MISCELLANY

1) Update on Ralph Nader's hands: one is still gagging Ralph de Toledano's mouth, but the other may soon be removed from students' pockets. Consumer Alert and a Rutgers student had sued PIRG ("Public Interest Research Group"), Inc., a subdivision of his corporate empire, for forcing students into interest-free loans (presumably to fund Nader's noble fight against corporate greed). At issue was his noisily demanded policy of negative check-offs, which amounts to taking students' money first, then asking "you don't really need it back, do you?" and if pressed, return it only after 6 months. The great champion of the fleeced lost in court, then had the verdict reversed, but will now have to go back to the judge who had reversed the original verdict. Judge A.M. Adams of the 3^rd Circ. US Court of Appeals wrote an opinion stating that PIRG is no "public interest" group, but a political entity devoted to ideological objectives, and that there was no reason why they could not be supported through purely voluntary contributions. Most impressively, he quoted Thomas Jefferson: "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical."

2) The toxicity of lead, discussed earlier in this issue, calls for a comparison with radioactivity. Lead can cause chronic health effects in the kidney, liver, nervous system, and blood; it can cause cancer and genetic mutations. Of these six points, it shares only the last three with strong radioactivity. Toxicities of various poisons may be compared by the amounts (in milligrams per litre, i.e., parts per million) permitted by public drinking water standards: radium 0.00000002; plutonium 0.000008; lead 0.05; uranium 119. (Source: lecture by Dr J.J. Cohen, Nov. 1980.)

3) How to use the fairness doctrine to silence the opposition: Arrange the best man for one side to debate the biggest idiot for the other; the result is not one against one, but six against zero, for the idiot is worth five geniuses to his opponents. This is a favorite tactic of the networks, especially in the nuclear "debate where they pit the idealistic young mother fighting leukemia against a senile executive driveling about balancing costs and benefits.

4) Another trick is the irrelevant-truth gimmick. It is, for example, perfectly true that the US should not interfere in West European internal affairs, that economic sanctions are rarely successful, and that racoons are ambidextrous; the three statements have the same relation to the Siberian gas pipeline, namely none whatsoever. American licenses were granted on the explicitly signed agreement of the licensees that permission to use them was subject to American export regulations; and the purpose of denying US technology to the Soviets is (or should be) not economic retaliation, but inducing the Soviets to divert their resources from war to looking after their own people. As for the racoons...