Correspondence: Comedy, Canal, Kirkland &c.
CORRESPONDENCE The King of Comedy Congratulations on adding Jackie Mason to your cast. My subscription is now secure for well into the next century. Several years ago I saw Mr. Mason's show and,...
...fine...
...As to the "Nuke Next Door...
...I know that Rochester, New York, is home to one of the largest photographic companies in the world, but my home state is the home of this renowned medical center...
...What he neglected to mention is that federal law prohibits the disclosure of any security defects that have not been corrected...
...He is also correct in pointing out the different nomenclature the NRC uses for its security evaluations...
...it was a Regional Assist Visit...
...1. The protocol employed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), during its Operational Safeguards Response Evaluation (OSRE), does not pit former U.S...
...3o), is in Rochester, Minnesota...
...in other words, the results are censored...
...DAVID BURGESS Suresnes, France If You Can Lick 'Em, Join 'Em I've just finished reading the October issue of TAS and as usual was more than pleased with the contents...
...It all started with Apollo 11 in 1969...
...It cannot have escaped the notice of anyone who has been inside a United States Post Office during this decade that you have entered a flea market whose secondary (Continued on page 93) I send thanks to Michael Fumento for his informative article...
...New studies and controls are being designed for all high-production-volume (HPV) chemicals...
...From the point of view of the collector and the general public, the situation is now hopeless...
...The specific challenges made to the security systems cited in your article were under the full control of site security management at all times...
...Some enthusiastic bureaucrat pushed through the idea of a jumbo commemorative for him, too...
...mail, as Mr...
...I have lived here, in this wonderful small town, a neighbor to the plant, since 1986...
...Even I, a traditionalist at 23, was pleased with the decision to issue America's first "jumbo" commemorative to honor Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins's journey to 10 December 1999/January 2000 The American Spectator the moon...
...Did you serve in Vietnam, as I did...
...Also, during the late 6o's and early 70's, the Postal Service shifted, piecemeal, from stamps printed on engraved plates to the photogravure or lithograph method...
...The reports, and the signatures of those who wrote them, are a matter of public record, and can be easily acquired...
...His contributions to the strengthening of security programs both at Vermont Yankee and elsewhere since 1991 have been significant...
...This large body of documentation does not support nor is it consistent with the representations made in your article with respect to the security of the "Nuke Next Door...
...Louis Park, Minnesota Safe and Sound I would like to correct some inaccuracies and omissions that I noted in the article by Kenneth R. Timmerman entitled "The Nuke Next Door," which appeared in the October 1999 issue...
...The view of the river and the foliage is magnificent this time of year...
...Now is the right time...
...Many collectors remembered the dignified restraint of the period 1961-1965: one beautiful, normal size stamp commemorating one significant battle or event for each centennial year of the Civil War...
...My driveway is a little over two miles from the plant's front gate...
...Vermont Yankee is the nuke next to my door...
...Our children, over the years, have attended the excellent elementary school, located literally across the street from the plant...
...Millions worldwide have died from malaria since DDT was banned—human lives sacrificed at the altar of junk science...
...There are three more episodes involving Kirkland that I would like to contribute...
...I must, therefore, ask you to forward this letter or copy thereof to Mr...
...Fumento, keep up your excellent work...
...First, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, contrary to your report, is not near Burlington, Vermont...
...Now jumbo commemoratives are as common as dirt, and just as valuable...
...Anyway, you and many other publications offer all those abcd.com.www.!@x...
...I did not feel the distinction would add to reader understanding of an already fact-jammed article...
...Mason's show and, while I'm not Jewish and missed a lot of the jokes and while my tastes in humor run toward the coarser rather than Mr...
...During this inspection, Vermont Yankee's security office provided active assistance to the NRC team before, during, and after the exercise...
...The article "Stamp Acts" by Elliott Banfield was loo percent on target and should be must reading in our schools...
...fine...
...They started digging in the wrong place...
...JOHN M. MORIARTY, C PP Security Manager Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station Vernon, Vermont Kenneth R. Timmerman replies: My thanks to Mr...
...JIAN PING ZHANG via the Internet To support Michael Fumento's article, I would like to point out some more ways that animals are not good surrogates for human health...
...On each occasion, his duty, with the assistance of world class experts, was to rigorously challenge, evaluate, and report upon the security program at Vermont Yankee...
...That's how they manage to operate in the black some of the time...
...Special Forces officers and expert computer hackers against plant security officers in some sort of James Bond war game, as your article implies...
...If the definition of patriotism is that one subordinates, when essential, his self interest to the interest of his country, then Lane Kirkland personified patriotism...
...In both instances, the security program at Vermont Yankee was found by the NRC, based upon the conclusions of its OSRE team, to be effective in defending the site...
...As more of science has been funded, and thus controlled, by government, the more corrupt science has become...
...GLORIA M. STEWART Thousand Oaks, California Go Figaro Is it possible that the admirable Christopher Caldwell—and your headline writer—erred (in the October issue) in an easily checked matter of fact...
...This will be your toughest act to follow...
