PUT A WHALE TO WORK!

From Yobie Benjamin at SFGate:

The world's largest oil skimming ship arrived in the Gulf of Mexico and as usual is entangled in the bureaucratic morass of BP. I am sure the delay is being caused by two issues - money and how much it would cost BP to commission the ship and absolutely dumb US EPA regulations.

US EPA regulations prohibit ships from discharging foul water in US waters and that makes sense. We don't want a ship to come in and throw their garbage water and/or bunker fuel on our waters.

The "A Whale" is different. It sucks in foul and contaminated sea water and then processes it separating oil from sea water and discharging the treated sea water back to the gulf. Now it is true that the discharged sea water has some small residual oil and there lies the EPA's knotted response - They want to disallow discharge of the cleaned water because of small residual crude.

"You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!"

Whatever blundering giant is stopping the action, whether BP or a federal agency, get out of the way now and permit the Whale to start clean-up operations.

HAPPY CANADA DAY! - BONNE FÊTE CANADA!

Image stolen from Canada Tim.

CHARLIE MELANCON'S AD

As Paul (A.) says, "Ow!"


UPDATE:For those who may not know, Charlie Melancon is the Blue Dog Democrat who is running against David Vitter for the US Senate. I'm not alway pleased with the votes of the Blue Dogs, but I'll take this Blue Dog Democrat over Vitter any day.

NOT SO FAST!

A very pretty young speech therapist was getting nowhere with her Stammerers Action Group. She had tried every technique in the book without the slightest success.

Finally, thoroughly exasperated, she said "If any of you can tell me the name of the town where you were born, without stuttering, I will have wild and passionate sex with you until your muscles ache and your eyes water. So, who wants to go first?”

The Englishman piped up. "B-b-b-b-b-b-b-irmingham", he said. "That's no use, Trevor" said the speech therapist, "Who's next?"

The Scotsman raised his hand and blurted out "P-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-aisley". "That's no better. There'll be no sex for you, I'm afraid, Hamish. How about you, Paddy?"

The Irishman took a deep breath and eventually blurted out, "London "

"Brilliant, Paddy!" said the speech therapist and immediately set about living up to her promise

After 15 minutes of exceptionally steamy sex, the couple paused for breath and Paddy said, "-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-erry"


Thanks to naughty Paul the BB's naughty friend Kathy.

"ACTING STRANGELY" WHILE FILMING

From the Daily Comet in Thibodaux:

One of the state’s leading civil-liberties advocates sent letters Monday to nine law-enforcement agencies in areas affected by the oil spill, including Lafourche and Terrebonne, urging them not to block individuals or the media from shooting video or taking photos on beaches being cleaned by BP or other public areas.

Marjorie Esman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, said she has received “numerous reports of interference with the right to photograph and record on public beaches” by police acting on the orders of BP or working off-duty security details for the oil-and-gas company, which has taken responsibility for the worst oil spill in the nation’s history.

“Public beaches remain open to the public, whether or not BP officials want them to be,” Esman wrote. “BP may not want the public to know the full effects of the oil spill, but that is precisely why public access is so important. BP doesn’t have the right to censor what people learn about the problem that it caused and that it must solve.”
....

Courier and Daily Comet reporters and photographers have at times been denied access to oil-soaked areas and had attempts to interview spill cleanup workers blocked by BP contractors and others. Other media outlets, including the New York Daily News and CBS news, have reported obstruction by local police and the Coast Guard, who reportedly said they were acting under BP’s orders.

Michael Oreskes, an Associated Press senior managing editor, wrote to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs earlier this month, citing instances of photographers and reporters threatened with arrest for attempting to gain access to public areas and other harassment by law enforcement and BP contractors.
....

She [Esman] also referred to an alleged incident in which an unnamed Terrebonne sheriff’s deputy working an off-duty detail for BP told a person to stop filming the outside the BP building in Houma, even though he was filming from a private field across the street. The deputy admitted the man broke no laws but tried to intimidate him into leaving anyway, Esman wrote.

Terrebonne Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois said the person filming was acting strangely and likely “testing the deputy.” But regardless, the deputy had no right to stop the person from filming, the sheriff conceded.

Ah, my friends, if "acting strangely" while filming is cause for action by law enforcement officers, a good many of us are in trouble. I'll add that Grandpère was a bit uneasy while I was taking photos on Grand Isle and Port Fourchon, but I was not.

I knew that we had the right to cross the barricade on the beach at Grand Isle, but I did not want to tussle with the authorities, and GP would have been quite upset with me if I had put my rights to the test.

CHURCH NEWS TO DEPRESS YOU IF YOU'RE NOT ALREADY DEPRESSED

Mexico adopts the Anglican Covenant.

Mexico has become the first Communion Province to adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant following its VI General Synod in Mexico City on 11 and 12 June.

The Episcopal Diocese of Albany endorses the Anglican Communion Covenant.

The resolution most heavily debated was Resolution #2 which stated: “RESOLVED, that the Episcopal Diocese of Albany endorses the Anglican Communion Covenant (final text, approved for distribution December 18, 2009) and recommends its adoption by all the Provinces of the Anglican Communion."

The House of Bishops commends the adoption of the Anglican Covenant by the Church of England.

1.On the Anglican Communion Covenant, the House agreed
(a) to commend it for adoption by the Church of England;
(b) to invite the Business Committee to schedule the beginning of the adoption process for the inaugural Synod in November 2010, with a view to final approval in February 2012;
(c) not to propose special majorities for its adoption; and
(d) to authorise the House’s Standing Committee to oversee the production of necessary material for the Synod.

As a palate cleanser to all of the above, read Savitri Hensman's brilliant opinion piece in the Guardian.

The Church of England's House of Bishops is urging it to accept an Anglican Communion Covenant. This would give top leaders of overseas churches more power over the C of E and (strictly in theory) vice versa. The Archbishop of Canterbury has been a champion of greater centralism among Anglicans worldwide, supposedly to strengthen unity. But recent events have exposed the tawdry reality behind talk of "interdependence" and "bonds of affection".

Is the Roman Catholic Church to be our model for Anglican unity? The Roman Catholic Church which presently appears to be imploding from the top?

From Mark Silk at Beliefnet:

I grant you that it isn't every day that the authorities hold a country's bishops for questioning for nine hours, confiscate their computers and cell phones, and drill into the sarcophagi of a couple of their deceased number. But when Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone protests that the Belgian bishops had been held without food and water when they haven't, and the Belgian bishops have to issue a correction, that's tells you the wheels are coming off the popemobile.

Is this the direction that we want to go? Away from "the bonds of affection" to an ever more constricting control by a central authority? With a quasi-Anglican pope?

As Hensman says:

In power-play of the type the Covenant encourages, global church politics will trump love, justice and even logic. This is a poor substitute for freedom in Christ.

To which I can only say, "Amen".

OUR PET EGRET

 

Majestic bird

 

Feeding on insects

 

Posed showing off its beauty

 

Near the patio.

It's a wonder that the legs, which are so very thin, are able to hold the egret upright. The long neck, too, seems fragile, but the muscles in both must be quite strong.

I'm showing off our visitor as if I had a new grandchild. To think of a beauty like this bird covered with oil is beyond depressing.

GIVE VETS A PIECE OF THE HIGH LIFE

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STORY OF THE DAY - QUEEN OF THE UNIVERSE

I used to hate birthdays, she told me,
until I figured out I was the Queen of
the Universe & now I do them for the
little people.

From StoryPeople.

FRONT FELL OFF

Thanks to David Fly via Lisa.