Yesterday I lamented the potential banning of fire.
For those of you that don’t know, I live in a town that rivals Berkeley for nuttiness. Thanks to the progressive thinking fomented by Chico State University, Chico is often like an alternate reality in a sea of conservative rural farmers.
In today’s Chico Enterprise Record “Hits and Misses” we have another example of this.
The city of Chico is talking about raising all sorts of fees and fines in an effort to plug an enormous hole in its budget.
The council has for years approved spending millions of dollars it didn’t have, shifting money around to hide the problem. Now it’s out in the open, and citizens will pay dearly if they dare break city laws.
But there’s good news out there for nuclear bomb owners. The current fine for a first-time violation of the city’s nuclear-free ordinance is $1,064. Under a proposal to revise certain fines, a first-time offense will be reduced to $1,000.
For those of you new to town, this is not a joke.
http://www.chicoer.com/editorials/ci_23322509/editorial-hits-and-misses
No, really, it isn’t a joke.
No person shall produce, test, maintain, or store within the city a nuclear weapon, component of a nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon delivery system, or component of a nuclear weapon delivery system under penalty of Chapter 9.60.030 of the Chico Municipal Code.
Source: http://www.chico.ca.us/document_library/municode/Title9.pdf
On my Facebook page where I first mentioned this hilarity, Ric Werme had the best comment:
Ric Werme: Say what you will, but ever since the nuke ordinance law was passed, there have been no nuke ordnance explosions in town. Clearly that law has been more successful than the budget process!
Please excuse me, while I go enjoy some yellow cake while looking over my shoulder.
The “nuclear free” zone ordinances were big in the 1980’s. I think Hoboken, NJ used to have we are “nuclear free” signs all over the place. I wonder if that included all the nuclear materials used in medicine?
And who will be left to apply the penalty for a 2nd-time “test” violation?
I posted this yesterday, but most regulars probably already posted and missed it… More risk-averse California nonsense:
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/fema-plans-clear-cutting-85000-berkeley-and-oakland-trees
As for the fine for the bomb, I wonder what planet the bureaucrat who fixed that inhabits?
Building on the success of its nuclear weapon ban, the city should now ban catastrophic climate change within city limits. If enough cities and counties ban climate change, we won’t need expensive “carbon” taxes, ethanol mandates, wind farms, etc.
While they’re at it, Chico should also pass a law making it a terrorism-free zone.
What’s wrong with the Council? To solve that deficit problem they should raise the fine to $10M and book it as anticipated revenue. Lowering it will only encourage violators and you don’t make any money at one grand a pop. Shameful.
I see there’s no provision for second offenders……………..
The “delivery system” for a nuclear weapon can be a truck. So apparently, this law bans all trucks.
At the City Limits of Iowa City near the University of Iowa, there is a sign with a broad red circle and a diagonal broad red line. Under this is the image of a double layer mushroom cloud. However, the cloud is in green, making it resemble a big tree with a canopy and secondary branches, and the upper mushroom layer has a profile resembling Snoopy. So, at first glance, the sign says “No Trees,” and at second glance, somebody really does not like Snoopy—he’s been banned from campus.
I always found the sign useful for reminding me to take my nukes out of the trunk and them at home when I went to class. Whew, almost forgot once!
“…a component of a nuclear bomb…”, that seems pretty vague. It would seem that anyone who has a 1/4-20 screw in the garage has violated this law.
I there is a sea of conservative farmers around Chico, why are the nut jobs running things? Don’t the farmers vote?
Beautiful demonstration of our local government conundrum, no one in their right mind wants the job.
The rewards are minimal, the stimulation less than zero for fair and private people and the effect on ratepayers are usually small enough to ignore.
So who seeks those positions? People with an agenda, fame seekers and wanna be higher office seeker. As a qualifier, sane people who have been damaged by the idiocy of local council soon become crazed people with an agenda, when seeking redress.
Apparently the concept of Agenda 21 was designed to take advantage of this weakness.
I liken these anti nuke,anti carbon proclamation to buying Unicorn proof fencing, buy my invisible, magical fence and you will never be gored by a Unicorn.
How to fix?
Do not know, but human nature has not changed so
1 Status quo, keep electing self selected “leaders” and ignoring them.
2 Go to civic service as in jury duty type of selection.
3 Reverse the tax system, to individuals pay 10% to local council, council pays 10% of their take to State and State 10% to Feds. Local politics becomes important and the bureaus are starved.
4 Sit back and watch the public wealth destroyed and stolen by voluntarily non productive people. While claiming the moral high ground.
I am almost crazed enough to engage in the circus of, “Trust me, I want to be your leader.”
I wonder how the law defines “component of a nuclear weapon”. I remember in the run-up to the Iraq war, there was considerable debate over some components that had multiple possible uses.
If candle wax can be melted down and molded into a neutron reflector for a bomb…
The problem is simply this: In any well informed and intelligent society public officials who did stupid things like this would get voted out. It should be grounds for dismissal from the job to pass stupid laws and regulations. Just as teachers who expel 6 year old boys for bitting their pop tart to resemble a gun should never again be allowed to work with children and be paid by taxpayer . So what this is telling you is you live in a community/state/country people by uninformed and unintelligent voters. Therefore this problem will continue and in fact get worse until the tremendous weight of stupidity cause it all to collapse. So if you are informed and intelligent prepare yourself for what is coming…
@ G P Hanner
Due to improvements in fossil fueled equipment and fertilizers, one US farmer is able to feed 100 non-farmers, who can then control the farmers AND their own starvation level. Too bad the Chico council clowns could not stop their fad infatuation at the “Ban the Bra” movement.
Careful Anthony, making jokes about “yellow cake” could cause you to wind up with a SWAT team at your door (or an Obama drone overhead).
The farmers are in the county – outside Chico city limits, and thus able to possess, transport and test all the nuclear weapons they want. 🙂
What are you doing with those neutrons?
From the point of view of the UK with a full complement of “nut jobs” going round cutting off soldier’s heads this posting is a bit of light relief!
UC Berkeley has applied for the grant to destroy the bucolic Strawberry and Claremont Canyon areas, claiming that the trees pose a fire hazard. The school has no plans to replant, and instead will cover 20% of the area in wood chips two feet deep. And it will pour between 700 and 1400 gallons of herbicide to prevent re-sprouting
============
But wait – don’t trees remove CO2? If we are worried about camp fires, trees and nuclear weapons, then what about cars?
Cars are killers. They kill more people in the US every year than do guns and nuclear weapons combined. They kill more people than do for example killer tornadoes, hurricanes and super-storms. Also, cars create CO2, which creates these killer storms. Before humans created CO2 from burning fossil fuels these “super-storms” never happened. All we had before were big, huge, enormous, monstrous and gigantic storms, but no super-storms. Super-storms require CO2.
Also, without cars and CO2 it can be reasonably argued that in a very short period of time, perhaps as little as one or two years, that no more humans would be killed. In fact, by eliminating CO2 we could in just a few years eliminate death from planet earth almost completely. Surely that is a cause worth dying for.
