I realize that nature loving, tree hugging, Taoist reading blokes like me greatly perturb defenders of capitalism. In their mind's eye, folks like yours truly are ignoble Luddites who want to stand in the way of progress. "We are the God-Man of creation," they shout from their gold-plated soapboxes. "We were put on this orb to subjugate and harness nature to illustrate our ascendancy to the top rung of the ladder."
Aah yes, Kings of a frick'n molehill!
Every time we try to screw with dear Mother Nature, we receive our comeuppance. She bites us in the butt, so to speak, and she bites damn hard.
Now here we are staring in the face an ecological disaster of our own making. The public is astonished that we have screwed things up this royally. How could this happen, they cry.
Well, boys and girls, IT happened because we were told that it couldn't. When those nasty environmentalists raised substantive questions about the safety of drilling for oil in deep water, industry officials and our government leaders said, "Tsk. Tsk. No need to worry. We've studied this up one way and down the other. We've mandated all the needed safeguards. Besides, nothing BAD will come of this. Trust us."
When those boorish environmentalists pressed for specifics, they were ignored. "We've got everything under control," the industry officials and government leaders shouted. "Go hug a tree!"
Of course, many of us KNEW what all their flowery reassurances really meant: Shut the f*ck up! There's big money to be made here!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is still true. Many of the same companies that had a hand in this disaster (like Halliburton) will most likely be awarded gaudy contracts to clean it up...IF it can be cleaned up. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they muck up this assignment too because the more ineffective a clean-up crew appears to be, the longer the job lasts and the more taxpayer money there is to be made.
What bugs me even more than this revolving door money drain is that I don't think the average American has any inkling how bad things are. Both the mainstream media and the administration have been doing their darnedest to minimize the authentic impact of the gushing oil.
I've scoured numerous news web sites and the two figures I keep seeing thrown around are 5,000 barrels and/or 210,000 gallons/day. Very few news organizations have bothered to work out the formula of the amount per day (210,000) times the number of days (21). [Note: To their credit, the Christian Science Monitor has done the math.]
Let's do that right now. 210,000 x 21 = 4.4 MILLION.
The word million tends to catch people's attention, particularly if it is pluralized. Thousands -- as in 5,000 or 210,000 -- can be eye-catching too, though in the wide expanse of the gulf, it sounds meager or paltry.
Needless to say, we certainly don't want to alarm our gullible American citizens by throwing around words like millions cavalierly. This might cause undue anxiety and, more importantly, it might spur a movement to shelve future oil rigs in deep water. We can't allow that to happen, can we?
Of course, the problem most likely is far worse than what we're being told. The general rule of thumb is to devise a low-ball figure, divide it by two, and then multiply it by 0.493 to arrive at a politically acceptable number to share. Years from now -- during the second decade of the Palin Monarchy -- we will learn that all the people-in-the-know were debating via emails how best to cover-up the fact that one million or more gallons of crude were pouring into the Gulf each day.
Finally, there is a little reported aspect of this ugly story that needs mentioning. The dispersant being utilized to help mitigate the toxic oil is toxic itself. It's sort of like using a giant hose to flood a flood. So, if the oil don't kill ya, maybe the dispersant will!
Aah yes, Kings of a frick'n molehill!
Every time we try to screw with dear Mother Nature, we receive our comeuppance. She bites us in the butt, so to speak, and she bites damn hard.
Now here we are staring in the face an ecological disaster of our own making. The public is astonished that we have screwed things up this royally. How could this happen, they cry.
Well, boys and girls, IT happened because we were told that it couldn't. When those nasty environmentalists raised substantive questions about the safety of drilling for oil in deep water, industry officials and our government leaders said, "Tsk. Tsk. No need to worry. We've studied this up one way and down the other. We've mandated all the needed safeguards. Besides, nothing BAD will come of this. Trust us."
When those boorish environmentalists pressed for specifics, they were ignored. "We've got everything under control," the industry officials and government leaders shouted. "Go hug a tree!"
Of course, many of us KNEW what all their flowery reassurances really meant: Shut the f*ck up! There's big money to be made here!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is still true. Many of the same companies that had a hand in this disaster (like Halliburton) will most likely be awarded gaudy contracts to clean it up...IF it can be cleaned up. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they muck up this assignment too because the more ineffective a clean-up crew appears to be, the longer the job lasts and the more taxpayer money there is to be made.
What bugs me even more than this revolving door money drain is that I don't think the average American has any inkling how bad things are. Both the mainstream media and the administration have been doing their darnedest to minimize the authentic impact of the gushing oil.
I've scoured numerous news web sites and the two figures I keep seeing thrown around are 5,000 barrels and/or 210,000 gallons/day. Very few news organizations have bothered to work out the formula of the amount per day (210,000) times the number of days (21). [Note: To their credit, the Christian Science Monitor has done the math.]
Let's do that right now. 210,000 x 21 = 4.4 MILLION.
The word million tends to catch people's attention, particularly if it is pluralized. Thousands -- as in 5,000 or 210,000 -- can be eye-catching too, though in the wide expanse of the gulf, it sounds meager or paltry.
Needless to say, we certainly don't want to alarm our gullible American citizens by throwing around words like millions cavalierly. This might cause undue anxiety and, more importantly, it might spur a movement to shelve future oil rigs in deep water. We can't allow that to happen, can we?
Of course, the problem most likely is far worse than what we're being told. The general rule of thumb is to devise a low-ball figure, divide it by two, and then multiply it by 0.493 to arrive at a politically acceptable number to share. Years from now -- during the second decade of the Palin Monarchy -- we will learn that all the people-in-the-know were debating via emails how best to cover-up the fact that one million or more gallons of crude were pouring into the Gulf each day.
Finally, there is a little reported aspect of this ugly story that needs mentioning. The dispersant being utilized to help mitigate the toxic oil is toxic itself. It's sort of like using a giant hose to flood a flood. So, if the oil don't kill ya, maybe the dispersant will!
This video, unfortunately, seems very apropos at the moment.
the sad thing is, things like this will just get covered up and nothing will change... augh it makes me so mad.
ReplyDelete:(