The Dark Knight

We went to see the new Batman movie tonight on the IMAX screen… in the IMAX format… um, it was a big screen.

It was amazing.

And anyone who thinks that it’s some easy analogy to the state of conservatism… well, first of all, that would make you a moron.  Second, even if you believed that it was some easy analogy to the state of conservatism, if you came away from that believing that it was some rah-rah love story justification of conservative tactics, you clearly need to rewatch the movie and think carefully about what you’re seeing.

Are We Being Poisoned?

It’s a simple enough question and one that seems like it’d be simple enough to answer, but I’ll be damned if I know.

Would it be wrong to start harassing the new editor of the Scene about this or would he think I’m a crackpot?

One of my many sources* sent me the press release and media information for the media conference BURNT and the NAACP had on Monday. I wish I’d have known about it ahead of time. I would have gone. No matter. I have this stuff to sort through and I bring you the juicy stuff.

Quoting from the press release:

On 28 July at 11 a.m. at the Nashville Branch of the NAACP, 1308 Jefferson Street, the NAACP joined with BURNT to release an Expert Opinion by Mark Quarles, Professional Geologist, documenting groundwater pollution and regulatory errors by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation at multiple Tennessee landfills including Middle Point Landfill in Murfreesboro, Dickson County Landfill, Southern Services Landfill in North Nashville, and other Tennessee Landfills. Quarles, P.G., written Expert Opinion documents extensive landfilling of heavy industrial waste at unlined Southern Services Construction and Demolition Landfill with no testing for VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds). Quarles also documents the failure of TDEC to force polluting companies to clean up the Dickson County Landfill prior to multiple bankruptcies which makes Dickson County and the City of Dickson responsible for the clean up. Quarles documents multiple errors by TDEC in placing landfills in karst geology [fissures and cracks which allow migration of pollution], landfills close to drinking water supplies, and the use of springs rather than wells to monitor pollution.

Whew, that was a long paragraph and not very clearly written, but let me boil it down to what I think is the important essence. One, as we know, the Dickson County Landfill is a terrible, poisonous mess (and yet, people are building new houses right along side it). Two, the Middle Point Landfill in Murfreesboro and the Southern Services Landfill are both filled with scary stuff**. Three, the Southern Services landfill is unlined, which means that any scary stuff in there is leaking into the ground. And four, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is doing a shit job of monitoring the groundwater near those sites.

I have a number of unresolved questions about the Dickson Landfill–1. Are its boundaries now as large as its historic boundaries? 2. If so, then why are there pipes to let out gas on the other side of the road? 3. Even if the newer parts of the dump are lined, are the old parts? 4. If the contaminated wells have been sealed off (now), is that an acknowledgment that the groundwater is still contaminated? 5. If the groundwater is contaminated, are people who live near the dump (especially the fools who share a backyard with it) in any danger when it rains, if they have, say leaky basements? In other words, is it possible for water to seep through the dump, through the ground, and into their basements? 6. Isn’t it true that Dickson stopped using the lake near the dump to supply water to the city in part because of concerns about contamination? 7. If so, why then are people allowed to now fish out of that lake? Shouldn’t that be a cause for concern?

But I’m curious about the landfill just up the road from our friends’ house in North Nashville. Is it true that this landfill is unlined? Is it also true that they take all kinds of construction waste? And is that not a problem with the landfill being only about a half a mile from the Cumberland?

I am but one woman, and I’m lazy. Can’t some media person investigate this and find out?

*I hope that’s clearly a joke.

**From TDEC’s own site, we learn that sitting in the Middle Point Landfill are such exciting things as treated sludge, regular sludge, zinc electroplating, oil and fuel contaminated soil and gravel, oil and grease solids, powder coating, stabilized wastewater treatment sludge, sludge, sludge, sludge, more sludge, solid ink sludge, coolant, lubricant, hot metal glue, glue ball, waste biosolids…

Mmm, makes you want to run out and take a dip in the Stones River, doesn’t it?

Lunch

The Professor came by the office and we had salad with pears, some kind of cheese, walnuts, and my beloved dried cranberries.  Then we had the most delicious tamales in the history of tamales.  And then we had cupcakes.

We discussed injustice and bags.

And Dr. Phil.

In unrelated news, I’m considering taking up a collection to get the Professor cable.

If This is the Future of Pith, Color Me Delighted

Pith in the Wind, the blog by our local alternative newspaper–and lets be honest, folks, when the mainstream newspaper runs news items about potential closings because of snow in the middle of July, “alternative” doesn’t have to be any more radical than just “the paper that knows what season it is”–has always been a slightly odd thing.

It looked like a blog and had comments like a blog, but it never quite seemed to be a blog in that it never seemed like the people writing for Pith were reading other bloggers and thinking about what they were saying.  Oh, sure, on occassion, they would point you to a blogger who was saying something similar to what they were saying or something completely moronic.

But that thing that makes blogging really blogging–when you read something someone writes and it reminds you of something else you’ve read, even though they have very little in common, and you make something new and informative out of it for your readers?

Well, I don’t think Pith has had that.

Until today.

Today I’m reading along and it’s all “Sean Braisted says blah blah blah” and “Sean Braisted says blah blah blah” and “Sure, what Sean Braisted says here is interesting but [and, folks, watch it, because here’s where the magic happens] what’s interesting is how what he says has real implications for our discussion on blah blah blah.”

Shoot. 

It’s like watching a kid you love continually cannon ball into a pool, like that’s the only way to get wet, and one day, he comes to the edge of the diving board and up, flip, turn, splooosh, right into the water with almost no splash.

You about want to yell “Ta Da!” when he’s done for him.