GOOD READING

1) Acceptable Risks by P.J. Imperato and G. Mitchell (Viking, 1985; 286 pp., hdbd., $15.95) is a level-headed account of everyday risks with some very good sections such as food preservation by radiation. However, the authors have been taken in by Love Canal propaganda (as was I for some timežbut not for 7 years after the event), regard Nader's utterly discredited Dr Sydney Wolfe as a reliable source, compare risks to benefits (not to the risks of the alternative), imply that the profit motive makes products unsafe, and look to government as the main protector from risk. My recommendation is therefore luke-warm.

2) Mandate for Leadership II (1984, Heritage Fndtn, 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20002, 566 pp., sftbd., $14.95) is much better than its predecessor (1981), especially in its program for the DoE. It does not propose to abolish it, but it does recommend privatization of some programs in the Interior and Transportation Depts. The program for the State Dept. is impressive, but unlikely to please Shultz: "The US has stood by too long while Afghans have died by tb tens of thousands."

3) The Liberal Crack-Up by American Spectator editor R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr. (Simon & Schuster, 1984, 256 pp., hdbd., $14.95) is a beauty. It contains a chapter "The anti-nuke enthusiasm," but my favorite is the one on women's lib. "We're not," says a spokesperson for a club of Berkeley sado-masochist Lesbians, "some weird cult."

•	Gratitude and contempt
•	MURPHY'S LAW AND OTHER POINTS
•	THE ENVIRONMENTAL ARSONISTS
•	CENSORSHIP BY THE PRESS
•	OIL AND THE DEFICIT
•	TO: SECRETARY OF THE NRC
•	POWER: SOLAR, AND OF THE PRESS
•	FORBES FOLLIES
•	NUCLEAR WINTER UPDATE
•	*GOOD READING*

Vol. 12, No. 7

Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
Volume: Issues
Issue/No.: Vol. 12, No. 7

Date: November 29, 2004 01:59 PM
Title: Gratitude and contempt