Governence By Cash.

Well, the good news is that the Supreme Court is ending it's current session. The bad news is that it'll be starting another one in the not too distant future and the other bad news is that during this session, it has sold the election process of America to corporate interests, apparently on the assumption that corporations are people too. So, the work of an employee of one of the judges, many years ago, giving corporations that distinction, has firmly become law. What that means is that you and I have almost no say in what elected officials do, because we don't have the financial clout that corporation have and can bring to bear. What we do have that corporations don't have is a vote. Now, you'd think that would be enough to get heard. Well, I'm here to tell you it isn't enough. Try getting an audience with a Senator or Congressman. How come? Because elections are decided, not by the number of votes a politician gets, but by the amount of money he or she can rake in to buy votes and elections. So, since money buys elections, and corporations have money to spare, to the victor goes the spoils. Or to put it another way, corporations write the legislation and then tell our elected officials how to vote. And let me be clear, they will vote as they are told or risk not having enough money to get reelected. So, let me ask you. Do you think Congressmen and Senators will vote as they are told by their moneyed sponsors? Ya, I think so to.

Let's Not Run Scared.

Ya know what? I think I have to agree with Paul Krugman, the N.Y. Times editorialist. He a Nobel prize winner for economics, which means he knows a little bit about the subject. That's not to say he can't be wrong sometimes, but mostly he's been right. See, he claims that cutting spending and increasing interest rates to reduce debt will not bring us out of the Great Recession. The big problem, he says, is unemployment, not debt. Now, most fiscal conservatives say that cutting spending will create jobs. Krugman says just the opposite will happen. It will cause a Depression under current circumstances. Conservatives believe that restraint in spending and higher interest rates will spark confidence in the markets. Now if you were a store owner or a manufacturer and interest rates went up and sales went down, how much confidence would you have? Enough to hire more employees? It's one thing for you or me to decide to cut back on purchasing in order to save some money. But if all your, and my, friends, relatives and acquaintances cut back too, then who's going to buy the products that will put people back to work? In fact if everybody cuts back too much, then people who have jobs now, will begin to loose those jobs. If that happens, we'll be in a Depression. Now, nobody is suggesting that we all rush out and start a spending spree like drunken fools, but we should resume normal spending, cautiously. So, think about a new toaster oven or how about a new formal gown? What about next weeks groceries? How about just one thing you hadn't planned on? For me, it's the gown.

Pink Hearts?

Here's the latest thing. Did you know that soon, in fact for some you can already use your cell phone to get discounts at stores on purchases. Yep. All you have to do is swipe your phone instead of your credit card, or swipe both. No, I don't mean you should go out and steal a cell phone or credit card, although that is sort of like a discount too. You know how people think that "big brother" knows too much about you? Well now they know even more and will soon know pretty much anything they want to know. So if it's raining and you mention it to a friend in a phone conversation, when you walk into target, your phone might suggest that you buy a new umbrella. Or the next time you walk into the supermarket, the phone will tell you that salmon is on sale and that it's in isle 14. If you have a girlfriend on the side, it'll tell you---- OK, you get the idea. The point is that your trusty cell phone can do just about anything for you except carry your groceries from car to kitchen and they're probably working on that. Now here's the part that requires you to stop and think about it. Is this what you want? Are you happy giving up your privacy to the phone company? These stores sell your information to "certain select companies" Select, like anybody willing to pay the price for your information. If that doesn't bother you, maybe it should. Or maybe it's OK for you not to care. On the other hand maybe you don't want just anybody to know what color silk undershorts you like to wear. With the cute little pink hearts. But maybe you don't want folks to know that, Horace.

Don't Mess With My Pool.

