Conspiracy Theory

I am not big on conspiracy theories, mostly because I am always secretly baffled by the fervor displayed by zealots who pass these tokens around like bubblegum. Why am I never that excited about anything?

But as time catches up with me, and the crows feet that appeared after my sixteenth grow deeper and more shadowy, I begin to realize that I do have that kind of fervor...it just comes and goes. I would hate to think I am bipolar, but I find it odd how I am all of a sudden struck by a feverish excitement, that lasts only a very short time.

My thing today is the mad bureaucrats, politicians, and corporate honchos that are sucking the life out of my town, and slowly killing the people here.

Plant Bowen is a thirty year old coal burning power plant that sits about 10 miles from the center of Cartersville. You can see the smokestacks for miles. It is ominous and ever present.

As you all know, I have been house hunting. I recently talked myself into looking into some neighborhoods near the ridge right in front of Plant Bowen. Normally, I swear up and down that I will never live near that thing, but I was starting to feel desperate and I saw a couple of really great deals.

Long story short, today I earned back my fortitude. No pollution caused cancer in my household, thank you. Studies show that Plant Bowen is in the top ten worst pollutants in the country, between its emissions of mercury, arsenic, and something else...sorry, I can't remember.

I educated my mother about it too, as she has been looking for houses for me as a distraction from her normal non-working day. She had gone up that ridge, (off the end of Mission Road, for those of you familiar with Cartersville) and met a builder who almost sold her on a new house up there.

I kind of freaked and told her that the idea of living there gave me the willies. I then faxed her a bunch of articles about Plant Bowen, so she and I could quickly end the speculation and what-ifs right there.

HERE IS THE CONSPIRACY:

The section of farmland on the Eastern side of Plant Bowen has become a new tract home stronghold for the area. It is a bit ridiculous - what was once corn fields and creeks is now row after row of goofy subdivision signs, with stupid names like "Fox Hell" and "Whispering Innuendoes" and "Amber Pussy-hair".

It is my contention that this development was initially subsidized by the Southern Company, the owner of Plant Bowen. They knew that if they could populate the area constantly, with the constant sale and resale of crappy spec tract homes, that they could better hide the incidences of cancer that popped up in the geographic area. Think about it: how better to explain a larger than average group of affected individuals than by explaining that the population had a new batch of "out-of-towners" moving in, and that the surrounding area was steadily growing so it is impossible to tell the actual ratio in the given population....

Assholes. I'm going to work for the EPA.

For More info, read:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.treepower.org/news/southerncopowerplant.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.treepower.org/news/ajcsouthernco.html&h=214&w=280&sz=19&tbnid=JXXoSfC76R4J:&tbnh=83&tbnw=109&hl=en&start=6&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPlant%2BBowen%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D

http://www.cleanenergy.org/resources/factsheets/AtlantaAir.pdf

http://www.georgiapirg.org/pdfs/airtoxicsfs.pdf