If you are a total newshound, you might, might, have heard a small something about a group of environmental protestors in front of the White House – some of who are being arrested. Why are they there? To protest a potential pipeline to be built from Canadian tar sands to Houston. There is currently a pipeline, but it only goes to Cushing, Oklahoma and Illinois. This new pipeline would go through some of the US’s most pristine natural habitat all because the current pipeline isn’t more direct enough.
I have to admit ignorance to this issue on many levels until recently. The tar sands have always sounded innocuous to me. I imagined something like a tar pit with a bunch of sand and oil in it that just sat in a field somewhere. Completely naïve. The tar sands are actually soil, clay, and sand with oil mixed in underneath a giant forest sitting in Alberta, Canada. To get at this tar sand, you must raze the forest either by cutting it down or strip-mining it. Then, they bring in giant tractors to dig up the ground and take the dirt away. This is an awful plan on so many levels.
We are destroying a huge amount of trees, which convert CO2 to Oxygen, in order to get at oil which is completely inefficient and in refining and using it, will create what amounts to a CO2 bomb. It’s absolutely asinine. Just because it’s there, doesn’t mean we have to drill or mine it. Jesus Christ! We need to show some self-control. And we don’t need to build a giant fucking pipeline just because it will be more direct than the pipeline THAT IS ALREADY THERE!
Quick side note here. The police are arresting peaceful protestors in front of the White House, who are exercising their legitimate 1st Amendment rights. How come this is an arrestable offense and Tea Bagging fucklenuts can all get together for a gun orgy in public areas, and not get arrested in the claim of excercising their 1st and 2nd Amendment rights? It makes no sense. Speech gets you arrested, guns imtimidate the cops? This country is so screwed.
Back to my main point. This is something that Obama can end, all on his own. No matter what Congress wants. No matter what the Tea Idiots want. Because the pipeline crosses a national border, it is a State Department issue. This is something that we need Obama to take a stand on. To this point, Obama has disappointed every one of his major constituencies except for homosexuals. Social progressives, environmentalists, middle class, labor, teachers, young people, etc. have all been completely dicked over by the Obama Administration. He has failed to take a stand on anything.
Over the last ten years, our government has been able to strip all meaningful funding away from any kind of scientific research done on our own planet. This includes our weather sattelite system that allows us to monitor storms like Hurricane Irene which is about to slam into the East Coast, as I write this. The water in the Atlantic Ocean is at a record high which means more fuel for the hurricane and increases its strength. Also, the fact that the hurricane is reaching so far north up the east coast.
And because man made climate change is still being denied by a bunch of evangelical fundamentalists and industry companies that care only about the bottom line, NOAA is getting it's funding cut, along with NASA, for monitoring ice levels in Antarctica, weather patterns, water levels, etc. Science isn't a hoax. Scientists aren't out to screw over the common man. They have no reason to concoct some elaborate lie in order to fool the world into thinking it's apporaching the end. That's what religion is for.
When you have a group of people in government that believe in the second coming of Christ, End Times, and that a war will be fought between Satan and God, you should probably just shoot yourself in the head. People who believe the end is coming have no incentive to protect and care for the current world because they are just looking toward the fantasy world which doesn't exist. I find this to be absoltuely, terrifying.
As a country, we currently are barely better than the Catholic Church persecuting Galileo, Copernicus, and the others in their investigation of the world around them. We persecute scientists that are trying to do nothing but explain the world around them. I watched a show about the creation of the universe on Discovery the other day and at the end it was followed up by a discussion with two pre-eminent scientists, and some theologian from Georgetown. The theologian offered absolutely nothing for the conversation besides saving Discovery from having to face the wrath of a bunch of crazy religious people. You can watch the clips of the discussion below.
