Drilling Protesters Gather in Florida
[Guest post by DRJ]
Offshore drilling protesters joined Gov. Charlie Crist and the pied piper on the formerly beautiful white beaches of the Florida Panhandle:
“Hundreds of people including Florida’s governor joined hands on an oil-stained strip of beach in the Florida Panhandle as part of an international demonstration against offshore drilling on Saturday.
***
Michael DeMaria, a clinical psychologist from Pensacola, led demonstrators from a pavilion to the shore like an environmentalist pied piper, tooting softly on a native American-style flute. He said he often tells patients to go swimming in the Gulf as part of therapy.”
The article says they waded in the water and said it was safe, but I’ll take their word for it that the beach is oil-stained.
Then most of them got in their cars and went shopping, out to eat, or home to watch TV in their air-conditioned residences.
— DRJ
I love oil.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 6/26/2010 @ 7:42 pm“The demonstration also was intended to show support for clean alternatives to fossil fuels.”
Unicorn Farts?
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/26/2010 @ 7:46 pmYou know, I have always, always felt that Charlie Crist defined the word oleaginous.
Maybe there is more danger from that slick oil than from the oil slick in the Gulf?
Eric Blair (02a138) — 6/26/2010 @ 8:36 pmMy favorite bit from the linked article:
Really? I need to repeat it: “...tooting softly on a native American-style flute.” At least he wasn’t playing Zamfir’s panpipes.
On the other hand:
http://www.ontos.org/michael-demaria-about.shtml
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, he is a “Registered Play Therapist” trained at “The Institute of Formative Spirituality.”
Honestly. It’s like some kind of tasteless joke.
Eric Blair (02a138) — 6/26/2010 @ 8:43 pmPerhaps it should read:
rudytbone (a0636a) — 6/26/2010 @ 9:07 pm“…Michael DeMaria, a clinical psycho from Pensacola, ….”
He sounds like Jethro Dull.
Gazzer (dd9e24) — 6/26/2010 @ 10:27 pmif they’d all had Aqua-lungs, they could have gone diving for clinical pearls.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 6/26/2010 @ 10:55 pmclean alternatives to fossil fuels
Eat the dinosaurs first! They’re already dead!
nk (db4a41) — 6/27/2010 @ 1:23 amSort of like the tea party people who accept food stamps, drive on public roads, take advantage of stimulus funds, etc.
AJB (d64738) — 6/27/2010 @ 5:16 amSerious: would it be so hard to invest more in energy efficiency and try to reduce the rate at which we increase our consumption of oil?
AJB (d64738) — 6/27/2010 @ 5:17 amI have no problem with nuclear power plants, but I think solar and wind are wishful thinking, and biofuels, especially ethanol, are a disgrace — a waste of topsoil our most precious resource. We need fossil fuels and we need to obtain them domestically.
nk (db4a41) — 6/27/2010 @ 5:27 amWe abandoned wind and solar, 250 years ago, maybe they heard of the industrial revolution, and that
ian cormac (7bb4f2) — 6/27/2010 @ 6:14 amwas when we had a fraction of the world’s population, these idiots will be the death of us
> Dozens frolicked in the water, and Crist, who wore shorts, waded a few feet in as the demonstration broke up. He assured people the water was safe.
Indeed. I believe that, much like the Exxon Valdez was, that it will wind up being a momentary froth of news with no longer-term effect on things — that, in 10 years time, instead of being a memorable event, such as the destruction of the Challenger, or the fall of the Berlin Wall, that it’s going to be one of those things where you mention it in 5 or 10 years and people will go, “What? Oil Spill? What oil spill? Oh, THAT. Yeah, I remember that, now that you mention it…”
If any “investigative journalists” in 10 years time try and investigate the long-term effects of the event, they will be so negligible as to be a complete non-story.
IgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society (79d71d) — 6/27/2010 @ 7:03 am> if they’d all had Aqua-lungs, they could have gone diving for clinical pearls.
I’d just be happy if they’d all’ve walked west until their hats floated, and kept going.
IgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society (79d71d) — 6/27/2010 @ 7:05 amwhere’s a nice under tow when you need one?
bradnsa (4c9195) — 6/27/2010 @ 7:11 amSort of like the tea party people who accept food stamps, drive on public roads, take advantage of stimulus funds, etc.
Comment by AJB
Just what “advantage” is there with stimulus funds ? Do you think the tea party people are government employees ? I will grant that many are unemployed and some may have accepted food stamps to feed their children. Do you see any asking for more stimulus or more food stamps ?
The “government roads” ploy is an old leftist talking point, as if government was equally responsible for roads and trillions in spending on useless left wing projects.
Some people are fools and there is just nothing you can do about it.
Mike K (82f374) — 6/27/2010 @ 7:12 amAJB’s not as exotic as ‘wheeler’ cat, orDark Beer
ian cormac (7bb4f2) — 6/27/2010 @ 7:18 amGod, but a fool just the same
Short, serious answer: Yes.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 6/27/2010 @ 8:16 amFacts;
“Then most of them got in their cars and went shopping, out to eat, or home to watch TV in their air-conditioned residences.” </i?
Assumptions;
Sort of like the tea party people who accept food stamps, drive on public roads, take advantage of stimulus funds, etc.
Personally I think that most folks actively sucking on the govt tits are not the ones suggesting they spend less money. Last time I checked most road funding comes from a TAX on oil products! Not a bequeath from any govt agency directly.
