More on the Keystone XL Pipeline

Let’s talk about Thom Hartman’s exposee on the Keystone XL pipeline.  Apparently XL stands for – what else – extra large.  Anyhow- - Ed Schultz was right when he said that a lot of “talking points” are based on premises that are untrue.  Ed made much use of the phrase “Well, they’re going to do it anyhow”.   So if Ed had two teenage daughters, he would slip them condoms in their purse “just in case” or he would have teenage drinking parties in his home because “They’re going to do it anyhow and I just want them to be Safe”.  Ed says he’s concerned about “being safe”.   So like if I’m a rich guy like Warren Buffet or Donald Trump and Brady Black comes to me- - it’s OK for me to say to Brady “You know I’m worried about your being safe in that park trolling the grounds at night looking for a drug buy.  I tell you what. I’m going to give you all the free Cocaine you want.  After all I know you won’t be using any more drugs, just because now it’s free”.  This is exactly Ed Schultz stance on the Keystone XL pipeline.  He goes on and on about how dangerous rail cars are and “how much safer it would be if they could build a pipeline for the oil”.   In the first place the words “the oil” is a misnomer because this is oil that Right Now is STILL in the ground, and it’s the avowed hope of every environmentalist to make sure these tar sands stay right where they are in Alberta.  Thom Hartman points out that without US help, the whole scheme to sell Canadian tar sand oil to places such as China and Brazil and Europe, would not get off the ground.  Thom raised the question nobody else is asking of “If Canada loves oil so much why don’t they just build a refinery there and then sell the refined product to us in America”.  The answer of course is that Canada’s own environmental laws would preclude their building a refinery there.  Instead they want to construct a pipeline that spans a continent- - and dump the oil on - - as Thom puts it – the poor populations of red states that have almost zero power to stop this political juggernaut.  Of course another lie is “North American oil independence”, but the United States is not getting any of that oil.  The rich, moneyed people will be hauling in the green stuff including the Koch Brothers and the people who run the refinaries, and they can dump their dirty, carsinogenic sludge all over the South.  There is another pipeline that already goes to places like St Louis and Chicago and Kalamazoo - - where there was an oil spill not too long ago.  Keep in mind the British Petrolium blow out was “from the latest equipment that had all of these  - - Safeguards” as if the company is going to heed these if they don’t want to to boost profits.  Ed Schultz can be really dense.  Ed says “It will bring jobs” but there is a grand total of 35 American jobs on a permanent basis once the thing is up and running.  That’s all.  You know- - moneyed interests have tried to steer us away from ecology before.  The Red Cars here in LA with the PE railroad were driven out of business by Firestone and the concrete industry.  And I bet they were saying “But just because we build freeways doesn’t mean people will stop using the Red Cars”.   Ed Schultz isn’t so stupid is he that he honestly believes that having this plan shoved down our throats with the liability assumed in case of whatever pollution or cancer suits- - that is isn’t going to dramatically retard the alternate energy industry.  Already Communist China is out doing us on things like wind and solar power.   Demand for oil is dropping and alternative energy is on the rise.  And President Obama wants to throw a monkey wrench into it.  So he has John Kerry issue this report that says XL pipeline oil is safe.  In the first place it isn’t normal oil but more like sludge – that has a heavy carbon footprint when burned.  Apparently John Kerry did a face-off with Senator Harry Reid, in terms of refusing to take up the bill in the Senate.  I salute Harry Reid for standing his ground and not allowing this travesty to come to pass.  And if the US won’t go along with this scheme of the Koch Brothers- - the thing won’t happen because they admit “It just wouldn’t be economically feasible to transport all of this oil by rail”.

This morning after Ed Schultz I went for morning coffee in the courtyard and had two cups. Venus was ridiculously bright as I headed home from the bakery this morning.  Yesterday I also went for morning coffee while the Beatles were on KLOS.  Actually I found what Rush Limbaugh had to say a lot more useful than what Ed Schultz was saying, which I’ll get to later.  Rush was lamenting how some people are “afraid of winning’ and don’t play to win, but somehow play to “not lose” or maybe just “squeeze by”.  This is not the attitude of a winner of life.  (Selah)  I think we Democrats could take heart from Rush’s “inspirational words”.  In soap land the plot is crazy and if anything ever begins to make sense I’ll let you know.  Randy Rhodes was carrying on so about the Seattle victory that I switched to Thom Hartman and the Windows light show.  Was Payton Manning playing "not to lose"?  Was Rush Limbaugh kind of giving the Denver Broncos kind of a morning after "pep talk"?  If the tea party is as dispirited as Rush portrays it as - - it's like that scene in the Joan of Arc movie where her troops are storming the enemy fortress and someone said "My men are tired" and Joan responds, "Those troops of the enemy are just as tired.  Hold out a little longer and stick with the task at hand and you will have victory.  Don't lose heart".  Well as you know, Joan's troops won the victory.  Let me talk a little about this idea of "Serving God".  You have to first ask yourself some fundamental questions such as "Is it theoretically possability that God's will MIGHT be thwarted by man's refusal to act on his Word?  Then it really helps to "Just what it IS that God wants to accomplish, with or without our help".  The question needs to be phrased in sort of an IF - - THEN statement like a BASIC program.  If man does A, then X will happen; if man does B then Y will happen.  But man devout among us would say "God does not deal in such crass, pragmatic language".  They can't find scripture to support their position, but still it serves them to hold it- - because that way the Truth can never be Found Out- - and there can never be a means of TESTING what is right and what is wrong.  This suits most churchmen just fine. It leaves the rest of the world in the dark, and they - like Steve Jobs - -think they, and they alone have "the key to the new life of salvation that's going to bring universal human happiness".

