Congrats to team USA this morning in a spectacular win against Algeria. For those who didn't see Landon Donovan's game-winning goal, I highly recommend that you YouTube it immediately. It was pretty epic.(Photo by Jeff Mitchell - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
This fantastic win, which should be news enough in itself for one day, is unfortunately overshadowed by the clusterfuck going on at home.
Here we are in day 64? 65? 60-way-too-many of the oil spill in the gulf, and what do you know, we have made no progress. In fact, this morning a robotic arm attempting to cap the flow hit a vent, which forced BP to remove the small cap that was capturing a portion of the oil. The MSNBC article has this is to say:
Before the problem with the containment cap, it had collected about 700,000 gallons of oil in the previous 24 hours. Another 438,000 gallons was burned.The current worst-case estimate of what's spewing into the Gulf is about 2.5 million gallons a day. Anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons have spilled since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater. BP PLC was leasing the rig from owner Transocean Ltd.Meanwhile, Louisiana has decided that the oil spill is now out of the control of mere mortals (yes, they actually said mortals in this legislation), so the state enacted a day of prayer to... wait for it... ask God for a miracle to stop the oil spill.
If you want to believe in God and pray for the Gulf, go for it, but for a group of our nations elected lawmakers to actually waste an entire day PRAYING that the oil spill will stop is dumbfounding. I'm speechless. It seems that just when I start to think our elected officials can get any more stupid, good ol' Louisiana steps up with this.
I think your God did enough by putting 2 1/2 miles of bedrock and water above the oil. But Louisiana, while you're praying for the oil to stop flowing, would you mind asking God if he'll/she'll/it'll let me win the lottery then have a date with a unicorn and the lochness monster? That'd be great. Thanks.
When are we as a nation going to stand up and say, enough is enough? I'm well aware that my rantings aren't going to deter anyone from there faith in God, and that isn't my aim, but faith and reverence for God has a time and a place if you wish to include those things in your life, and I'll argue to the death with anyone that time and place is not in our government for those making active decisions about our laws, legislation and national crises.
At least Futurama is coming back tomorrow on Comedy Central. Early indications seem that it's going to be everything that I want it to be.
FACT: Elected officials--nameless to protest guilty--refuse help from nations with the capability to capture and use the accumulating oil because they do not have to employ union workers from Longshoreman's Union and Maritime Union.
ReplyDeleteFact: Texas oilman has 14 ships capable of siphoning and retrieving oil sitting in port in Houston--offered use of them second day of spill. He was refused because his ships are under foreign registry--see above reason for both refusal and his registry.
Fact: Saudi Arabia had a nearly trillion gallon spill that never reached any shore and nearly all the oil was retrieved by --you will never guess--the ships from all over in aforementioned paragraphs.
Fact: Two government agencies have had oversight of the oil industry safety compliance since, well, oil came into common use. They failed to properly inspect and to enforce existing regulations such that there, literally, is/was no plan for such an event as this. The automatic shut off system did not function because of failed batteries their inspections should have caught and insisted upon being maintained at a working level...the devil really does live in the unattended details.
FACT: Efforts to keep the oil off the coastline were thwarted by eco-nuts and hand-wringing government agencies--three agencies with conflicting regulations-- who couldn't let go of no berms, no breakwaters, no dredging in the face of impending eco-disaster.
I don't have the time to post every source of this information--but truly, our government officials have obviously wasted enormous amounts of time and our money doing exactly nothing. I, for one, would gladly donate today's taxes to having them stop doing anything for a day..imagine the good that could be accomplished if they did indeed "waste" a day praying and let common sense operate unfettered for a while.
It is obvious that our government run education system is turning out few deep thinkers and nearly no deep-doers. Our whole way of life is threatened by non-thinking, non-functioning, hand-out seeking, unethical, self-serving pitiable citizens who buy into whatever nonsense they are fed. Yep, you are right..the U.S. is losing--big time!