Thus, shouldn’t we ban cars? Or at least ban cars in California. It seems only reasonable that California take the lead, given the superb job they are doing in cleaning up truly important problems.
Anthony Watts for Chico city council!
Dilute the ill repute!
–This message brought to you by the Sanity Now! Anthropolitical Climate Change coalition.–
—Reality starts here!—
Have they been heating up? To what depth?
G P Hanner says:
May 25, 2013 at 7:50 am
I there is a sea of conservative farmers around Chico, why are the nut jobs running things? Don’t the farmers vote?
==========
Unfortunately the ballot contains only two choices. A crook or an incompetent. One is a republican, the other a democrat, and you never can be sure which is which. Sometimes you get both in one package, which is why the Presidential Pardon was invented.
Who else would want a job that costs millions to get and pays thousands in return? You either must be a crook and hope to make back the money by returning favors to your backers, or you must be incompetent and not realize that spending millions to make thousands is not really good for the nation.
The crook will make money, but only for themselves and their friends. The incompetent will simply poor money down the drain. Nowhere is there the option to vote “none of the above”.
Anthony
I don’t want to risk a fine. If I cant go to chico to test out my bomb can you suggest other places closeby where I wont be unfairly penalised for following my hobby?
tonyb
Typical of municipal politicians, who cannot police adequately but mess in the responsilities of other governments.
Fad in SW BC is shark’s fin soup which immigrants from the orient like. Whatever the concern about shark populations (they are in relatively unpoliced areas), that is a federal government responsibility.
Voters are the problem – electing incompetent do-gooders.
ps: 1064 is a familiar number to computer programmers.
REPLY: No that’s 1024, or 2^10. 10000000000 in binary, 400 in hex- Anthony
I think the conservative citizens of California should be given the option of leaving the state with the state picking up the full tab. Why should the conservatives have to live in an alternate reality that has been created by people that must be on an LSD trip!
higley7 says (May 25, 2013 at 7:48 am): “At the City Limits of Iowa City near the University of Iowa, there is a sign with a broad red circle and a diagonal broad red line…”
Holy smoke, you’re right! Iowa City is indeed a Snoopy-free zone!
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/96346569.html
What a déjà vu.
Reminds me of former East Germany, where in order to distract from economic downturn, cities have been declaring themselves as “City of Peace”.
However, looking back, it has been more lip service and not such an efficient approach as Chico CA is doing.
I am impressed, how well it works out. So far.
“UC Berkeley has applied for the grant to destroy the bucolic Strawberry and Claremont Canyon areas, claiming that the trees pose a fire hazard.”
If any though were applied to this situation, they’d find the vast majority of houses are made of trees, too–and these are just as susceptible to fire.
So what now? Will they evict everbody and force them to live in caves?
You’ve come a long way, baby…
From Keith Sketchley on May 25, 2013 at 8:27 am:
As I thought for a quick minute before getting another cup of coffee, then remembered it’s 2^10=1024.
Too bad, since I was wondering if they had originally decided on that fine after the number got stuck in their brains doing conversions between kilotons and megatons.
Under the category of “Idle Speculation”….
if California would adopt a statewide “Ban the Bra” movement….
then Californians would have an alternative….
and more interesting method of monitoring Earthquakes…
and perhaps increased interest in quake studies….
I see a definite conundrum brewing in Chico–home of the atom finers.
Once Energy Catalyzers are available for home use, will the city realize they’re distant cousins to the A-Bomb and fine every house that installs one? Sure, they’ll be the “greenest” energy source on the planet, but will the city council hesitate to ruin the economic advantage of ownership just so they can’t balance their revenues?
Anything to thwart progress… That the Progressive way.
“….No person shall produce, test, maintain, or store within the city a nuclear weapon, component of a nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon delivery system, ….”
Given the warningsthat terrorist might deliver a nuke in a city in a suit case, then surely luggage falls foul of this law?
More to the point, every home and office in Chico and its surrounding area contain some piece of digital circuitry whose close cousins reside inside nuclear weapons.
That’s funny, but beware the reality of the increase in fines. I just got a ticket in Temecula CA for not wearing a seatbelt. The officer told me the fine would be around $100. He lied. The ticket came and the fine is $213. These are revenue raising schemes and and provide yet another reason for people to move out of California.
Things to be banned in Chico due to their Non-Nuclear ordinance
U235
Pu239
Beryllium
Tritium
Deuterium
Hydrogen (DiHydrogen Monoxide) as a source of hydrogen
High Explosives (TNT) (firecrackers, fireworks)(Ammonium nitrate/Diesel fuel)
Blasting Caps
Electronic Components (Transistors, Diodes, Resistors, Circuit Boards, Wiring, etc…)
Steel (housing)
Screws, Nuts & Bolts (actually not Screws & Nuts or the Chico Board would have to be dismissed)
Also, Lets not forget the dreaded radioactive Iodine-40 and the stuff that makes your watches glow
Everyone in California knows that all Chico needs to do to solve their financial problems is to put a $10 tax on every Chico State party.
Conversions a bit off: 1024=400 hex=100000000 bin
REPLY: yep, fixed. A
I think in the movie “Sum of all Fears” the delivery system was a coke machine.
Anthony,
You my not want to order some of the stuff here. You might have to pay a fine.
http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_4
REPLY: I’m well familiar with them. – Anthony
I suppose that a depleted uranium bullet would be classified as a nuclear weapon by these Einsteins.
component of a nuclear weapon delivery system
So…
Gas, tires, rims, chassis, drivers, oil, semis, trailers, steel, aluminum, trains, lights, stereos, paint, …
I could do a whole lot of fundraising with that one phrase.
“Thanks to the progressive thinking fomented by Chico State University, Chico is often like an alternate reality in a sea of conservative rural farmers.”
I think that’s common and it was true of where I went to school. Many of these kids vote and they’re active and there are enough of them to swing an election. Their “thinking” is not much appreciated by the more conservative town-folk, esp. since the “progressives” won’t be there for very long, so don’t have to live with their “improvements.”
Do you only pay half the fine if you pay within 14 days?
At some point all the sane people of wealth will leave California and the rest of the nation will continue to welcome them.
I moved to Washington 13 yr’s ago. Best thing I ever did.:-)
California is nutty, no doubt. The video in the link below describes the 20-plus years effort to repair the Bay Bridge after earthquake damage in 1989. The Bay Bridge is in San Francisco Bay.
But, project proponents insist the High Speed Rail will be built on time and on budget.
http://live.wsj.com/video/opinion-the-next-california-boondoggle/4777D02D-1438-48C1-9925-C5C3EC52C671.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h#!4777D02D-1438-48C1-9925-C5C3EC52C671
So, if the town experienced a sudden nuclear detonation crime spree, would there be anyone left to collect the fines?
LOL.. Simply fire 2/3s of all government workers (starting at the top).. Adjust wadges and benefits to the average private sector worker.. Only spend 95% of tax revenue with the other 5% being used to set up a city bank that offers loans to local people and businesses at competitive rates..
