The Gulf is Dead

I wonder if we can send all the executives some Shrimp Corexit Gumbo.

Where is the Invisible Hand to Save Us from the tyranny of pollution?

What? It doesn’t work that way?

@ManchuCandidate: They should be dragged from their mansions and tried.

In other news, the Iraq marshes drained by BarackHusseinObama are coming back to life. Those of you who adore and worship Ring of Bright Water and go boo-hoo whenever you read it and have to hang on to uprights so you don’t fall down to sob helplessly on the floor while being licked by dachshunds– not me– will be particularly interested in this news since it was from these marshes that the otter came. They are the third largest marsh system on earth behind the Everglades and Albany. I haz a ring of bright hope. I go now to skip about the garden in an ecologically responsible way. We have had rain. Not enough. But at least it’s not like living on Mars any more.

@Benedick: Some people I work with got to work on the Iraqi marsh restoration in the aftermath of W’s insanity. I’m glad some success has been achieved. Wetlands are really easy to damage, but often can be restored (if you don’t fill them or continually dump oil on them).

@Walking Still: OMG. Thanks. That book ripped me to pieces. Not least because of the absolute wrongness of taking one of the Iraqi otters to the far north of Scotland. You must understand that I am a footling quisling and am grateful to those who know more than me like yourself. (Not Catt. He is such trash.)

I was on a radio interview / call-in program on our local NPR station with a guy from the company that makes Corexit. I referred to his product as “toxic” and he had a conniption on air. If I had been sharper, I would have challenged him on the spot to drink a big frosty mug of it.

@Dodgerblue: They’ll probably be citing out of context stuff like the June 2010 EPA study. Regardless, no one sane would drink (or get any where near) any dispersant. The $64,000 question may be the fun matter of overall toxicity from the witch’s brew of dispersant and dispersed oil.

I’ve always wondered whether dispersing oil really is a useful strategy even assuming a non-toxic dispersant.

@ManchuCandidate:
All too often the Invisible Hand gives us an all too Visible Finger.

@Jesuswalksinidaho:

THAT is the best comment I’ve read online today.

Hope you don’t mind if I steal it? It’s brilliant!

I can’t wait until the next time some prattling Libertard or Teabagger starts throwing that tired old talking point around. I’m pulling that one out like a switchblade.

Huzzah.

@Walking Still: Hi.

/shakes hand

Is the first part of that name “comatose and . . .?” If so, you’ll fit right in.*

Holy crap, boys and girls. I spent the whole day in the sun. Shot about 300 rounds of .22, 9 mm and .357 over three hours today, doing slow ass versions of the El Presidente handgun drill for engaging multiple targets with a reload in the middle and shot the rifle I took from the four field positions (standing offhand, kneeling, sitting and prone) which had me lying in the dirt amongst the sagebrush and cactus.

After watching the tail end of the Germans taking out their colony settled by U-Boat, Mrs RML and I hiked up that little 9100 ft mountain at the edge of town. Three hours up and back. Came home and the damn grill ran out of gas just before our ribeyes were done but we still pulled off an OK dinner. My skin feels cooked from the day and I’m hydrating with a Malbec.

*line from a neil young song

@redmanlaw: You got it. I’ll be seeing the author tomorrow night. It’s a line I closely identified with when we had two children under the age of five.

@Walking Still: I thought it had to do with too much drankin’ or something when I heard it. Like my brother used to say, “parenthood is an exercise is sleep deprivation.”

/’night, y’all

TJ/ PHEW! Chaka has been added! I can’t believe I forgot her. Shame on me.

@Walking Still: There are some non-crazies who think that the use of dispersants can be helpful to the extent that it keeps oil off the beaches, wetlands etc. and leaves it in the water column where, over time, bacteria will eat it. But no one has ever tried using the stuff in 5,000 feet of water. I expect Godzilla to rise up out of the sludge any day now.

@Dodgerblue: I’ve got some ideas for Godzilla once he appears. How about a visit to the next BP board meeting?

@Dodgerblue: @Walking Still: Exactly! We need the Blue Oyster Cult to go down to Pensacola Beach and play their tribute to the cinema monster and raise him from the depths to avenge the world!