Yesterday I pointed out that the judge who put a stay on Obama's six month moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in deep water sounded more like an oil company decision then a judges. Turns out the judge in the case owns a substantial amount of stock in oil companies drilling in the Gulf. Now, I'm sure he wasn't influenced by that fact, but then, subconsciously, he almost certainly would have been. Say what you will, things like that do influence human thinking. I know that with my millions invested in clean air and water, I'm influenced when somebody wants to dump foul smelling garbage in my swimming pool. Oh. Wait. I don't have a pool. Well if I did, I wouldn't like it. One of the arguments has been that if the six months moratorium holds, the oil companies will leave the Gulf and never return. Do you know how silly that sounds? Does anyone actually think that the oil companies, who have leases on proven oil fields in the Gulf, are going to permanently abandon them? It's like telling you that if you have a couple of pounds of gold, you can't cash it in for six months, so you throw it away and go to work digging for gold in another state. If you do, let me know where you threw it, because I'm willing to wait. Since the oil industry has no workable plan to correct a problem should one occur, they should be required to wait until they do have a plan that has a realistic chance of working. Of course, that could take forever. Maybe that's what the judge is really afraid of.

Wadda Ya Mean It Can't Happen Again.

I don't know. Did you read the judges reasons for cutting off the six months moratorium on drilling in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico? I'm sorry, but it sounded more like the oil companies decision then a judges. Now, I understand how many people are affected by this shutdown. Not just employees of the oil companies, but their suppliers and servicing vendors and ancillary companies. it's a lot of people out of work. On the other hand, the gulf oil spill is putting as lot of people out of work too, and another accident would pretty much seal the fate of that whole part of the country. The judge thinks that just because one accident happened doesn't mean another one will too. And he's right. But it doesn't mean one won't either. And given the history that has come to light about the oil industry and it's apparent lack of interest in doing anything to make sure these kinds of things can't happen, or that they can fix it if one does, I'd say the odds are on the side of another explosion. I mean, rhetoric alone doesn't stop accidents or make it easier to clean them up. If it were, I could drive down the interstate, blindfolded, by just saying that I've been down that road before so it's safe for me to take a nap. Do you suppose a judge would buy that excuse? Well how come he bought the oil companies excuses? Oh. You mean they have more money then me? So they can buy, uh, hire better lawyers then me? Well maybe so, but right is right, right?

Derivatives, Derivatives, Wherefore Art Thou.

Well, the McChrystal controversy is over and by all counts the President made the right choices. So now it's the Congress's turn. They'll be holding public hearings on regulations for the Derivatives market. As you'll remember, derivatives are the secret deals done behind closed doors that caused the financial industry to nearly go belly up. It was deals like bundling toxic mortgages and then telling buyers it was a good safe investment. Ya know what? If I did that, or even if you did that, we'd go to jail. So the government wants to put regulations on it. Now the word "regulation" is a word that sends the financial industry into orbit. It's like sending a cobra into a pen with half a dozen mongooses. The mongooses are immediately going to try to kill that thing. Well, Wall Street and the Banks all want to kill any talk about regulating them. They're like a wide open cowboy town and they don't want no sheriff a-comin into their town and spoiling all the fun. They've been working on it the way they do best, secretly. Now, with public hearings, you may well see them fighting it more publicly, the way they do best. By paying, oh no, I mean giving profusely, to the campaign funds of Congressmen and Senators. and then lobbying those Congressmen and Senators. Now for you folks that don't know what lobbying means, it means strong arming. Which means threatening to withdraw financial support and giving it to whoever runs against the Congressmen and Senators, and getting their other Congressmen and Senators to turn their backs on them if they don't comply with the wishes of Wall Street and the Bankers. I'm all for letting your Congressman and Senators know how you feel about something, but let's face it, giving millions of $$$ isn't quite the same, now is it? But the Supreme Court in all it's wisdom decided that giving money in almost any amount is, now get this, FREE SPEECH. Give me a break.

The Buck Stops Someplace For A Reason.

