Lest I be thought alarmist, (me?), NBC Nightly News last night cited two experts, geophysicists or some such, who said that if BP can’t successfully cap its leak, oil will flow unimpeded into the Gulf of Mexico for our lifetimes and longer. BP’s top kill effort, today maybe, is given a sixty to seventy percent chance of success by its own engineers, and you have to worry that they’re putting a good face on it.
I’m not given to prayer unless there’s a direct and immediate benefit to me, but I’ll say a little prayer on this one. What’s to lose? I’ll also cross my fingers.
NBC also had a guest, the former president of Shell Oil, who said leaks like this are actually rather common. This one gets press because it’s here and already destroying vast wetlands and a fishing and tourism industry. The Shell guy said a comparable leak in the Gulf of Arabia a couple of years ago was treated by a fleet of supertankers which siphoned the leaking oil from the surface, separated it from the sea water, and headed for port and the refineries. He thinks we should be lining up tankers now.
I take it the Arabian leak was finally plugged, though it’s also the depth and cold that make our blowout particularly hard to stop.
Side bar: In his press conferences on this and other subjects, I notice that Obama’s hair is already turning gray, and not just a little. His has to be the toughest job in the world. Sadly, too many Americans expect him to fix every national problem in a matter of weeks, including a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
He's missing a photo-op: he should be standing on a shrimp boat wearing a mask and snorkle with a Mission Accomplished sign in the background.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
In the light of day
I forgot last night—it was late—that BP is also drilling a new well that it hopes will relieve pressure from the leak and perhaps slow or eliminate the flow. Maybe that will work.
It’s hard, though, to take seriously anything BP says, since it’s consistently understated the size of the leak and withheld information from Congress and the public, including video that showed multiple leaks gushing oil and gas at rates impossible to measure. Now, according to BP President Tony Hayward, “Everything we can see suggests that the overall environmental impacts of this will be very, very modest.”
This is more than spin control. It’s lying.
Tony—and let’s add Rush Limbaugh, who bloviated that environmentalists are overreacting and the ocean is self-cleaning—needs to get some detergent and rags and start cleaning pelicans, or paddle up into a saltwater marsh and tell us how he’s going to clean oil out of reed beds.
One thing we do know: when it’s over, if it’s ever over, we’ll have lots of tar and feathers.
It’s hard, though, to take seriously anything BP says, since it’s consistently understated the size of the leak and withheld information from Congress and the public, including video that showed multiple leaks gushing oil and gas at rates impossible to measure. Now, according to BP President Tony Hayward, “Everything we can see suggests that the overall environmental impacts of this will be very, very modest.”
This is more than spin control. It’s lying.
Tony—and let’s add Rush Limbaugh, who bloviated that environmentalists are overreacting and the ocean is self-cleaning—needs to get some detergent and rags and start cleaning pelicans, or paddle up into a saltwater marsh and tell us how he’s going to clean oil out of reed beds.
One thing we do know: when it’s over, if it’s ever over, we’ll have lots of tar and feathers.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
What then?
The news of the massive oil leak in the Gulf just keeps getting worse. A month ago, it was 2,000 barrels a day, and BP was going to put a dome over it. At the time, news stories focused on how much worse the Exxon Valdez spill had been.
I don’t even know what the current estimates of barrels per day are, but I’m beginning to believe we’re looking at the largest environmental disaster in American history. It breaks my heart.
Now, as BP prepares to pump tons of mud, cement, and golf balls into the breach in hopes of clogging the flow, I’ve yet to hear anyone speculate that perhaps this leak simply can’t be stopped. But note that certainly BP hasn’t expressed any confidence, and I've heard not a word about yet another plan if this one, too, shall fail.
Suppose, like the volcano in Iceland, this is now a force of nature beyond the control of man.
What then?
I don’t even know what the current estimates of barrels per day are, but I’m beginning to believe we’re looking at the largest environmental disaster in American history. It breaks my heart.
Now, as BP prepares to pump tons of mud, cement, and golf balls into the breach in hopes of clogging the flow, I’ve yet to hear anyone speculate that perhaps this leak simply can’t be stopped. But note that certainly BP hasn’t expressed any confidence, and I've heard not a word about yet another plan if this one, too, shall fail.
Suppose, like the volcano in Iceland, this is now a force of nature beyond the control of man.
What then?
Another year of bliss
Once again I'm proud to announce that Mary and I are enjoying our wedding anniversary today, our 35th, which I'm sure everyone knows is the Treasury Bills Anniversary. T-Bills make the perfect anniversary gift and come in a wide variety of denominations, one to fit every budget. You can have them gift wrapped and enclose a nice card.
It's not too late even if they don't arrive for a few days because I forgot, too, and Mary had to remind me. Now I have our anniversay and Mary's birthday on my Google calendar, which will send me reminders a few days in advance forever.