Is that profit I smell?
Like magic all of governments problems will disappear within 10 years.. With the public being truly served and supported by our government workers..
The question is does open revolution have to happen to make this happen?
Does this mean no PET scans are allowed in local hospitals? 😉
“The city of Chico is talking about raising all sorts of fees and fines in an effort to plug an enormous hole in its budget.”
Hopefully they won’t decide to charge a $1 service fee per comment that appears on blogs originating in Chico. Uh, perhaps this should be deleted.
Jim said May 25, 2013 at 9:39 am:
But the pestilence has been spreading northward. A dangerously large abscess has long been known to have grown in Seattle. How much longer will you be safe?
“No person shall produce, test, maintain, or store within the city a nuclear weapon, …”
[+emphasis]
Pedantically parsing this law leads to the implication that it would be okay for a group of persons to make such a device. That sound like proper legalese?
How many years would I get if I shot off my potato launcher in the middle of Chico?
Always have all your ducks in a row if you enter California. They have raised the fines (taxations) on violations in 2011 to raise money because they’re broke. Not that the fines weren’t expensive enough. Like $1000 fine for parking in a bus loading zone or handicapped zone. Subject to additional penalties, fees and assessments of course.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/traffic/california2011.asp
Driving in California I had to swerve to avoid a box that fell off a truck in front of me. Moments later a trooper pulled me over for reckless driving. Luckily, another trooper pulled up in his patroleum car who had seen the object in the road. So they stopped traffic and retrieved the box, which turned out to contain large roofing or upholstery tacks. “I’m sorry, sir,” said the first trooper, but I’m going to have to write you a ticket after all. “For what?” I asked, surprised. He replied, “Tacks evasion.”
Patrolman writing ticket kept swatting flies. “What kind of flies are those?” he said. “Circle flies.” “Why circle flies?” “Because they only circle around ‘horses’ butts.” “Look dude. Are you referring to me as a horses rear?” “No, I’m not sir. But you sure can’t fool those flies.”
I guess all weapons are made of atoms exhibiting a nucleus, hence all weapons are nuclear. This is a masive chance for the council to fine itself out of the financial depression. (I want 10% for this suggestion).
So if there was no ordinance and I had a nuclear bomb in Chico in my house and advertised the fact – would there be now problem? Is it legal to have a nuclear bomb in your house in the USA? Federal laws? If it’s OK then God help you guys.
Is Chico governed by Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo?
We have had the same left wing lunatics running our councils for years. In the UK Newcastle Civic Centre, no one is allowed to ask for white coffee or black coffee, because it may be construed as being racist. Likewise other left wing councils have banned the term Christmas (Christmas is called The Winter Festival) in case it causes offence to non- Christians, despite the fact we have been living in a Christian country for over a 1000 years. In Newcastle we have roads full of cracks and potholes due to the last few cold winters, there is no money to repair them but there is money to put red tarmac stripes across the road to make your journey even more uncomfortable.
By the way this is the same city council who us labelled as having the most air polluted city in Europe, because some genius put the pollution detectors in the city centre underground bus concourse.
You really couldn’t make it up!
Smoke detectors contain Americium 241 which is nuclear material. I bet smoke detectors are required in most California buildings and homes.
F. Ross said on May 25, 2013 at 10:03 am:
Nah. A corporation is legally a person (corporal, has a body, incorporate = to make into a body/person), even though in accordance with Berkeley-esque dogma it’s established corporations have no souls.
In proper legalese though, Skynet can park all the nuclear bombs and spare parts they want in Chico. Which should please the Chico council immensely, as it would be something non-divine that’s smarter than common ignorant humans that’s making the decisions.
It was probably the conservative farmers that got on the municipal board that came up with this. They were probably worried about it being bad for business or maybe they were afraid someone would get a monopoly on nukes.
kadaka,
An Islamic terrorist group is not a legal person, is it?
Cheeky Chico’s chic chicks chew Chiclets.
(One good silliness deserves another.)
As a Chico resident myself, I never cease to be amazed at the idiocy of the city government here. The waste of taxpayer money on such things as building roundabouts and putting speed bumps on arterial streets – both of which contribute to higher accident rates, just as carpool lanes do – continues apace, not to mention this nuclear-free zone business, which is definitely unconstitutional under the supremacy clasue of the US Constitution, as well as an unconscionably stupid waste of official time and taxpayer monies.
Of course our City Council suffers from an advanced case of the CRL (criminal reactionary leftist) disease, and evidently thinks it has jurisdiction over North Korea. People here are particularly loud in their advocacy of such un-environmental things as “renewable” energy sources, which those of us with some sanity know are dirtier than fossil fuels (excepting only hydroelectric, which, however, the greenies don’t count as renewable).
The latest assault on civil liberties now pending before the City Council is the plastic grocery bag ban, which, inter alia, discriminates against handicapped people – paper bags, even with handles, are very difficult to handle for people in wheelchairs, or who must use a walker (as I do, courtesy of side effects from a bone marrow transplant) . This imbecilic proposal would force grocers to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act which requires accommodation for, not discrimination against, handicapped people. Next there is the health hazard associated with reusable bags: in San Francisco, the rate of emergency room admissions for food-borne diseases quintupled after that city adopted its ban on plastic grocery bags (and tried to hide this fact in a false report published by the San Francisco Department of Public Health). And finally, as with all other green conceptions, there is the hardship placed on lower-income people, in this instance by the added costs of paper or reusable bags. The proponents of this idiocy claim that the plastic bag looby is financing the campaign against the ordinance, but they don’t say anything about the paper bag and reusable bag makers who stand to profit from it – more crony capitalism and the usual CRL hypocrisy, of course.
There was a big fuss many years ago with a posturing anti-nuclear New Zealand government refusing port visits by even the smallest vessel in the U.S. Navy, unless each ship specifically provided verification that it had neither nuclear weapons or nuclear propulsion and be open to inspection. At the time, I was considering selling everything I owned and buying an auxiliary sailboat to cruise around the world. I had this fantasy/daydream of coming across some Kiwi high muckety-muck on a raft, and having the guy demand that I take him straight to New Zealand. My imagined reply was that I was not willing to provide assurances or allow inspections regarding the nuclear weapons/propulsion concerns, so I would not enter New Zealand waters. Then I would plot the longest course possible with the next landfall in some primitive village with no air connections and drop him off there. I seem to have a major passive-aggressive streak in me.
Oh come on folks, when it comes to silliness, this is bush league stuff.
I used to live in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan where the provincial government once adopted a law with massive fines for altering the atmosphere in any way. Yes, for a time in Saskatchewan, it was against the law to breath!
Us people in Oroville always thought so. It’s good to have on site confirmation.
Can’t wait for the spontaneous combustion of said wood chips – it does happen
So, anyone who is building a nuclear weapon will automatically ‘admit’ that their device is a nuclear bomb? More likely, they’ll deny it and the locality will have to bring in ‘nuclear’ expert witnesses who are probably forbidden to ‘acknowledge’ genuine nuclear weapon internals in order to prevent Nuke bomb construction becoming common knowledge… (Included! A free coupon for nuke bomb designs! Just four boxtops from any SUVs.)