If you ask me, and you didn't, but this is my turn. People don't find fault with the boss, in public, unless you don't care about your job. How many of you would go public with your dislike of the boss and his board and expect to keep your job? So, what should Obama do with McChrystal? I recall another difficult decision from the past. Pres. Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglass MacArthur, the WW11 hero and commander of the Pacific Theatre who was wildly popular. But the President is in charge and if you don't like it, get out of the way. So, what should Obama do with McChrystal? I though I just asked that. They can sit down, Obama and McChrystal, but short of a very humble apology by McChrystal and a brave acceptance by Obama, the general will have to go. Probably to run for office in the opposition party. It's not that the general is doing a bad job. I'm not sure if he's doing a good or bad job, it's that the team needs to be playing together. If the tight end is badmouthing the quarterback, somebody has to go. In fact, didn't that happen not too long ago? If the team wants any hope of winning, they need to pocket their mouths and play like a team. That's a message for the president, Mr. President, presidents lead. If you don't do that, you will be benched in the second half. In the movie "The Replacements" the coach, played by Gene Hackman, had a line that was great. He said "winners always want the ball". Well, Mr President, do you want the ball? If you do, then lead boldly. Harry Truman made the line "the buck stops here" popular. So, Mr. President, if you want to lead, except responsibility and lead boldly.

Pop Goes The Oil Well.

Well boys and girls, the world will soon be safe from nasty old oil companies and broken oil wells. Yes boys and girls, a nice man by the name of Mr Brownfield will fix it all. In Mr. Brownfield's neighborhood, we don't stop oil leaks, we blow them up. That's right kids. To solve the problem in the Gulf of Mexico caused by an exploded oil platform and a broken oil pipe that is gushing oil under extreme pressure that for millions of years has been held deep under ground by a mile or two of impermeable rock. Now children, impermeable means nothing can get through it. His plan is to explode this impermeable rock, pulverizing it to block the well. And children, pulverizing means to break it up into dust. Of course the rock would no longer be impermeable, which means that stuff can then get through it, but that's just a small matter. It only means that the oil can then get through it and since it's under tremendous pressure, you can bet it will, except like I said a few weeks ago, it'll get through in a much larger area. So, you see, there's nothing to worry about, so quit crying and keep digging your bomb shelter. There's plenty of time because for this to work, they have to drill another new well alongside the one that's leaking. No, not the ones they're already drilling, another one. So they have a place to put the explosives. And besides, Mr Brownfield knows what he's talking about because he was a nuclear submariner. Which means he was involved with the operation of nuclear submarines and he studied how torpedoes worked. So now, don't you feel silly worrying about this plan?

Don't Shed A Tear For BP Just Yet.

Be prepared folks. You're about to meet that pig with the lipstick. No, I'm not talking about any politician. BP and the oil industry is pulling all the plugs out. They're firing up the face powder, eye shadow and yes, even the lipstick. They're hiring PR people and lobbyists, the best that money can buy. How Come, you ask? They're afraid that congress is going to start to get tough with them and maybe even pass some legislation the oil companies see as being unfavorable. Now, don't get too worried, nobody is going to get too hard on the oil companies. After all, they're the darlings of more than one elected official. That's right. There are a fair number of politicians who owe their jobs to the oil companies. If these folks like that Rep. Barton from Texas get their way, no harm will come to the oil companies. You know, the guy who apologized to BP's president for the way Obama shook him down for $20 billion to help the folks along the Gulf Coast. I don't know about you, but I think they must feel a little guilty if they allowed themselves to be talked out of $20 billion to cover their own screw up. I mean, it wasn't the government that was and is in deep water. Well, maybe it is, but that doesn't mean that BP isn't too. Well, anyway, BP and all the other oilslicks are hiring all the best greaseballs to sell the public on the idea that they're the good guys and the folks in Washington and on the Gulf Coast are the bad guys. Before they're done, people from all over the country will be sending in contributions to the "Save The Oil Slicks" superfund. Little children will be selling lemonade on the street corners to help the poor downtrodden Oil corporations. Kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? Don't worry, it's just the lemon juice in your eye.

Oh Come On. I took A Day Off Too.

