I never thought I’d do this, but I’m about to quote USA Today, which is a truly craptacular news source. They did, however, get this quote (don’t go to the link yet):
“They’re hippies from the ’60s who want to be against something.”
So, here’s your quiz for the day: who said this and to whom was he referring? Think you got it right? Post your guess in the comments, then click on the link to find the answer. You’re on the honor system here. (This is referenced in the comments in another piece on GMD, so some of you may already have the inside info)
I have to admit, I was surprised by this.
I’m guessing it’s referring to the Tea Party
…then I clicked thru and read what must surely be the most woefully inadequate piece of news writing so far this year. Just profoundly bad – from the obvious bias, the incoherent writing and the sheer craptitude shown by the “journalist”. It’s bad enough that our local press has a hard time getting it right (see Julie’s earlier post), but when an outfit like USAToday can’t even get their basic facts straight it’s no wonder that the American people (voters, tax payers, ultimately decision makers) are increasingly ignorant and, perhaps, willfully clueless.
I just can’t imagine anyone saying that to a reporter about perceived political opponents. It doesn’t seem… what’s the word I’m looking for?
Right.
“Sane.”
jeebus what a mess of tired stereotypes. By the intro paragraphs, I had the article pegged as an editorial, but nope, theyre peddling their hard slant as an objective story. Newspapers are dying why again?
As one of those so-called “60’s hippies” I resent this guy’s attempt at smug dismissal. He has also been quoted as saying:
To him, I say, we are “educated”, Hon; and that’s why you can’t feed us your PR gloss without a whole lot of nasty reflux. No matter how much you would like to characterize us as such, we are not just a bunch of ignorant NIMBYs, cowering and attempting to make fire.
include the 24-6 vote to close VY by the legislature in his hippie dismissal?
1) Being sick of people with a track record of lying patronizing us as they ignore basic safety and monitoring.
2) Not believing people with a proven track record of lying when they tell us something is “safe,” “good,” “reliable,” “clean,” or “sensible.” Nor when they try to claim they “know better” than we do about … Any Subject At All. That’s what happens when you lie, outright, continuously.
3) The fact that the plant is at the end of its intended operational lifespan, and the cascading failures in systems all around the plant agree with that assessment.
4) Being aware that Entergy’s only apparent interest in the plant at this point seems to be relate to buying sufficient time to enable themselves to find ways to saddle Vermonters with the costs of decomissioning and clean-up, so the investors who bought the VY pig in a poke won’t have to regret their shortsighted “investment.” (Hey, why should fraudulent banks be the only institutional gamblers we bail out?)
5) Not trusting people who openly attempted to circumvent the law regarding open meetings.
Nah. Nope. Can’t be any of those. Just has to be some weird stereotyped of irrational free-lovin’ peace-making druggies with daisies in their (white and/or receding) hair (since the average age of a 60’s hippie is 70).
LOL! I now have this image in my head of Larry Smith, surrounded by an army of zombie hippies in tattered “flower child” rags, and sandals long worn through, grunting and groaning with zombie arthritis, each grasping the remnants of a long-dead flower with one hand, and the other permanently frozen in a peace sign.
Maybe he should get out more….
It never fails:
Every time some head-in-the-sand, thumb-in-his-ass conservative whines about “those hippies,” it always translates into the same old text, and the substance & subtext inevitably reads as follows:
But aside from the obvious slurs, 2 of which were direct quotes from named sources (unlike the NY Times) the article relatively fairly represented the issue. From a national perspective, it looks like we want Nuclear power in general, but the specific cases are difficult to swallow.
On the plus side, they described very well how Entergy screwed themselves. They quoted Shumlin and Douglas. They pointed out all the safety issues from the last year.
It was a weird ending though, to say that no one had changed their minds…5 or 10 years ago, there would not have been a 24-6 vote to close the plant. Lots of people have gone from “benefit of the doubt” to “we’ve had enough, we’ll get by without it.” Choosing to focus on colorful, quotable people with unpredictable but hard-line positions clouds the more important story: the vast majority of Vermonters, especially those whose jobs and school budgets don’t depend on Vermont Yankee, have firmly made up their minds that the plant should close.
There’s an interesting review of the USA Today article on the Energy Collective Blog. Check it out at: http://theenergycollective.com…
Sample: