To: Jsterngold@sfchronicle.com
You may want to go here to get a feeling about how RRW and the Pit Facility are going and how that is going to impact both LANL and LLNL employees very soon. This is the third and I think final blog on this privatization of our national labs. Once they are destroyed the liberal boneheads of this nation will have finally achieved making us a third world country run by people that haven't a clue. Enjoy and please make the information you acquire from this blog national news.
http://lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/
20 comments:
"Once they are destroyed the liberal boneheads of this nation will have finally achieved making us a third world country run by people that haven't a clue."
Huh???
Would that be liberal bonehead Nanos? Or the liberally-inspired privatization?
Please elaborate.
liberally-inspired privatization?
I think anyone from the outside reading this blog would get a very distorted view of LANL. There are some thoughtful posts, (which is why we keep reading) but the majority are just plain stupid. Like the statement that "Once they (the nat'l labs) are destroyed the liberal boneheads of this nation will have finally achieved making us a third world country run by people that haven't a clue."
So it's only the national labs that are standing in the way of the US becoming a third world country?? Hardly.
Several people that I work with have said that a lot of the posts are from people who do not work at the lab, and simply want to make it look as bad as possible. There are a lot of people (myself included) who LIKE our jobs. We get paid lots of money to do work that we believe is vital to the nation. We get to learn a lot of interesting science, and get to work with some really smart and cool people. Yes, there is a lot of bullshit we deal with (eg procurement, decrepit facilities) but in the whole, it's a pretty good place to work. OK, so I've been lucky to have a run of good bosses and co-workers, but LANL is the only job I've ever had where people get paid to retrain and learn new stuff.
Perspective is everything. If you look for lazy people, you will see only them. If your morale sucks, everyone else will look unhappy. There are a lot of people at LANL who are happy and work really hard-- all you have to do is look around.
Just to clarify, the posts are nearly all news articles. We do post items that readers request (like this one) but we try to keep it somehow LANL related.
Most of the reader contibutions are comments. We don't censor them and we have no way to know if they come from LANL employees. Nor do we care. We welcome comments from anyone. Yours is the 997th and we hope to see more from you in the future!
I know Labbies consider themselves the best and brightest of all time past and present; I myself having been allowed to roam amongst the best and brightest now for well over 20 years. But I guess until know I never knew "they" were among us. They are those, the mutants, who are now evolving exotic senses, such extrasensory perception. The X-man mutants are now among us at Los Alamos! How could KB (aka Kiss Butt) otherwise claim that "Several people that I work with have said that a lot of the posts are from people who do not work at the lab." Really? Anonymous presumably means just that--anonymous. Not anymore...not for the mutants who are now among us who have evolved the capability to read minds (and identify the anonymous blogger)! Of course, now it all makes sense. What mutants wouldn't want to take over a nuclear lab? This is now our newest and greatest threat ever to mankind and we, at Los Alamos must meet this challenge head on. But we need your support. We need $15 billion in funding if we are to defend our American family values from this mutant onslaught. Please, we the best and brightest of Los Alamos appeal to you, our fellow Americans...to stop what you're doing right now and write your congressman, and keep on writing him/her today, tomorrow, and every day from this point forward requesting that he/she support providing $15 billion in additional funding to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. There is no other way to counter the mutant threat we now face as a human species. And while you're at it, send KB a thank you note for bringing this new threat into focus for all mankind to ponder. Had he not referenced the "several people" who have the ability to identify anonymous bloggers, we never would have known. Humanity will forever be indebted to this great American!
Clarification: I meant many of the comments are stupid, not the posts. I'll try to keep terminology straight in the future. :-)
And the above comment is a perfect example of the rampant stupidity on this blog.
Oh come on KB. Have a sense of humor why don't you?
Yes, I did forget to mention the humor value of some of the comments.
KB - I doubt that there are many people from outside the lab/community who really care enough to post.
Really, the way the lab is going, does an outside post have a chance of making the lab look better or worse?
PS - the quote below was from the post, and was clearly cited sarcastically.
"Once they are destroyed the liberal boneheads of this nation will have finally achieved making us a third world country run by people that haven't a clue."
Anon 1114 proved KB's point perfectly. Thanks.