After all, the government maintains that the basic nuclear bomb concept is easy, but the internal specifics and details are not; and the government does seek to shut off any potential release of ‘specifics’.
So, if it is a bomb (unlikely admitted) there is a first time fine that definitely will frighten terrorists from trying.
If it isn’t an admitted bomb, where is the proof that the device really is a bomb? Perhaps the device should be tested?
Anyone if the jury or court room care to test the device so we’ll know if it is a bomb; Gleick? Mann? Gavin? Hansen?
I think there’s more silliness in the comments when someone claims a screw or bolt is a “component”.
I’m ready to go but there aren’t many areas of the country with as large a concentration of jobs in my line of work as Silicon Valley.
Despite the lowered fine, I will continue to avoid Chico while transporting my nuclear device components up & down I-5.
What has the city done to cleanse its soil of 10Be, a critical material in nuclear weaponry, without which the neutron-producing, energy-releasing chain reaction can’t be initiated in a controlled manner. Would you want to leave the detonation of your nuclear arms, built at such cost & with so much hard work, to a stray passing cosmic ray? I think not.
” nuclear weapon delivery system, or component of a nuclear weapon delivery system under penalty of Chapter 9.60.030 of the Chico Municipal Code.”
Um, since nukes can be “delivered” by car, boat, train, or truck: Anyone who “maintain”s or “store”s a vehicle in Chico is in violation of that law.
Teller, during the early development of the H-Bomb, had a diagram on his chalkboard showing the needed delivery system for each size of nuke. For the largest one, he had no entry. Someone inquired “why no entry”? His reply was that, for that size, it would destroy all life on the planet, so simply setting it in the yard was sufficient. As Teller is clearly a nuclear bomb expert, per his expert opinion, anyone mowing their yard is doing maintenance on a nuclear weapon delivery system…
I think that law “needs work”… (like, oh, nuking it 😉
OH, and while I’m thinking about it, would making a bullet out of Uranium make it a ‘nuclear weapon’? What about a knife coated with radium? Or even just with some cobalt in the alloy and exposed to radiation for a while?
As NMR “Nuclear Magnetic Resonance” (since re-christened MRI to help the clueless squeamish) is nuclear, and can kill you if dropped on you; is the transport of NMR / MRI equipment forbidden by law?
Cobalt 60 based irradiation equipment is used to sterilized foods (fruits , etc.) and is lethal if you enter it. So it is nuclear, and lethal… Does that mean I’m safe from nuclear processed foods in Chico?
Wonder how the Chico State U. Chemistry Department and Geology Departments managed to function. No Uranium, Radium, or Thorium chemistry allowed and no U or Th containing minerals allowed in the Geology department (like, oh, Monzanite sand…) Yes, despite all the folks claiming Thorium reactors are not usable for bombs, India and the USA have both detonated bombs using U233 bread from Thorium… So “dirt” from places like Mojave (that has both Uranium and Thorium) must be banned in Chico…
http://minerals.usgs.gov/dockets/ca.htm
lists many counties with registered Uranium dockets, but luckily, none are in Butte County; though some are just up slope, so need to impound any rivers at the entry to the city and assure no U or Th are in them…
Way to go, Chico, banning dirt and water… (since water has deuterium and tritium in it, it’s already a triple threat…)
How does that go? “The stupid, it burns”…
Jeff Alberts says:
“I think there’s more silliness in the comments when someone claims a screw or bolt is a “component”.”
And pray, what are they if not components? I have no personal experience of nuclear weapon construction, but a great deal of experience of “delivery systems” (aircraft and missiles), and I can assure you that standard parts are used as far as practicable, both for logistics and cost reasons. So, yes, there will be a lot of commonality between a nuclear-capable aircraft and almost any reasonably complex technical system, at the nut and bolt level (not to mention washers, O-rings, screws and a vast number of electrical and electronic components).
I thought the American constitution gave all citizens a right to bear arms. Why then has Chico banned nuclear weapons? Is it because I (as a Brit) have misunderstood your constitution and it refers to dress codes and merely gives a right to “bare arms”? Or does the phrase “bear arms” mean they can only own weapons that they are capable of carrying? If so, perhaps the next “World’s Strongest Man” competition should include an event in which the competitors have to attempt to carry a tactical nuclear weapon a certain distance.
Long, long years ago, in the sunshine that was the Maggie Thatcher era in the UK, when the drive to end the ‘Evil Empire’ ((C) Ron Reagan) by stationing cruise missile [some of which potentially had nuclear warheads] in Western Europe – and which helped bring down the Berlin Wall, in time – we had borough councils [governing say 250,000 people, in London that declared themselves ‘Nuclear-Free Zones’ .
Laughing too much, I never examined their local bye-laws to see if they had outlawed all nuclei, or simply prohibited nuclear weapons detonated over London from affecting their borough in any way [no matter which way the wind blew . . . .].
There were several – the one I remember particularly was the People’s Democratic Republic of Lambeth. I think Brent may have tried the same publicity grab, plus others, I believe.
Can’t be bothered to research this at 2020 LT, after a very good steak.
Auto.
From dbstealey on May 25, 2013 at 10:47 am:
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/person
person n. 1) a human being. 2) a corporation treated as having the rights and obligations of a person. Counties and cities can be treated as a person in the same manner as a corporation. However, corporations, counties and cities cannot have the emotions of humans such as malice, and therefore are not liable for punitive damages.
First as many groups do for legal and tax reasons, they should incorporate their organization, which would make it a legal person. LLC (limited liability corporation) would be the way to go, if they expect any potential lawsuits like “wrongful death”. Thankfully as it’ll be impossible for them to act with malice, any judgments should be light.
They should go for nonprofit status, at least not-for-profit. For quick IRS approval, I’d recommend The Socialist Sharia Legal Center for Peace, it’d get rubber-stamped in a month.
Afterwards the organization’s unconventional methods of social protest will be eligible for full First Amendment protections. When the busybodies whine about them, the ACLU could help them fight the unconstitutional suppression of their religious liberties.
Then we might get some answers to pressing questions for charitable organizations in this modern age. Namely, how many bake sales does it take to afford a kilo of weapon-grade plutonium on the Russian black market?
You’re conflating parts (screws, bolts, etc) with components (plutonium core, detonation system, etc)
But there’s good news out there for nuclear bomb owners. The current fine for a first-time violation of the city’s nuclear-free ordinance is $1,064. Under a proposal to revise certain fines, a first-time offense will be reduced to $1,000.
================================================================
Just out of curiosity, what’s the fine for setting off a second nuclear bomb? Who would they expect to pay the fine?
But maybe the City Council is really out to get some ObamaBucks via Obamacare. Radiation therapy is used to treat cancer. Maybe one of those clauses that nobody in Congress had time to read before Obamacare was passed gives a bonus to any city that inhibits such treatment?
