The Obama administration is in BP's pocket and is f***ing us over

Forgive the bad word, but sometimes a nice anglo-saxon expletive is what is needed.  OK, the word didn't show up until the 14th century in English, but it definitely descends from the old German, where it meant approximately the same thing.

Point 1:  BP payed off the Obama administration and other politicians "spending just shy of $20 million on federal lobbying over the last two years". Very clever.  

Point 2:  The Obama administration is stuffed full with former BP executives.  (We must assume they must jostle for room with the Goldman-Sachs boys.)

The regulatory agency for the deep-sea drilling vampires (don't believe the vampire hype, they're really in the hire of those with the deepest pockets; how else do they pay for the dry-cleaning bills on their lace shirts?) is MMS, the Land and Minerals Management agency.  Obama hired someone off an 8 year stint as an executive at BP (Sylvia Baco) as a deputy administrator.

What did this get BP?

Federal documents show that the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) gave BP a "categorical exclusion" on April 6, 2009 to commence drilling with Deepwater Horizon even though it had not produced the impact study required by a law known as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The report would have included probable ecological consequences in the event of a spill.

And so the story goes. We, and the pelicans, and the bayou, and the whole gulf of Mexico were sold out for a pittance.

Of course, the administration and BP have been lying to us for what, 6 weeks?  about the size of the spill.  First BP said 1000 barrels a day, then they upped it to 5000 barrels.  Now, that they're capturing their all that they can, upwards of 15,000 barrels, with lots more left, they (the Obama administration --Stephen Chu,  I trusted you, what was I thinking?-- are admitting, finally that just perhaps the spill was  an order of magnitude (50,000 barrels) or more, all the way up to 100,000 barrels a day.  Here's a nice non-hysterical chart of how  much oil has probably leaked into the gulf.  It's pretty scary,

BP should spend all of its resources cleaning  this up,  every last penny.  Seeinng as how they made $17 Billion (notice the B) last year, they should be able to do so,

Update--the NYT has an article on newest estimates of the flow rates prior to the riser being cut.   Lede? Estimates double, and this is before the riser cut which has been estimated to add another 20% to the flow. 

Your Money or Your Life------Robbery Notes

There are more where this came from.

They reminds me of a story from my sophomore year roommate. Her family owned a couple of McDonalds in tough neighborhoods of Detroit where the crime rate was pretty bad. One robber was not counting on the toughness of the staff who worked there. The robber waited in line, but when he was up to the counter, he pulled out a gun and demanded that the cashier give him all the money. Rather than cowering, the cashier leaned forward over the register, and said slowly,"I can't open the register unless I ring up an order!"

The robber was surprised by this deviation from his expected script, so he paused for several stunned moments. "....Uh.....uh.......OK, I'll have a cheeseburger!"

"Would you like something to go with that? Fries or a beverage?"

Another pause. "No"

"OK sir, that will be $1.35."

The man started to reach for his wallet before he caught himself, whereupon he waved his gun about menacingly, and demanded that she make with the cash.

I'd like to report that he was caught, but he got away, at least that time. I expect he was caught during a similar robbery later. These small time crooks always keep at it until they are caught....

Anne Frank on video

I just learned of this video. When I've been to Amsterdam, I've been unable to make myself go to the Anne Frank house; too sad. Anne Frank's story has driven a life-long interest in why some people behave with uncommon decency in difficult times, and why others in the same circumstances, who would otherwise be decent people, do not. But I have no answers. The glimpse of Anne in the video above is so bittersweet.

She was into S&M and Bible Studies*

"IQs of children ages 2 to 4 who were not spanked were 5 points higher four years later than the IQs of those who were spanked. The IQs of children ages 5 to 9 years old who were not spanked were 2.8 points higher four years later than the IQs of children the same age who were spanked.
'How often parents spanked made a difference. The more spanking the, the slower the development of the child's mental ability. But even small amounts of spanking made a difference,' Straus says."

Found here.

Why? The authors suggest that spanking may cause post-traumatic stress syndrome that makes learning more difficult.

Spanking leads to other problems, such as sexual dysfunction, general aggressiveness,

What's a parent to do?

