Comments on: UPDATED: Stoic, Heroic Japan Vs. Neurotic Nation USA

By: Robert Glisson

Robert Glisson — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 05:28:12 +0000

It looks like it is getting better in the house of the rising sun. They have restored power to the Fukuskiama plant. Numbers are getting better.

http://www.france24.com/en/20110321-hopes-rise-power-restored-fukushima-reactors-tsunami-earthquake-japan-nuclear

[Which means my week-old, even-keeled column struck the right chord.]

By: Mike D

Mike D — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:11:42 +0000

Even the dogs are civil http://tv.gawker.com/#!5782342/dog-protect-its-injured-friend-after-the-tsunami

By: Graham Strouse

Graham Strouse — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 11:35:42 +0000

Bill Maher once observed that Americans tend to do one of two things in a crisis: nothing at all or freak out. I’m paraphrasing but only slightly. I’m afraid he’s right.

By: Dennis McCutcheon

Dennis McCutcheon — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:35:10 +0000

Ilana,
I read you often, agree with you 71% of the time (grin), and today you nailed it!!! I am going to write the Japanese Embassy and offer apology for the likes of Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper. There is enough newsworthy material without the liberal need to manufacture such tripe.

In Christ,
Dennis McCutcheon
Vice President
Asociacion Vine International Guatemala
http://dennis51.wordpress.com

By: Myron Hammerstein Pauli

Myron Hammerstein Pauli — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:18:01 +0000

An oldie song of mine:

ODE TO CHERNOBYL (to “Oh What a Beautiful Morning”)

There’s a bright golden haze in the Ukraine
There’s a bright golden haze in the Ukraine
The corn is so bright, it’s seen clearly at night
But it’s giving consumers a heck of a fright
Oh what a mess at Chernobyl
Everyone’s feeling dismay
I’ve got a terrible inkling
Dust clouds are coming this way, dust clouds are coming this way

Cows are grazing on Strontium 90
Cows are grazing on Strontium 90
You don’t need a heater to make your hot water
The food lines around here are very much shorter
Oh what a mess at Chernobyl
Everyone’s feeling dismay
I’ve got a terrible inkling
Dust clouds are coming this way, dust clouds are coming this way

By: Bill Meyer

Bill Meyer — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 19:04:03 +0000

Well said, Ilana. As a radio talker I’ve been fielding callers, emails, all sorts of communication assuring doom at every turn. Amazing how quickly the story morphed from “Poor Japanese” to “Poor us with the radioactive cloud”. A theory: We’re experiencing the end product combining the crush of statism, authoritarianism, & regulatory democracy, blended with real economic stress and delusion. This hysteria and dive for the KI supplies could be a collective manifestation of the “Fight or Flight” syndrome. Whaddya’ say?

By: Roy Bleckert

Roy Bleckert — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:04:14 +0000

JH-” You are a smart lady and I want to be just like you, almost, when I grow up.”

I 2nd that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:36:23 +0000

Ilana, I worked as a Mechanical Engineer for five and a half years in the Nuclear power industry in Chicago, many years ago, reviewing many many dozens of Government required seismic stress analysis safety reports and seismic testing safety reports for Nuclear Power Station safety-related equipment, written by original Nuclear Power Station safety-related equipment suppliers, or by my company, and unfortunately, the company and industry were dominated by incompetent idiot Engineers, or corrupt and lying and unethical Engineers who covered up negative Seismic safety reports or falsified Seismic safety reports with a falsely positive “spin”, or who were too stupid to know the extent of the Seismic Engineering safety problem. Five and a half years of Engineering disputes with my corrupt Engineering supervisors eventually cost me my job in the Nuclear industry. The Government and the News media has no clue about the terrible extent of the Engineering lying and coverup and corruption within the Nuclear power industry, because the Government itself reviewed only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of seismic safety reports written for each Nuclear power station, and thus allowing the industry Engineering incompetence, or the coverup of the design and engineering problems.

By: LizardLips

LizardLips — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:04:11 +0000

I lived in Japan in the early seventies. Not liking it there had more to do with being 16 years old and finally tired of being an airline brat, dragged from one country to another. Though I have a Japanese aunt who taught my siblings and I the language and customs I was resistant to any and all attempts to assimilate me into the culture. Well, I managed to survive my ordeal but always looked upon my experience there with memories that I could only describe as fond and, in some cathartic way, look forward to my infrequent returns with pleasure, a means to reconcile with a people and country I had an affinity for, but didn’t know it at the time.
The distinction you make re the Japanese and Katrina victims is at the same time striking and maddening and stems from not just a difference of cultures, but an understanding of the natural order of things, something sadly lost in this country.
The Japanese have endured for thousands of years, we for only a couple hundred. We, as a people, have much to learn if we’re to survive as they have.

By: james huggins

james huggins — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:33:22 +0000

You will be gratified to know that Rush Limbaugh seems to agree with you right down the line on this subject. If it makes you feel better, I do too. You are a smart lady and I want to be just like you, almost, when I grow up.