Dalivus's Open Salon Blog

American Arrogance, BP, and the Death of an Eco System

Wed, 9 Jun 2010 08:06:41 -0400

I am sitting here, just after dawn, in Panama City Beach, Florida and I'm looking out over the Gulf of Mexico. I've been coming here all my life. My family owns a timeshare condiminium here. Every year, the second week of June, we're here... looking out over the same ocean... only it struck me this morning this will be the last time.

The last time I ever see it like this; seemingly unspoiled. Beautiful sea-green water, white sandy beaches. It's quiet this morning, almost like the world is holding it's breath. This is the first place I ever saw the ocean. That was thirty years ago, when I was just 6 years old. I remember being amazed by its vastness, stretching off beyond the world it seemed. Over the years a lot has happened to me here. I've met girls here, brought friends here. I first bungee jumped here. I caught fish off a boat here. Saw manta rays, dolphins in their native habitat, even a shark. I surfed here, boogie boarded. This beach, this place is a physical part of my memories.

In a few weeks that's all it will be: a memory. The Deepwater Horizon has spent 52 days pumping 100,000 gallons of oil a day into the Caribbean Sea. Oil is ashore not 50 miles from here on Pensacola Beach. BP (British Petroleum) has been unable to stop it. The best measure so far has resulted in the 'capture' of maybe 3o% of the oil... that's after admittedly releasing at least 20% more a day by cutting the riser. They say by August two relief wells will stop it. By August.

Louisana, already devastated by Hurricane Katrina a few years ago, is covered in oil. Not slippery oil; sticky, mud-like oil. The kind that kills nearly everything it touches. Sea birds, dolphins, turtles, and countless trillions of plankton and other miniscule sea life that the entire food chain is built on. The blue fin tuna breeds here. So does the marlin. So do Atlantic sea turtles and a good portion of other Atlantic sea life. Here. Only here. In the Gulf of Oil. The United States gets some 90% of its sea food here. Only Here.

Look at the Gulf Stream. The currents that run through the Gulf of Mexico. From where the Deepwater Horizon sits the Gulf Stream will catch the oil and carry it to every beach along the Gulf Shores. It will then drag it around Florida and up the eastern US seaboard as far north as Virginia. Afterward it will dump the toxic mixture of oil and fatal dispersants into the northern Atlantic Ocean. This is more than just a disaster; this is a catastrophe.

The oil will kill any sea life it comes in contact with. United States Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen has already confirmed that the large spill has broken up into "hundreds of thousands of other spills." Hundreds of thousands. Taken by the oceanic currents to... well look at the map. Africa? Portugal? England? To compound matters the dispersants that broke up one large spill into hundreds of thousands are fatal to sea life for, admittedly, decades.

This catastrophe has no one finger to point. In this country the Left points to the Right and their drilling desires, the Right points to Obama, and the people point to BP. Who's to blame? Does it matter? We all are. The entire United States relies on automobiles to move them, eschewing public transportation. Why? Largely because our government has been beholden to special interests and the Oil Industry since World War II but also because we, we Americans, crave such freedom as to be able to drive our SUVs wherever the fuck we want to. You other countries don't get off so easy either. Who here lives in a country that does not run on oil? Which one of you? Oh, ok Ghana. Ghana doesn't use a lot of oil but the rest of you...

At the core of this crisis is capitalism. WHOA!!! Ok, I just scared some of you, but it's true. Capitalist greed, that is to say Profit at the expense of the environment is a major cause behind this tragedy. BP knew the dangers of drilling a mile under the ocean's surface; where even naval submarines are crushed under the unfathomable pressure. They knew that if there was a leak then they had no clear plan to stop it. The science was not there. They did so anyway. They could have adhered to the strictist safety rules, which were on the books, but they chose to ignore that. Why? Because they were in a hurry. Countless billions in profit are apparently just not enough for British Petroleum. Too big a hurry to follow standard safety procedures... in fact BP, as a company, has led its industy in safety violations.

Which brings me to my next player: Which government was just about to award BP with an Excellence in Safety Award? Yup, that's right... OooooooBama!!! The greatest Do Nothing in the history of Do Nothings was faithfully lapping at the anus of his corporate masters just as the spill occurred! Amazing, huh? Hope and Change? I Hope BP can fix this because I cannot Change the status quo and force them to quit dumping poison into the motherfucking ocean to break up this oil. I Hope this doesn't Change the electorate's mind? I Hope this doesn't Change the Caribbean forever?

No, not forever Mr. Obama... Oil Slave. Just for the next 50 or 60 years.

Just long enough that this is the last time I'll ever see my beach like this.

You Fucker.

To Stephanie Zacharek re: Making Mandela Sexy

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:02:32 -0500

Since your letters thread was suspiciously closed after just 9 letters, allow me to respond here:

You said"

"The movie's first third is stiff and dull."

Stephanie, YOU are stiff and dull.

Well, it's all over now.

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:01:15 -0500

With the election of Full Monty and the impending doom of health care reform the future is bleak. At this point it's a near certainty that the Reich will gain control of the House and Senate in the mid term elections and Obama will continue to appease and grovel for the rest of his single term.

Seig Heil, the Reich endures.

At this point there really is no point in voting Democrat any longer. We, the people, lifted them into landslide elections all over the country to REVERSE what Cheney and Bush had done and what did they do? First out of the gate was taking Bush's impeachment off the table. Then Obama does his best rubber chicken impression and bows down to every reich-wing nutbag who decide to come along. He doles out unbelievable sums to corporate fatcats that knew full whell what they were doing and saved institutions that ought to have been allowed to fail, if for no other reason than to send a hard message to the other billionaires.

We have a single party in this country. Any vote to the contrary is just wasted.

If you need me I'll be in the corner awaiting the revolution that will never come.

Reviewing a conspiracy

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:01:15 -0500

I think I'm on to something: Salon is actively shielding their reviewer Stephanie Zacharek from criticism...

We all know how much SZ hates movies... all movies. Historically her letters thread are made up of a significant percentage of people who flame her for her absolute hatred of movies; myself included. For all the world I cannot understand how someone who consistently gives bad reviews to everything she's assigned to can still have a job. At the best she's part of an extremely small niche group of people whose taste in movies consists of 3 or 4 french films, otherwise she really just has no taste in movies at all.

Lately, however, Salon has started closing the letters threads for SZ after a day or two. Her latest review was closed at page 3; coincidentally the first page where someone pointed out how much she hates movies. So what gives? Is Salon censoring its readers, stifling their voices? Why? Wouldn't it be so much easier, and classier, to just hire a new reviewer who, every once in a while, enjoys a film?

And for you, Stephanie: Why do you do it? Why do you continue to work at a job that forces you to submit to things you hate? I can't imagine having to sit through a genre of films I despised, week after week, and then write about it. Every now and then is one thing, but over and over again... as a job? And you despise the vast majority of films, how disappointing your work must be! Do yourself a favor; do us ALL a favor.

Quit.

The worst movie reviewer of all time.

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:01:38 -0500

Looks like Salon is finally admitting that Stephanie Zacharek hates all movies. They lock her letters threads within a couple of days.

I dare someone to go back through them all and count up how many movies she hates. All genres, no bias towards actors or directors... she just hates movies. How does someone like that get to be a movie reviewer?

More importantly why would anyone employ her?