Thank you all in advance for the lovely T-Bills!
It's not too late even if they don't arrive for a few days because I forgot, too, and Mary had to remind me. Now I have our anniversay and Mary's birthday on my Google calendar, which will send me reminders a few days in advance forever.
Thank you all in advance for the lovely T-Bills!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
A modest proposal
Here’s a simple suggestion to help Arizona remedy problems with its new law 1070: require everybody to carry and show proof of citizenship upon demand. Police would be required to check everyone’s citizenship papers during arrests or minor traffic stops, or when someone stops to ask them directions. Everyone who can’t produce proper papers is treated the same, probably held in detention until someone can come up with the proper documentation or deportated if they can’t.
This is the only fair way to ensure equal protection under the law, and it would also keep out unwelcome Norwegians and other Northern Europeans who take advantage of their fair complexions.
It would be interesting to see how long the law would stay on the books if white people faced the same scrutiny as brown people.
This is the only fair way to ensure equal protection under the law, and it would also keep out unwelcome Norwegians and other Northern Europeans who take advantage of their fair complexions.
It would be interesting to see how long the law would stay on the books if white people faced the same scrutiny as brown people.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Gary Johnson for President
Colbert was particularly funny in his show this Monday, May 10. You can watch the full episode here:
http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-may-10-2010-gary-johnson.
Particularly interesting, though, was his interview with former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, a two-term Republican who says he’s not running for president in 2012, a clear indication he’s running for president in 2012. Here’s what his Website says about Johnson’s stand on drugs:
“More Effective Drug Policy
Gary has been a leader of the movement toward a new, more effective drug policy that is more in line with conservative principles of fiscal discipline, limited government, and personal responsibility. Gary advocates an end to the failed prohibition of the past seventy years, and an honest discussion about the drug issue with America's youth. Specifically, he advocates the legalization of marijuana and the decriminalization of other drugs. While Gary himself abstains from all drugs, including nicotine and alcohol, he recognizes that the billions of dollars wasted on a big-government anti-drug policy have not been responsibly invested.”
Is there hope that we might be moving toward a realistic discussion of the failed prohibition policy known as The War on Drugs, first named by Richard Nixon and so far delivering only what I call “The Three Cs” : Corruption, Cartels, and Chaos on the Border? (Help me out here: I’m looking for a better third C. P is also an open letter, but I’d have to start over.)
Is it possible I could one day vote for a Republican for president?
In fact, Johnson is a GOP libertarian from the Ron Paul school of Ayn Rand, but if I had to be a conservative, I’d definitely want to take it to the extreme like they do. Ending drug prohibition, though, isn’t an extreme position at all (insert all the relevant arguments here), and I would be thrilled to see at least a few mainstream politicians begin to consider it under the rubric of reforming America’s drug laws.
Maybe this guy Johnson can help jump start the conversation. He’s one of the few guests who can keep up with Colbert’s machine gun interviewing style, so he should be able to hold his own on a stage with a few merely mortal candidates for President.
http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-may-10-2010-gary-johnson.
Particularly interesting, though, was his interview with former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, a two-term Republican who says he’s not running for president in 2012, a clear indication he’s running for president in 2012. Here’s what his Website says about Johnson’s stand on drugs:
“More Effective Drug Policy
Gary has been a leader of the movement toward a new, more effective drug policy that is more in line with conservative principles of fiscal discipline, limited government, and personal responsibility. Gary advocates an end to the failed prohibition of the past seventy years, and an honest discussion about the drug issue with America's youth. Specifically, he advocates the legalization of marijuana and the decriminalization of other drugs. While Gary himself abstains from all drugs, including nicotine and alcohol, he recognizes that the billions of dollars wasted on a big-government anti-drug policy have not been responsibly invested.”
Is there hope that we might be moving toward a realistic discussion of the failed prohibition policy known as The War on Drugs, first named by Richard Nixon and so far delivering only what I call “The Three Cs” : Corruption, Cartels, and Chaos on the Border? (Help me out here: I’m looking for a better third C. P is also an open letter, but I’d have to start over.)
Is it possible I could one day vote for a Republican for president?
In fact, Johnson is a GOP libertarian from the Ron Paul school of Ayn Rand, but if I had to be a conservative, I’d definitely want to take it to the extreme like they do. Ending drug prohibition, though, isn’t an extreme position at all (insert all the relevant arguments here), and I would be thrilled to see at least a few mainstream politicians begin to consider it under the rubric of reforming America’s drug laws.
Maybe this guy Johnson can help jump start the conversation. He’s one of the few guests who can keep up with Colbert’s machine gun interviewing style, so he should be able to hold his own on a stage with a few merely mortal candidates for President.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
A post in search of a title. . . .
