will only attempt to satisfy your earthly, human desires. That is why God set apart a holy chosen people. Mortals cannot destroy the body of believers. Keep trying.

"Historic" is supposed to be crossed out in the title.

With respect to the German people, the "allies" made it clear they wanted "unconditional surrender" and this included, in Roosevelt's case reducing Germany to an agricultural state with no industry.Allied bombing of cities, hospitals, churches, the intended destruction of German cities left the German people with no choice but to fight on. When the Von Stauffenburg plotters sought out British and U.S. support before their failed attempt to kill Hitler, they were rebuffed. On the east, they faced Stalin and no one can deny, even today, of Stalin's propensities to kill millions. Indeed, we know now he planned to rid Russia, once and for all of its Khazar jews.
They and their allies, Austrians, Finns, Latvians, Estonians, Rumanians, Hungarians, Croatians, Slovaks, Slovenes, had no choice but to fight to the bitter end. Eisenhower's deliberate starving and killing of thousands of German POW's further showed the German people the real nature of their enemy.
Who's kidding who? The Confederates in 1864-1965 did the same, and only Gen. Lee's posture at Appomattox and urging all rebels to lay down their arms --- saved the union from the rebels fighting on as guerillas after the burning of Atlanta and murders of thousands of women and children.

6-2014
To the editor,
Dear Amy Goodman. How can you be so right on so many issues, but so wrong on nuclear power. Propelled by passion, and hindered by fear, you denigrate nuclear power but ignore the pollution from coal-fired plants that cause 4,000 premature American deaths per year plus hundreds of thousands of cases of lung and heart disease.

Don't you know that coal-fired plants expel mercury, radon, arsenic, polonium, uranium and cyanide while exposing us to 100 times MORE radiation than nuclear plants? Don’t you realize that NO ONE has died from commercial nuclear power production in Western Europe or the Western Hemisphere because of nuclear power, but MILLIONS have died from the burning of coal and oil, which adds tons of carbon dioxide to our already burdened atmosphere and further damages our increasingly acidic oceans that provide 20% of of our protein?

Have you read the official and independent reports on Fukushima that castigate the government for lack of proper oversight and careless enforcement? Don’t you know that Tepco has a history of lying to the government and falsifying safety records?

Do you know that Tepco
1. in 1967, cut 25 meters off of the site’s 35-meter natural seawall to make it easier to ferry equipment to the building site, a move that would place the reactors five meters below the crest of the 2011 tsunami?
2. replaced the natural 35 meter seawall with a just a 6 meter seawall?
3. ignored the government’s order to raise the seawall?
4. ignored the deeply weathered Sendai “stones” in the area that warn “Don’t build below the 150 foot elevation”?
7. installed four of the six reactors’ emergency generators in their basements, where they’d be easily flooded?

Finally, don’t you know that the Onagawa nuclear plant, which was closer to the epicenter of the quake and is owned by a different company with higher safety standards (and, therefore, a much higher seawall), not only survived the earthquake and tsunami, but became a center for refugees?

If you had known these facts, would you still have blamed nuclear power, or would you have properly laid the blame on those who played with disaster for years until a record breaking earthquake and tsunami delivered a dose of reality? Nuclear power has been tarred by the Fukushima disaster, but it was the caused by repeated corporate lying and penny pinching, by safety record falsifying, by the lack of government enforcement of seawall height, by building too close to the ocean, and by installing backup generators in easily flooded basements.

In the March 27 Reader, you also publicized a class action suit filed by sailors who served on the USS Reagan, airing the complaints of sailors who blame their symptoms on being exposed to radiation, but fail to provide any depth. Well, here’s some data from Reid Tanaka, a serviceman with considerable expertise and a very different view:

“I was in Japan, in the Navy, when the tsunami struck and because of my nuclear training, I was called to assist in the reactor accident response and served as a key advisor to the US military forces commander and the US Ambassador to Japan. I spent a year in Tokyo with the US NRC-led team to assist TEPCO and the Japanese Government in battling through the casualty. My command (CTF 70) was the direct reporting command for the REAGAN (where we had control over Reagan’s assignments and missions) and were in direct decision-making with Reagan’s Commanding Officer and team. I don’t qualify to be called an “expert” in reactor accidents..., but I am well informed enough to know where my limits are and to see through much of the distortions on this issue....

“A Google search will tend to drive people to sensational, alarmist websites and non-technical news reports, but you could also find the dull, technical (yet truthful) places such as the IAEA or DOE...

“Numerous bodies of experts have weighed in and provided assessments and reports. A couple are quite critical of TEPCO and the Japanese nuclear industry and regulators. For me, I will say the biggest problem the public has is the challenge in being able to distinguish the science-based, objective reports from the alarmist and emotionally charged positions that get the attention of the press, some of whom are self-proclaimed experts in some fields but NOT nuclear power: Dr. David Suzuki and Dr. Michio Kaku. Neither understand spent fuel, nor the condition of spent fuel pools.... Dr. Suzuki is an award-winning scientist and a champion for the environment, but he is lacking any real understanding of spent fuel or radioactivity. “Bye-bye Japan?” A headline grabbing sound-bite, but the math just doesn’t work...

