tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post1059505477314841009..comments2024-03-29T06:03:45.545-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: The Future is Now Because Now is Not YetGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-53029725208629730552010-06-14T11:43:58.931-07:002010-06-14T11:43:58.931-07:00Anon, with the benefit of hindsight, most accident...Anon, with the benefit of hindsight, most accidents are preventable. Most stem from a moment of what could be termed "negligence," or from some other form of human error. We still call them *accidents,* however. People don't mean to do them, in other words. Cutting corners here and there is a short-term benefit that may have long-term consequences you can't foresee.<br /><br />I can't imagine any company intentionally bringing this sort of thing down on their heads, much less the damage spread far & wide to others.<br /><br />Accidents do happen. Those responsible step up and make restitution for the damages. Or at least, that's what should happen. <br /><br />Unfortunately, we're a sue-happy, vengeance/greed/control-centered society now. And contrary to BH's blind, implicit trust in those who'd lead her(?) down the primrose path, those in gov't aren't immune to the temptation for quick wealth and power (again, see "never let a good crisis go to waste").Susannahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381272662339466736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-56356072424183767402010-06-14T08:10:09.996-07:002010-06-14T08:10:09.996-07:00Greyniffler said "Just on the basic principle...Greyniffler said "Just on the basic principles of..."<br /><br />You lost them at 'principles'.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-79281577509284163862010-06-14T07:08:44.608-07:002010-06-14T07:08:44.608-07:00Back where it all began...
having enjoyed the movi...Back where it all began...<br />having enjoyed the movie,<br />i started Faulkner's THE REIVERS,<br />for a novel perspective on 'the beginning of the problem': <br />a southern family buys the town's first autogehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-90217524493108139692010-06-14T06:39:07.221-07:002010-06-14T06:39:07.221-07:00I do not recommend Power Hungry: The Myths of &quo...I do not recommend <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1586487892?ie=UTF8&tag=onecosmos-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1586487892" rel="nofollow">Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future</a> to Anon or Black Hole, since they are uneducable. But for everyone else, it's a very informative read.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-68748519717108098492010-06-14T06:31:30.416-07:002010-06-14T06:31:30.416-07:00To BH and all those who demand nationalization, pl...To BH and all those who demand nationalization, please answer this question:<br /><br />If a private company breaks the rules, we can appeal to the government to demand that it mend its ways. If the government breaks the rule, to whom can we appeal to demand that it mend its ways?<br /><br />You seem to believe that profit is the only reason to do a thing badly, or to do a bad thing. I remind you that a hundred years ago we had a social endineering program called <i>racial segregation</i>. The government backed this program, and thus it was very, very hard to undo. Its backers passed the Posse Comitatus Act, which ended the federal involvment in stopping racial segregation, and it took the Supreme Court's action to get it back in the business. And getting SCOTUS involved is even more dangerous: what happens when the court of last resort rules against you?<br /><br />Just on the basic principles of oversight, we should have as much as possible done by someone who is <i>not</i> the government.greynifflerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02681797294152035949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-28132255592356323522010-06-14T05:44:13.507-07:002010-06-14T05:44:13.507-07:00bh spewed "...It is also a call to..."
...bh spewed "...It is also a call to..."<br /><br />Way to live up to your nicname.Van Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08470413719262297062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-64919286769983114542010-06-14T05:39:11.146-07:002010-06-14T05:39:11.146-07:00"This is also the time to massively fund deve..."This is also the time to massively fund development of other sources of energy and alternate modes of transportation."<br /><br />You are welcome to spend your own money and man-hours on this. Good luck.<br /><br />In the meantime, we will be sitting on decades upon decades worth of domestic energy sources (coal, oil, nuclear) being put to death by regulation and feel-good BS.<br /><br />While you work on the perpetual motion machine and alternative fuels, based on recent history, what makes you think, what in-forms you, that the regs won't get there first? Or that other nagging principle I like to refer to as often as I get the chance: energy density. Actually that last one is always present. Yet it is always overlooked.<br /><br />If we spent a fraction of the funds you dream about on making the current sources of energy "less-suck" I know they would "less-suck".Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10589423819039764711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-55106346655129847712010-06-13T23:30:33.428-07:002010-06-13T23:30:33.428-07:00Well, clearly the BP debacle is a call to bring in...Well, clearly the BP debacle is a call to bring increased federal scrutiny to oil production and distribution, if not outright nationalization. I should say, preferably nationalization.<br /><br />It is also a call to halt petroleum prospecting and drilling in the USA forever.<br /><br />This is also the time to massively fund development of other sources of energy and alternate modes of transportation. <br /><br />Racoons get on board this train; it is a faded green but you can trust it to go where safety and sanity lie.black holehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07366633817665791528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-28140554383399826712010-06-13T21:55:49.720-07:002010-06-13T21:55:49.720-07:00anon, it appears that it took a series of bad expe...