Here are a few loosely connected items floating around my cerebrum this morning: In the Washington Post, Philip Caputo reviews Sebastian Junger’s new book War, based on Junger’s extended experience embedded with an Airborn platoon in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008. Caputo gives War an excellent review, particularly for its insights into the psychology of men in combat.
I’ll probably pass. I don’t read a lot of war journalism or novels or see a lot of war movies because, What’s new to say about that? The last war novel I read was James Jones’ The Thin Red Line, recommended by Broschat as (I quote from memory), “far and away the best war novel I’ve ever read.” I heartily agree. Jones writes about the army’s bloody capture of Guadalcanal, and though it’s a novel, Jones was there himself as a combat soldier. What distinguishes The Thin Red Line is its riveting psychological portrayal of very different men in combat. There’s heroism in Jones’ novel, but mostly there’s fear, brutality, and pure dumb luck, good or bad.
I watched the film version of the book just a few days ago and found it to be sadly lacking, sadly. I doubt any film could capture the omniscient narrator’s insights into the minds of soldiers in combat, but this film seems to fall particularly short because it takes its name from such a powerful novel. It could have changed the title and few would have noticed any cinemagraphic plagiarism.
Loosely connected item number one: Junger also wrote The Perfect Storm, which I happened to be reading shortly after its release while teaching summer school for two months aboard the California Maritime Academy’s training ship The Golden Bear as we cruised the South Pacific and visited mostly undiscovered or uninhabited islands.
And yes, I got paid for it. Hate me if you must.
The Perfect Storm, published in 1997, is also a creative nonfiction book based on a massive storm that battered New England and cost lives on ships at sea. Chances are good you’ve seen the movie if you didn’t read the book.
Interestingly, the ship’s officers on the Golden Bear were unanimously scornful of The Perfect Storm. In their view, Junger didn’t know squat about ships or storms, and mess hall conversation in no small part consisted of ridiculing particular points of the book.
I wasn’t qualified to say, of course. My only ongoing criticism is that the phrase “the perfect storm” should have been retired from the language no later than about Y2K, as it is now used to describe everything from an oil rig explosion and massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the release of the iPad to a city council meeting gone bad.
As a career writing teacher and sometime writer myself, I admonished students to avoid clichés like the plague. Enough with the perfect storm.
So I have my doubts about Junger’s verisimilitude, or “truthiness,” as Colbert would call it, in his new book. Not to say it might not be a book worth reading. Maybe it is.
Better, I’ll bet, is Jon Krakauer’s Where Men Win Glory, the story of NFL star player Pat Tilman, who gave up his successful football career to join the army and become a Ranger after 9/11, only to be killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. (This is loosely connected item number two, as I recently finished the book.)
The military and the Bush administration not only did their best to cover up how he died, they tried with initial success to use his story to promote public opinion in support of the war, as things by now were going very badly in Iraq. Krakauer’s book brings back all the powerful emotions of disgust I had for the Bush administration and its most vocal spokespersons, (Henny Penny Rumsfeld engenders particular disdain once again.) And while I initially saw Tilman as just another jock-bully-blindly patriotic-and-overpaid-sports popstar, I quickly began to develop the highest regard for him. It's a book well worth reading.
Loosely connected item the third is that reviewer Philip Caputo (back to Junger here) has just published a well-reviewed novel about life on the border entitled Crossers. My brief time this winter along the California and Arizona borders with Mexico, combined with my continuing efforts to learn a bit of Spanish, have left me thinking a lot about border and immigration issues lately. With a nod to the Arizona legislature and governor for keeping the kettle boiling, time will tell whether the current situation in Arizona will ultimately help move the cause of immigration reform forward or whether it will only serve to make real reforms politically more difficult.
I vote the latter and doubt, for that matter, that we’ll see much in the way of reform in coming years. I believe even more strongly lately that legalizing marijuana is the only effective way to dramatically reduce drug smuggling and deal a serious blow to the cartels, but don’t hold your breath. Don’t even inhale.
I’ve ordered Crossers onto my Kindle.
And since I’m coupling loosely this morning, I watched the film Frida last night. It could have been better, but I thought it was quite good overall, if a little lacking in gritty, and I learned a lot about Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Who knew that they hosted Trotsky in Mexico, where he was murdered by Stalin’s hit men? A quick Web seach this morning tells me not to make too much of this as history, but still. . . .
Also, Selma Hayek naked. Both she and Alfred Molina as Rivera turn in fine performances.
The fight against terrorism, the border with Mexico, The Taliban, and the drug cartels: not so loosely coupled, maybe.