Unlike spanking, however, verbal punishment alone didn't affect either children's aggression or their cognitive development. But interestingly, when verbal punishment was accompanied by emotional support from moms, the children did better on the tests of cognitive ability.

My mother stopped spanking when she came to the realization that "you can't teach a child not to hit by hitting them."

* Win a prize if you get the reference.

Question of the Day (Another Wedge Issue)

I came upon this urgent query in a comment thread.

# 10
September 6th, 2009 at 7:18 pm

Is there an emoticon for giving someone a wedgie?

Any suggestions for this burning issue? How about >3 ? It might not improve the tone of civil discourse but it would accurately reflect the innermost thought processes of so many commenters.

Breaking: US has less freedom than Socialist countries

I have heard the argument that providing a public option for health care will somehow reduce "our freedoms." I confess confusion. However, I've tried to wrap my head around what people might be talking about, and decided to figure out what might be meant by "freedom." This is what I've come up with. Part of American Exceptionalism is the Horatio Alger myth; that is, a poor boy, through the judicious use of his own bootstraps and a medium-to-heavy application of cliche, can become rich. This freedom is the freedom of self-creation. But it's not true. Almost half of an adult's wealth is dependent upon his parents' money. Half. In Denmark (socialist, scary), in contrast, only 15% is. What does this mean? There's way more social mobility in pretty much every other Western European country other than Great Britian, the one with the hereditary ruling class.

Here's the numbers from 2006, (found here.) 1 means the children's monetary worth is 100% dependent on their family's monetary worth; 0 means that how well the children do is completely independent of the family of origin. Denmark's .15 indicates that only 15% of a child's success is dependent upon the family of origin. In Denmark, people are self-made. Contrast that with the .47 in the US; a full half of a person's success has to do with the family they were born into. As an example, what, exactly, did Jenna Bush do to get that sweet, sweet gig on the Today show. Oh, wait, I think I know.

Denmark 0.15
Norway 0.17
Finland 0.18
Canada 0.19
Sweden 0.27
Germany 0.32
France 0.41
United States 0.47
United Kingdom 0.50

Things weren't always this bad in the US, as can be seen here. The '70's were more equitable than the 80's, which in turn were more equitable than the 90's. I'm guessing the '00's are even worse.

There's this myth afoot in the land that somehow if you're poor you're by definition undeserving, and shouldn't be helped. But there's actual evidence that what help does is lift people from poverty. This chart shows that people stay poor for shorter periods of time in Scandinavian countries where they're given help, and poor for longer times when they're not, like here. So, being mean just increases the misery of the poor, being nice lifts people out of poverty. Remind me again of what the problem is with peace, love, and understaning, please.

Happy Weekend All You City Slickers!

'Nuff said.

Hold Onto Your Hats!

Iowa Votes On Michael Jackson Butter Sculpture!




That's right. Because emotions are running high for the planning of the annual Iowa state fair, officials have decided to let Iowans vote on whether or not a butter version of Michael Jackson will join the previously planned sculptures for this years festivities. Naturally, one of the originally intended sculptures is the traditional iconic cow. The other sculpture planned is intended to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. According to Lori Chappell, the fair's marketing director,

The sculpture will include an astronaut, an American flag, the surface of the moon and, depending on the public vote, Michael Jackson in recognition of his "moonwalk" dance step.

This has been the biggest butter sculpture controversy since a decade ago, when again according to Chappell,

there was a minor flap over the role of religion in 1999 when former sculptor Duffy Lyon chose to carve "The Last Supper".

Most butter sculptures in the US tend to feature cows or scenes one could reasonably attribute to Norman Rockwell. But someone did sculpt Elvis, so the precedent exists.
Sculpting with butter is an old and widespread tradition. Tibetan monks have long created religious motifs out of yak butter.

Below, enjoy a small gallery of butter sculptures including Elvis, Tutankhamen (in Texas, no less!) and Buddha.




I wonder if there will be a chocolate Michael Jackson anywhere?

Sarah Palin Not The Most Delusional Woman In America

She's got some real competition at any rate.
Check out a few of the entries at a Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest in Cincinnati.


















