Motley Moose – Archive

Hi Keith,

I hear you and Fogiv got in a tussle.  In the diary in question I commented at great enough length to feel the desire to expand my comments a bit further.  I’ve copied my first ramble below and I’ll add a little more here as well.

If the two of you were other people I’d tell you to take it outside, but the tiny tempest is illustrative of points worth pondering, as they apply not just to you two but to all of us.  Because you are a public voice of some stature and because Fogiv is a bright and engaged citizen you both represent groups that are fundamental to our ability to function as a culture.  The faults I would like to point out are less about you than they are about us, so please take my commentary with that intent.

BP is now collecting

In a comment to this Reuters article, user “Alkan” – a 70-something former oil and gas engineer – provides a

thoughtful comment on the application of common sense to the problem, and a specific solution.  Is it the right one?  Sounds intelligent and practical to me, and certainly more common sense could be applied across the board to this disaster.

I repeat the comment in full below the fold. What thoughts do you have?

It’s not anybody’s fault!  These things just happen!  Government certainly shouldn’t dictate what companies do, anyway, the market will determine whether or not oil spills are important.

The Great Rand Paul, liberator.

Jack the silence barrier, bring the noise.

Well (no pun intended), BP managed to shove something up their greasy hole today (pun very specifically intended).  This is something many have suggested that they should do since the burning and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon on April 20.  The leak has not stopped, but at the moment some oil is being collected by a ship located above the site of the wreckage.  There is no word that this effort will contain all of the leak until new wells are drilled this summer, but something is better than nothing.

The official line is that the leak had been running at 5,000 barrels (200,000 gallons) per day, though estimates by outside sources put it at up to 70,000 barrels (2,800,000 gallons) per day.  To date, therefore, the accident has released between 5,200,000 gallons (half of the Exxon Valdez spill) to 72,800,000 million gallons (seven times the Exxon Valdez) into the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, the Tin Man’s Hat didn’t work, so BP is onto – as Rick Sanchez puts it – somewhere between Plan B and Plan G.

Politics has gone dormant – as attested by the slow pace of political blogs these days – and as one of those paying less attention I find myself unsubscribing from many of the political mailing lists I had been on for the past year or two (I particularly don’t care what Michael Steele and the Party Formerly Known as Republicans have to say).

What about you all?  Life more interesting than politics?  Got any good surfing stories to tell?

Consider this a particularly slippery open thread.

DHS agents tonight grabbed a doorknob on an airplane and took it with them when they left.  The doorknob is currently being questioned, and is expected to spend the rest of its living days in a small concrete cell next to Eunch the Crotch Bomber.

Play was halted while grounds crew mopped stupidity off the playing field.  When play resumed the visiting team was penalized fifteen yards for delay of game when the pitcher put his cup on backwards and caused an acutely strained hernia while rowing the first wicket, and the coach was carried out after breaking his tibia opening a Fresca.

If those jokers don’t start sending in their A team we’re going to have to start shortening the cheerleaders’ skirts to keep the fans in their seats.

It’s all a conspiracy, folks.  Simple as that.  Bunch of environmental whackos snuck aboard an occupied oilrig at sea in their wheatgrass-powered magic submarines, planted bombs strategically located to cripple this million-ton floating city and sink it in just the right way to ruin the emergency shut-off mechanism (which is a 450 ton block 40 feet high) located 5,000 feet below on the sea floor.

It is believed that Hollywood actors and notorious do-gooders Brad Pitt and George Clooney participated in the raid, killing all 11 missing men with their bare hands during the operation.

Thank you, Rush, for straightening that out for us.

It depends what it is, of course.  

If it is Sanchez, you are a legal Resident Alien in Arizona and you get swept up in an event involving the police you had better have Your Papers with you.  

If it is Blask, not so much.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has declared April, 2010 as “Confederate History Month”.  I am certain that Malia and Sasha Obama will be warmly welcomed to the ceremonies by the Governor himself.

WHEREAS,  it is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our Commonwealth’s  shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present;

On the Governor’s website we also see a proclamation of February, 2010 as “Black History Month”.  Personally, I am looking forward to the “Black Confederate History Month” proclamation, including the “Commemorative Wearing of Chains Day” and the “Flog a Disrespectful Slave” events where people of all backgrounds can take a turn acting out the daily rituals of their forefathers.  I hear the funnel cakes are going to be made with extra powdered sugar.

I understand the desire to come to terms with the past, but I don’t think this proclamation has anything to do with the past.  It seems to me that it is entirely about the political future of one Virginian Governor.

The photograph was taken on Smith’s Plantation, Beaufort, South Carolina, not far from where Michelle Obama’s great-great-grandfather Jim Robinson lived as a slave.

Consider this an Openly Secessionist Thread.

(h/t to Patrick Moore for bringing this one to my attention)

One of my Liberal friends on Facebook posted a link to the Liberal Party website, where a speech by John F. Kennedy was reproduced.  I reproduce that speech in full below the fold.

The speech in question was his acceptance of the nomination of the Liberal Party for his election run in 1960.  It reads to me like one of the better descriptions of what being a “Liberal” should mean.  The dodging of today’s Left to avoid being hung with the “Liberal” nametag is in my opinion a losing game: your opponents don’t believe you (heck, they’re calling you all Socialists anyway) and your supporters see it as cowardice.

So, while I prefer my position in the political center, I recommend those on the Left read Mr. Kennedy’s words and stand up for your Liberal views without apology.

Consider this a liberally open thread.