“Jeopardy” is just coming on doing their “first decade”.  Tonight we had meat balls over rice with a tomato based sauce with broccoli and a green salad.  I waited a while for seconds but didn’t see any.  We had raspberry sherbet for desert.  Soon after dinner I found Anita on the patio and she gave me back the two dollars.  I went right out and got a large coffee.  When I booted the computer I received a notice that Mc Afee had to shut down.  So even if I were so inclined to do another posting this evening maybe I shouldn’t go on the internet.  The ABC network news and all of the news was ponderous to wade through.  There are three more winter storms headed your way if you live “back east”.  There was a lot of Super Bowl gloating, and in a blow out game it proved to be the most watched event ever on nation-wide TV.  Very strange.  There was a lot of talk about puppies and horses and kids with time machines, and cougar attacks, and we don’t mean horney older women and younger men.  The “fluff” index increases with each passing month.  There was no nation wide or world wide news at all.  I was reading a magazine that said “We can prove poverty isn’t a problem today.  Because upward mobility from the lowest fifth of the economy to the top fifth is identital to what it was just before Lyndon Johnson began his war on poverty at the beginning of 1964 standing at 7.8% a figure I doubt anyhow.  I doubt it’s that high.  But just to put that in perspective to “make his point’ he has to go back half a century.  If Johnson had done the same thing and said “poverty is identical to what it was in 1914 that proves that poverty is not a problem” he would have sounded completely silly.  This is why you have to pay close attention to these jokers.  I kept my word to Glen and paid him a total of three cigarettes for a spoon of instant coffee.  I remarked how warm and toasty his room was, as opposed to this one.  I hope Bill pays me back cigarettes tomorrow when he gets paid, for all the ones I’ve lent him.  This magazine also referred to President Obama as “a spent man”.  You know it would help if they referred to him as “The President” rather than just “Obama” once in a while, as though he were some new draftee recruit headed into basic training.

Suppose John Lennon "had help" with a number of his compositions by a Captain X Ray.  For instance track three on "Mind Games" was conceived as a parody of "I almost cut my hair' by David Crosby as kind of an "I"ll apologise if I have to - but I'm not going to like it".   It was intended to be song in kind of a rough, soulful voice kind of like a male Janis Joplin.  The tune was to a degree based on "I Can't Quit You, Babe" by Led Zeppelin.   "What's Coming Down" was originally intended with the same kind of electric piano that appears in "Come Together" and none of the excess resonance that pervades the final version.  We have three songs on Imagine to get to and we already told you about "Gimme Some Truth" was written.  "I Feel Like Going Down" was kind of inspired by "Parachute Woman" done at a significantly faster tempo- - and was intended to have a harmonica in it- - excuse me - - harp, like the Rolling Stones use, kind of a whaling sound like "When the Levy Breaks".   Then we have "I Don't Wanna be a Soldier Mama I Don't Want to Die".  This was inspired by "Wall of Sleep" by Black Sabbath.  It was demoed with Captain X Ray banging out the tempo on a snare drum and high hat cymbal, hitting the closed high hat with a stick.  The song was always conceived as sort of a cross-channel twinning re-verb song.  We now come to "When I get home", which if anything the story line was inspired by "Devil Woman" by Marty Robins.  "You Can't Do That" and "I'll Cry Instead" were kind of collaborative efforts- - at least lyrically between Captain X Ray and John Lennon.  Captain X Ray was pretty much responsible for the music in all three tracks.  We come to "Tell Me Why", which nobody is sure who thought of the tune, except it was conceived as kind of an 'Answer Song' to "I'll Cry Instead'.   It was one of those girl group things where a bunch of- - cheer leaders or something sing the thing acapella clapping their hands and stuff.  "Heatwave" is perhaps the clossest thing I can think of, that may have inspired the tune of the song.   I"m not saying - - but I'm just saying.  Just between you and me - - John Lennon has shown a disinclination to deny any of the details of this paragraph, but ask him yourself, if you don't believe me.   Better yet, you just give me your version.