A word of caution up front, the images which follow are disturbing, heartbreaking, and enraging. But they are images that should be seen by everyone. Everyone in this country needs to see what's happening along the Gulf Coast. Everyone including that half-term, half-wit, vapid, addle-brained, twit who screams "drill, baby, drill" and all her equally mindless followers. They should be forced to look at these images every day. I post them along with some words of wisdom:
Ancient American Indian Proverb: Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.
When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money. ~ Cree Prophecy
"The Earth does not belong to man; Man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."-- Chief Seattle
"If man is not to stifle human feelings, he must practice kindness to animals, for He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." -- Immanuel Kant
Then I think of what I would do to the person responsible.
Ancient American Indian Proverb: Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money. ~ Cree Prophecy"The Earth does not belong to man; Man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."-- Chief Seattle"If man is not to stifle human feelings, he must practice kindness to animals, for He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." -- Immanuel KantIf you'll allow me a personal moment, when I see these photos, and the
suffering being inflicted on these defenseless creatures, I see this
little guy-my little guy-covered in oil, dying a slow death.
Then I think of what I would do to the person responsible.
"You shouldn't use these images to bash drill baby drill !"
Right? I hate when people use logic and truth to make their points. This isn't some made up, heart tugging bullshit storyline created to manipulate people in a movie.
This disgusting oil covering the birds here is also going to affect the sea food. It is going to bankrupt hard working people along the gulf. It is going to kill vegetation along the waterline. It is going to destroy the finances of tourism based economy cities.
This happened 31 years ago.
We have improved the technology to be able to drill in deeper water, but no one had the effing forethought to figure out how to stop this shit if it happened.
I don't want to hear a single damn republican that said drill baby drill say an effing word about the increase in oil tax that is coming up.
I can't do my job here at The Hurricane. There simply is no comedy relief possible.
Des, you might want to bold the fonts on that warning.
*if the fucking planet is uninhabitable.
Damn pictures made me so angry I can't type.
"When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money."
Funny how Native Americans, who lived without all the technologies and modern conveniences we claim make us so much more superior and enlightened than them, were so much wiser than what we are today. The above statement pretty much sums "Conservatism" and "Free Market Capitalism" up for me.
Unfortunately, I think there are a huge number of people who don't give a shit about what happens to the planet years, decades or centuries from now, as long as they get to live high on the hog right now.
Ironically, these are usually the same people who scream about how their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be taxed to death by Obama.
Well, it doesn't really matter how much you pay in taxes if the fucking planet is inhabitable now does it ?
You shouldn't use these images to bash drill baby drill !
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Why the hell NOT?
Pictures are worth a thousand words. Maybe pictures like these will get through some thick-headed "drill baby drill" brains.
Why don't you LOOK at the pictures? Really look. We are killing our planet and you don't even give a damn. It's all about "I want, I need, must have my big car". Gotta drill, baby. My hummer depends on it!
Our Native American forefathers were much wiser than we, and we need another George Carlin, to smack the everlovin' crap out of the drill baby drill group.
I don't give a rat's ass how much oil has been extracted "without incident". It only takes ONE MAJOR OIL SPILL to ruin this planet.
So why don't you just sit back in your arrogance and complacency and watch the damn planet die? You obviously don't seem to care.
which excuses NOTHING....we should have been exploring alternative energy sources decades ago, but oil was cheap and easy. Ignoring the basic facts that oil is a finite resource and that an accident of this magnitude is inevitable given a long enough timeline. Funny how the conservatives have nothing but derision for anyone who seeks to conserve our natural world. Rail against Obama stealing the nation from their precious children but have no trouble passing a waste-covered ecosystem to those same children. God gave them dominion over the world, so fuck the pelicans...they should be smart enough to avoid thet oil, right?
Consider this, since we will eventually run out of oil completely forever...where do you think the last gallons will be burned? In the engine of a car of someone trying to get to work or in the engine of a tank fighting over an ever-dwindling source?
"Drill baby drill" is not an energy policy...it's an excuse to shove your head in the sand untill it's time to drive your SUV half a block to the grocery store.
"I see my ancestors spend with careless abandon, assuming eternal supply" - Bad Religion
(if this is a repost, please don't post it)
I've helped clean birds after an oil spill. I've watched them fly away when we released them after a cleaning. I've also had them die in my hands because we got to them too late. In the present we need the oil, sure. But we have to be responsible in how we do it. BP doesn't seem to have been anywhere responsible, not only in this instance but take a look at their safety record. They have been proven to be a company that always takes the shortcut, whether its in drilling or safety. In this particular case BP had help; the Government agency that is supposed to provide oversight on these drilling operations. They are equally culpable in this one. In light of that how many other drilling operations are just similar accidents waiting to happen. We can only guess.
These are so disturbing to look at. Not sure if anyone watched Chris Matthews last night but he had a great idea that he broadcasted to the president - the idea of a civilian conservation corps of American citizens to volunteer and help clean up the Gulf coast this summer. I know it's hard to sit and watch and many of us want to do SOMETHING to help. We cannot simply rely on BP - they have proved to be totally incompetant - we must protect our wetlands. I wouldn't mind driving to LA one weekend to help out any way that I can!
Thanks Des for the beautiful quotes. So many in our country need to listen to those wise words and attempt to understand them.
Whatever happened to conservatives who spoke and ACTED to CONSERVE our natural resources? They certainly aren't in the tea party! They certainly aren't in the "drill baby drill" bunch at all.
It wasn't the Exxon Valdez captain's driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill. It was yours. ~Greenpeace advertisement, New York Times, 25 February 1990
If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
- Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862
Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain, For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain. America, America, man sheds his waste on thee, And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
- George Carlin
I don't have the words. But as the oil comes closer to the shore the more pictures we will see.
If there is any good that can come from this it is long term energy policy that gets us off crude and on cleaner, renewable energy sources.
You shouldn't use these images to bash drill baby drill !
The oil field provides the fuel for our country
For now thAt fuel is oil like it or not we will keep drilling !
Do you realize how much oil and how much energy has been provided from the gulf without incident!