Ya know? Gimme a break. Tony Haword goes to a yacht race. I mean how dare this guy go to a yacht race on his day off? How dare he get a day off? Who do he think he are, anyway? Doesn't he know that nobody in the whole world should take a day off as long as there's a disaster anywhere in the world. Don't get me wrong, I really feel bad for the folks in the Gulf Coast states. They've been hit hard twice now, and recovery is a 24/7 job. But, having said that, I suspect they took days off right after 9-11. in fact folks in New York City took days off right after 9-11. Life must go on. And in this day and age, communications can allow people to be in constant touch, even on a yacht. So, enough said about Tony's sailing fling. And don't get me wrong about BP. First, they should never have allowed Haworth to become a public whipping boy unless that was the plan all along. Feed Tony to the wolves so the company can get off the hook a bit. If that was the plan, it worked, somewhat. He became wolf food, but it didn't get BP off the hook. Nor should it have. And what's this about not liking the twenty billion Obama got BP to put up for damage control to people's lives? Would it have been better to leave it all up to BP's generosity alone? I hear complaints if he does little and when he does something constructive. It must be that his opponents fear he might get a little atta boy out of this. Well, if he deserves a little atta boy, then give it to him. If he deserves a spanking, you know he's going to get that too.

Boy, If I Had A Fifty, I'd Vote.

Joe Barton is just a good old fashioned American kind of guy with ideas that alter and illuminate our times ( had to bring up the old Walter Cronkite phrase). He's from Texas, which may illuminate things and he likes oil companies. In fact he loves oil companies, which may alter things. Joe is a congressman from Texas and the ranking Republican on the committee questioning BP about the oil spill. By now, I'm sure you know who he is. Now, you may think he's pretty dumb to stand up for the oil giant at this point. I mean even the Republican leadership, who loves to find fault with Obama, is more or less defending him on this. But maybe Barton is dumb like a fox. After all, Obama isn't going to donate to his reelection campaign. But my guess is that he'll be well funded for as long as he wants to run for any office in the land, regardless. I wonder how BP will approach it? "Mr Barton, would you like that in five hundred or one thousand dollar bills. We'll deliver the trailer wherever you want"? Boy, is he in trouble now. He used to only be able to deliver five dollar bills per voter, but now he'll be able to give away fifties. Actually, it might not make any difference. Remember, he's from Texas. You know, the place where the state school board doesn't like American History. It prefers Confederate States of American history. And by golly, the rest of the country is stuck with it. Texans like to be out in front. It doesn't matter what. Just so they're out in front.

My Plan's Better then Your Plan.

Ya know what bothers me most about the oil disaster in the Gulf? All the oil companies have plans in place to cover emergencies like this oil spill in deep water exploration and drilling. Unfortunately, they all photocopied one single plan from six or ten years ago. Why would I say that? Well they all list an emergency contact of a man that died five years ago. Now that doesn't mean the plan is no good. It just means that it's outdated. What's wrong with that? If it's that old then it hasn't kept pace with the technology used, which means that changes in the ways they do things aren't addressed in the emergency plan. So what? Well, what if you make a plan in your family in case of a fire everyone gets out by a bedroom window. You did a good thing in making a plan. But if the neighbor builds a building two inches from your house on the bedroom side and you don't update your plan, you're screwed. In the case of the Gulf oil spill, we're all screwed. When corporations make world record profits for years on end, it stands to reason that it might behoove them to update some emergency plans. And if they all want to have the same plan, then don't pretend they're all different. Spend the money to do a good plan, review it regularly and spend the money necessary to have the equipment that would be needed. They can each buy some equipment with the idea of sharing when necessary. Seems simple enough.

Well, I hear President Obama wants to change our energy policy and is using the oil spill crises in the Gulf to emphasize it. Huh, what's the big rush? I mean, do we really need to change the way we're doing things just because one oil company has screwed up? In fact, is it really the oil Company's fault? After all, they're only trying to do what they're in business to do. Make money. Nobody ever said they were in business to stop leaking pipes. Did you ever hear of a company that said, let's start a multi-billion dollar corporation to cause major disasters with exploding oil wells so we can be profitable? No! Third world dictators and terrorists do that, but not oil companies. So what's the big deal with energy all of a sudden. Why, you'd think they'd been harping on energy policy for years or even decades or something. Just because of a little global warming and some slight problems in the middle-east is no reason to start talking about changing the way we do things. So what if the rest of the world is gearing up for big changes to alternative energy sources and the industries that are springing up to meet those needs. It's not our problem. Mr President, you need to stick to the important things, like eliminating taxes. After all, nobody wants us to be paying for abortions, so forget this energy thing and concentrate on what the government does best. So instead of wasting our time on energy policy, send a big project to my town so I can get off unemployment. Then you can eliminate unemployment. But not until I get hired.

