The Bomb and Bombast

Mad for Destruction 
Public radio’s Bob Edwards did a segment on Oak Ridge, Tennessee, over the weekend.

You should know and understand the role of Oak Ridge in delivering peace to a world gone mad with murderous frenzy.

From 1942 to 1949, Oak Ridge was an enclave of secrecy where thousands of scientists and support staff labored in mystery yet with the knowledge they were doing something glorious and patriotic for their country.

They were kept from talking about their work. They couldn’t mention the word uranium or they would be packed up and shipped out. 

It was a race between America and the Soviet Union and the slip of secrets to the Reds, as they were called, would be tantamount to treason. 

But the Oak Ridge men and women produced something the world had never seen before – the power and destruction of the atomic bomb, and the threat of its apocalyptic powers has maintained an uneasy balance among nations ever since then.

Consider the hand-wringing over Iran’s attempts to develop The Bomb.

The atomic blasts in Nagasaki and Hiroshima ended a global conflict that changed the course of history, the course of this country and the diplomatic and military dialogue of Earth's human species.

The consequences and the ramifications of a world reduced to radiated slag and humans barely surviving in a world of scarce food and water should give us pause.

In the midst of this screaming frenzy over access to or control of guns, because of the murder of 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook in Newtown, CT, we must realize we are a vicious and violent species.

A weapon, if history serves as an example, is an extension of the individual or of a nation.

But history doesn’t repeat itself, man does.

Bob’s excellent proposal 

Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell’s transportation package is an economic Mobius strip. You can’t figure out where it begins and where it ends.

The governor wants to eliminate the tax of 17.5 cents on gasoline and raise the sales tax by 0.8 percent to 5.8 percent and the state vehicle registration tax by $15.

His figures show the state would net $2 billion over the next five years.

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal slammed McDonnell’s proposal, saying it is bad economics and transportation policy.

The pullout quote from the editorial, entitled Republican Road Folly, says Virginia’s GOP Governor has a bad transit funding idea.

Simply put, the WSJ argues that road riders would pay less to use the roads and those who don’t use the roads would pay more.

“Motorists who benefit most from the roads would pay almost nothing directly to use them,” the editorial said.

The Tax Foundation, according to the editorial, concludes that funding transportation through a sales tax “makes roads free.”

Which will lead to more driving. And more gridlock. And more pollution.

Most politicians don’t understand or care to understand cause and effect.

If passed, I foresee cars and trucks from North Carolina gassing up in Virginia where a plethora of gas stations with convenience stores will sprout.

With cheap gas, I foresee Virginians ‘road trip” to North Carolina to buy cell phones, computers or to have their cars fixed.

Give Gov. Bob credit for thinking outside of the box. But his proposal is a package of follies. 

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