Missing The Point
Mustang Bobby covers our Orange-American governor being stupid: Come On Down. Bobby is absolutely correct that tourists come for the beaches more than any other reason. If there is oil on beaches they are not going to come. Hell, the oil is hitting beaches on the western end of the Panhandle and people are canceling vacations in South Florida, because geography is not an American strong suit.
Someone needs to hit Charlie up side the head and explain that if you keep the oil off the beaches, it can’t get to the wet lands. Charlie apparently doesn’t understand that the wetlands are behind the beaches. We don’t care how “easy” some people seem to think cleaning beaches is – WE DON’T WANT OUR BEACHES POLLUTED!!!
Juan Cole takes off his Mideast expert hat and responds to a common charge of corporate supporters: Big Oil’s Predations are not Your Fault.
I voted for Jimmy Carter, not Ronald Reagan. There were things I didn’t like about Jimmy, but he understood the root of the 1973 oil crisis, and knew the best way of dealing with it.
I have a bicycle and use it around town, mostly because it is faster than driving, but still… I fill the car with under 10 gallons of gas every two months. I would use public transportation, but we don’t have it. I have been using CFLs since they cost $10 apiece, and used small circular florescent bulbs in screw in adapters before CFLs. I have had a low-flow shower head and low-capacity toilet since the ones that actually work came out. When appliances break, I replace them with energy efficient models. I am not “saving the earth”, I am saving my money. Conservation is cheaper than wasting resources. The “return on investment” for “green” appliances in this area is quite short because of the utility rates.
The money that corporations are going to lose if we get serious about conservation and global climate change is our money that we aren’t going to be giving to them because what they want us to buy isn’t efficient. Corporations would rather spend billions to convince people that they need what the corporations are selling, rather than spending it on the resources to build what people want.
3 comments
They have obviously never read the reports of previous spills either! The much smaller Russian tanker spill off the Turkish coast took over 1,200 man days (about 4 man years) just to clean the beaches!
Most people, especially Politicians, are pig-ignorant morons.
Okay, so I just had to post a long response to this over on my own blog. Yes, it *is* Americans’ fault. Those bastards in Congress didn’t elect themselves to office, after all. Each and every one of them got more-or-less honestly electorated there. As long as Americans consistently vote for the most corrupt pol rather than the most honest guy, things are going to keep going the way they’re going. And furthermore, Reagan did not destroy the Federal Retirement System which kept federal bureaucrats honest (because they wanted to put in their 30 years of federal service for retirement thus could not be bribed with a private sector job if they ruled industry’s way) in a vacuum. He destroyed it with the full support of the American public, which didn’t want better retirement benefits for federal bureaucrats than they themselves got. Americans want honest government, but aren’t willing to pay for it — that’s the whole problem in a nutshell, and if you don’t pay for something, you don’t get it (doh!).
Don’t blame me, I voted for the hobbit in the California presidential primary…
– Badtux the “Facts are Facts” Penguin
The elections in Florida make your claim about people wrong, Badtux. By manipulation the redistricting the Republican Party in Florida have marginalized their opposition and given them control of the state and its Congressional delegation, despite having fewer registered voters.
Elections in many states have been distorted by redistricting and outright fraud, aided and abetted by the corporate media. When opponents of the current pols can’t get their message out, it is no different than most banana republics.
When everyone, including the Supreme Court, believes that money is more important than ideas in elections, people don’t get to make meaningful decisions.