Boomers! Yesterday! A date which will live in fuckery.
"It has been indeed fuckery most foul."
-- Kossack Onomastic in yesterday's Gulf Watchers ROV liveblog diary.
Yesterday, Our Government bought in to BP's lies and maneuvering. Yesterday, Our Government approved the Integrity Test. That test is now underway. If anything bad happens, and there are many many bad things that can happen, Our Government will be visited by the Ghost of Richard Feynman.
Boomers! I'm going to be on Virtually Speaking with host Jay Ackroyd and fellow-guest Riki Ott! We'll be on July 8th at 6:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 PM Eastern.
There'll be a podcast available for those who want to listen later. We'll also be on Second Life. I've never done Second Life, so if my avatar scratches his balls or struts around squawking like a huge ckicken or starts humping Jay Ackroyd's leg... please forgive me. I'm really nervous about fat-fingering the Second Life controls.
The most popular feature of my diaries here has always been my explanations of oil and gas technology and processes. Today, I'm going to talk about gas, oil and water separation. It's something I actually know a lot about. Let's splash over to the other side of the baffle.
Boomers, I didn't want to have to do this. I didn't want to have to spend time and room on Daily Kos's rec list (if you so honor me) debunking pure bullshit. But in recent days, the bullshit has gotten wider and wider circulation. I've had to write a form letter to use in replying to emails asking me about bullshit. First, it was the Matt Simmons' bullshit about the seafloor opening in a huge gash, which is where most of the oil was coming from.... and so we should nuke the well (????).
Most recently, I've had to contend with the dougr bullshit from an otherwise wonderful website, The Oil Drum.
Both, doomsday scenarios (as if we needed those right now). Both, bullshit.
Jump the manure heap with me and I'll explain why this is all bullshit and I'll also issue a challenge to anyone in the Oil and Gas industry, or anyone else, to prove otherwise.
It's inevitable. Inescapable. You write a diary or a comment, noting a worthwhile effort or the need for one, and somebody pops up within minutes, crying "You do it! Why are you sitting around staring at a screen stuffing Cheetos in your face? Get off your duff! Make it happen! You do it!"
Noble sentiments, that certainly apply in a lot of situations. In the face of the oil hell, eh, not so much. Not many of us have the leisure to head down to the gulf, or the proper gear and training if we did. Some of us, in fact, are burned out old farts who can barely get around the block.
But perhaps there is a way for bloggers to use our natural strengths to help out in this crisis.
Hiya Boomers. I guess it's time for me to get all cultural again. No tech this time. I've worked amongst BP and other corporations like them. I'm going to be discussing BP executives here, the tippity toppest of them who are the primary problem -- but I need to start with a warning:
DO NOT research where anyone lives or anything about their lives as a result of what you read here today. DO NOT picket, protest or go anywhere near the private homes of anyone. ANYONE! Doing so is stupid, overwhelmingly counterproductive and if you do it I will denounce you with language more foul than any I've used so far. My crap is being read outside Daily Kos quite a bit and I cannot control that. So I include this warning, not for Kossacks, who don't need such a warning, but for those outside of the DKos community, a very few of whom might lack common sense. You may hate corporate culture as much as I do. Maybe even more. But we effect change in Congress and in print. Not in person. You want to picket BP Headquarters, fine. Wish I could join you. I can't. I have a big opiate addiction family to support.
Here we go. Continued below.