Yesterday I had the distinct displeasure of spending three hours of my time listening to junk science, manipulation of the weak-minded, and fear mongering by none other than Alec Baldwin.

His target: A nuclear power plant that provides clean, safe, and reliable energy to thousands of homes.

The town hall style meeting was staged by the Ocean County League of Women Voters. The advertisement for the event spoke of a fair and balanced meeting to discuss “the health hazards, if any” of the plant in question. But when I got there I realized it was quite the opposite.

In her opening remarks, the chairwoman of the league flat out said that it was the decision of her group to be against the continued operation of this plant. I’m sorry, but if you are claiming to hold an open discussion, then why open the event with such a polarizing statement?

Then it was Baldwin brother number #1 who took the mic. He began his remarks by asking the audience who among them was in favor of nuclear power. His intentions were clear to me - to allow the group of radical anti-nuke activists to immediately identify the few in the biased crowd who represented the majority of American’s who favor nuclear energy.

At no point in his mindless banter did the actor make anything resembling a remark backed by legitimate science. In fact, nearly every study he cited has been debunked by the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the scientific community as a whole. One thing he did plenty of was instill fear into the crowd. He made such outlandish claims as to say that this plant was destroying the ecosystem in the local waterways when in fact the waters near this installation are some of the best fishing grounds in the state. He claimed that the plant was releasing radioactive isotopes into the air and that they were turning up in baby teeth even though it has been proven that this is the result of background contamination from the atmospheric nuclear weapons testing of the Cold War.

The truly disgusting moment that exposed Baldwin and his gang of fear mongerers for the deplorable radicals they are was when a young girl, only 15 years old, took the mic in the Q&A period. A student at a local high school, this girl not even old enough to drive a car presented a question to the panel that was well researched and grounded in cold, hard, scientific facts. The response given by the chairwoman of the organization was to cut her off mid-sentence at which point the entire room began to boo and heckle her in a manner fit for Terrell Owens, not an intelligent young person taking an active part in her community. She was later seen crying outside the room after the onslaught of a crowd blinded by their own fear.

Rest assured Mr. Baldwin, your lunacy falls for the most part on deaf ears. That plant will continue to operate as will others like it and several more about to be built. Your tactics of fear and intimidation cannot stop the Nuclear Renaissance. Nuclear energy is clean. It is safe. It is here to stay.

~Man Overboard

Popularity: 52% [?]