All Chico has to do is create an ordinance to ban the deficit, with a fine for allowing one to happen. Since deficits are becoming increasingly more likely, the incoming revenue stream from the deficit fines will eventually bring them to zero. Problem solved. I’m surprised that someone from Chico State (which turns up frequently on “Campus PD”) hasn’t promoted that.
Fines are part of the progressive tax system. In a day, you once got a speeding ticket. Now, with road congestion being what it is, speeding revenues were way down. So a couple of new measures were implemented – reduced speed zones within already-controlled speed zones, and seat-belts. But now everybody is buckling up, and its hard to get caught speeding in a reduced speed zone when the traffic congestion and people slowing down for the speed trap mean you’re barely moving. So revenues have dropped again.
But then some bright nanny-state non-nuclear spark noticed that given nobody’s going anywhere fast, they now have time to talk on their cellphones and play with their toys while waiting for traffic to clear in the reduced speed zones. So anti-cellphone laws came in. And when fidgety motorists finally get clear of the traffic, they tail end the light turning red ahead and get caught for running the light. This allows the cop in the next beat to pick them off for aggressive driving as they speed off pissed from all the delays previous. See? Progressive taxation -nothing to do with public safety.
Roy says:
May 25, 2013 at 12:19 pm
————————————-
It remains undefined legally what “to bear arms” means precisely. The US Supreme Court in the Miller case tried (& got it wrong, out of military ignorance) to define what constitutes a militia weapon, a related issue. Clearly portable small arms count. Some argue that towed, crew-served weapons do, too.
A “suitcase” or “backpack” tactical nuke would as well, in that case. The standard US SADM (special atomic demolition munition) of the 1960s, designed for use by Special Forces operators behind Warsaw Pact lines in WWIII, to blow up key bridges & other transport or supply nodes, came in “man-portable” pieces, weighing in total about 150 pounds.
In any case, the right to bear arms is not based on the Constitution, but in the natural or human right to self-defense, as well as defense of family, community, state & nation. The US Constitution just guarantees this right, along the lines of the now dead-letter British Bill of Rights.
Nuclear weapons require chemical HE, so at a minimum would fall under federal explosive devices legislation. There may be other statutes regarding “weapons of mass destruction”, but I don’t know about them.
Evanston, Illinois is ls the Midwest version of San Fran and Berkley:
“Evanston considering restriction on unmanned drones”
http://evanston.suntimes.com/19957591-781/evanston-considering-restriction-on-unmanned-drones.html
“The ultra progressive city has occasionally made a splash on national issues.
During the arms buildup of the ’80s, Evanston was one of the first communities to declare itself a nuclear free zone.
Members of the North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice, working with Alderman Jane Grover, drew up the drone resolution. It seeks to suspend “the use of drones in Evanston, either for surveillance or use as weaponization” (a very remote possibility, supporters agree), until state and federal legislators undertake meaningful regulations …”
@Jeff Alberts says:
…You’re conflating parts (screws, bolts, etc) with components (plutonium core, detonation system, etc)…
I would not be surprised to find that someone in Georgia is selling scrap components of old ICBM missile systems. Indeed, I believe that old missile silos are for sale in the US – I would not be surprised to find various scrap missile components in them. Here is the first googled example I could find – an AARAM, not an ICBM, but the principle is there. An ICBM is certainly a nuclear weapons delivery system – owning components of which is banned by the ordnance…
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/17/missile-for-sale-ex-israeli-sergeant-in-market-for-pawn-stars/
So owning a missile winglet or part of an old guidance gyroscope as a paperweight could cost you a thousand dollars…?
The Ancient Greeks solved the problem of rule by self-appointed elites through sortition, which fundamentals are well established, or in practice as jury selection and the conscription lottery. Already in common use/discussion are VoterID (pinakion) and voting-machines (kloteria).
Karl Popper distinguished democracies as being able to peacefully replace leaders without repair to revolution. With little difference among the parties in some aspects, our American Republic beggars this democracy.
There is a refrain used in Argentina that describes the town of Chico in more ways than one. The refrain originally came from Medieval Iberia. The refrain goes: “Pueblo chico infierno grande.”
Someone should put a sign of pueblo above the sign for Chico, or better yet, get the town wizards to change the name to Pueblo Chico. Spanish speakers will have a good laugh over this.
@Milodon; in re the Second Amendment RAKBA from natural law; well said! MOLON LABE Lord of Flies, ya putz!
The satellite town of Calgary, Alberta, i.e. Canmore, with a population of only a few thousand, was also a “nuclear-free zone”. I loved the sign (which is now gone).
The idea came from the anti-nukes who realised that the Feds did not have apparent or non-arguable rights to put nuclear silos or launch vehicles whereever they wanted. In the days of transportable nukes and the theory that if the enemy couldn’t find them, it couldn’t blow them up in a preemptive strike, the fear was that everywhere would become a target. So by declaring a municipality a “nuclear-free zone”, the Feds would have to declare, justify and run a publicity campaign to bring in an n-weapon, even briefly. Hardly useful as a weapon system.
One mobile launcher that mobilized a nation or more. Very impressive results, even if backwards.
I would like such a sign for my property, but I should advise the authorities that I am “eminently” disposed should a “nuisance” fee in at least two digits be presented with the plan.
Psst psst:
The tiltmeters used by the USGS to monitor ground deformation around California, and possibly near the Oroville dam, contain a sensor that originally came from the Minuteman III ICBM guidance system.
See http://www.chico.ca.us/document_library/municode/Title9.pdf Chapter 9.6. No fine mentioned. C’mon Anthony, you can do better than that. Are you sure the ordinance was passed by lefties?
REPLY: That’s the Wikipedia Reference, seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico,_California#Defense
And yes I’m certain, so is the newspaper editor, whom I know personally. The fines are in another section of the city code. You can actually go to jail too. See this article from 1983 when it was passed:
– Anthony
Psst psst again:
The soil moisture testers used by farmers, construction sites and road builders contain an Americium Beryllium neutron generator.
From Wikipedia “The City of Chico is a charter city and has a council–manager government. The City of Chico’s administration offices are located at 411 Main Street immediately adjacent to the City Council Chambers. Chico’s city council consists of seven nonpartisan councilmembers each elected at-large in November of even-numbered years” Oh snap, non-partisan.
REPLY: Oh please. What happens when a “non-partisan” body has more members of one political persuasion on it than another? I live here, I know the people and the history. You don’t.
These folks that voted in the nuke law were part of on ongoing effort by the people who started the “April Committee”:
http://chicowiki.org/April_Committee
From the book: Chico: Life and Times of a City of Fortune By Debra Moon
Murray, You live in Sarasota Florida, so please don’t lecture me about my own town of which you don’t know anything about. – Anthony
Hunt for Red October: “Give me one ping, one ping only, please”.
To the City of Chico: “I’ll be doing one test, one test only, thank-you”
Someone should point out to the enlightened denizens of Chico that they are being bombarded by the radiation from a nuclear fusion reaction. It should also be pointed out that they should wear radiation protective shielding in the form of a hat and clothing to prevent radiation damage.