(Do take into account that these pics were published in Pravda, the fine newsgathering institution that brought us this headline:

Russian fishermen catch squeaking alien and eat it

Feeling Like This?

Perhaps a little baby panda watching will perk you up. There are----count 'em---- eight of the little critters, and they are definitely more interesting to watch than Octo-Mom's unfortunate brood.

Bizarro post of the day: AT&T for the American Idol Kris Allen Win!

Read about it here.

In short, Adam Lambert (I might call him Screechy McScreech on a bad day), the flamboyant Queen-fronting Kiss-singing-off-the-stage (not that that's difficult) colouratura trilling American Idol superstar lost to Kris Allen, a sweet guy from Arkansas who couldn't hold a tune. How could this happen? Now we know.

According to the New York Times link above,

AT&T, one of the biggest corporate sponsors of “American Idol,” might have influenced the outcome of this year’s competition by providing phones for free text-messaging services and lessons in casting blocks of votes at parties organized by fans of Kris Allen, the Arkansas singer who was the winner of the show last week.

Why would they want Kris Allen to win? Thinking...Thinking....

Morality, Stupidity, Random People on Street Corners and Me.

I have had this curious feature, endlessly documented on this blog; my intelligence level has fluctuated for the last three-somewhat years. I'm trying to process this in a way that is at least slightly interesting.

Me, stupid--FUN FUN FUN. CONFIDENT CONFIDENT CONFIDENT, SMART SMART SMART (In my own head, subjectively. Objective results may differ). I have decided that there is an inverse proportion between how intelligent someone feels and how intelligent they are. This makes choosing US presidents and presidents of corporations somewhat problematic. Proof? Turn on the radio or media thingie of choice. Because, of course, confidence, which I have at least a bit of proof about, is inversely related to competence.

Me, stupid--not so sensitive; also great fun; me somewhat closer to my normal level of intelligence? On the way to the Dr's this morning, there was this girl, 20 something, with a sign at a street corner. Sign said "Victim of current Economic Downturn, anything would help. God Bless." I didn't have any change to give her. I'm haunted. If dumbbb, I wouldn't care. It's better to be stooopid.

Yet Another Hurdle For Over-Stressed Realtors

Happy Darwin Day!!!!

Today Darwin (or at least his bones in Westminister Abbey) turns 200. It is also the 150th anniversary of the publication "The Origin of Species," the book above all others (there might be a bit, but just a bit of hyperbole here) that changed my life.

I grew up Mormon. To save the feelings of family members that might, just might, read this blog, I will not mention the nightmare that this was for me as a child, but basically, I could not get the world to make any sense at all. Here I was, a child, faced with a world controlled by a nightmare of a supreme being (any surprise that I was afraid, among other things, of my closet?)--God has a tissy fit and drowns everyone but a single family? God hardens Pharoh's heart? Then why, if God caused it, is it Pharoh's fault? And what's with Job? That, combined with my father's rather more than dangerous line of work (he was a navigator in the air force, friends of mine regularly disappeared off of the air force bases we lived on when their fathers died) gave me a vision of a world that was a darker place than I could handle.

I was 10ish. And severly depressed; which my parents, due undoubtedly to the time and their own fanaticism, didn't recognize as an illness; rather, I was trouble. An honest assesment for a mormon family, which has a very narrow range of "trouble." In their own defense, I think I read much more fundamentalism into my childhood than actually existed. But, you see , I paid obsessive compulsive razor sharp attention at church ( a feat that has served me well in other aspects of my life, just not this one) and believed that my parents must believe all the wacky stuff I heard over the pulpit. I also didn't trust them enough to ever (ever! My mother died without a heart-to-heart with me) tell them my difficulties, due to the fear I had of being thrown out of the house if I dared express any sort of insufficiently rah-rah-nature to the totally alien world I was born into--I was a coward. I blame myself.

But, my parents had a copy of the "Great Books" in its own bookshelf in the house. This saved my sanity, or quite possibly my life. One of the volumes included both "The Origin of Species" and "The Descent of Man," by the man--Darwin-- himself. I read them. I devoured them.

