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Mammoth Springs

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Drill, motherf*cker, drill aka money always wins...


On the day after, I am sure that many liberals and progressives are trying very hard to keep away from high ledges and sharp objects.


Your favorite scribe, who saw this one coming a mile away and has long been disappointed by the performance of both the president and congress, which ever party, has adopted a zen like detachment and grudging acceptance of whatever comes down the pike.


What's the worst thing that can happen anyway?  So we pull evolution from the high school curriculum, we can deal with that. Country went a hundred and fifty years without Darwin, none the worse for wear.

Shoot the invaders on our borders on sight. Well, that might teach the hispanics to actually come out and vote next time. Get rid of the IRS, FDA, EPA and any other federal alphabet acronyms consisting of three letters or less. I, for one, believe that the private sector is perfectly able to police themselves.

A ptomaine scare or serious epidemic is just what this country needs to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Toughen us up a little bit. And you watch, execute a few dozen women who have had or are contemplating an abortion and see how quick the rest of the miscreants get in line.


I was driving up the Grapevine through the Tejon Pass the other day when I saw that the pass was engulfed in the thickest smog layer I have ever seen in all my years of driving on the Interstate 5. Driving through the middle of it was like looking at the world through a yellow fish tank. I snapped a picture.

I happened to call my friend K and described the pollution to him. K is a republican and a pretty optimistic sort of guy. "It's all in your attitude, Robert. Look at the smog and count your blessings for America's energy independence."

He was, of course, right. Where I reacted to the thick and fetid air as a nasty despoliation of nature in all its native grandeur, K looked at it as a proud reminder of the national machine at work, fossil fuels not only powering the great american engine but their smoggy byproduct also helping create some really spectacular sunsets. All in your perspective.

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One of the GOP's first efforts is going to be the quick approval of the Keystone Pipeline, so that our friendly neighbors to the north can more expeditiously get their oil to a hungry Chinese market. Now the Keystone runs right through the Oglala aquifer in Nebraska and the people there have taken the government to court. Worrywarts. They don't sound like patriots to me. 

Let them move to Kansas if they don't like it. Besides, like the oil companies say, isn't pollution really a thing of the past with all of our sparkling new technology? And if it does spring a few leaks, who ever made an omelet without breaking a few eggs? Merely minor collateral costs for doing god's work.

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Gulf bird soaked in oil - © Charlie Riedel
Was interested in the recent news that the gulf oil spill had left a bathtub ring the size of Rhode Island on the bottom of the drink. The April 2010 accident spilled 172 million gallons of oil into the gulf. Independent scientists analyzed 3,000 samples collected at 534 locations, and identified a 1,250-square-mile patch of the deep sea floor where 2 to 16 percent of the discharged oil was deposited.

BP says "prove that it was ours."
BP questions the conclusions of the study. In an email to the AP, spokesman Jason Ryan said, "the authors failed to identify the source of the oil, leading them to grossly overstate the amount of residual Macondo oil on the sea floor and the geographic area in which it is found."
There were no chemical signature tests because over time the oil has degraded and it's impossible at this point to do such chemical analysis, but all other evidence, including the depth of the oil, the way it laid out, the distance from the well, directly point to the BP rig, said Valentine and study co-author Christopher Reddy, a marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Outside marine scientists, Ed Overton at Louisiana State University and Ian MacDonald at Florida State University, both praised the study and its conclusions.
Deny, deny, deny, these stalwart corporate citizens really know how to play the game. Look at the fracking studies and the earthquake clustering.  Causal evidence could smack them right in the punim, these pros still know when and how to deny.


Republicans of course hate environmentalists and love pollution and development, especially if it is confined to low income areas located far from their own tony estates. Creatures, both flora and fauna, that can't get with the program and adapt, simply have no place in our new world order.


Look for a big new push to drill in our National Parks, Alaska, all points near and wide. The hogs are out of the barn and heading to the trough. The whole country can now look just as polluted as Texas, Louisiana, Eastern Wyoming and North Dakota. Going to be a great cycle.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, you certainly seem to have a zen-like detachment. Ha!

On the other hand, I admit to a deep, agonizing depression.

kp

Sanoguy said...

Likewise, KP!

Anonymous said...

Short of yelling Fuck! Fuck! and running in circles, the best thing I can come up with is the big general idea that the economy has run out of magic bullets since we shifted from making things to financializing everything and our paradigms for foreign policy are no longer adequate. The "public" sees it not working and just flails about tossing the dominant party out of office in alternating cycles every few years. Got messiah?

Blue Heron said...

Good valid points Jon. We have lost our moorings and have become totally reactive. Tipping point careens the teeter totter this way and that...