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'Nuclear Free' Maryland City Grants Waiver For HP
dcblogs writes "The City of Takoma Park, Md. this week granted a waiver to its public library to allow it to use some new HP hardware, whose products are otherwise banned under its 'nuclear free zone' ordinance. That law, adopted in 1983 one month after the Cold War-era movie 'The Day After' was aired, prohibits the city from buying equipment from any company connected to U.S. nuclear weapons production. The library bought new Linux-based, x86 systems from a Canadian vendor and didn't realize the vendor was using HP hardware. The hardware arrived in April and was unused until the Takoma Park city council granted it a waiver this week. The city's list of banned contractors was developed in 2004 by a now inactive group, Nuclear Free America, and hasn't been updated since."
Movies, not reason, dictates their city policy.
How much funding does the city have set aside to fight off 'illegal restraint of trade' lawsuits?
Really? Can not buy anything from a company that is related to US nuclear weapons production? Really? What a stupid do nothing make everybody feel good while accomplishing nothing lets all hold hands and sing Kumbaya crap law!
I guess they don't use any gasoline since the oil companies sell fuel used to move nuclear weapons. Or any Aluminum since they use Aluminum to build the missiles...
Yeah this made such a difference....
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Maybe they should extend the ban to companies involved with biowarfare (agar, petri dishes, thermal control chambers), or to cyberwarfare (Microsoft, RedHat, and your son's best friend who became a script kiddy last night).
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
"Nuclear free" is sooo 1980s. It's all about "greenness" now. You need to update your pc checklists monthly.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
"Hey, how did all these dead insects end up in the grill of my Prius?" exclaimed the militant vegan...
PCs in Maryland function in much the same way their automobiles are driven.
Hordes of monkeys fighting for control of an abacus.
Takoma Park has long been a center for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and 7DAs tend to be pacifists.
When Pixar was still a hardware company making graphics accelerators, Steve sold one to a DOD contractor. He had to get a security clearance to do so. Someone got the clearance data using FOI and posted a couple weeks ago. Both this and Nuclear Free Zones is some extreme government bureaucracy.
ahhh, Takoma Park, MD! If you lived in that town, you'd be pretty pissed about the waiver, actually.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I've known several people that have lived in Tacoma Park. It's definitely got an ex-hippie vibe. Pretty nice place, though.
Because illegal aliens tend to be anti-nuke?
No, because they almost exclusively vote Democrat.
Regardless of any good reasons you might have to like the Democrats, it is they who stand to benefit from voter fraud and allowing illegal aliens to vote. That's why they raise such a huge stink whenever the requirement of photo ID to vote is mentioned. They use their old standby of how "racist" this would be, even though a photo ID is free in some states and very cheap in others. Not to mention it's racist of THEM to suggest that just because someone is Black or Hispanic they automatically can't afford a small fee.
Anyway when it comes to illegals voting or standard voter fraud (dead people voting, etc), I wouldn't want the Republicans to get votes this way. Why should the Democrats get a pass? I don't think enough people appreciate just how critically important it is that we have honest elections. Rigged elections are a threat to our very way of life in this country.
Many cities and other municipalities have ordinances like this. Why is this one instance news?
The real lesson has nothing to do with any particular city being "nuclear free" or "sanctuary" or anything else in particular. The lesson is that government passes laws and leaves them on the books ad infinitum without ever revisiting them to see if they need updating or outright repeal. In this case, the special interest group that pushed for the law's latest version of specifics no longer exists. I bet people in that community have bumper stickers saying "question authority" but won't ever think of bringing up statues from the 80's for review,
Plenty of Democrats are pro-nuke. So you're lacking a middle term for your syllogism. Even if it is true that most illegal immigrants that vote do so for Democrats, that doesn't explain why it's no surprise that the city council (and the voters at large in the city) are both anti-nuke and supportive of suffrage for non-citizens in local elections.
Moreover, this is not about voter fraud. This is about a city that lawfully has broader criteria for who gets to vote in local elections. It's not about state or federal elections which have their criteria set by the state and federal government. So there is no fraud at hand.
Would someone be in a position to tell us how much of their electrical power comes from nuclear reactors? I'm thinking they should disconnect form the grid until we know for sure...
It was settled predominantly by Seventh Day Adventists as a safe spot for Seventh Day Adventists. So the laws in place tend to reflect the morals of that faith. For a long time, the city was dry. (Although the liquor laws are being liberalized of late.) There is an emphasis on sustainability. In the sixties and seventies, this sort of policy attracted quite a few hippies, utopians and other individuals with pretty left wing ideas. Since the city is a democratic experiment in progress, over time, city policy came to also reflect these values in some ways. As the demographics continue to change, the city's laws and government will also continue to change.