...Regional assists are usually conducted because the NRC feels security is not up to standards...
...As Fumento mentions for the alligator studies, the only possible cause that was considered for the abnormalities was what the authors wanted: then DDT, today endocrine disrupters...
...Of course, now our money doesn't look like our money...
...DAVID MOSHINSKY via the Internet Correspondence (Continued from page ir) purpose is to sell stamps and move the mail...
...Vermont Yankee is ten miles from Brattleboro, not Burlington...
...This cooperation between plant security and the inspectors was designed to provide the evaluators, both site and NRC, with valuable performance data for these systems...
...Wherever there is government, there is corruption...
...Literally dozens of commemoratives were issued during this period...
...Moriarty emphasizes the clean nature of nuclear power...
...Buy the Postal Service's souvenir sheet of 15 stamps commemorating "the 6o's...
...Perhaps the space restrictions didn't allow for The American Spectator December r 999/January 2000 93...
...Currently, the government is demanding "voluntary" studies by manufacturers on myriad common chemicals...
...NORMAN GLENN Murrell's Inlet, South Carolina Elliott Banfield's excellent "Stamp Acts" (TAS, October 1999) barely scratches the surface of what has gone wrong—and ugly—with U.S...
...Kudos to Dean MacAdam...
...2. The March 1998 inspection referenced in your article was not an OSRE...
...Would you like to have the 33-cent commemorative corning out soon...
...Of course, not one single case of cancer has been demonstrated to have nickel as the cause...
...He was at the time involved in "delicate negotiations" with the then Soviet Union and was afraid of offending them...
...While there was a very fine article by Mark Falcoff on the Panama Canal in the October issue ("Panama's Long Goodbye"), your readers should also be informed that the entire matter of the location of the original Panama Canal was typically a French huge mistake...
...But if you've got some nice pre-1930 stuff, I may be persuaded to open my wallet and trade you some Monopoly money for it...
...Moriarty and the NRC might not like to contemplate what could happen if a core breach were to occur, but it is their job to do so...
...Each meaning certainly describes the Clinton presidency, and I thank Mr...
...Principally, the Postal Service should stop hustling garbage not intended to be put on a letter or package, and the public should stop letting itself be taken by the hustlers...
...The first two Americans killed in El Salvador by the FDR/FMLN Communist guerrillas were Kirkland's men, dedicated to creating a free labor union movement there...
...MYRON JOHNSON Fresno, California 94 December 1999/January 2000 • The American Spectator all the details, but he glossed over the corruption that was the very heart of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring...
...The United States can build a newer, bigger, better canal right where it should have been built in the first place, up an established waterway, the San Juan River between the northern border of Costa Rica and the southern border of Nicaragua, through Laga de Nicaragua with a relatively easy cut through the low mountains of Bahia de Salinas...
...check the junk metal you carry in your pockets or the new "Monopoly" money in your wallet...
...Moriarty for pointing out my error...
...According to my Petit Robert French dictionary, pantalonnade means: 1. a burlesque farce, in dubious taste...
...His official writings, reports, recommendations, and conclusions, given over his signature, with respect to Vermont Yankee and every other site he and his team have evaluated, are also a matter of public record...
...I am 53 and have been collecting principally U.S...
...Bravissimo...
...Cut the calcium by 8o percent and calcium-rich eggshells are thinner...
...Dwight Eisenhower had died early that spring...
...This 10-cent Air Mail stamp is beautiful...
...from the Postal Service's point of view, it's a bonanza...
...3. At no time did anyone gain access to any location unless accompanied by andwith the full knowledge of site security personnel...
...However, I should note that the Mayo Clinic, where smaller doses of DES were prescribed than at the University of Chicago (p...
...It is in the rural, beautiful, small town of Vernon, about 16o miles southeast of Burlington...
...4. OSRE exercises were conducted here in 1991 and 1994...
...As for me, I stopped being hustled in the 8o's...
...New restrictions are in the works for nickel products, now deemed carcinogenic by the communists of California...
...addresses but never a clue for the old-fashioned folks who just want to write a simple letter...
...When Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn moved to this country, the AFL-CIO under Kirkland welcomed him with open arms, as Mr...
...Bulletin November: What a great issue, with a cover to match...
...During the mid-eighties, one of Kirk-land's lieutenants attended his weekly Methodist service and was astounded to find his church collecting money to support Communist guerrillas through the World Council of Churches (WCC...
...I lived in this area for a number of years and know it would make a terrific Canal with none of the problems associated with the wrong cut at the wrong place...
...stamps for 45 years...
...Finally, Mr...
...and about as far from Burlington as you can go and still be in Vermont...
...By the way, the core of a nuclear reactor, at power, is not a place one can readily get to — a gross understatement—nor would one want to go there...
...Golly...
...These expensive tests will be required of all chemicals produced in excess of one million pounds per year...
...From my interviews with individuals familiar with the VermontYankee inspections, the NRC has required the plant to take very serious measures to correct security deficiencies...
...Jackie is unquestionably the king, but what is better, he writes an essay column as well as he delivers stand-up...
