I could not sleep becuase I kept laughing

Of course, I have not been to bed yet. But I am in a sweat to get this into my blog because a few hours ago a sharp lady promised to go to my blog and even enter a comment. But that is not what I am laughing about. Anyway, back in the early 1950s, Andrei Vishinsky had the following response to one of Harry Truman's favorite proposals related to disarmament:

"I could hardly sleep at all last night. . . . I could not sleep because I kept laughing."

Now, so far I have not been a Red, but I never forgot Vishinsky's remark.

What is making me laugh so hard? OK, let's start out with some kind of analogy, and really, analogies have shortcomings. Suppose somebody proposed a law that required federal inspections of ice cream stands. And then suppose that the ice cream stand lobbyists told the feds that such a proposal was absurd and that it should not even be reviewed. So, go to the next step, the guy who proposed the law for inspections finds out that a few years earlier, the ice cream lobby had given its top award to an ice cream stand operator who devised an ingenious system for inspecting ice cream stands. At this point the somebody who proposed the law for inspections begins laughing, and remarks, "I could hardly sleep at all last night. . . . I could not sleep because I kept laughing."

The ice cream stand is a nuclear power plant that operates with a lot of dirt in its system and the proposal is to require attention to that problem via federal regulations. The lobbyist, the Nuclear Energy Institute, declares on August 6, 2007, "The industry position is that the petition for rulemaking submitted by Mr. Leyse is not needed and should not be considered for action by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission." However, back in 2005, the Nuclear Energy Institute issued the following press release:

Nuclear Energy Institute FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:202-739-8000
For Release:May 18, 2005
Employees at Entergy’s River Bend Station Earn Top Industry Practice 'Best of the Best’ Award
The River Bend Station entry was selected from 94 nominations for the team’s innovative technique to obtain pieces, or “flakes,” of residue from fuel rods while submerged in coolant water. This examination was necessary because workers had identified significant residue buildup as the primary cause for fuel failures.“Such examinations were previously only possible through use of shielded enclosures known as hot cells, an expensive and time-consuming technique that requires two to three years from start to finish and an investment of $2 million to $3 million. Entergy’s innovative method can be completed in six months, at a substantial cost saving. More importantly, worker radiation exposure is reduced three rem to 300 millirem,” said Skip Bowman, NEI’s president and chief executive officer.“All U.S. power reactors can use this technique. Indeed, River Bend’s efforts are now serving as a basis for additional incentives that will further the entire industry’s knowledge of residue formation and behavior,” Bowman said.

Of course, analogies are never precise, and this one has flaws. Nevertheless, I am laughing and that is too bad because I need all of the good sleep that I can get!