“[Sometimes] the true experts cannot give a simple answer because there isn’t one, while those who have no science to back their claims have no compunction in saying the sky is falling and everyone else is lying.

“USS RONALD REAGAN. For the Navy, the contamination from Fukushima created a huge amount of extra work and costs in decontaminating the ships and aircraft to “zero”, but no risk to the health of our people. REAGAN was fairly far from Fukushima (~100 miles) when the radiation alarms first alerted us (US NAVY) to the Fukushima accident. Navy nuclear ships have low-level radiation alarms to alert us of a potential problem with our onboard reactors. So when the airborne alarms were received, we were quite surprised and concerned. The levels of airborne contamination were small, but caused a great deal of additional evaluation and work. REAGAN’s movements were planned and made to avoid additional fallout. Sailors who believe they were within 5 miles or so, were misinformed. Japanese ships were close, the REAGAN was not....

“There are former Sailors who are engaged in a class-action suit against TEPCO for radiation sickness they are now suffering for the exposure they received from Operation Tomodachi. The lead plaintiffs were originally Sailors from REAGAN but now have expanded to a few other Sailors from other ships. Looking at the claims, I have no doubt some of the Sailors have some ailments, but without any real supporting information (I haven’t seen ANY credible information to that end). I do not believe any of their ailments can be directly attributable to radiation—fear and stress related, perhaps, but not radiation directly. Radiation sickness occurs within minutes/hours timeframe of exposure and cancer occurs in a many-years timeframe. These Sailors were not sick in either of these windows. I do believe many of them believe it, but I also believe most are being misled.”

So how do we repair the damage done by usually responsible people who go outside of their sphere and write articles based on non--expert reports and anecdotes without have them vetted by a person who is competent in the field? I have enough respect for Amy Goodman to believe that she will want to read my sources, which I will provide to anyone who wants to learn more about the facts – and myths – that surround nuclear power and radiation.
:
See http://energyrealityproject.com/nuclear-power-climate-change-warrior-for-the-21st-century/

George Erickson – Eveleth, MN www.tundracub.com
Member, Union of Concerned Scientists -- Member, Thorium Energy Alliance -- past V P American Humanist Assoc.
To schedule the author’s Power Point program on the safety and efficiency of advanced nuclear power, email tundracub@mchsi.com or call 218-744-2003

Thank you for writing this article and getting the facts out into the open for all to see. You have provided us all a great service.

First, you have put together a compelling article. On a similar vein is how does a candidate for public office who calls their opponent "staunchly pro-abortion" (sic)get endorsed by the local newspaper the Duluth News Tribune?
Would you be interested in writing about Duluth News Tribune candidate endorsements? I have a inflamatory Becky Hall campaign contribution letter that the editorial staff at the DNT did not see before they made their endorsement. I just sent this letter to info@duluthreader. Now this is only my opinion but the DNT determines endorsements either of two ways. One endorsement is determined by Forum Communicatons ie:owners and the second endorsement is determined by an editorial board. With the paper endorsements comes headlines. Free advertising basically. So read the Hall campaign letter and if you or Paul W want to take this further contact me.

I knew the Berrigan brothers. good article.

ku klux klan should volunteer to fight ISIS

Beautiful.....

It doesn't really help the retiree healthcare article that they forgot to include the most important graph. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Here's a link to the image missing from the print edition: http://s285.photobucket.com/user/CamilaRamos/media/Reader_Article%20Images/OPEBGraph--Figure22_zps7b90ccc7.jpg.html

A big issue on retiree health care was previously all retiree bill were paid by the city, now retirees are required to go on medicare. Medicare is billed first and the city plan is a supplement. Early retirees who were on straight PERA do not get social security (unless they worked else where and got their quarters).Most of the straight PERA people are old and ready to cash out-hate to be a fatalist but that is reality Another BIG issue was that police and fire can retire with 20 years so they could tbe retired at 41 or so drawing on "retiree" health care for many years, usually not being fully retired and picking up side work without having to worry about health insurance. Many changes were made as of 1983 rule of 90 doesn't exsist after that point-age and time worked equals 90 for retirement, New hires get money put into a "health care" svings plan to purchase insurance with the increased age to draw Social Security they will be working into thei 70s

It is basically the coward that will hide his or her face in shame of the crime using a hood or a disguise. That is why ISIS is a cowardice group. They have hit an all time low now using children as tools in their low life scheme.

Hey Trish,
Great article! You have a wonderful easy style!
It brought me back to my return to Rochester, my home town, after living 25 years on the east coast - wrought with emotion.
So reminiscent and so well written!
renee

Thank You Renee!