So it's not really a matter of pushing beliefs. It's a matter of people voting their conscience at the ballot box.
I've been in Maryland.
Try Memphis. Despite the lower population density (across the metro area) we've got people that think it's NASCAR time when it rains, and most have no clue 'How to computer.'
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Do they refuse to accept tax payments from any residents who are employed by any company with ties to the nuclear industry? Because that would be blood money, yanno?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Takoma Park has long been a center for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and 7DAs tend to be pacifists.
Just FYI, Takoma Park's liberalness (which includes a bead store, vegan restaurants and the rest) has little to do with the Adventists, who aren't really a force in town. Instead, Takoma Park has a long hippy tradition and is filled with aging boomers who moved to the community because of its reputation as a liberal enclave. It's often referred to as the "Berkely of the East" and other such monickers.
My favorite nuclear free story growing up was that the police department looked for a while like it was going to have to buy Volvo squad cars, because every other major manufacturer had some toe hold in nuclear weapons. Not sure how they managed to avoid that, but they did. Similarly, when the transit authority wanted to build a major highway right through the middle of Takoma Park (which at that point was a sleepy middle class suburb full of WWII bungallos), the local community rallied together and killed the massive highway plan on the Maryland side of Washington, DC. Those techies in Northern Virginia who enjoy the Mixed Bowl during their morning commute see what could have happened to Maryland. Of course, nothing's that simple -- but it's refreshing that there's still a place that combates global warming by banning gasoline-powered lawn mowers.....
Takoma Park was a great place to grow up. Crazy as they are, it's refreshing to have such a community of idealists. Even though it seems like the whole community has gentrified over the last few years, I still love it, even as I've transitioned to the Dark Side (business! Eeek!)
Say what? ANY company "involved"?
I suspect to make nuclear weapons, you need, like, EVERYTHING. Bricks, mortar, screwdrivers, voltmeters, paper, pencils, pens, pipes (lots of pipes), cars, gasoline, welding rods, drill presses, lathes, etc, etc, etc, etc..............
I think you'd be blocking the buying of almost everything, except maybe nail salon services.
nuclear power is NOT the bomb!
How do they handle smoke detection, since the radioactive americium detectors in them are all manufactured by defense contractors that also work with other nuclear materials, including bombs?
It really is impossible for government (local, state, or federal) to kill a program, isn't it?
Just for SOMEONE to say "you know, this may have been a good idea, but now it's just stupid, let's stop this"?
Please note that the Rural Electrification Administration - a 1935 New Deal office set up to bring electricity to US farms - still exists.
1935 11% of farms had electricity
1949 mandate was expanded, to allow the REA to offer federal loans to local telephone co-ops
1952 98% of farms had electricity...agency still not dead.
1994 agency renamed the Rural Utilities Service
The role of the current agency is hilariously described in Wiki:
"The RUS administrator makes the primary policy and program decisions for the agency and is assisted by a borrower and program support staff that includes a financial services staff, an administrative liaison staff, and a program accounting services division. Because of the financial nature of the agency's work, the administrator and associated staff work closely with two other agencies that are not part of the USDA, the Federal Financing Bank (FFB)--and the former Rural Telephone Bank (RTB), which was dissolved in 2006. These banks provide the funds for many of the loan programs administered by the RUS.
The program functions of the RUS are divided into three operating units: water and waste, electric, and telecommunications, each led by an assistant administrator. The administrator and staff concentrate on the financial details of individual RUS projects, and these three operating units provide the engineering and technical personnel to plan and execute projects."
Which pretty much translates to a self-justifying rationale any Byzantine Emperor would have been proud to call his own.
-Styopa
This is why I like the idea of having ALL laws auto-sunset every 10 years(or so).
1. Keep legislatures busy re-approving old laws rather than passing new
2. Get a review of the old laws going.
I don't read AC A human right
You have no clue what it was like back in the early 80's; nuclear war was a horrifying possibility, and if a town wanted to make a statement against the idiotic proliferation of nuclear weapons then good for them.
They should be using a local vendor ... local to them. There are plenty around there.
This is a bold, assertive policy that will have a major impact on world peace and stability. You go, Takoma Park, all 17,000 and 2.36 square miles of you.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
-- Pablo Picasso
Guess who else is connected to nuclear weapons production? The federal government.
This is what happens when you have ONE legislative body or even two that are elected the same way.