Who's Working On This, Anyway?

Oh my goodness. How long is it going to take to clean up the mess from the Gulf oil spill? Hey, they haven't even stopped the spill yet. And by many estimates it'll be the end of summer before that happens, if then. But that's not the half of it. Just from one beach in Fourchon Beach, La. they've collected and carted off to landfills, 250 tons of oily trash, 175,000 gallons of liquid waste and 11,276 cubic yards of solid waste, all oily remains from this spill. One beach. Yessiree folks a landfill near you. Now, I don't want to be a killjoy, but what happens to this stuff in these landfills? How do we know this stuff won't leech into the water table. You know, the place where people get their drinking water. Can't this stuff be burned? What if it was used to generate electricity? I mean, is it spoiled because it came in contact with seawater? Or sand? I suppose it would be costly to refine it enough to burn. Like it isn't costly to just dump it into landfills and sit and wait for it to pollute the drinking water and then spend billions more to get it out. There are lots of people in government just sitting around collecting paychecks. Why aren't these people assigned the task of figuring out what to do with problems like this? I mean, we've got these people from nine to five, or ten to four, or whatever, why not let them earn their keep, so to speak. Maybe it isn't in their job description. Maybe it should be in their job description. You know. Earn your keep. Somehow, someway. Figure out how to solve a problem. Any problem. How about the oil spill thing. How about thinking about that, instead of what you're going to do on the weekend.

So, How Much Are You Willing To Pay.

Boy oh boy. There is a great article in the Washington Post this morning titled "Think gas is to pricey" it was asked of some Congressmen and Senators. But it's not about the price at the pump. It's about the true cost of oil. what's True Cost mean? Well aside from the Gulf oil spill and other tragic occurrences around the world from time to time, it means the cost of everything that costs the taxpayer as a result of our dependency on oil. Which means that based on a current price of $2.72 per gallon, the true price is $4.37. So where does this $1.67 come from? All sorts of places. Like our cost to help prop up friendly, oil producing monarchies and semi-democratic countries, to cleanup costs (of other spills), to lost jobs and industries, to subsidies for oil companies, to pollution, to a host of areas we wouldn't even think of. The thing is, the cost of oil is cheap, but only cheap in relation to any other available energy source capable of providing fuel for transportation, or the lack of an alternative, which is more to the point. So when people complain about spending money to subsidize alternative energy research or production, everyone shouts out against spending the money. What they should be hollering about is why the government isn't looking harder for a less expensive alternative to gas(oil). And if you think oil is a problem, the actual true cost of coal is by far a more serious problem. So, what's the answer? Well, we could continue to do what we've been doing, which is basically NOT MUCH. That will allow you and me to get off relatively cheaply, or we can bite the bullet a little and start to make some changes. They'll be a little more expensive, but it'll make things a lot easier for our children and grandchildren. On the other hand, cheap gas is nice too. And what if after spending all that money on research, they can't find a better energy source? We'd have lost all that money, right? And maybe oil isn't as bad as we think, right? See, you can rationalize anything.






























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Nuke It?

Let's talk some more about this idea that has come up about using a nuclear bomb of the bunker buster type, to solve this oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Because the more I hear about it the more I wonder if whoever suggested it is a closet terrorist or a little short of a full deck. Like maybe twenty cards or so short. So, if we drop this bomb, it hits the water at full speed. But water has a tendency to slow things down. Not as much as rock, but slower. A mile of water would have a tendency to slow the bomb down some. That's not even considering that water is more dense deeper down. Then it hits the bottom and goes through silt . Ever get stuck a little in the mud in a lake? It kind of holds on to you, doesn't it? Well think about a couple of hunderd feet of muck. At some point the bomb hits rock. How do I know it hits rock? Well something has to be keeping the oil down there. Remember this oil is under tremendous pressure. If it was just mud and sand on top, it would have seeped out thousands or millions of years ago. Now, anywhere from there on, if the bomb explodes, we're in deep doodoo. See, right now the oil and gas is leaking out of a pipe that's, how big? Not more that 20 or 30 inches, right? Well if all that rock gets pulverized, and an atom bomb would surely pulverize it, then the oil would be leaking out of a hole about a mile in diameter. So instead of this leak continuing for years, it'll all be out in one day. Of course, if the bomb goes all the way down to the oil itself, then when it explodes, it vaporizes all the oil. Do you know what happens to a liquid when it vaporizes? We won't have oil in the ocean any more. But it'll be raining oil from out of the sky for a couple of years or maybe decades. I hope that if they use the bomb, they have the guy who came up with the idea saddle it up and ride it all the way.