“Please excuse me, while I go enjoy some yellow cake while looking over my shoulder.”
Yellowcake isn’t yellow cake. I did experimental studies in a yellowcake plant, and never saw any chocolate frosting at all.
“…created by people that must be on an LSD trip!”
LSD: Liberal Sagacity Delusion
There have been towns that banned DiHydrogen Monoxide in response to grassroots campaigns by concerned citizens (people yanking the chains of the elected morons).
“…or component of a nuclear weapon delivery system…”
You do realize that this is just about anything in your home? Wire, metal, paint, tires, ..?
Under this provision, they could arrest and fine you, with impunity, for the possession of almost anything.
I could put a 475 KT thermonuclear W88 warhead in the back of my delivery vehicle, aka Dodge pickup. Easily.
I also assume that Chico has scrubbed all the heavy water out of its municipal system.
Jim said May 25, 2013 at 9:39 am:
Get ready to move again, the stupidity is reaching endemic levels in Washington as well.
US Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) put blame for the Skagit River I-5 bridge collapse on the Republicans. Besides Republicans obviously not spending on infrastructure for the last five years so they could hurt Obama politically, they’re also not allowing obvious solutions to our greatest-since-1930’s long term unemployment:
A tax hasn’t been raised since 1993, which is socially irresponsible, as raising taxes progresses society. If Republicans would just allow taxes to be raised until all Americans and undocumented eligible workers had jobs doing public sector work, all these problems would be gone and the US would be a freaking paradise.
All the Left Coast states are now lost to sanity, save Alaska which has the Canadian buffer zone, and are becoming increasingly devoid of any signs of non-stupidity, let alone glimmerings of intelligence. I recommend immediate evacuation of the remaining realists, followed by sealing the borders until the sickness consumes itself. The ones who are left won’t be able to tax themselves into happiness forever.
The anti-nuclear ordinance could actually impede university research into nuclear power, if they do any such thing.
Creating microscopic nuclear explosions, catalysed by a small stream of antimatter, is an active area of nuclear research. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter-catalyzed_nuclear_pulse_propulsion
Mind you, Chico University is unlikely to have the facilities to do anything of the sort.
I agree that Chico has more than it’s share of liberals, but please don’t roll Chico State under the bus. Among other things it turns out some fine engineers and they usually tend to be conservatives.
If you can afford to build a nuclear weapon a thousand dollar fine isn’t much of a deterrent but the unlikeliness of collecting on this suggests no hope for the City’s finances. They should fine anyone in public talking on a cell phone, texting, or using an e-reader. $2 would work and they will get more money than for the nuclear ban.
————–
Gary Hladik says:
May 25, 2013 at 8:38 am
higley7 says (May 25, 2013 at 7:48 am):
Regarding Iowa City: I left in 1974. The UI was building (or had just built) major structures in the flood plain of the Iowa River. I was scheduled to show some out-of-state visitors around the area and so called the Univ. to ask about the potential for flooding. I was assured that the architects and engineers had considered this and the “challenge; not a problem” would be handled by pumps in the basement. Having seen rivers flood, that seemed to fit the now common “hope is not a plan” laugh-a-thon.
It worked really well:
http://now.uiowa.edu/2012/11/living-floods
A “Nuclear free zone” has a very clear meaning: We ban all nuclei. The zone is then composed exclusively of dark matter.
You’re conflating parts (screws, bolts, etc) with components (plutonium core, detonation system, etc)
I’d agree if we’re talking “Nuclear weapon”.
But the language extends to “…or component of a nuclear weapon delivery system…”.
“Delivery system” is the part that’s open ended. And then components thereof.
There is an existing system for delivering nuclear weapons to Bangor, for instance. It uses (or has used) trucks and trains. A component of a truck or train is: ???
Say what you will about Chico, but it’s the home of Sierra Nevada, one of the key early pioneers of the microbrewing revolution. Nothing like a Celebration Ale in the Christmas season–or a Bigfoot almost anytime
@Bill mckibben – no argument about the beer….but,
you should move here when I leave, you’d be right at home with the nuts that run government here.
Anthony,
Most likely this is a cooking-the-books sleight-of-hand. They reduce the fines on some obscure violations (including building a Fatman implosion device) while jacking up the fines on more common things. Then, they can honestly say that net fines only rose a certain amount.
It’s what they always do – playing the pea-shell game. Follow the pea, not the misdirection. Leftists are natural-born criminals.
Do they also have an ordinance banning brains? Or is that just a prerequisite for council.
Chickens were proposed as a component in nuclear bombs to keep them warm by the UK physicists. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3588465.stm Sorry to hear about them banning chickens. 😉 Now if they could just do something about the pigeons.
ut8t5 said on May 25, 2013 at 4:32 pm:
Brainssss… Brainsssssss…
Oh wait, this is Chico.
Tofuuu… Tofuuuuuuu….
No worse, no better than the proclamation from the Wellington (NZ) city council declaring the city a ‘nuclear free’ city. The irony is that the hospitals have the usual array of nuclear medicine facilities.
Let’s see who the first is to declare a ‘carbon free’ city.
Chico’s nuke law Must have the terrorists quaking in their shoes.
— Successful Businesses Do What is Best for Their Shareholders — Case of Boeing, Inc. —
Socialists in the form of: 1) Democrat elected officials and 2) union leaders overplayed their hand with the Boeing Company — so, Boeing decided it was TIME TO LEAVE Washington (still a lot of production here, but, for how long? If it weren’t for hydropower… .
1) Headquarters Moved in 2001
“… the State of Illinois offered Boeing up to $41 million in tax and other incentives over the next 20 years, and Mayor Richard M. Daley said the city offered millions more in property tax abatement and other benefits over that period.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/11/business/chicago-offering-big-incentives-will-be-boeing-s-new-home.html
2) 787 Production (additional line) in South Carolina in 2009
“… Boeing Co. decided this week that it would locate a new assembly line in South Carolina, … a second line is needed because production is a few years behind schedule.
The Seattle Times reported Tuesday that discussions between Boeing and the Machinists union over the second 787 production line in the Seattle had effectively died. … talks broke down over a proposed potential 10-year no-strike agreement. Workers in North Charleston voted against the Machinists union last month. … .”
http://www.southcarolinaradionetwork.com/2009/10/29/union-leaders-criticize-sc-incentives-boeing-decision/
So, then Barry O and the Chicago Way Thugs sent the NLRB after Boeing. Boeing will win, but not until they have WASTED millions of dollars on legal costs. Those ol’ Democrats, they really know how to run an economy, don’t they — — — > right into the ground!
********************************************************************
Re: McDermott the Liar (Wash. Rep., “D”) — “2005 Phased-in increase of gas tax from 28 to 37.5 cents per gallon by 2008.” [Wash. State Department of Revenue. I think they would know.]
http://dor.wa.gov/docs/reports/2010/Tax_Reference_2010/06taxhistory.pdf
********************************************************************************
Get out of CA while you can, A-th-y!
