Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

The National Weather Service has issued the following advisory for the site of the Deepwater Horizon, the offshore oil drilling rig that exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico one week ago this evening:

SURFACE HIGH PRESSURE WILL QUICKLY TRACK ACROSS THE AREA WEDNESDAY
WHICH WILL SUPPRESS WINDS AND FLATTEN SEAS. AS THIS RIDGE
CONTINUES EASTWARD WEDNESDAY NIGHT, WINDS WILL THEN SHIFT BACK TO
THE SOUTHEAST. THIS HIGH WILL SETTLE IN THE WESTERN ATLANTIC
THROUGH THE WEEKEND. MEANWHILE, A SERIES OF SURFACE LOWS WILL
DEVELOP AND MOVE THROUGH THE SOUTHERN PLAINS. THE RESULTING WINDS
BETWEEN THESE 2 FEATURES, SPOT AREA, WILL BE STRONG PERSISTENT
SOUTHEAST WINDS OF AT LEAST 20KTS FROM THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH
SATURDAY NIGHT. IN ADDITION, EXPECT SEAS TO BUILD TO A PEAK OF
8-11 FEET DURING THIS PERIOD. ALTHOUGH A FRONT IS EXPECTED TO
APPROACH THE COASTAL WATERS LATE THIS WEEKEND, AT THIS TIME IT
DOES NOT APPEAR THAT IT WILL PUSH THROUGH UNTIL POSSIBLY EARLY
TO MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. THUS, SOUTH WINDS WILL CONTINUE INTO
EARLY NEXT WEEK.

The practical upshot: Winds will be coming from the south starting tomorrow all the way through into next week, pushing the growing crude oil slick into Louisiana’s coastline. Two national wildlife refuges are directly in the path of the oil. Starting on Thursday, the seas will be too rough for an effective effort to contain the oil spill.

The effort to prevent landfall of this oil spill has failed.

What’s at stake:

As of 1:30 PM this afternoon, the oil spill was 21 miles from the Delta National Wildlife Refuge, 69 miles from the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, and 69 Miles from the Bon Secours National Wildlife Refuge. Also in the path of the growing oil spill are the Gulf Islands National Sea Shore, and the Fort Pickens State Park Aquatic Preserve.

NASA released this satellite photograph of the rapidly expanding oil slick coming from the site of the wrecked Deepwater Horizon. As you can see, when this photograph was taken, the oil slick was clearly larger than the city of New Orleans. I was astonished by that. Now, that’s small potatoes. The oil slick is at 28,600 square miles, larger than the state of West Virgina.

So far, all efforts by BP to stop oil from surging up from the wellhead and riser on the sea floor have failed, and the slick is getting closer to shore day by day, threatening fisheries, shrimping grounds, oyster beds, tourist beaches, and the mangroves that protect the delta from being washed away by hurricanes. The slick is now just 30 miles from shore and should hit the Breton National Wildlife Refuge and the Delta National Wildlife Refuge first.

The Obama Administration says that it will continue pushing ahead with its policy to expand offshore oil drilling, unchanged, despite this offshore drilling disaster. How is that different from the approach the Bush Administration took? Is that what we voted for in 2008?

My first thought when I saw a teaser on Technorati for an article about a biography of Angelina Jolie, calling the biography the author’s “most compelling subject yet”, was that it wasn’t possible. How could Angelina Jolie be any experienced biographer’s most compelling subject?

Then I looked into the author’s past subjects:

- Madonna
- David Beckham
- Monica Lewinski
- Princess Diana
- Tom Cruise

Those are pretty lean pickings, and Angelina Jolie fits right in.

So, among these rather uncompeling celebrities, which is the most compelling? It’s going to a Dunkin Donuts and being asked to find the most delectable confection.

Today, I found a dollar for Ron Paul, and a dollar against Ron Paul. They’re the same dollar.

Who is Ron Paul? A loser.

Way to waste a vote! RonPaul2008.com

As you can see, this dollar bill is also against the eye at the top of the pyramid. That’ll stop the New World Order!

Guess what this fish, the Portuguese dogfish, is used for:

It’s killed to gather its liver oil. That’s used for cosmetics.

Grody.

Heard in a hotel lobby this morning: A Muzak version of the Sesame Street classic song, Sing A Song. It ended with violins playing a sweeping version of the part that goes, “La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la”.

Reshma Saujani, Democratic challenger in New York’s 14th congressional district, released the results of a survey of her supporters yesterday. Among the findings: 45 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “special interests are the main reason for the partisanship in Washington”, while 33 percent agreed “that Democrats and Republicans simply have completely different worldviews”.

