Who got it? Issues Beyond Palo Alto, posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 13, 2010 at 10:51 am Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
"Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on May 28, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
Prince William Sound is 55 square miles in area.
The Gulf of Mexico is 615,000 square miles.
The world did not come to an end when the drilling ship went down, nor when the oil spewed. It is unlikely that more than 10% of the Gulf wildlife will die, not unusual in nature. Big numbers, but it's a big world."
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 13, 2010 at 11:48 am Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
As any fool can see, the picture is my great great granddaughter Tegan paying vicarious homage to El Palo Alto. To the literate the accompanying reprint was my gloating over my better understanding of the spill. Don't feel bad about not getting it, Paul. Sometimes it takes years.
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 13, 2010 at 1:30 pm Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
I already started getting lawyer ads to claim my damages.
Posted by Perspective, a resident of the Meadow Park neighborhood, on Aug 13, 2010 at 6:19 pm
I must be a REAL fool....I STILL don't get it!!
BTW, heard an interesting way to think of the BP Oil spill today..
imagine the Super Dome filled with water, and 2 cans of beer are spilled into it...that was the amount of oil spill compared to Gulf amount.
In addition, the Gulf "leaks" oil naturally and daily, and in fact there are plants that COUNT on Oil to survive, and fish that count on those plants to survive.
So..what a bunch of hooey..the only thing that was a huge disaster that is continuing to be a disaster was the obstruction from this Admin for any solutions to be put in place to prevent the oil from reaching the shores...and the still continuing drill ban which is causing 75,000 people to be unemployed, to the tune of 2.5 Billion dollars in lost wages ( SO FAR)..
but no worries, unemployment will take care of it..
Posted by Jarred, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 14, 2010 at 10:04 am
The media and administration got out their best crayons to depict the disaster narrative, and thus provide their hapless sheep with the sense of victimhood, entitlement and misanthropy they so deeply crave.
How else can they rally the base so that government can stop those evil companies from satisfying their evil customers with useful products and services? This HAS to be a good disaster, so the Feds can not let it go to waste.
As H.L. Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
Walter, as @Paul has demonstrated ad nauseum, if you make one of your posts fool-proof, this forum will just create a better fool.
Posted by Paul, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 16, 2010 at 10:52 am
'As H.L. Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." '
Apt. Mencken was probably reacting to the WWI hysteria, but he certainly anticipated Joe McCarthy and, more recently, Geo W Bush.
Mencken also observed: "No one in this world, so far as I know - and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me - has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." which is often paraphrased as "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
Better fools = more money for anyone unencumbered by scruples.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. have gotten very unbroke while they were in office.
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 16, 2010 at 12:18 pm Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
Of course we all know from the Venona Papers and from an unbiased evaluation of his enemies that McCarthy was right and, thanks to the success of his enemies vilifying him the USSR was reading over our shoulder almost continuously, at a fierce cost in American lives. I pretty much agree with you on Bush, but he did appoint Cheney, Bolton, Rice and Rumsfeld; all of whom public service brought a pay cut. My vote? After Shirley Temple Black, always for the lesser of two evils. Mencken, of course, made his fortune feeding the ego of those who just know they are a cut above the herd. I prefer Kipling and Heinlein and Hoffer and Orwell, and, of course, Rand. [Not, you folk in Rio Linda, McNalley's partner]
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 16, 2010 at 4:37 pm Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
And of course the biggest conspiracy theories of all, Pages in category "Admitted Soviet spies"
The following 19 pages are in this category, out of 19 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).
A Aldrich Ames
B Elizabeth Bentley Louis F. Budenz
C Whittaker Chambers
G Ethel Gee David Greenglass
H Gunvor Galtung Haavik
J Robert Lee Johnson (spy)
K Alexander Koral
L Andrew Daulton Lee Oleg Lyalin
M Hede Massing
N Alexandru Nicolschi Selmer Nilsen Alan Nunn May
P Earl Edwin Pitts
S John Alexander Symonds
W Julian Wadleigh John Anthony Walker
Categories: Soviet spies | Cold War spies
And of course the Pentagon Papers and the Wikileaks.
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 16, 2010 at 5:37 pm Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
The initial entry of McCarthy into this discussion was to suggest that Gunner Joe was spreading hysteria by false claims of infiltration. Or so it seems, far be it for me to impute motive to you. Subsequent evidence from many sources confirmed that Joe was right. Kinda like when modern ballistics finally tie the payroll guard's bullet to Sacco's pistol, there was no wave of apology from the left. I apologize that the Wiki cite missed my cut, but that's where the list came from. It is a canard against the efficiency of the KGB to suggest their payroll records were inaccurate. But wait! There's more! Don't rest your case until you demonstrate the error in my imputation to ol' HL.
Posted by Paul, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 16, 2010 at 8:16 pm
"Gunner Joe was spreading hysteria by false claims of infiltration."
The above excerpt is correct, except for the Tail Gunner bit, which spread credibility by false claims of bravery in combat. McCarthy had some rides in a bomber as an observer, but nothing like liberal George McGovern's 35 missions, 30 as a pilot.
The basic fact is McCarthy blew a big bluster, ruined many innocent people by pure innuendo, but never convicted anyone. However, some still call him a hero. As Mencken said, "No one in this world...has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."
"Mencken, of course, made his fortune feeding the ego of those who just know they are a cut above the herd."
Actually, Mencken never got rich. He made a comfortable living at his craft, which was writing superb sentences and writing about the superb sentences of others.
Obviously you consider yourself part of the "herd," else you would not complain about "those who just know they are a cut above the herd." But this is a good sign; it shows you are cognizant.
One of life's base truths is there are people who are indeed a cut above the herd (in the ranch hand's sense of cut), and they know who they are. They have known since they were small children and became aware of others, and they will know until they depart the scene. They recognize their fellow cuttees, and they do not complain about their status. There is nothing the opinion of the herd can do about this basic fact, and indeed most members of the herd are unable to discern, let alone appreciate, the distinction. So congratulations.
Posted by Paul, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 17, 2010 at 12:12 pm
"Cull the herd and that distinction goes away, etc."
That's been tried at various times and places, most recently under the euphemism "cleansing." The challenge for its advocates is to position themselves in the cut above the cull.
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 17, 2010 at 12:41 pm Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
Whatever my attributes and skills may be, I am equal under the law to every one else. I hold this view not because of some internal grace, but for the pragmatic reason that's the only way it works. Once you start thinning the herd, have a care who makes the selection.
Posted by Paul, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 17, 2010 at 3:17 pm
"Culling" a herd and controlling its growth are fundamentally distinct concepts. Right-wing efforts to cull populations are vastly different from advocating reasoned population growth control, for which I prefer the liberal approach: universal education.
Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Aug 18, 2010 at 10:43 am
I get that you are obnoxious and opinionated and that you think in the terms that causes accidents like this and believe that the carrying capacity of the Earth will just absorb insult and insult forever and nothing can stop it. I also get that you are old and have no stake in the future at this point.
Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Aug 18, 2010 at 11:46 am Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online
Nonny, you are correct in that I am old, wrong everything else. If I didn't care, I wouldn't write. I have opinions based on a lifetime dealing with the physical and chemical interactions of matter and energy. Since way back engineers needed to understand proportionality because a slide rule had no decimal point. Some folk lack an understanding of the difference between having a horse fly or a horse land on you. "Scientists" are scrambling madly to find injury, but the lawyers are ordering their sport cars and "news"papers are dredging up old photos of oily birds.
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"Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on May 28, 2010 at 7:43 pm
