The Rude Pundit: Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Slap His Forehead and Down a Vicodin

[meegbear]

Yeah, that's another oil well blow-out. Yeah, it's in Louisiana, in Assumption Parish. Yeah, it's pretty much the Middle of Fucking Nowheresville (even if a few homes were evacuated and roads closed). Yeah, it's happening right now.

Of course, you see those green fields around the spraying well? That's sugar cane. Of course, the cause was probably a blow-out preventer that didn't work or wasn't installed properly. Of course, the oil has drifted to farms a mile away. Of course, it's gonna take two to ten days to cap it.

No, this is not about false equivalences. No, this well is not the same as the BP Gulf of Mexico leak. But it does demonstrate once again how completely integrated into our day-to-day life the wells themselves are, that they are not simply distant platforms in the ocean or There Will Be Blood-esque derricks in vast plains of dirt.

Bonus points: Oil is coming from the annulus, "the circular space, or void, between the well pipe in the center of the well and the face of the well bore." Some jokes are self-evident.

(Short posts this week due to the upcoming production of the Rude Pundit's new play, Heterosexuals. Come and have some filthy fun.

Click on the date to purchase tickets for the FringeNYC performances:

Tuesday, August 17 at 6:30 pm
Thursday, August 19 at 2 pm
Saturday, August 21 at 10 pm
Monday, August 23 at 8 pm
Wednesday, August 25 at 2 pm)

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I worked just outside of NO for years..and that is a totally accurate picture of what goes on down

there. The low-income, farming areas..mostly black..are used as cesspools for just about every filth producing corporation you can imagine.

There were many days that those I worked with and myself were not allowed outside for lunch, because a nearby Chemical company was having a "blowoff"..and we could not be outside during it. The company? HOOKER CHEMICAL..The same company that created Love Canal.
http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-disasters.htm#6._The_Love_Canal_chemical_waste_dump

Not one person I knew who lived in or around New Orleans drank the tap water....even showering in it was an experience one did not enjoy..it was OILY!!!!!!!
The pollution and dirt in the air were visible to the naked eye.
Crops grown around there were consumed only by those who could not afford to buy food from stores that got it from somewhere else.

Virtually ALL the local water and soil were polluted...nothing was done. The corporations were there due to low taxes, payoffs, and such total crookedness that it was accepted as normal.

All of this was done in the really rural areas where the people who lived there had no knowledge of, and/or no ability to fight it.

POVERTY, POLLUTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM:
STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/PovpolEj.html

Norco is a census-designated place (CDP) in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 3,579 at the 2000 census. The community is home to a major Shell petroleum refinery. Its name is derived from the New Orleans Refining Company.

Louisiana has asbestos pollution as well.
http://www.asbestosnews.com/asbestos-areas/louisiana.html

Want to get REALLY pissed off..or depressed?
http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters

[gratuitous]

4. But, but, but . . . JOBS!

Sure, there are a few guys making a buttload of money not to mention a few politicians lining their pockets, but think of all the JOBS that are created! And, uh, the decreased dependence on foreign oil. And other stuff, I'm sure.

[Hannah Bell]

10. re hooker chemical:

Blanchette Rockefeller

Blanchette Ferry Hooker was born in New York City on October 2, 1909. As the daughter of Blanche Ferry and Elon Huntington Hooker, she came from extraordinary affluence. Her mother's family owned the Ferry Morse Seed Company in Detroit, while her father was president of the Hooker Electro-Chemical Company. This inherited fortune, combined with the wealth she married into, later financed much of her philanthropy.

http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/alumni/blanchette-rockefeller.html


*actually, elon huntington hooker founded the company.

hooker polluted the tacoma tide flats here in the pacific nw, too.

blanchette married JD Rockefeller III.

[ensho]

2. kick

nt

[lillypaddle]

3. There's no end to it

:kick:

[Swede]

5. There are oil wells right in downtown Los Angeles.

Let's hope one of them don't asplode.

[meegbear]

6. I visit a bud in LA and drive by them ...

you can lightly smell the oil, kinda creepy actually.

[TransitJohn]

7. Do you stop to think about the smell while you're driving?

And that you're need to drive is the cause of the resource exploitation and it's ancilliary pollution (conveniently termed externalities)? It's a crazy situation of energy consumption we have.

[meegbear]

8. No, because I'm not driving - I'm a passenger

[undergroundpanther]

11. And people have cars

because towns are ZONED by land use,residents are living too far from schools,work, shopping,entertainment etc,by DESIGN,on purpose.. And because of that asshole,henry ford most towns/exurbs have shitty public transport,or none nowadays. You cannot walk anywhere,no sidewalks,you have to deal with drivers with no patience,decency or sanity..there is a thing called 'car apartheid' because everything is designed for CARS and you are forced to walk you can get objects tossed at you,get insulted by drivers speeding by,get harassed...
After all Nazis thought the suburbs and a cheap car to get around.Nazi's thought this stupid way of life was a great idea.They called suburbs"garden cities" and to live there you had to have a Volkswagen..

[NC_Nurse]

9. Where's that sugar cane going? That's a yucky thought, isn't it?

Oh, wait, I forgot... I'm sure the FDA will send some people to sniff it! No worries!