More and more people are calling on the White House to "take charge" of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The expectation seems to be that the full power of the government can swoop in and use some type of unknown high-tech military procedure or equipment that can bring a halt to the flow of oil under unbelievable pressure. It's as if we believe that there exists Star Trek technology that could bring an immediate relief.
Trust me; there is no "conspiracy" among BP to keep valuable oil gushing into the Gulf. Not only are they losing product, but with each landfall of oil their civil liability increases as well as the public's goodwill. If the CEO of BP could swim down and plug the well with his thumb, he'd do it.
Whatever "help" the US government could be in minimizing this ecological fiasco ended when they issued the permit to allow drilling there.
As much as we'd like to believe otherwise, the people best equipped to cap this well are BP employees and contractors.
BP doesn't get many points for their PR spin using low-ball figures of oil flow. People are reluctant to trust them, and rightfully so.
I tender this for your consideration. Who but ocean floor drillers have any experience at all working at a depth of nearly a mile below the surface? Few US Naval submarines are capable of even diving to this depth. There may be a handful of oceanographers in the Navy who have experience, but probably none who would have any idea of the engineering required to fix this. A multidisciplinary team consisting of engineers, oceanographers, and geologists will be needed to attack this spill.
There should be government oversight if for no other reason than to keep a fire lit under BP and act as liaison among the variety of industry players that may be involved in plugging the leak as well as shoreline cleanup. The feds will invariably be involved to make sure there is proper compensation to States affected by this disaster and certainly in the years of hearings to set policy to prevent such an event from re-occurring.
These federal responsibilities are a far-cry from what I believe most of America expects.
Other than debriefing this scenario, coordinating cleanup, assisting in civil liability recovery,and possibly future regulation I just don't see that the US Government can do much about this.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
My thoughts on Memorial Day
If you don't know it's Memorial Day weekend by now, You are oblivious to the multiple FB postings, TV schedule (back to back war movies), American flags flying, and last but not least the surge in traffic along with the requisite surge in speed traps and license checks.
One of my Facebook friends made a good point on his post. He pointed out that theologically he had a hard time with secular national holidays and that he was also against war in general. He further pointed out that his views don't diminish the fact that this particular holiday is in memorium to all the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country. I guess that's where I fall also.
War is one of the most prevalent subjects in the Bible. Make no mistake about it, God had the Israelites kick some major tail. One of my Bible mentors is of the opinion that a lot of stuff people like to spout out about the Bible (eye for an eye, God destroying cities for sin) was at a time when Man was a relatively young and immature creature. Then came the Messianic Covenant whereby our salvation is dependent upon accepting Christ as our savior. In his opinion, all previous bets are off with the "New Covenant". Jesus brought a message of peace, tolerance, pacifism. He simplified the 10 commandments into loving God above everything else, and your neighbor as much as you do yourself. I myself can find little justification in war as a first solution to any diplomatic problem.
I'm not ready to make a blanket statement that all war is wrong. I do believe that it's less than God's perfect plan for us as humanity and also that revenge falls under the same category. I will state that war is inherently evil due to the collateral damage that occurs to civilians and soldiers called to fight.
Now to the heart of the matter. Wars are waged by government officials; presidents, dictators, kings, and prime ministers who are supported by advisors, parliaments and congresses. Individual soldiers who are called to defend their countries are in my opinion heroes despite whatever misguided policies place them in harm's way.
My father was a soldier in World War II. I saw the effects his combat service had on him; the sleepless nights, nightmares decades later, the tears when he'd watch a war film. He and many others from this war and all later shared a common bond of seeing things no human should have to see. They also experienced the fear that every soldier must go through during battle, and summoned the courage to overcome it and do their duty.
If you choose to celebrate this weekend, have a good time and stay safe. We all deserve a 3 day weekend to spend more time with the ones we love.
However, if you will take a few minutes to stop the celebration and think about those who were sent to defend this Nation and never got to come home.
Memorial Day should be observed; not celebrated.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Should I be protected from myself? At YOUR expense?
Well, it finally happened. I got stopped today for driving without wearing my seatbelt.
I generally buckle up. My decades working as a paramedic, then later working as an Emergency Department nurse have shown me time and again that statistically those who wear their seatbelts suffer less severe injury than those who choose not to. The popularity of You Tube supplies those interested with a variety of videos of high-speed collisions or rollovers where the driver or passengers are violently thrown from their vehicles head first into the pavement or various other objects.