This'll Be Easy To Solve

This is great. The oil spill, no, gusher. The oil gusher, no, eruption. The oil eruption, no, wait, the oil? Geez, I don't remember what comes after eruption. Don't ya love the way they've handled the dissemination of information on this catastrophe? I mean at first there was an explosion (they couldn't hide that) and there was a small amount of oil leaking from a broken pipe. Sounds like a leaky water pipe in the basement, right? Then it was about 5000 gallons. The size of an home delivery tanker, then a thousand barrels, 5000 barrels, and on and on until the latest which is an amount of oil that leaked from the Exxon Valdez, totally, every 8 to 10 days. Notice how they've eased into this? It's like a plume of oil deep underwater, that didn't exist, until it did exist, which was small before it was medium before it was large before it was gigantic. At the rate they're going, the Gulf of Mexico will no longer have any water in it at all. It will be totally oil. Try surfing in that. Of course that would suit the oil industry pretty well. They could just suck it up directly without all that cumbersome drilling. And don't ya love the ideas for solving the problem? One Legislator suggested we use beer making ingredients to soak up the oil. Great, oily beer. Now who's supposed to drink that? Robots? And then there's the nuclear option. As Jon Stewart said on the Daily Show "what could go wrong with that?". Not much of course. Just quadruple the catastrophe we already have. No big deal. Mars is beginning to look more and more inviting. Beam me up, Scotty.

Fat Cats and You and Me.

This primary season, especially in California, but elsewhere too, it's beginning to prove out that unless you're a multimillionaire or have the strong backing of major corporations, you can forget about winning any election. Especially if you are up against someone who does have the deep pockets. So, what's wrong with that? Well, nothing if you don't mind corporations running the country. That's pretty much why there's a major oil leak disaster in the Gulf. The oil corporations pretty much ran the regulatory system when it came to offshore drilling, and I'm sure, on shore drilling as well. See, when a corporation runs the government, thing run smoothly. That is to say the government gets run right into the ground. By that I mean the corporations make sure the government they run, runs so that they get to do anything they want with little or no consideration of people or property or environment. If it gets in the way of profits, it must be bad, so cut it out. Now, don't get me wrong. I loves the corporations, I surely do. They do provide jobs, they surely do. But mostly they provide money in the pockets of the fat cats. In fact if it comes to a choice, the jobs go before the money for the fat cats. That's just the way it is. Remember, it's the fat cats who bankrole the operation. So, if they can't make any money on a project, they ain't gonna do it. And I don't blame them. The thing is, we need an independant government to stand between us and the fat cats to protect us. But when we turn the government over to the fat cats, where's the protection in that?

Tally Ho

Whatta ya think about Iran? We see an emerging monster bent on building the bomb so they can control the middle-east which would then become festooned with the bomb as other middle-eastern countries acquire the bomb. At least I think that's our position. So we placed sanctions on Iran who is now cozying up with other third world and emerging countries to sidestep the sanctions. So, who's right? The Iranian block or the western block, or the Russia/China block? Oh yes, lets not forget the Russians and Chinese. Their position seems to be let Iran alone, it's not bothering us. Funny thing though, that's what America thought about Osama Bin Laden a couple decades ago. Before he was against us, he was with us. That was back when Russia (think Soviet Union) was occupying Afghanistan. Sound familiar? So, if we were to make peace in the middle-east or get out anyway, in a decade or so, who will be the enemy du jour then? Maybe Russia or China? Of course, for us to pull out of the middle-east, which is what Bin Laden seems to want, we'd have to swear off oil, which brings us to the Gulf of Mexico and our lack of interest in alternative energy sources. I'm getting dizzy from all this circular movement. Back to the middle-east subject. Everybody is playing a board game. Some are playing checkers, some chess, some monopoly and so on. No two are playing the same game. What if you and I sat down across the table from each other and I tried to convince you to buy the car I don't own, while you were trying to convince me we need to build a fire in the fireplace which we don't have? How can we possible agree on anything? We don't understand each other. So, what's the answer? Some say yes and some say no. I agree.