<b>anon</b>, it appears that it took a series of bad expedient decisions to create this failure, not just one. Clearly, BP is to be blamed for them. On the other hand, the safety protocols <i>were</i> in place and had to be given short service.<br /><br />As to the "remote control" blowout preventer: they have been installed, but none has ever been called upon to do its job. In other words, we don't even know that they work.<br /><br />There will be plenty of time to put people on trial <i>after</i> we get the problem under control. Meanwhile, companies stand ready to provide miles of spill-containing boom but the Obama administration has balked at waiving the rules requiring union (or minority?) contracts.<br /><br />Of course, the people whose businesses and livelihoods are being tarred over don't count, since they are not union, but that hated enemy: the businessman.<br /><br />Fix the problem. Then place the blame.greynifflerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02681797294152035949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-62922356624361249212010-06-13T21:41:00.592-07:002010-06-13T21:41:00.592-07:00Uh oh. Anon's mad at us again.Uh oh. Anon's mad at us again.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-74875073758723596072010-06-13T21:12:16.057-07:002010-06-13T21:12:16.057-07:00My position is that it was an unfortunate accident...<i>My position is that it was an unfortunate accident</i><br /><br />It never ceases to marvel how you people fail to connect the dots of your own thoughts.<br /><br />The very article that one of you cited yesterday (the Rolling Stone piece) made it very clear that this was an <b>entirely preventable</b> accident caused by BP being too cheap to install and maintain basic safety equipment, a decision made possible by the regulatory capture of the appropriate agencies during the Bush administration (and not fixed by Obama, so he can take a share of the blame). <br /><br />Yet we have people like NB (who poses as some kind of entrepreneur) asserting that the problem is over-regulation (if only) and thus somehow attributable to "progressives". Oh yes, that makes sense.<br /><br /><i>The company applied the same deadly cost-cutting mentality to its oil rig in the Gulf... BP shaved $500,000 off its overhead by deploying a blowout preventer without a remote-control trigger – a fail-safe measure required in many countries but not mandated by MMS, thanks to intense industry lobbying. It opted to use cheap, single-walled piping for the well, and installed only six of the 21 cement spacers recommended by its contractor, Halliburton – decisions that significantly increased the risk of a severe explosion. It also skimped on critical testing that could have shown whether explosive gas was getting into the system as it was being cemented, and began removing mud that protected the well before it was sealed with cement plugs.</i>anonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18207020184445548247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-12969593108152602632010-06-13T20:08:33.272-07:002010-06-13T20:08:33.272-07:00Having worked intensively with various regulatory ...Having worked intensively with various regulatory regimes over the past decade (Sarbanes-Oxley on Wall St., TSA/APIS 2005-2008 and most recently FDA/CDER) I can tell you that Van is pretty close to the mark re BP and the oil spill. I would add that it couldn't happen to a nicer mega-corporation. BP lied and propagandized green rubbish (uh, oh... more BS from BP) right alongside Gore and the very worst of the transnational progressive global claque (a full member of which Obama aspires to become far more than merely POTUS, IMO). <br /><br />Nevertheless the accident was at least partially due to the paralyzing effect of literally <i>millions</i> of pages of US government regulations, and the unintended consequences which inevitably result. The US is easily as over-regulated as Europe, and with Europe bailing on "democratic socialism" just as the US surges ahead into the same trap, it will soon become all but impossible to do business <i>except</i> as a massive "progressive" corporation which is deeply intertwined in a most unhealthy manner with the US Leviathan. Large corporations like BP are not necessarily in any way representative of the healthy free enterprise environment envisioned by America's founders. Why do you think Obama is coddling so many of them while he silently annihilates the seed corn which has kept America bouncing back for generations (i.e., his policies have <i>severely</i> crippled the new small enterprises which traditionally spring up in the wake of a downturn -- and which create 90% of new jobs)?<br /><br />It's hard to see the incalculable damage done to the US in the past 50 years (with a good chunk done in the last 2!) by progressives being undone in less than another 50, and only if we did a 180 right away. As David Warren says: enjoy this summer -- it may be the last one many of us remember as the real "good old days".Stephen Macdonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13474300559219020772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-55159471062862114442010-06-13T19:24:55.899-07:002010-06-13T19:24:55.899-07:00Julie...paragraph 4, *literally* my thoughts exact...Julie...paragraph 4, *literally* my thoughts exactly this afternoon, as I was listening to the news and thinking of our lefty trolls.Susannahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381272662339466736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-68084855549713729602010-06-13T19:00:03.303-07:002010-06-13T19:00:03.303-07:00"Yes, the bottom line is that no one knows ho..."Yes, the bottom line is that no one knows how to fix it, and to blame Obama is almost as foolish as it was to blame Bush for Katrina. It just fosters the idea that omnipotent Big Government will take care of everything. If Republicans try to score points off of this now, they'll just pay for it later when something bad happens on their watch. It's tempting to do to them what they did to Bush, but one must resist the temptation. There are plenty of other good reasons to hammer Obama."<br /><br />Yep.