Today's lapse was the result of a 6 hour drive which culminated with a pizza run at Village Inn just prior to heading back home to Mocksville. I turned into the Rite Aid off East Broad to pick up some antacids. I then noticed a Statesville Police officer in my rear view mirror who tailed me and stopped just behind my vehicle.
He was cordial enough. “The reason I stopped you sir, is that I noticed you were not wearing your seatbelt. Could I see your driver's license and registration please?”.
I can't help but wonder how it's possible to determine if anyone is wearing their seat belt. I pass hundreds of cars daily and couldn't spot someone without their seat belt on if my life depended on it. There must be some special cop training involved to profile folks who aren't buckled up.
After a 15 minute delay (mostly my fault as my registration didn't match my tag expiration date) I was sent along with a $125 ticket. $25 fine, $100 court costs.
I understand that I really ought to wear my seat belt. If I had a nickel for every corpse I've seen lying in a field within sight of their twisted vehicle, (or worse beneath it) I wouldn't be buying dollar Power Ball tickets every week.
I still can't seem to get past the whole “Big Brother” thing. That's the issue where legislators make law designed to protect us from ourselves.
Many of our laws impinge on our personal freedoms because failure to obey would possibly cause harm to other folks. DWI for example. Speeding.
As somewhat of a Libertarian, I just fail to see where anyone not wearing their seat belt causes harm to anyone but themselves.
As a society, are we going to be in the business of spending valuable legislative dollars and resources to write laws for police to enforce that really aren't for the public good?
Make no mistake about it. It was STUPID of me to forget to buckle up. Had someone else ran a red light and plowed into me, or had I blown a front tire and rolled my SUV I could easily suffered a fatal injury that would otherwise have been relatively minor.
The question is this; do I have a right to be stupid when no one else is affected but me?
I generally buckle up. My decades working as a paramedic, then later working as an Emergency Department nurse have shown me time and again that statistically those who wear their seatbelts suffer less severe injury than those who choose not to. The popularity of You Tube supplies those interested with a variety of videos of high-speed collisions or rollovers where the driver or passengers are violently thrown from their vehicles head first into the pavement or various other objects.
Today's lapse was the result of a 6 hour drive which culminated with a pizza run at Village Inn just prior to heading back home to Mocksville. I turned into the Rite Aid off East Broad to pick up some antacids. I then noticed a Statesville Police officer in my rear view mirror who tailed me and stopped just behind my vehicle.
He was cordial enough. “The reason I stopped you sir, is that I noticed you were not wearing your seatbelt. Could I see your driver's license and registration please?”.
I can't help but wonder how it's possible to determine if anyone is wearing their seat belt. I pass hundreds of cars daily and couldn't spot someone without their seat belt on if my life depended on it. There must be some special cop training involved to profile folks who aren't buckled up.
After a 15 minute delay (mostly my fault as my registration didn't match my tag expiration date) I was sent along with a $125 ticket. $25 fine, $100 court costs.
I understand that I really ought to wear my seat belt. If I had a nickel for every corpse I've seen lying in a field within sight of their twisted vehicle, (or worse beneath it) I wouldn't be buying dollar Power Ball tickets every week.
I still can't seem to get past the whole “Big Brother” thing. That's the issue where legislators make law designed to protect us from ourselves.
Many of our laws impinge on our personal freedoms because failure to obey would possibly cause harm to other folks. DWI for example. Speeding.
As somewhat of a Libertarian, I just fail to see where anyone not wearing their seat belt causes harm to anyone but themselves.
As a society, are we going to be in the business of spending valuable legislative dollars and resources to write laws for police to enforce that really aren't for the public good?
Make no mistake about it. It was STUPID of me to forget to buckle up. Had someone else ran a red light and plowed into me, or had I blown a front tire and rolled my SUV I could easily suffered a fatal injury that would otherwise have been relatively minor.
The question is this; do I have a right to be stupid when no one else is affected but me?
Friday, May 28, 2010
D' Annunzio vs Johnson
I’m not one to endorse candidates for office.
My personal belief is this; most liberal legislation needs a touch of conservative fiscal responsibility. Most conservative legislation needs a touch of liberal humanitarianism. Most reasonable answers to any problem lie somewhere in the middle.
