Monthly Archives: December 2015

Fifth Anniversary of RockyFlatsFacts

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insiders-viewIt has been five years since we launched this site to provide the book titled, “An Insider’s View of Rocky Flats:  Urban Myths Debunked.” Many have elected to buy the book despite the fact it was available to be downloaded free. My opinion is that pictures in the Kindle version, including pictures of two types of plutonium ingots, make that version worthwhile. The controversies about the Plant are reflected in the 24 reviews of the book, which range from a one star review titled, “Political Parlance!,” to a five star review beginning “Great book.” (The average is listed at 3.9 stars, but of course I think the five star reviews are the most accurate!)

Getting some statistics about the web site out of the way, the current counter indicates there have been just under 1.5 million visitors, with the average being about 500 visitors a day. There will have been 806 postings when this one is added. Those postings have been just about equally divided between commentaries, book reviews, and expressions. Frequent readers know that there is no way to predict the subjects, since we write about whatever attracts our interest on a given day. RF Alum continues to read and post reviews of books that provide information for the quest to write a book about nuclear deterrence during the Cold War and the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. Ponderer adds diversity to the reviews and commentary with a wide-ranging mix of subjects. We continue to marvel at the wealth of new expressions despite the fact we’ve posted descriptions of the origins for almost 270. The first one posted five years ago was “Hog on Ice & Other Curious Expressions” from Charles Earle Funk’s book with that title. That expression came from Funk’s mother. She had a thing about “cockily independent, supremely confident” people who were actually just as helpless as a hapless hog sprawled on ice and unable to stand.

The two frequent contributors also have been busy writing and publishing books. Ponderer (Kate Rauner) has published two new books. The first is “Glory on Mars: Colonization Book 1” The second book is titled “Born on Mars: Colonization Book 2.” Check out all four of her books on Amazon.  RF Alum published a sequel to “Angry Pigs Organized Against Gerbils:  The Farmer Island War,” titled “Farmer Island Magic.” The four grandchildren once again served as “Creative Staff and Illustrators.” You can check the Amazon page listing my three books and, strangely, a science report written when I was attempting to be a science researcher. Even stranger is that there are six used copies of “Insider’s View” beginning at $30.12 and six new offered beginning at $36.89. You might want to check the $9.95 paperback or $3.99 Kindle instead. I’m hoping to have the nonfiction book about the early history of Rocky Flats published before our sixth anniversary. As the expression goes, time will tell.

The National Security: Its Theory and Practice, 1945-1960

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national securityI was able to get this book on an interlibrary loan, but the book wasn’t available on Amazon. The United States Military Academy at West Point held a symposium April 21-23, 1982 with the above title. It has some crucial information about why the decision was made to build a site for construction of more nuclear weapons, which is the subject of my quest to write a book about the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. The book comprises seven essays presented at the symposium with an introduction and conclusion prepared by the editor. The “…burgeoning fears of the U.S.S.R…determined character and magnitude of American security policy.” “What began as a cautious and contested move toward nuclear power in the Truman years evolved under Eisenhower into a massive nuclear arsenal of almost incomprehensible proportions.”

The introduction by Norman A Gaebner discusses how Americans generally viewed the Soviet Union after World War II as “…a valiant ally.” However, diplomats who dealt with the Soviets predicted trouble despite FDR’s assurances that he and Stalin “got along fine.” Events following the war proved the Soviets intended to use the land power it had gained and American politicians took note. Arthur Vandenberg, Republican leader in the Senate wrote in his diary, “FDR’s appeasement of Russia is over.” James Forrestal advocated a showdown with the Soviets in the spring of 1945 rather than later. The United States was in a position of power with its atomic monopoly and two thirds of the world’s capital wealth. The Soviet Union had lost more than 2000 towns and cities, 20 million deaths, and much of its resources. Despite the magnitude of its losses, the U.S.S.R. was becoming increasingly threatening. National Security Council (NSC) documents declared, “The ultimate objective of Soviet-directed world communism is the domination of the world.” Secretary of State Dean Acheson “…developed the promising concept of negotiation from strength.” Consistent with that policy, Truman decided to proceed with the development of the hydrogen bomb.

Richard D Challener wrote that Truman would not have approved a 300 percent increase in the defense budget called for in NSC 68 if the Korean War hadn’t begun. The concept of nuclear deterrence became a key to defense strategy, but the U.S. had only nine atomic bombs in 1946. There were over fifty by the end of 1948. David Rosenberg wrote that Truman viewed the atomic bomb as a weapon of terror and a weapon of first resort. Despite that, he ordered vast increases in production facilities. On July 14, 1949 Truman told his top advisors, “Since we can’t obtain international control we must be the strongest in atomic weapons.” He approved a substantial increase in nuclear production in the fall of 1949 and an additional increase after the outbreak of the Korean War. Those approvals led, in part, to the construction of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant in Colorado. Continue reading →

Measure Twice, Cut Once

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This phrase means “think before you act.”

idiomation.wordpress.com says

While the expression measure twice, cut once is an English proverb, the Russian proverb is measure seven times, cut once. But in the book “A Collection of Gaelic Proverbs and Familiar Phrases Based On MacIntosh’s Collection” (1785), it states that the idiom is based on the older Gaelic expression: Better measure short of seven, than spoil all at once. For those who familiar with kilts, a kilt for a grown man takes seven yards and so it’s easy to see why it would be important to measure the yardage twice lest an unfortunate situation arise.

