And then the bed jumped across the floor.. it was fun.

Tremblor, Tsunami, possible nuclear catastrophe? Trifecta? Gawwd, I hate the news sometimes.

I hate earthquakes, have been in a few tiny ones, but it was enough to frighten me. And could really go into Flipper mode when I would read of ones in CA, or Japan, and immediately call to find out if my friends there were ok, and it would amuse the hell out of them. They were so used to them, it was just a day in the life. Although H. in Kobe was a bit shaken, as that one was major, but he survived it just fine, thank you.

And I was shocked to learn that Tschernobyl happened 25 years ago.... because it seems like yesterday to me. I am SO hoping that those reactors in Japan aren't going to make that seem like something simple in comparison, and am not yelling fire in a crowded theater. Yet.

I will never forget waking up, planning to go swimming, and turning on the radio for weather news. Only to hear warnings about staying indoors, keeping the windows shut, and that we had high levels of radiation out there. And yes, Austria isn't next door to Tschernobyl, but you have this thing called 'wind'. And it got blown here to our door. The feeling of impotence when you hear that is overpowering. And I know, you had to BE there, but believe me, it was frightening. Seeing produce from the first crop being pulled off the stands as fast as possible by health department workers made it worse somehow. They were to be destroyed. Two weeks later going to the swimming hole and seeing dandelions knee-high with stalks as thick as my forearm added to the horror. For the next 280 years, mushrooms from some areas are not to be eaten, because they stored up all the Cäsium 327 and are dangerous to eat. And how I loved those things... So something like that just doesn't go away two decades later.

The news about the reactors in Japan seems to be getting worse and worse. And of course, the nuclear power lobby is going to make it seem harmless. That is what they do. But I am very sceptical. Very. The Russians kept a cap on the information, and at last report, over 200,000 people died. Evacuating
people within a 20 kilometer perimeter around the plants doesn't seem to be reassuring to me. They should make it much wider. If only to be on the safe side.

Add the fact that the destruction is so bad, they can't move people out of there quickly is only going to make it much worse. Nuclear power to my mind is the most dangerous invention of the last century. Man playing God, and not realising the consequences, or how Nature can really kill your best laid plans, and put a capper on it, costing thousands of lives.

And it will come back to the 'vermaledeited' corporations. Let's see, BP messed up the entire Gulf last year, and now GE---which purportedly doesn't pay one cent in taxes in the US--- is gonna mess up Japan. How nice. I hope their emergency plans are better than those of BP. But am not so confident about that. If it goes south... a lot of people will pay with their lives and health. But hey, they make money, after all....

Of all the newscasts from yesterday... MSNBC blocked virtually every report to be seen outside the US. 'This video can not be shown due to usage restrictions.' (This was Nightly News w/Brian Williams). ABC has a site that was useful for information. The reporting was soft-peddling the nuclear plant story, more on personal experiences during the earthquake. And relying heavily on YouTube videos people had recorded during it. Which I had seen mostly 24 hours earlier on the YouTube site anyway. Most of them.

However, ABC had a live Twitter feed, and THAT was interesting. There were 'Murkin Bible-bangers evincing Schadenfreude, which didn't seem 'Christian' to me at all. And people sending their prayers till someone said they should get off their asses and send a couple of bucks to the Red Cross or Salvation Army.

My favorite was tongue-in-cheek, the sort of humour which masks worry and a sort of desperation. 'That's it, I'm leaving LA and taking all the sushi with me. And the woman in 34B.' (I hope I quoted that correctly.) It is the sort of thing I would expect from someone living in an active earthquake zone, the superficial nonchalance, but the worry beneath.

Just like my friends in San Diego back then. I think it was a five on Richter. So I called. 'We were asleep, and the bed bounced across the floor. It was fun.' And laughing at me for worrying.

I do not wish to downplay any part of the triple-whammy that Japan has had to suffer. It's horrendous in every sense. But I do know that the mind set of people who live in such regions gives them a built in sense of being realistic about the dangers in living where they do. It is the nuclear part that really upsets me the most... because that should have been avoidable.

Just sayin'