And what was KB's point exactly? Zzzzzz
Pete Nanos would like to commend KB for his unfailing loyalty and dedication to mission. It's the KBs of the world that will keep our military industrial complex strong and vibrant. From one great leader to another, I salute you and the rest of your robo colleagues.
5/28/07 8:24 PM - why don't you leave KB alone. My gosh, at least someone at this place has a positive attitude and likes his boss. Is that sooo bad? Maybe, just maybe, there are good people to work for at LANL. I feel sorry for KB since he is in C-Division and CLES, whose AD has it in for KB's boss, but nobody (PADSTE and DIR) really cares ... so give KB a break!
Crminals (commonly referred to as politicians) are what is ruining this country.
Kudos to KB for having more guts than anonymous me.
Pinky -
We resemble this posting... or at least We identify with the Michael Douglas character in "Falling Down" insomuch as the Strangelove glasses reflecting Bechtel Logos was inspired by this image.
It amuses us that nobody seems overly concerned about one of LANL's "best and brightest" turning rogue. We have precedents like Ted Kasinsky, any number of disenfranchised USPS and McDonald's employees, and Timothy McViegh to refer to.
We drive down the highway at a relative velocity in excess of 100MPH with other multi-ton lumps of steel piloted by other human beings who we depend on to stay on their own side of the road, so it is not a far stretch to depend on thousands of disenfranchised scientists and engineers not breaking the socialcontract and metaphorically swerving into the oncoming traffic.
But at the same time, we have to wonder who did the psychological analysis on our staff to decide that treating us this badly would not turn out, shall we say..... quite badly?
The quality of commentary on the blogs has turned sharply downwards of late, have you noticed?
Thanks for slogging forward through the slushpile of news and sad commentary...
- Doc
Anger is indeed dangerous and can be a problem as in the examples you cite. In better men it can remain a symptom of the underlying problem and a force that compels them to find a just solution. I'm betting you are such a man and confident that I am as well. No worries!
The Brain
How has the commentary "turned sharply downwards" ?
There used to be only moaning about how bad LANL management was, how evil DOE was, and how clueless Congresss was. Fun, but not really relevant to seeking solutions.
Now there is real debate, with premises, reasoning, and conclusions.
It is embryonic, but the seeds of how to analyze and fix problems are starting to show up. This blog has and is fulfilling an important role for the community.
Apologies.
There is still plenty of hope for thoughtful and reasoned discussion and dialog on this blog.
What we referenced was the recent upturn in bickering and chiding messages. It looks like at least one specific heckler has jumped in to try to make us look bad (ok, worse than we do by ourselves).
Sorry for the negativity. While there is dialog there is hope of sorts.
- Doc
Pinky -
The Good Doctor is not feeling on the verge of violent acts himself, unless you measure our sardonic posts as violence, which they are of sorts. Controlled violence within the domain of satire.
But we also know that we are not under near as much pressure as some and have a much more stable personality (indications such as referring to oneself in the third-person plural notwithstanding) than many.
It seems like a good polygraph question might be "have we fucked with you enough yet?" or "are you finally pissed off enough to quit playing nice with us?", "do you want some MORE?". Those questions would spike the charts!
The Good Doctor does not advocate violence, but in our youth we were prone to respond to violence with violence. This usually took the form of stepping into the middle of the bar fight and (usually) breaking it up with words, direct physicality and intimidation.
Being large and physical, we were occasionally the targets of "short men" who thought they could prove themselves like the pygmy tribe in Africa whose right of passage is to bring down a bull-elephant with nothing but a (serrated) knife. Being also fairly calm and rational, we never had to step on any of those angry Napoleans, but we always wondered how much longer it was going to take for them to walk face-first into a windmill without conscience or restraint.
Bozos like Nanos very likely chose the military heirarchy to support and protect them in their abusive style.
There are many people and forces threatening and exacting violence on the good (and not so good) people of Los Alamos. Their motivations vary from rightous indignation to do-gooding to power-grabbing greed to just plain, old-fashioned meanness.
This is why Todd Kauppila's memorial quieted us for so long. It made us angry to realize how much crap one mean and power-hungry man (Nanos) can bring to a place. Up to and including the death of a rightous man.
LANL is just a microcosm, a facet of our society as a whole. Those watching us from outside, thinking badly of us or having (too much) fun at our expense should see us as a mirror. A funhouse mirror, perhaps, but a mirror into their own lives, nonetheless.
Carry on.
- Doc
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