...JIM BENNETT Mountain Home, Arkansas More on Kirkland Adrian Karatnycky has written a fine article, unfortunately not long enough, about the late Lane Kirkland (TAS, October 1999...
...postage in recent decades...
...Karatnycky wrote in his article...
...The fact that Vermont Yankee had been the subject of four inspections suggests that NRC evaluators have ongoing concerns regarding security deficiencies at the plant...
...JOSEPH A. REHYANSKY Chattanooga, Tennessee Just the Facts Michael Fumento's "Hormonally Challenged" does not go far enough in criticizing the radical environmentalists of the modern EPA (TAS, October 1999...
...Let the Panamanians show their true colors, stew in their own juices, let the Chinese do their will...
...Orrik led both these OSRE inspections...
...Many conservatives have suggested building a monument, along the architectural lines of the Vietnam Wall, to honor those who played an active outstanding role in the collapse of the Soviet Union...
...Orrik has been to Vermont Yankee on behalf of the NRC no less than four times...
...During these exercises no one was "free to roam around restricted areas eventually gaining access to the reactor core itself...
...In fact, since 1991, Mr...
...My collection is spotty pre-193o, but nearly complete from 1930 to the early 8o's...
...I certainly agree: Compared to oil or coal-fired plants, nuclear power plants are environmentally friendly—unless an accident occurs because of poor safety procedures or a breach of plant security by terrorists...
...Timmerman is welcome to come up and see our town...
...It is ever more unusual that Vermont Yankee had two complete OSRE exercises, at a time when NRC planned one exercise per site...
...All you have to do is buy the souvenir sheet containing ten different stamps commemorating ten different battles and events of that World War II year...
...Ban-field wherever he resides, or offices, so that he will know I thought his article was terrific...
...Then came Lyndon Johnson's turn...
...Then all hell broke loose...
...Did your father fly a B-24 during World War II, as mine did...
...This assistance included access to confidential information on the plant security and electronic surveillance systems...
...JOHN A. WATNE St...
...I would add that the president, while making polite remarks about Mr...
...Banfield and I would both like to do, much more than he proposes is necessary...
...Unfortunately, they do not...
...and 2. a hypocritical demonstration of loyalty or regret...
...Solzhenitsyn's entry into the USA, surprised the nation by not inviting him to the White House...
...It's pantalonnade (with three n's), a word that derives from the commedia dell'arte character Pantalone, a humorless old man who is miserly and debauched, who gets his name from the long pants he wears...
...And there are millions of test cases: Stainless steel has a high percentage of nickel, which everyone consumes whenever we eat or drink acidic foods (fruit juices, tomato sauces, and so on...
...Mason's good-natured kidding, he was still 100 percent funnier than the next best act I've ever seen (including Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers, Tommy Chong, Sam Kinison, and the formerly amusing Al Franken when he was with Davis...
...The experience, were it possible, would not be unlike that of a Maine lobster going into a boiling pot for supper...
...This work was the mother of grossly irresponsible pseudo-science...
...Those who don't "volunteer" will be forced...
...This is deliberate marketing...
...I don't think Le Figaro meant to refer to the obvious fact that Clinton has trouble keeping his pants on...
...I wish your article's inaccuracies and omissions ended there...
...With Kirkland's help, he and others founded the Institute for Religion and Democracy to serve as an anti-Communist alternative to the WCC...
...For Vermont Yankee to have two regional assist visits in such a short period is unusual...
...What most people don't know was that the mother eagles were deliberately fed a diet with only zo percent of the normal calcium an eagle requires...
...In other words, high-volume becomes less than two grams per person per year, less than the weight of a dime...
...For example moderate doses of penicillin will kill guinea pigs, Tylenol can kill cats and even chocolate can be fatal to dogs...
...Caldwell for drawing my attention to the use of the term in Le Figaro, which I must read more faithfully...
...I remember my father saying, "Remember when our stamps looked like our money...
...STEVE KERWICK Wichita, Kansas Can You Dig It...
...I will be glad to personally give him a tour of Vermont Yankee, and he can see for himself that thisis a beautiful, safe, and yes...secure place to be...
...Would you like to have the 29-cent stamp commemorating the 1943 raid at Ploesti (even though it looks like a child's finger-painting...
...Also, a copy to each member of Congress and maybe a thousand or so copies to the USPS to distribute to its employees (assuming they can read and are not watching cartoons or skateboarding...
...The Bicentennial orgy of the mid-do's didn't help either: sheets containing multiple stamps meant for collectors only, perforated but not really designed to be separated and used—some were printed ungummed...
...In order to restore beauty to the U.S...
...Slowly, our stamps took on the quality of Christmas seals...
...The Postal Service sells tens of millions of dollars' worth of stamps each year to gullible collectors—stamps the Postal Service will never have to redeem by delivering the pre-paid service which they represent, stamps which will never be worth anything significantly more than face value...
...Lane Kirkland's name should be near the top...
...Moriarty states that OSRE results are available to the public...
...This he did...
Vol. 32 • December 1999 • No. 12