Don't Be All You Can Be

Well, it's been nearly fifty days since the BP Deep Water Horizon drilling platform exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico and estimates of the amount of crude oil gushing out of the broken well, still range from a cup or two to a gazillion gallons. It's hard to imagine that a cup or two could cause such a large oil slick, now about the size of South Carolina, so I think it's fair to say that the estimate is more on the high side then the low side. One thing you haven't heard anyone say is that it's rare for such an accident to befall such a well known and respected corporation as BP that has such a stellar record of safety. The reason you don't hear that, is that they have a deplorable record. In fact, they have the worst record on safety in the industry. Now of course, somebody has to have the worst record, just like somebody has to have the best record. If you keep score, then it follows there will be the best and the worst. But there's a reason for companies to have best records. They have to work at it. To have the worst record, you don't have to work at it. In fact that's mainly how you get the worst record. By not working at it. In fact if you want to be the worst, you have to do your best to avoid getting any better. Now, I know, you think that's silly. Nobody would intentionally want to be the worst. And BP is no different. It's not that they want to be the worst, it's that they want to make the biggest profits. Now, if profits are uppermost in your planning and if you can save on production costs by ignoring safety, then you go for it. If that means you wind up paying some fines, well, that's OK if it means you make more profits. Fines are a legitimate cost of doing business if you're a bottom feeder. But. If you have a catastrophe on your hands, like this Gulf thing, then you might wish you could get your life back. I wonder if BP wonders how this could happen to them? Why me? You don't suppose that safety was a non-issue on the Deep Water Horizon, do you?

Heads I Win, Tails You Lose.

Well, the South Koreans have spoken. In national elections, they decided that confrontation with North Korea wasn't such a good idea. Too many South Koreans are comfortable with the wealth they are accumulating to jeopardize it by rattling any sabers at North Korea where, admittedly, the leader is a little wannabe littler Hitler. Kim Jung IL may be small of stature, but he is small of mind to go along with it. It seems he's got only one thing on his mind. To make up for his size, he's got a massive military that he'd like to use. He's jealous of the South and he wants to punish them for his jealousy. How dast the south be better off then the north? How dast they get upset if he wants to sink a ship or two of theirs? It's his right. Right? Ya know, it's easy to make fun of a guy like that. It's easier yet to overlook him and think you're better and smarter and richer then he is, but there is one small problem with that. Give him an inch and he'll take a mile, my mom used to say. She wasn't always right, but she was pretty often right. So, did the South Koreans make a mistake in choosing to let it go, or should they have gone after sanctions? I mean, hey, if you let a guy like this push you around and sink your rubber ducky, what's he going to sink next? Other than his own economy. Which he already did a long time ago.