The movie I just happened to watch last night. Mexico is such a beautiful country and so rich in cultural history. It's sad to see it fall into such turmoil, and not just along the border. I'd love to visit to continue my language study, but there are few areas left that aren't on the State Department's caution list. Better, maybe, to go someplace safe, like Cuba, for example.
I’ll probably pass. I don’t read a lot of war journalism or novels or see a lot of war movies because, What’s new to say about that? The last war novel I read was James Jones’ The Thin Red Line, recommended by Broschat as (I quote from memory), “far and away the best war novel I’ve ever read.” I heartily agree. Jones writes about the army’s bloody capture of Guadalcanal, and though it’s a novel, Jones was there himself as a combat soldier. What distinguishes The Thin Red Line is its riveting psychological portrayal of very different men in combat. There’s heroism in Jones’ novel, but mostly there’s fear, brutality, and pure dumb luck, good or bad.
I watched the film version of the book just a few days ago and found it to be sadly lacking, sadly. I doubt any film could capture the omniscient narrator’s insights into the minds of soldiers in combat, but this film seems to fall particularly short because it takes its name from such a powerful novel. It could have changed the title and few would have noticed any cinemagraphic plagiarism.
Loosely connected item number one: Junger also wrote The Perfect Storm, which I happened to be reading shortly after its release while teaching summer school for two months aboard the California Maritime Academy’s training ship The Golden Bear as we cruised the South Pacific and visited mostly undiscovered or uninhabited islands.
And yes, I got paid for it. Hate me if you must.
The Perfect Storm, published in 1997, is also a creative nonfiction book based on a massive storm that battered New England and cost lives on ships at sea. Chances are good you’ve seen the movie if you didn’t read the book.
Interestingly, the ship’s officers on the Golden Bear were unanimously scornful of The Perfect Storm. In their view, Junger didn’t know squat about ships or storms, and mess hall conversation in no small part consisted of ridiculing particular points of the book.
I wasn’t qualified to say, of course. My only ongoing criticism is that the phrase “the perfect storm” should have been retired from the language no later than about Y2K, as it is now used to describe everything from an oil rig explosion and massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the release of the iPad to a city council meeting gone bad.
As a career writing teacher and sometime writer myself, I admonished students to avoid clichés like the plague. Enough with the perfect storm.
So I have my doubts about Junger’s verisimilitude, or “truthiness,” as Colbert would call it, in his new book. Not to say it might not be a book worth reading. Maybe it is.
Better, I’ll bet, is Jon Krakauer’s Where Men Win Glory, the story of NFL star player Pat Tilman, who gave up his successful football career to join the army and become a Ranger after 9/11, only to be killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. (This is loosely connected item number two, as I recently finished the book.)
The military and the Bush administration not only did their best to cover up how he died, they tried with initial success to use his story to promote public opinion in support of the war, as things by now were going very badly in Iraq. Krakauer’s book brings back all the powerful emotions of disgust I had for the Bush administration and its most vocal spokespersons, (Henny Penny Rumsfeld engenders particular disdain once again.) And while I initially saw Tilman as just another jock-bully-blindly patriotic-and-overpaid-sports popstar, I quickly began to develop the highest regard for him. It's a book well worth reading.
Loosely connected item the third is that reviewer Philip Caputo (back to Junger here) has just published a well-reviewed novel about life on the border entitled Crossers. My brief time this winter along the California and Arizona borders with Mexico, combined with my continuing efforts to learn a bit of Spanish, have left me thinking a lot about border and immigration issues lately. With a nod to the Arizona legislature and governor for keeping the kettle boiling, time will tell whether the current situation in Arizona will ultimately help move the cause of immigration reform forward or whether it will only serve to make real reforms politically more difficult.
I vote the latter and doubt, for that matter, that we’ll see much in the way of reform in coming years. I believe even more strongly lately that legalizing marijuana is the only effective way to dramatically reduce drug smuggling and deal a serious blow to the cartels, but don’t hold your breath. Don’t even inhale.
I’ve ordered Crossers onto my Kindle.
And since I’m coupling loosely this morning, I watched the film Frida last night. It could have been better, but I thought it was quite good overall, if a little lacking in gritty, and I learned a lot about Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Who knew that they hosted Trotsky in Mexico, where he was murdered by Stalin’s hit men? A quick Web seach this morning tells me not to make too much of this as history, but still. . . .
Also, Selma Hayek naked. Both she and Alfred Molina as Rivera turn in fine performances.
The fight against terrorism, the border with Mexico, The Taliban, and the drug cartels: not so loosely coupled, maybe.
The movie I just happened to watch last night. Mexico is such a beautiful country and so rich in cultural history. It's sad to see it fall into such turmoil, and not just along the border. I'd love to visit to continue my language study, but there are few areas left that aren't on the State Department's caution list. Better, maybe, to go someplace safe, like Cuba, for example.
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