An effort to understand this item in Saujani’s survey requires a good deal of interpretation. In order for the survey question to make sense, there must be a meaningful distinction between “special interests” and organizations that are sincerely motivated by particular worldviews. The survey question implies that such a distinction exists, that there are organizations that have ideological foundations on the one hand, and special interest organizations that are motivated by self-interest without regard for ideology on the other hand.

Few would contest that ideological groups exist. However, many point out that organizations that claim to be ideological in nature also promote the interests of particular members of society. Worldviews often happen to be rather economically convenient.

The existence of powerful groups of people motivated purely by the desire for practical benefit should also be a matter of serious doubt. Are ambitious and selfish people truly without a coherent worldview? One might argue that lobbying firms, as an example, are motivated solely to promote the interests of their clients, but even if that were the pure motivation of those firms, lobbyists’ clients themselves can still be motivated by ideology. In some cases, such beliefs are easy to identify. In other cases, the beliefs may lie beneath the surface, but still present an active influence.

Even in the case of a corproation that hires lobbyists to explicitly bribe members of Congress to support certain legislation, ideological beliefs would still be in action. The corporation would be interested in advancing the belief that the government should serve the interests of private industry, and that financial representation is more important than the electoral influence of the voter.

There is a worldview inherent in even the most corrupt legislative activity. it may be a worldview that most Americans disagree with, but then, that’s the point. Even in extreme cases, the distinction between self-interest and worldview is incoherent. “Special interests” turn out merely to be interests with which we personally disagree because our worldviews will not admit their worth.

To identify this problem in Reshma Saujani’s survey may seem like pointless quibbling. However, attention to detail and the ability to focus with logical precision are characteristics that a legislator should not be without. It’s also important that members of Congress have the integrity to seek out the opinions of their constituents through accurate and respectful means, rather than through slanted mechanisms designed to communicate ideas favorable to their own agendas.

It’s my opinion that the phrase “special interests” isn’t meaningful enough to be included in any political survey. Your worldview may prompt you to come to a different conclusion.

Indiana Congressman Mike Pence has a way of exciting people’s emotions. He supports extreme policies from the right wing fringe and has shamelessly built up a range of unethical relationships with corporate lobbyists. It’s easy to get angry with Pence. I get it.

That said, Pence opponent George Holland seems to have allowed his reaction to Mike Pence’s regressive radicalism to go over the line. On his campaign site, Holland writes a list of reasons not to re-elect Pence, and his keyboard starts smoking when it comes to Pence’s support for recent wars:

“America’$ Imperiali$tic War$ & Occupation$
Would you die for a lie? Why should others?
1. The Iraq-Iranian War$ and Occupation$

2. The NATO Turkmeni$tan -Tran$ – Afghani$tan Paki$tani -
India Pipeline War$ & Occupation$”

Get the picture? There’s something about these wars that has to do with a bit of cash.

When political discontent works its way into expressive spelling, it may be time to stand aside for a moment and take slow, deep breaths.

But then, Holland seems to have let go of his fear of hyperventilation a long time ago, attacking Barack Obama for his alleged “Zionist” ways as well:

“Barack Obomber; A Psychopathic Liar, The
Reneger, A Thief, A Warmonger and
America’s Newest, Zionist President!
NATO & The New World Order!”

Sigh. Could former Democratic candidate Barry Welsh please re-enter the race?

One of the most depressing features of our times is that the very technology that was supposed to liberate us through the democratization of media is being used against us. Americans have pulled back from publishing themselves on the Internet, and have fallen again into passive habits of using the online resources others create for them, watching, reading, chatting, and most of all buying.

We’re told that privacy is no longer a reasonable expectation, that we should be grateful that the government is continually conducting surveillance on our personal communications, and intruding into groups of activist dissidents using Patriot Act powers. It’s all for our own safety, we’re told.

The Homeland Security Regime is a paternalistic Big Brother, and we’re told not to worry our heads none – Big Brother is watching!

What’s the first thing you do when you want to prepare your personal household items for a move to a new home? You wrap them in foam, and put them in a box.

So, what are we to conclude, then, about what’s happened to the town of Porthtowan, in Cornwall, England? The village woke up last Thursday to discover that the entire town was coated in sea foam.

They say that the foam came from the ocean spray. So, the obvious question is this: Who from the ocean would want to move Cornwall to a new home, and why?

There is not yet word from the press office of Mannanan Mac Lir.

In news that may be related, “sperm” whales in the Caribbean are enjoying having their “tummies” rubbed by human divers.