I think that we should have helped those in the beach Kumbyah fest to realize their dream, Steal their cars whilst they are frolicking in the waves! Then they can be counted as leaders and pioneers of their front.
*********
This event is horrible, but who remembers when BOP’s were not even invented yet in the same region? The wells, though onshore, were on the beach and they spilled a lot of oil. It’s seemingly all gone, or gone enough it has become part of the swamps and such.
This event is bad, real bad, but mother nature will win in the end. She has a great track record!
TC (814db1) — 6/27/2010 @ 8:18 am#19 TC: Are we even at the point yet where the oil from the blowout has reached the same volume as the oil that naturally leaks out of the seabed in a year’s time in that region?
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 6/27/2010 @ 8:22 amNo one remembers Ixtoc, and the press isn’t even interesting in trying to recall it, or Exxon Cadiz
ian cormac (7bb4f2) — 6/27/2010 @ 8:35 amor a half dozen other similar situations
#20…
I’ve no idea of the background seepage levels.
But I am rather fed up with all the emotional flow over wildlife losses and such. And I’m totally pissed at those that are demanding BP fork over all they have plus, then advocating the total boycott of BP resources to generate the money to pay for such.
I don’t like the immediate wildlife loses, don’t like seeing it, but the only real goal today is to stop the gotdaaumed flow with a joint mission of clean it up!
STUPID!
Ian, you bring a good point, this spill STILL PALES to what this earth has experienced in the past, some of that not so far off either.
The oil Drum.com has a map. They also feature some of the best REAL information from those that have played in this field for many years and KNOW exactly what they speak of.
TC (41448e) — 6/27/2010 @ 8:56 am“Sort of like the tea party people who accept food stamps…”
You know it’s a funny thing. Not one right winger I know collects food stamps, but every left wing enviro-loon I know DOES drive a car, including one of my neighbors who is a big wheel in Earth First!
Dave Surls (5c81b6) — 6/27/2010 @ 9:21 am“Then most of them got in their cars and went shopping, out to eat, or home to watch TV in their air-conditioned residences.”
Awesome. Haven’t had iced tea blown through my sinuses like that in quite a while. This statement pretty much sums up the almost comical hypocricy on display there. Maybe if Charlie Crist didn’t spend so much time in the tanning bed as governor of the “Sunshine State”, his views on energy would be taken a little more seriously.
stout77 (c2d8fe) — 6/27/2010 @ 11:42 amNo, stout77, lacking a tan, his views on energy would still be fatuous.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/27/2010 @ 11:49 amIt’s so bizarre to call Tea Partiers hypocrites for driving on public streets. They *all* agree the government should support streets. They also know we won’t get new streets when we run out of money on entitlements. I don’t know any on food stamps, though I bet most of them think there should be some very bare essentials safety net.
You have to really be swimming in the kool aid to think opposition to our deficit = anarchist.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 6/27/2010 @ 11:52 amWe are having our “Stand in the Sand” right about now.
I’m sure there will be a drum circle, faux Chumash Indian’s (the real ones used tar pitch from the numerous local natural seeps to plugs the leaks in their dugout canoes) various surfer/weed smokers and their pandering politicians.
We had an offshore spill… I think it was three miles offshore… back in 1969. So we came up with GOO.. Get Oil Out, and birthed the demon spawn environmental movement. Earth Day and all that stuff.
There are supposed to be thousands expected today at West Beach… and maybe. If you count all the tourists who will wander over to see what all the noise is about. Most locals will walk, bike or skateboard from wherever they park the car.
The latest idiocy here is being against slant drilling from onshore.
I am reasonably certain we cash the checks the oil companies write.
For sheer entertainment value, nothing is better than reading a letter to the editor written by a student at UCSB who noticed tar blobs on the beach after surfing Sands over near Coal Oil Point and who has deduced the blobs must be from a leaking offshore rig.
At least he/she wasn’t surfing at Tar Pits down in Carpinteria or off Mesa Lane where it oozes out out of the cliffs, or down at Hammond’s just south of the Biltmore, where you always need mineral oil and some Dawn. We used to get tar in our long hair back in the late 60’s and just cut the whole chunk out. We used Kerosene on our feet.
I forget how much oil leaks into the SB Channel naturally every day.. and indeed, it is enough that some environmental groups are OK with slant drilling, because it will likely reduce the amount of natural seepage… begging the question of why it is OK to upset an ecosystem that has adapted to seeps, but never mind… first let’s get the oil out of the sea floor and then bring up the inconsistency
SteveG (9fb25f) — 6/27/2010 @ 4:12 pmLocal media scrubbed the “thousands expected” because… well, unexpectedly, even though this is Solstice weekend (a big fun event with a weird parade and lots of tourists) a newly estimated 350 showed up.. and that is counting the mayor, our congressperson, Jean Michel Cousteau, a host of hippies, the aforementioned faux Chumash, and a couple of pods of dolphin.
The local stories touted some hispanic guy from UCSB who was organizing this thing and he purposefully chose this weekend to keep the good vibe from solstice going one more day. He gets 350.
I can get more people than that for a party with an AM radio and half done keg of Hamms.
I won’t smack talk the kid though, Mexico lost to Argentina and with the above organizing credentials he’ll move pretty quickly to state government and then on to the Senate and… well…
Oh yeah. Here is how much seeps naturally:
SteveG (11baba) — 6/27/2010 @ 10:09 pm