^<br /><br />And double yep to Joan's prediction re: "never let a good crisis go to waste."Susannahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16381272662339466736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-83509873605305915442010-06-13T18:07:07.780-07:002010-06-13T18:07:07.780-07:00Or as Taranto might say, he's in stable condit...Or as Taranto might say, he's in stable condition...juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-10488518684993916402010-06-13T17:48:16.896-07:002010-06-13T17:48:16.896-07:00ha - I wouldn't have guessed that "extran...ha - I wouldn't have guessed that "extrana" = "pining"<br /><br />Good one, Joan ;)juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-15448703407731974302010-06-13T17:46:57.835-07:002010-06-13T17:46:57.835-07:00Related to today's post is this, via Vanderleu...Related to today's post is <a href="http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Morals---the-servile-mind-5318" rel="nofollow">this</a>, via Vanderleun:<br /><br />"Our rulers, then, increasingly deliberate on our behalf, and decide for us what is the right thing to do. The philosopher Socrates argued that the most important activity of a human being was reflecting on how one ought to live. Most people are not philosophers, but they cannot avoid encountering moral issues. The evident problem with democracy today is that the state is pre-empting—or “crowding out,” as the economists say—our moral judgments. Nor does the state limit itself to mere principle. It instructs us on highly specific activities, ranging from health provision to sexual practices. Yet decisions about how we live are what we mean by “freedom,” and freedom is incompatible with a moralizing state. That is why I am provoked to ask the question: can the moral life survive democracy?<br /><br />By “the moral life,” I simply mean that dimension of our inner experience in which we deliberate about our obligations to parents, children, employers, strangers, charities, sporting associations, and all the other elements of our world. We may not always devote much conscious thought to these matters, but thinking about them makes up the substance of our lives. It also constitutes the conditions of our happiness. In deliberating, and in acting on what we have decided, we discover who we are and we reveal ourselves to the world. This kind of self-management emerges from the inner life and is the stream of thoughts and decisions that make us human. To the extent that this element of our humanity has been appropriated by authority, we are all diminished, and our civilization loses the special character that has made it the dynamic animator of so much hope and happiness in modern times."<br /><br />Just a small excerpt; the whole is worth your time.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-84853093086721729872010-06-13T17:46:38.253-07:002010-06-13T17:46:38.253-07:00For when messes like the oil fiasco happen, you ce...For when messes like the oil fiasco happen, you certainly want a Romney or a Giuliani [or heck even a Sarah P!] taking charge and losing sleep weighing solutions---rather than this Tiger Woods wannabe: apparently he is playing Presidential Golf Round #38...[Drudge]<br />It is also madly-far/deep the levels companies are mandated to work at [Thanks <a href="http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/2010/06/10/clinton-catalyzed-gulf-oil-drilling-boom/" rel="nofollow">Schlickmeister</a>]gehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02015936407999495181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-44970930030591472112010-06-13T17:45:12.581-07:002010-06-13T17:45:12.581-07:00"Castro ha muerto.
No! No es difunto!
Si, s..."Castro ha muerto. <br />No! No es difunto! <br />Si, si es. <br />No! Solo extrana a los fjords. . . "Joan of Argghh!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14729682908266300507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-69754123484819384192010-06-13T17:44:56.053-07:002010-06-13T17:44:56.053-07:00I can hear him now:
"Let me be clear: even ...I can hear him now:<br /><br />"Let me be clear: even though this is totally Bush's fault, I take full responsibility."Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-75753672730605940152010-06-13T17:40:01.014-07:002010-06-13T17:40:01.014-07:00Joan:
I think you're right. Obama, because h...Joan:<br /><br />I think you're right. Obama, because he's so emotionally immature, can't handle all of the psychological projections being aimed at him, so he'll try to shift the focus and provide a different target for the projectors.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-88044868866281540152010-06-13T17:36:25.026-07:002010-06-13T17:36:25.026-07:00When you've lost the Times... who's next, ...When you've lost the Times... who's next, Castro?Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-4746606029820776322010-06-13T17:32:48.381-07:002010-06-13T17:32:48.381-07:00Oh c'mon blown hole, you're texting this t...Oh c'mon blown hole, you're texting this thread from a party being held in Rahm's rent-free D.C. lodgings underwritten by a BP flack, aren't you?<br /><br />As for the rest, I don't believe in convenient coincidences of opportunity. What I can believe is that Obama's speech on Tuesday will likely be to lay out a plan to nationalize our oil industry. But it won't be peddled that directly.<br /><br />It's how Mexican presidents get rich and stay rich: they skim the petroleum and drug cartel proceeds and skip town when they have enough to live in Bahrain. Most realize that absolute dictators get killed eventually, and really, they can't be bothered with the hassle of governing, so they merely "arrange" the economy to their liking and get out while the gettin's good.<br /><br />Otherwise, if he's going to insist it is another 9/11 then perhaps we shall hear of sabotage and intrigue and blame placed squarely on. . .Joan of Argghh!https://www.blogger.com/profile/14729682908266300507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-34812081909140573492010-06-13T17:30:57.248-07:002010-06-13T17:30:57.248-07:00In short: never send a community organizer to do ...In short: never send a community organizer to do a man's job.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-85620056352512436292010-06-13T17:30:25.466-07:002010-06-13T17:30:25.466-07:00Then again, even the Times is starting to doubt th...Then again, even the <a href="http://hotair.com/headlines/?p=87850" rel="nofollow">Times</a> is starting to doubt the competence of our socialist overlord.Gagdad Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.com