The Day Of Days

Today, June 4, 2010, is National Donut Day. That's right. Today we celebrate that food group with the hole in the middle. Tomorrow we celebrate National Cholesterol Day, but that's another story. I know this much, if I eat enough donuts today, my cholesterol will be way up tomorrow. How important is it that we celebrate things like this? I mean, how badly does a donut need it's own day? Is it to make sure we never forget about donuts and the contribution they have made to our nation and our national consciousness? I don't need to have a day named after the donut to do that. All I have to do is look at myself in the mirror and I can see the results of donuts and ice cream and cookies and all sorts of other good food groups. Should we be reminding ourselves about something that is just as well forgotten? I suppose there's a day set aside for stubbing your toe, too. National Blindfolded Driver Day may sound like a day we should support as a way to cut down on traffic, but it would surely overload the hospitals. How about just having a National Back-Seat Drivers day? All that causes is stress, which isn't all that bad when you compare it with a 500,000 car pileup on the interstates from the blindfold thing. But how about National Grease & Sugar Day? You know, just cut to the marrow, so to speak. What I really like about naming days after all sorts of things, is that it gives Congress and our legislators something meaningful to do with their time. It also makes for a more collegial association. It's something they can also all agree on, too. I mean, did you ever hear about a "floor fight" over naming a day after the turnips? Or how about an all out filibuster over the naming of the National nightcrawler Day? Me either. I like it when my Congressman and Senators get along with all the other Congressmen and Senators. Makes me feel like my favorite corporation's money is being well spent. After all, it's not like there's anything pressing that they should be doing. So, a little bipartisan name calling, oops, I mean day naming, to go along with the usual gridlock in Congress is a good thing.

All The News You Need To Know.

What does the Tipper and Al Gore breakup mean? Suddenly everyone is asking the question. Well, what do you think it means? I'll tell you what I think it means. I think it means that two people who've been married for a lot of years suddenly find out they no longer are comfortable being married. You can try to make it into something bigger if you want, but that's what it means. Why is it that people, especially if it's the media and if it's someone in the news, want to make something out of such a breakup? In order to sell copy. Look at it this way. If you picked up the paper or turned on the news on TV and all it said was "sorry, but nothing of importance happened, so have a nice day", how interested would you be in reading that paper again or turning on that TV station again? Especially if the other paper or network was shouting AL and TIPPER SPLIT! World To Come To An End. You know as well as I do that you'd watch or read the sensational. Well, they know that too. Therefore, somehow, the world has to be coming to an end every day. So, when you see earth-shaking news all the time and I do mean all the time, usually it's not as bad as they make it out to be. Unfortunately, interspersed with the hyped up non-news, there is really important and sometimes very bad news. So, how do you tell when it's important or not? You don't. I'll tell you. After all, who better to listen to? Certainly not those 24/7 news anchors, and not those quasi-news radio and TV talk show hosts. They're making it up as they go. But me, I comment. Now, aren't you proud to know me? Well, why not?

So, Who's Next?

Ya know what I've just come to realize? Something that you couldn't have convinced me of a month or so ago. President Obama is a one term president. Now, that might make you happy or sad, but whichever, it's a forgone conclusion. The reasons for this turn of events include a couple of the most dramatic changes in our lifetimes. The thing is, it didn't happen until only about a week ago. And I missed it until now. Well, actually, like lots of folks, I sort of saw it coming but thought he could work his way through it. Turns out it wouldn't matter who was president, they wouldn't be able to hang on and get reelected. Not even the Gipper. First off the oil spill is a political killer. Now, if it had been plugged a few weeks ago, then it might have been a different story. Then Obama might have gone on to be reelected. A couple of other things that were hurting him that he would surely have overcome are the "bailouts" and "healthcare reform". See, the thing is, by November 2012, both the bailouts and healthcare reform would have proven to be the right things to do. And they may still prove to be good except for the ruin that will be caused by this oil spill. The entire Gulf Coast will be staggering from the problems caused by this spill. Both economically and ecologically. It will surely be affecting the East Coast as well, by then. Once Obama looses that support along with the folks who wrongly blame him for bailouts and healthcare and rightly, perhaps, blame him for inaction on the environment and energy and our inability to affect change in Iran and now Israel, he's done. He'll be seen as a costly mistake. Actually, it isn't his fault on most of this stuff, but that never stopped anyone from voting someone out. Once again, Israel has proven to be unable to control it's military and political might long enough to make peace. Iran will always be a thorn in the side of the world and the oil companies are just naturally more interested in spending their money on finding oil and gas then they will ever be on preparing for serious problems. It may be only one problem out of twenty or thirty thousand wells, but this one mistake will prove to be a greater problem then all of the good from all of the other wells. So, Mr President, what's on your agenda for 2013? And even more importantly, will we have another boob in the Whitehouse or just another mistake?