If you choose to label yourself (I don’t like labels) either “liberal” or “conservative”, then it seems to me that you’re playing to an audience and may have trouble looking at things objectively.
There comes a time, however, when I look at what’s going on in a race and figure I better put my two cents worth in. Somebody should have done that when Hitler was a corporal.
Tim D’Annunzio is in a runoff election with Harold Johnson for the Republican nomination in the 8th District Congressional race. The winner will take on Democratic incumbent Larry Kissell.
I know Harold Johnson. I know little about his politics (neither does anyone else according to mainstream press), and I haven’t seen him personally in years. His wife taught public school with my mother. I was friends with his son Vince when we were in grade school, but we lost touch over the years. The times I’ve been around Harold, I’ve found him to be a personable, reasonable guy. The time he spent as “The Big Guy” on WSOC TV was merely an on-screen persona. We’d occasionally run into each other around town at a convenience store and he always recognized me and spoke.
Most of what I know of D’Annunzio is what has been in the media. It is accepted as fact that he has a criminal record for domestic violence and trespassing. My own divorce never got that far, but even if you give him the benefit of the doubt about that there’s this whole issue where he refers to the government as “the Antichrist”. To paraphrase one of my favorite columnists Tommy Tomlinson, he now wants a job with the Antichrist. Furthermore, as evil as this government of ours seems to be he made most of his money doing business with it by manufacturing body armor and supplying it to the Pentagon.
Almost comical is his use of “machine gun” socials to woo voters from the far right. I’m a gun owner myself, but I don’t identify with anyone seduced by this type of campaign. There’s a lot more to our Constitution than the Second Amendment.
At best, D’Annunzio has a warped view of what America should be. Unfortunately, a lot more voters are turning to non-traditional politicians because of their frustration at the current situation. He’s lost the support of the Republican Party leadership so I really don’t see how he can get on board with anyone else about any single issue.
I would have to look closer at the issues and candidates after the primary to decide who I’d rather see in the District 8 seat. I just know that I’d hate to see D’Annunzio there.
My personal belief is this; most liberal legislation needs a touch of conservative fiscal responsibility. Most conservative legislation needs a touch of liberal humanitarianism. Most reasonable answers to any problem lie somewhere in the middle.
If you choose to label yourself (I don’t like labels) either “liberal” or “conservative”, then it seems to me that you’re playing to an audience and may have trouble looking at things objectively.
There comes a time, however, when I look at what’s going on in a race and figure I better put my two cents worth in. Somebody should have done that when Hitler was a corporal.
Tim D’Annunzio is in a runoff election with Harold Johnson for the Republican nomination in the 8th District Congressional race. The winner will take on Democratic incumbent Larry Kissell.
I know Harold Johnson. I know little about his politics (neither does anyone else according to mainstream press), and I haven’t seen him personally in years. His wife taught public school with my mother. I was friends with his son Vince when we were in grade school, but we lost touch over the years. The times I’ve been around Harold, I’ve found him to be a personable, reasonable guy. The time he spent as “The Big Guy” on WSOC TV was merely an on-screen persona. We’d occasionally run into each other around town at a convenience store and he always recognized me and spoke.
Most of what I know of D’Annunzio is what has been in the media. It is accepted as fact that he has a criminal record for domestic violence and trespassing. My own divorce never got that far, but even if you give him the benefit of the doubt about that there’s this whole issue where he refers to the government as “the Antichrist”. To paraphrase one of my favorite columnists Tommy Tomlinson, he now wants a job with the Antichrist. Furthermore, as evil as this government of ours seems to be he made most of his money doing business with it by manufacturing body armor and supplying it to the Pentagon.
Almost comical is his use of “machine gun” socials to woo voters from the far right. I’m a gun owner myself, but I don’t identify with anyone seduced by this type of campaign. There’s a lot more to our Constitution than the Second Amendment.
At best, D’Annunzio has a warped view of what America should be. Unfortunately, a lot more voters are turning to non-traditional politicians because of their frustration at the current situation. He’s lost the support of the Republican Party leadership so I really don’t see how he can get on board with anyone else about any single issue.
I would have to look closer at the issues and candidates after the primary to decide who I’d rather see in the District 8 seat. I just know that I’d hate to see D’Annunzio there.
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