If I ran a business, I would move to Texas or some other ugly but lucrative place. (Sure glad I don’t run a business. I love living where I do — it is so beautiful…. .)
From Manfred on May 25, 2013 at 5:24 pm:
2007, August 6
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/08/01/100138819/
http://www.go-green.ae/greenstory_view.php?storyid=2050
Masdar aims high as world’s first carbon free city
Carbon free city, courtesy Abu Dhabi. Wonderful PR.
John F’n Kerry wrote Massachusetts executive order 242 for governor Michael Dukakis that prohibited MA from using civil defense funding for the purpose of planning how to survive a nuclear attack.
“5. No funds shall be expended by the Commonwealth for crisis relocation planning for nuclear war.”
http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/source/mass/eo/eotext/EO242.txt
When the Soviets saw that they had to have realized nuking Massachusetts would kill more people than states that were prepared for nuclear attack thus insuring Massachusetts, specifically Boston, as an even higher priority target than it likely already was. (Makes you wonder what worse things he is doing right now as Sec. State to sell us all up the river to our enemies?)
That law will restrict the US military action in Chico. Sounds like a good idea to me.
What part of “Shall not be infringed.” is unclear there?
The US military would completely ignore this law and arrest and/or shoot any city police or other city official attempting to interfere with the transportation or operation of a nuclear weapon like a loaded MX missile. The city has no jurisdiction over national defense, and even the notorious 9th circuit wouldn’t help them.
kadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
May 25, 2013 at 4:59 pm
ut8t5 said on May 25, 2013 at 4:32 pm:
Do they also have an ordinance banning brains? Or is that just a prerequisite for council.
Brainssss… Brainsssssss…
Oh wait, this is Chico.
Tofuuu… Tofuuuuuuu….
=========================================================
Major giggles! Ya got me with that one. kadaka :o)
Of course, first the military would have to have a significant reason for putting a missile in or around that area – like putting certain targets into range. I don’t believe there are any such rationales available, so it would never happen. The military doesn’t just go around trying to tick people off.
I guess the law-abiding terrorists will just have to assemble and detonate their weapons just a few yards outside the city limits.
Anthony, what do you expect when you live in a city that shares its name with one of the Marx Brothers?
Turns out that wasn’t so stupid. A 15-yr long French study has demonstrated wearing a bra causes a 7mm/yr “droop”.
Sorry, above meant to reply to:
To put “city bans” into perspective, there is a dual-city in Ontario, Canada (I won’t mention the names, locals will recognize it). It’s one urban area but two cities.
One of those cities enacted a zoning change specifically designed to keep WalMart out. WalMart changed their store design to comply, and the city changed the requirements again, specifically to keep WalMart out (we know that liberals have decided that WalMart is bad).
Rather than continuing this pointless battle, WalMart built one of their largest flagship superstores, in the other city, but on the OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET that divides the two cities. There it was, a mere street crossing away, a distance not even really noticed by the residents. It was noticed by the city, however, who watched swarms of their residents flowing into the parking lot, going home with carloads of WalMart loot. The taxes were going to the WalMart friendly city, and the ones that tried to keep them out realized they were missing out on a significant windfall.
I now see that the city has given up and allowed WalMart to build in their city. Wise move, eventually.
But biological weapons are okay, right?
Asking for a friend.
@Anthony
Please don’t leave Cali before you give us a rundown on your solar panel installation. Will it at least run your air conditioner in the summer?
So you get fined more for ignoring smoking bans in Chico than for making a nuclear bomb. Yep. That town is nutty.
Next they will class a$$ bombs a weapon of mass (wind) disturbance…and fine that too…and repeat offenses? I should be locked up, I can’t afford the fines!
Anthony, you come across as very angry and … touchy… about Chico. I feel the same way about California. I would like to live up near Bishop when I’m done here at China Lake but think I’ll just keep rolling up 395 till I get to Carson City. I’ve no hope the politics of California will moderate any time soon. There is certain hell to go through first.
I attended CSUC for three years (Geology 1984) and appreciated the college town feel. But I never bonded with the town. The last two years I rented an old cottage up in Paradise, very quiet and the climate was much nicer. The daily bike ride down and up got old though.
Regarding the Chico ordinance:
I suspect most of the commenters are unfamiliar with the background behind the original ordinance: This was passed at a time when there was great concern and quite a lot of protest concerning the Cold War’s nuclear-arms race. The main purpose of ordinances like this – which were passed in several communities – was to make it difficult and inconvenient to transport nuclear-weapons components in the US. So it was aimed against the nuclear-weapons industry and the US military; and the strategy was to try to get so many of these ordinances passed that it would be very difficult to run the industry around the country.
I believe nobody expected the USSR to worry about paying a fine for exploding a nuclear weapon on site; but once you’re forbidding transportation of a weapon in town, it seems like just a few more words to forbid exploding it. Why not, after all?
So you might well conclude that the original ordinance was wrong-headed; but there was a rationale and a plan behind it.
I can’t provide any comparable explanation for the fine reduction. Maybe too much medical marijuana.
What about suitcase nukes? Oh sorry I gave them a heads up on that one. The luggage tax is upon them.
College town nuttiness is a function of student debt accumulation plus deficit spending by state and federal agencies. City debt on top of these debt sources is nuclear hubris.
Hopefully “Nuclear Free Zones” won’t attract terrorists with nuclear weapons the way “Gun Free Zones” have attracted mass murderers with guns.
“a first-time violation of the city’s nuclear-free ordinance is $1,064.” How on earth do politicians come up with sure stupid fines. In Sarasota, a relatively sane city the fine for not yielding to a pedestrian is $167. What are the city council meetings like? “I think that $1,065 is too much.” “well clearly $1,063 is too little” “ok lets compromise at $1064”
I strongly suggest, Anthony, if you stay in Chico that you drink bottled water from a distant source. Whatever is in the water supply in Chico is a dangerous additive.
We can’t have anything compromise the founder of WUWT.
(And no, I’m not going to add a “/sarc” tag.)
They’re not thinking. They should have lowered the fine to $64, then they’d have $1000 to foist onto more common offenses with no net increase.
Aside from not allowing nukes in the city, Chico is not allowed to build or utilize any CD shelters to protect its citizens from nuclear attacks, and prohibited from assisting victims of nuclear attacks.
“No city funds or property shall be appropriated or used for civil defense against a
nuclear war or other preparations for nuclear war, including but not limited to those civil
defense measures which address the physical or social aftereffects of a nuclear war.”
They think it’s a philosophical exercise, but North Korea’s aim is not all that good.
BTW, anti-nuclear ordinances violate the Commerce Clause and are unconstitutional.
@Janice Moore –
Unfortunately, beauty is not enough when one is living under a totalitarian regime such as we have now in California – my wife and I will be leaving soon, to be nearer family but also to get out from under the bureaucratic oppression we live under here – check-before-you-light days, plastic bag bans, campfire bans, carpool lanes, perfume-as-a-hazardous-material – and of course the anti-carbon hysteria that makes our gasoline prices and electric rates so much higher than elsewhere.