It was odd, my uber religious family was so pleased that I'd pick up and actually absorb such awkward tomes. Perhaps they were more accepting of my plight than I understood at the time. I'd sleep with the two books and wake up with bruises.

Those two books changed my life. Evolution! The world was beautiful and finally made sense. Monsters there certainly were, but understandable non-omnipotent fickle ones without an odd taste for goat meat smoke and a hankering for smiting.

Thank you Darwin, thank you Mom and Dad.

With all my love to the living and those that have passed on;

Djinn

On being stupid.

I have a very curious disease. Officially, it's called either "inner ear concussion" or "Post-traumatic vertigo."

How does this affect me? The smarter I feel, the stupider I am.

I am much more likely to spuriously match patterns stupid than smart; that is, I see correlations where none exist. For example,I somehow figure that George is acting mean to me when he's just trying to get coffee and wake up.

I'm also, I belive, not as nice when stupid , but feel more justified in my meanness.

This this totally uncalled for, but my inadvertant experiment has proven to me that being intelligent is really stupid. That is all.

Pretty Wild

Our yard is subject to scavenging by many wild animals. Rabbits, moles, groundhogs and deer devour my plantings. Large clutches of wild turkeys perch on our deck railing. (This is exciting in a good way until you notice that they ALWAYS poop upon departure, and turkeys are big birds! You really don't want 14 turkeys pooping on your deck in one fell swoop.)

Even worse however are the animals that tamper with the garbage cans. Raccoons knock our cans over and unlatch the "tamper-proof" garbage lids. After they finish festooning our yard with edible tidbits, the skunks arrive. Evidently something keeps startling the blasted skunks, for we frequently detect their acrid essence. The crows have even gotten in on the act. One of them pecked a hole the size of an orange in one of the lids (plastic, obviously), and now they visit that can regularly and pull out tempting morsels.


But we don't have coconut crabs! (This is not photo-shopped.) These creatures live in places such as Guam, and can crack coconuts easily with their powerful claws. I sure would not care to run across one while taking out the trash. So I guess I'll quit complaining and count my blessings-----oh wait, there are fifteen friggin' turkeys!

Office Space, The Remake

When movie producers get around to a remake of Office Space, they should really consider including this cat. In this screen test he absolutely convinces us of his zeal in combating recalcitrant office equipment. He doesn't even need the baseball bat.

13 seconds of your life

A very short story of a cat and a box. And, we can imagine, the sound "Wheeeeee."

Marijuana, cancer, prohibition, and you.

About one out of eight people in prison is there solely for Marijuana offenses, costing the government 9 billion dollars a year. However, marijuana is not addictive--unlike alcohol and cigarettes--is not a gateway drug, and seems to be bizarrely good for you.

What do I mean by that? Compounds in Marijuana protect against lung cancer, and block cancer growth in leukemia, lymphoma and cancers of the breast and skin. Why?

This study discovered that pot use "reduces the invasiveness of cancer cells." Here's a study, from Harvard, that finds that it "cuts lung cancer tumor growth in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread." In fact, it seems to be the magic bullet that researchers have been looking for--it looks like it kills the malignant cells without harming healthy cells.

But, the US has not allowed any human trials of this most promising cancer drug, because the war on drugs has trumped the war on cancer. Go Drugs.

A main reason for marijuana prohibition is that it is said to be a gateway to harder drugs. The opposite seems to be the case. A recent comparison of drug use in Amsterdam where Marijuana is legal, and San Francisco, where it is not, showed very similar rates and patterns of marijuana use in both populations; however pot smokers had a much higher use of other, harder, drugs in San Francisco.

So, counterfactually, decrimilization of marijuana would appear to not change marijuana use, but would lead to lower rates of all-around drug use. Not only that, duh, people don't commit crimes, (other then the obvious one) when they smoke up. Perhaps we should pass out joints to violent offenders.

Anyway, the point of this post, which seems to have gotten away from me, is that there were 10 marijuana decriminalization initiatives in the US this election cycle, and 9 of them passed!

Maybe in another twenty years or so, we can start with the cancer cures.

Important life change for Djinn

I've just learned about Anioa, the Goddess of things that get stuck in drawers. Sorry Ceiling Cat, I'm converting.