And Thank You for Shitting in Our Pool

Whoops. Too bad those friends and neighbors hitched their wagon to a universally reviled company! Way to shit on your franchisees, BP!

Should have thought about that before demanding that the Feds ignore regulation and going cheap with the safety gear, BP.

@IanJ: Then again, I was originally going to play a different angle: “Boycotting Gas Stations Is Like Boycotting Drug Dealers.”

So, Lenny Kravitz was sitting on a terrace at Jax Brewery in the French
Quarter, looking out over the Mississippi river. While sitting there, he
realized that a high school chorus on the boardwalk was performing Fly Away.
So he went down and joined them. Totally impromptu, unplanned. This chorus
is out there doing their high school chorus thing, and Lenny Kravitz walks
up and joins them. So this high school kid is playing lead guitar on Fly
Away while Lenny Kravitz plays drums. Is this the best thing that will
happen to this kid like ever, or what?

Video is 5m long. Kravitz directs the choir, then takes over on drums, then
sings lead. Worth it to watch the whole 5 minutes.

Link

@nojo: I saw some video recently that played out a theoretical conversation in the BP board room, using animated kitty-cat pictures. It was cute and all, but the bit I liked was the brief phrase printed on the screen at the end: You’re not mad enough to stop driving.

@Capt Howdy: That was really cool.

@Capt Howdy: LOVE!

ADD: That is easily one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen.

Hey, Dodger’s with Keef!

No, wait — it’s RFK Jr.

I actually feel bad for the BP franchisees … they sell something we all willingly use. Even here in the Big Apple, I use gas when I hail a cab, rent a Zipcar, or get on a bus. The gas they sell is not BP gas – there’s no such thing. Distributors for each company buy the gas from refiners, perhaps throw in a couple additives, and sell it to dealers. The gas in the tanks of your local Exxon might have come from the same refiner the gas at your Costco did.

I’d be glad to bring the class action against BP, on behalf of the franchisees. All franchise agreements allow the franchisor to cancel the agreement, if the franchisee doesn’t run the business on the up and up. My suit would turn the tables, allege that BP’s malfeasance is causing irreperable harm to the franchisees, The injunctive relief I would seek would allow the franchisees to suspend franchise payments, and to buy gas from independant distributors and put up big signs, sayin “WE HAVE STOPPED SELLING GAS FROM BP, WE ARE BOYCOTTING BP AND SELLING GAS FROM INDEPENTANT DISTRIBUTORS.”

@blogenfreude: We should feel bad for the BP franchisees, its not their fault, they should be temporarily let go from the franchise agreements, until this is settled, and allowed to sell gas as independants. Let me at them, franchise law is my bread and butter. Its a reasonable request, in the circumstances, and in the end, no skin off BP, really, gasoline is a commodity, they would just throw their production to the independant distributors anyway.

Gasoline is a fungible commodity, it doesn’t matter where you are buying it, you are buying it from the best and the worst, in the market, its all thrown together.

@Promnight: I flip them the bird every time I drive by. Might start yelling at them soon. Pfft. They can kiss my car-sharing ass.

ADD: I used to work graveyard at a BP. Fuck ’em.

On my holiday weekend now. The rain has wiped out the sat dish, so no 30 Rock rerun tonight. Mrs RML is out for a drink, the boy is hopefully tie dyeing me my new camo fishing shirt (think Rebel ponchos on Endor for the pattern) and I’m getting all my fishing crap together for a three day run of half day trips.

@redmanlaw: ZOMG! Son of RML would LOVE this site: http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/lowwaterimmersion.shtml <– that links to the low-water-immersion technique. That's how I do it, but she explains all. I also fold the mandala patters, no rubber bands, mix colors, etc.

@all: (Oh, and I've been wearing all your shirts. Sorry)

@redmanlaw: You gotta come up, we hunt the striped bass, or, humble hunter-gathering, clams, mussels, crabs, there for the simple task of scooping them up. The only lasting evidence of native american settlement and life in my area, are the shell mounds, clams and oysters, that the Leni Lenape band of the Delaware built up during their summer encampments at the shore. There is nothing left of them here, but the shell mounds, and some place names. Metedeconk, Manahawkin, my town.

@JNOV: The people who own the gas stations are small fry, squeezed from above by BP. They have nothing, nothing whatsoever, to do with it.

@Promnight: And I was a small fry, trying not to get shot up in West Philly BP minimum wage employee behind bullet-proof glass. I have no sympathy for them.

@JNOV: I have sympathy for everyone, except Cheney. Oh, okay, and everyone else, who has more than they need, and has no sympathy and concern for those who don’t have what they truly need. My idea of social justice, noone should have more than they need, until everyone has at least the basic needs met. I can’t feed on the powerless when my cup is overflowing.

@Promnight: Then send me some cash.

@JNOV: Did you get any help with tuition on that deal? I came from nothing, I had to chip in with my brothers and sisters to pay for dad’s funeral, thats what he left us, debt. Those funeral homes, they are stone cold, too, they look at you, and say “how you paying” before they will schedule the viewing. As unfair as our society is, it recognized your amazing talent, and gave you a leg up, didn’t it? More than my parents could give me. You really think that morally, I owe you some cash?

@Promnight: Nope. I don’t think you owe me a thing. I thought you were offering.

@nojo: Well, one difference is that I try to be really careful with the facts.