Even earlier, Benvenuto Cellini wrote in 1558…

we must mark seven times and cut once,

which hardly seems like instructions to Scottish tailors.

bookbrowse.com has a reference from John Florio in Second Frutes (1591), Alwaies measure manie, before you cut anie, or measure many times.

Whichever source you prefer, clearly in modern times we are becoming impatient, willing to only measure twice.

Drop the Battle Lines and Solve Problems

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RF_alum and I often bemoan the difficulty of extracting facts from contentious debates. From the Rocky Flats Plant to GMOs, ideologues are ready to abandon facts in their battle with long-standing opponents.

I’m an engineer but that doesn’t make me an expert in anything outside my field. I can’t read and evaluate primary sources from scientific journals – where I expect facts to arise. I don’t have the background, and life is short.

Like most people, I look for sources that seem trustworthy. I try to avoid ideologues, or at least listen to all sides, and use several fact-checkers. But I despair when our national dialogue is dominated by Red Team/Blue Team talking heads who just want to count coup.

What if the rhetoric changed?
What if the people you and I look to for leadership decided to solve problems and not just score points?

I ran into two hopeful interviews recently (links are at the bottom), where proposed changes in rhetoric could allow us to actually solve problems. In both these cases, partisans on all sides would have to open their hearts and minds to new ideas.

Climate Change
Republican Bob Inglis served six terms in the House, representing the very conservative 4th district of South Carolina.

I was my first six years in Congress saying that climate change was hooey, Al Gore’s imagination… All I knew was he was for it, and therefore, I was against it.

Based on viewing some of the evidence (on trips most of us can’t take) he says to fellow conservatives, be

…climate realists and energy optimists. We should be realistic about the science. And then let’s also be energy optimists, realize the power of free enterprise to fix this problem. If we would just put the cost on the fuels, then the free enterprise system would sort this out. And also, at the same time, we should eliminate all subsidies for all fuels. Then the innovation that would come from the free enterprise system would be exciting.

Inglis appeals to me. Leftist ideologues are dour, misanthropic killjoys. I don’t want to live in their world. But I do want to deal with climate change. It’s a slow-motion problem that will eat away at quality of life – for old farts like me, but especially for future generations.

Inglis wants to break away from the current rhetoric, which has backed too many of us into a corner. Continue reading →

America’s First War With Islam

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Thomas Jefferson Tripoli PiratesBrain Kilmeade, of Fox News, working with Don Yaeger who receives co-author credit in a much smaller font and may be responsible for the large number of primary sources listed in the Notes, wrote this book about America’s first war as a nation to feature the “relatively unknown, unsung patriots” who fought and died to makes our famous founding fathers’ vision come true.

I’m glad I picked up the book and will, therefore, forgive him for using one of the most famous of those founding fathers in the title: Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates, the Forgotten War that Changed American History.

From the halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli…
Hymn of the US Marines

Around 1800, Tripoli (known today as Libya) was the most aggressive of the nations on the North African Barbary Coast: Morocco, Algeria, Tripoli, and part of Egypt, nations beholden to the Ottoman Empire. These nations, each with its own an absolute ruler, controlled the Mediterranean Sea and extended their reach into the Atlantic Ocean. They extorted protection money from nations trading in the Mediterranean, and mostly received whatever they demanded, even from powerful nations like Britain and France (which persisted in fighting each other through the period.) Ships not under the rulers’ protection were routinely captured by “pirates” working for these nations, their crews enslaved, and vast ransoms demanded. It was “a centuries-old practice of building economies around kidnappings, theft, and terror.”

US ships were easy targets
The newly formed United States, untried in the region, found “its status was lowly indeed,” but needed the economic boost from trade. At first, the US paid “tribute” like other nations did, but didn’t have the credit-rating to raise the increasing sums demanded and was still deep in debt from the Revolution. Eventually, the US fought the Barbary nations – especially Tripoli – and won the right to free passage in international waters.

I chose to title this review as a war with Islam, which is a bit hyperbolic.

  • At one point a Tripoli diplomat explained that “all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave.”
  • Later, however, when America supported an exiled prince against his brother who ruled Tripoli (regime change as a tactic is not new) the US emissary “touched upon the affinity of principle between the Islam and American religion. Both taught the existence…of one God… both enjoyed the universal exercise of humanity, and both forbade unnecessary bloodshed… the viceroy had to agree: indeed these were the maxims of his faith.”

Forgive my cynicism, but those seeking wealth and power seem to use religion when it suits their purpose. Continue reading →

Pipe Dreams

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A search for the origin of this expression, which means “…a fantastic hope or plan that is generally regarded as nearly impossible to achieve…” led me to todayIfoundout.com, a web site I don’t recall using as a reference previously. The site explains that the first written reference was in the Chicago Daily Tribune in an 1890 story about aerial navigation. “It has been regarded as a pipe-dream for a good many years.” The article explained that “…the true origin of the phrase… (is) a reference to the dreams experienced when smoking opium.”