(Not much was actually. Polish scientists generally write very good, English with the occasional awkward turn of phrase. These days my wife, a native Polish speaker, sometimes performs the same service for Americans writing in their own language…)

One of the most interesting papers I edited concerned “radiation phobia,” which the author likened to the witchcraft hysteria of previous ages.

He cited statistics that show the rates of certain kinds of cancers in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are significantly less than other locations with lower background radiation.

His conclusion was the immune system needs a certain amount of stimulation to stay effective, via exposure to toxins, pathogens, and yes radiation. Total lack of exposure might be as bad as too much.

My son’s English godmother cited a more traditional formulation, “Every child must eat a peck of dirt growing up.”

So Ilana, perhaps you might relax about your fruits and veggies a little.

I recall that Michael Crichton once wanted to write a novel on a planetary disaster, and thought that the Chernobyl accident would make a good basis for the novel. Upon investigating, he learned that the total number of deaths (immediate and long-term) was estimated to be less than 4,000. Compare this number to CNNs initial estimate of the number of long-term deaths: 3.5 million!

On a different topic, I completely agree with Fred Mueller [above]: Obama and his minions are, in my view, deliberately sabotaging the U.S. economy. They very much want to ruin the country, and financial ruin is apparently easy to do, as there are many willing accomplices in the U. S. Congress.

Obama and his 40 czars and the lamestream media DO realize what they’re doing, they DO have a clue, they ARE wide awake, they’re NOT stupid (most of them, anyway… Anita Dunn comes to mind) and they’re NOT scared to death of the consequences of their actions.

They’re following a plan to take down the economy of the United States by putting our nation ever deeper into such a fantastic debt that we will never be able to recover. Everywhere we look, every time we turn around, our socialist leaders are handing out more millions of dollars to their loyal followers. And as if this isn’t enough damage, they’re even giving away our tax dollars in multiple plans that all do the same thing and sending our money to non-existent districts around the nation, then ignoring anyone who asks them what in the HELL is going on!

Every day they add the yoke of yet another multi-million or multi-billion dollar expense around our nation’s neck. We’re weighted down with cement-like debt, and it’s about to take us all right to the bottom. And what do we do about it? We keep asking silly, obvious questions and making dumb statements. Anyone with a brain could see what’s going on if they’d just open their eyes and ears, but we need leaders who will step up and put their money where their mouth is, not just ask the same questions and make the same old statements. Somehow, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. Welcome to the end of the world, all.