On other points: if carbon is outlawed, one wonders whether any form of life is then legal, since carbon is such an essential component of all living things. But then there are those among the enviros that want to kill off the entire human race.
And of course ignorant, delusional and mean-spirited wealthy leftists like Barbara Boxer – still braying for the carbon tax – doesn’t care that high energy costs adversely affect low-income people. They don’t feel it, so that haven’t a clue as to how it injures low-income people
The saddest thing is how low-income people support the left when the left’s policies are what’s making life the hardest for them.
Not a soul here seems to understand.
The extortionate original fine was not bringing in enough money. So, they lowered the price.
Basic economics…
Obviously they are no fans of Stanley Kubrick.
And the fine for detonating a nuclear bomb in the city is only 1000 dollars. I am pretty certain the rebuilding and clean up just might top that figure!
Neal J. King:
I think most of us do understand the rationale behind the anti-nuke ordinances. Those of us who were alive during the Cold War know that the average person felt completely helpless against massive forces that were completely outside of our control. It was a symbolic gesture, intended to make people feel like they had some control over their future.
There were lots of other futile gestures. The Terminator and Mad Max movies showed a future if something had gone wrong. Pop music had lots of warnings: 99 Red Balloons, Sting’s “If the Russians Love Their Children Too”, pretty much everyone not writing songs against Apartheid in the 80s was doing something anti-nuke. The nuclear weapon issue became anti ANYTHING nuclear, including power.
But they were all futile gestures. None of this made any actual difference, only in the minds of the people doing these things. People lost limbs and lives lying on railroad tracks to stop trains, and it made no difference. The Cold War ended and it all faded away, leaving behind only a continuing irrational fear of anything “nuclear”, including beneficial technology.
In my opinion, the thing that ended the Cold War was the continued demonstration of will. Only a madman would have tried using nuclear weapons knowing the result would be immediate devastation, so nobody did. Some of us have memories of some very tense days when it didn’t seem the Soviets were anything BUT mad.
ferdberple says: May 25, 2013 at 8:14 am
************
Fred,
I was living in Berkeley during the Great Oakland Firestorm. It was a firestorm in the trees and detritus in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills. From Wikipedia:
“On October 20, 1991, a massive firestorm (see 1991 Oakland firestorm) swept down from the Berkeley Hills above the Caldecott Tunnel. Twenty-five people were killed, and 150 people were injured, with nearly 4,000 homes destroyed. The economic losses have been estimated at $1.5 billion. The economic losses, in combination with injuries and loss of life, make this the worst urban firestorm in American history. Many of the original homes were rebuilt on a much larger scale.[60][61]”
The famous Hispanic immigrant, historian, and philosopher George Santayana (also known as Jorge Augustin Nicolas de Santayana y Borras) wrote about 100 (in 1905) years ago: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”,
The Great Oakland Firestorm was only some 22 years ago. It seems prudent to remember “the worst urban firestorm in American history”. It may be worthwhile to reduce the causes that made it so severe.
Regards,
Steamboat Jack (Jon Jewett’s evil twin)
If a nearby town, say less than 5 miles away, did not have such an ordinance, would that be an enducement for siting the bomb assembly there? It would save $1000 and have the same effect, if anyone was around to issue fines.
hey ferd:
ferdberple says:
the great state of kalifornia passed a law that Mickey Mouse was not allowed as a candidate either on the ballot or as a write in about 50 years ago. it appears as though he was getting more votes than the local idiots that were actually running for office. of course it was in areas where no self respecting republican would run for office…..
C
“The US military would completely ignore this law and arrest and/or shoot any city police or other city official attempting to interfere with the transportation or operation of a nuclear weapon like a loaded MX missile.”
Tut tut. Since the only other people likely to play around with nukes in the US are the Israelis, who never care about US law, interests, or preferences, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of point to it.
When local politics hit rock bottom, when all choices are rotten and the process to run is loathsome, its time to have fun.
Change your name to None of the Above #.Z.Z , raise enough signatures for nomination, get on ballot, then do nothing.One per riding and prepare to govern, As all officers would share the same name I guess you could be addressed as Honourable member #?
Given the voter turn out of recent elections I suspect None of the Above should be on all ballots, with the proviso that if 50% vote NOTA, all candidates withdraw from politics for at least 5 years.
And a new election ,with new candidates be called.
But our current politicians will never allow such a contest,(Impact on ego) so the first approach would force their hand.
Chico was an idyllic town of beautiful trees, 19th century Victorians, and the 2nd largest city park in the country, Bidwell Park – a place where people left the windows open and just the screen door latched on a summer’s night. I haven’t lived there for 40 years and wouldn’t go back if you paid me.
Leading up to the leftist majority in city government, my mother was leader of a coalition that fought to preserve the unique charm and character of the place. She was dubbed the “8th Member” of the City Council. During the early 70’s she and her group managed to elect the former police chief as mayor and with local business help secured a plurality of council spots. But they became outnumbered when the Tom Hayden/Jane Fonda front group, Citizens for Economic Democracy, came to town. By the late 70’s the CED had funded the take over of both Chico and Davis (UC Davis) city councils. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20082212,00.html
They also went to work at the county level and elected 3 of the 5 Butte County Supervisors.
The most notorious of those was Jane Dolan whose husband, Robert Mulholland, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mulholland, is about as left as you can get without being a card carrying member. Note that Mulholland helped elect Tony Blair PM.
The methodology of the left is brutal. My mother’s coalition was still fighting them into the 80’s. Her group ran a newspaper add linking Jane Fonda’s CED to one of the County Supervisor candidates. He promptly filed a libel suit naming my mother personally as chairman of the group, and seeking millions. After he was elected the suit was dismissed, but not before my elderly mother was hopitalized. She called me months later saying she no longer felt safe. I found her holed up in the house, curtains pulled, and unwilling to answer the phone. She had received numerous death threats, calls at all hours, her garage had been ransacked, stored keepsakes broken, just generally terrorized. So, in the fall of 1983 at 80 years of age, we moved her in with us to live out her years away from her lifelong friends and the city she loved.
A pox on Chico, and the damned People’s State of California.
In Scandinavia there are people on the left side that wats to make Scandinavia an atom free zone.
🙂
In Denmark in the 80s a comedian was elected to parliament with the policies , better summer weather, better Christmas presents, more tailwind on the bicycle tracks, etc etc..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Haugaard
Harlow, in the UK county of Essex, when I lived there, was a ‘nuclear free zone’.
Have to admit – no nuclear bombs were detected in the area since the zone came into force…
When I read the reply’s I get the picture that parts of USA was sucessfully radicalized in the 80s(Marxism).
And that they after this success moved on to conquer the World trough UN and establishing a über national government?
Isn’t the shell of the bomb made of steel.
Which would make steel a nuclear component.
Hence anyone who has anything made from steel will have to pay the fine?
Wannabe beatnik kids of beatniks who were freaked out by “On The Beach” think they can ban an invention.
I disagree that no nukes have been detonated in Cali. Just look at the economy.