Do you know what to make of the B-52 nuclear warhead story? I may have an idea. The reporting of this mishap was leaked, that is all we know. But whether it was an ordnance handling error or pure psych-ops, whether it was an intelligence leak or a whistle-blower putting the brakes on a development of sinister portent, the ball was handed to the corporate media, responsible for reporting to us the actual state of affairs in Iraq. Etc.
The understanding Americans were intended to gather from the many possible scenarios, I think, was confusion. Confusion in the company of a bygone boogeyman, the specter of nuclear annihilation. NUKES (Beethoven’s Fifth), flown over head, over our homes, over our homeland, NUKES!
The same day I heard a report about Yucca Mountain in Nevada, where our armament and energy industries have finagled from Native American lands a sinkhole in which to bury their eternally radioactive waste. The facility is due to go online in 2010, the fight over the sacred mountain has gone on for decades, why was this news today?
It turns out someone in Bush’s DOE decided the state of Nevada could not withhold its water to impede the progress of drilling into the mountain, even thought a judge had ruled otherwise. The net effect, straight from the horse’s ass, American stability is threatened with nowhere to dispose of our hazardous nuclear waste. DadadaDum, Dadadadum, NUKES!
You sure got that right, Eric! We may never know! Nukes as waste containers – how bleak/funny.
I just finished reading two good (albeit basic) mainstream articles about the war losing support simply because of a lack of effective jingo-isms.
The N.Y. Times seems to agree “the war against terror” is quite nebulous. For morose laughs be sure to read suggestions for new war names, my favorite being the Jim Henson motto.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/a-phrase-that-pays-less-and-less/
And CBS news (!!!), linked in the Times article, via their “partner news” site also admits (editorially) to being lost. In this article, The War Against Whatever the rhetoric is clearly hitting the fan.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/03/politics/animal/main2757834.shtml
What’s most unfortunate, of course, is that both stories so openly admit that a good slogan is all it takes to garner support. Sorta makes me nostalgic for the good ol’ “Shit Happens” bumper sticker…
Maybe the problem is FOX News isn’t spelled with a U.