Ideally you want at LEAST two that are elected in a different enough way that there would be a culture difference between the two houses. The only legislation that gets passed is what can be agreed upon by BOTH bodies.
Checks and balances.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
That's where they store the statutes. Carved in stone on the city's statuary. That's why it's so hard to get them repealed.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Yes, it's blatently illegal even in the USA. Still, it's for a very small town with a population of like 50, which is all about as white as you can get in the midwest. It's also old. It's not on anybody's priority list, not even mine. I knew it was a non-enforceable law, but wanted to get rid of it to prevent it from being abused by some joker. Such abuse being unlikely unless things massively change there.
I don't read AC A human right
I don't get why people have such an issue with this. So what if (and who knows if the movie actually had a hand in it) a movie inspired them to action. It's not like freaked and hid underground for the last 30 years, they simply made it a point to not do business with those who have a hand in the making of devices that if used would basically destroy the planet.
Does the US not have any part of the US constitution that forbids laws from discriminating like that?
Yes. The 14th Amendment is probably what you are looking for. It mandates equal protection under the law and was the basis for landmark civil rights decisions such as Brown vs Board of Education.
...for the Lulz.
The nuclear contractor base includes MANY subcontractors and buys from MANY suppliers.
"Torgerson said it is difficult to determine whether a company is connected to U.S. nuclear weapons production. "
It's difficult to determine they are NOT.
If a company does business with the General Services Administration their products are almost inevitably going to be used at nuclear production facilities. The ubiquitous Skilcraft blind-made products are used throughout government and military service. Their excellent green notebooks have been helping the US take lives for decades!
Anyone with current Fed Log and GSA catalog access and knowledge of what a municipality buys could connect the dots easily.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I didn't buy that either side would actually go through with it, no matter how much posturing was done. What person really wants to be responsible for the termination of life on earth?
Probably no one but there are numerous documented cases of the USA and USSR almost launching nukes at each other due to equipment malfunctions and other errors. The safes with the launch codes were kept with a combination of 0000000 (or something similar) to make it easier to launch. Solar effects caused monitoring satellites to falsely report launches and the only thing that stopped a retaliation was a level headed military officer.
While the chances of a nuclear war were/are low, they weren't and aren't zero. People aren't always rational and all it takes is a small number of crazy people to cause a huge problem. Worse, it should be obvious by now that there are some people who are suicidal and would be perfectly content to take you and a million of your closest friends with them to the grave.
If anything, the term "Indian" is a big laugh at Columbus's expense. He was the most lost person ever -- as in, having made the largest navigational error in history. Even "Wrong-Way" Corrigan wasn't that far off.
That's nothing, I know of guys who listen to their iTunes libraries while designing stuff related to nuclear weapons and missiles, in complete violation of the iTunes EULA! (See section g).
Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
How much funding does the city have set aside to fight off 'illegal restraint of trade' lawsuits?
Well if the law states anywhere that the city should be "nuclear free" an alternative tack might be to insist on enforcement. Given that all atoms contain a nucleus the only course of action would be to demolish the city and relocate the inhabitants. The only nuclear free city is one which does not exist...unless someone can figure out how to build a city using dark matter.
Isn't the Federal govt involved in nuclear arms?
I'm wondering if the current incarnation of "Hewlett Packard" is even the company they want to be boycotting. HP is now a maker of commodity PCs and printers.
I'm thinking that back in 1983, HP's high end test and measurement gear was probably used for monitoring weapons tests at Los Alamos, etc. (along with similar products from Tektronix, LeCroy, GenRad, Fluke, and every other test and measurement vendor under the sun.), but that entire division was spun off into a completely separate company, Agilent Technologies.
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
Now that's just disingenuous. You can disagree with the healthcare mandate, but the fact of the matter is that if you don't buy insurance and have a medical emergency you can't afford they're not going to just let you die - the hospital is legally required to patch you up anyway, and must then spread the cost around to everyone else. So yeah, you are participating whether you purchase insurance or not. Your expected medical costs are no lower than for the person who bought insurance, in fact they may well be much higher since you'll be unable to get treatment for a condition until it becomes immediately life-threatening and far more expensive.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
But since they're already at it, they should escalate the pressure, something along the lines of massive flyer campaign, perhaps even the T-shirts with catchy slogan. And of course, we have progressed since the times of shooting the Red Dwarf, so today the townsfolk could also collectively join some Facebook group that emphatically disagrees with nuclear weapons.
Then they could have public viewing of Threads, it's better than The Day After.
Troll 2.0 Fear my asocial networking!
In my memory, it didn't. I'm not saying it was a well written law, even for the time.
I don't read AC A human right