$25.99 x 9,500=$246,905. Pretty good for a book that's just been published: that's the figure the publisher should take in from the Defense Department, which has bought all available copies of the first edition--to destroy them! The book: Operation Dark Heart, by Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer.
As Col. Shaffer remarked: it's "ludicrous"--in this digital age--to think that the Defense Department, by buying 9500 copies, is going to eliminate all copies with questionable, supposedly classified information. The second printing does have many redactions, in some cases whole paragraphs, but meanwhile: at least one seller on eBay, claiming to have a first-edition printing, is asking nearly $2,000 for it. And you know, from Col. Shaffer's remark, that there are probably un-redacted copies flying around the Internet.
Oh, not to worry! DOD has money to burn, even if everyone else has to deal with slashed budgets. After all, after the Republicans get over their snit re Don't Ask Don't Tell, they'll probably want to raise the Defense Budget, and insure that we never withdraw from anywhere.
Of course, they'll complain that the government's deficit is going through the roof. Then, they'll say we've got to cut Social Security benefits--which are paid for through the payroll tax and the trust fund. Defense is paid through general revenue. And they'll say we've got to stop any stimulus spending, and any welfare spending: let the unemployed go jump off bridges! Let the poor (now on Medicaid) get sick and die!
So, we have 9.6% official unemployment, which is probably 17% when "discouraged workers" and involuntary part-time workers are counted. The right-wing seems to be saying: we can do nothing; we should be doing nothing. What's extraordinary is that their candidates still lead in the polls, especially, when Republicans insist that even the millionaires and billionaires should get tax cuts--and declare: everyone's taxes will rise unless the billionaires get tax cuts, too!
The best part is: we'll borrow the money from the Chinese, to make up for the shortfall of $700 billion that millionaires and billionaires will use to invest in--"emerging markets," i.e. countries like China, which is "where the growth is."
Chinese workers are only beginning to organize to demand better wages and working conditions. Americans? We're watching football, or reality shows, or worrying whether Lindsey Lohan will really stop drinking. Whadda we know about what's going on?
In besieged ancient Cirta, the Roman governor feared that closing the coliseum's games would drive citizens to riot. So, they continued, even as the Vandals broke through the city's walls. Vandals killed or enslaved virtually all of Cirta's Roman citizens.
We have our own age of lunacy, but it does have ancient parallels.
Showing posts with label Roman North Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roman North Africa. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Mechanics That Are Beyond Us
We think we should be able to drill oil, mine coal, or tap natural gas wherever we find it, no matter how difficult the conditions. The technology for surface mining of coal--used in mountaintop removal--is fairly simple, if drastic environmentally. Oil drilling in deep sea, however, must use highly sophisticated technology.
Up until the Gulf disaster, the industry assumed that the redundant safety devices would prevent blow-outs. But they were using the technology at greater and greater depths, both of water and of earth beneath it. Deepwater Horizon is far from the deepest well, however.
They had four devices, each of which, alone, was supposed to prevent a blow-out. The first was a cement plug just above the tapped oil, the second, a similar plug several thousand feet below the sea floor (the oil is 13000' below it). The third was the blow-out preventer, which was supposed to be able to shut off the pipe, and the fourth was a shear in the preventer, that would snap off the pipe and clamp it shut.
All of those safety devices failed. It's argued that a second shear, often installed in a blow-out preventer as back-up, might have worked. It might have.
But, blind faith in a blind shear isn't just blind; it's hubris. Perhaps the technology, as sophisticated as it seems, isn't yet up to the task. Considering that an offshore well like Deepwater Horizon can commit ecocide on a huge scale, we can't settle for 9 out of ten, or 99 out of 100. We have to be absolutely sure that there will be no accidents, or that we can clean up any accident, regardless of size, before any environmental damage.
Or, build solar panels and wind turbines like mad.
I predict we won't do either. After all, well-drillers need jobs.
The Roman Empire contributed to the desertification of North Africa (it had been its granary), because it needed food for its huge population; it deforested the Mediterranean because it had to keep its baths good and hot. Wasteful patterns, once established, are hard to change. It's likely that Rome's ecological wastefulness contributed substantially to its impoverishment. The good counselors of Ephesus pointed out the danger of stripping the hills of trees, but the city's port became silted up anyway: probably, contractors to the baths had to keep cutting wood, until it was gone. And then Romans did the same thing in Rome and Ravenna.
Will we now poison the whole world in our inability to leave oil and coal behind, and use renewable, non-polluting energy?
The oil companies--and the coal companies--need their profits; the drillers and miners need their jobs. The companies are politically well connected. What do you think is the most likely outcome?
How can we change it?
Scream bloody murder--of the Earth. It's that serious.
Up until the Gulf disaster, the industry assumed that the redundant safety devices would prevent blow-outs. But they were using the technology at greater and greater depths, both of water and of earth beneath it. Deepwater Horizon is far from the deepest well, however.
They had four devices, each of which, alone, was supposed to prevent a blow-out. The first was a cement plug just above the tapped oil, the second, a similar plug several thousand feet below the sea floor (the oil is 13000' below it). The third was the blow-out preventer, which was supposed to be able to shut off the pipe, and the fourth was a shear in the preventer, that would snap off the pipe and clamp it shut.
All of those safety devices failed. It's argued that a second shear, often installed in a blow-out preventer as back-up, might have worked. It might have.
But, blind faith in a blind shear isn't just blind; it's hubris. Perhaps the technology, as sophisticated as it seems, isn't yet up to the task. Considering that an offshore well like Deepwater Horizon can commit ecocide on a huge scale, we can't settle for 9 out of ten, or 99 out of 100. We have to be absolutely sure that there will be no accidents, or that we can clean up any accident, regardless of size, before any environmental damage.
Or, build solar panels and wind turbines like mad.
I predict we won't do either. After all, well-drillers need jobs.
The Roman Empire contributed to the desertification of North Africa (it had been its granary), because it needed food for its huge population; it deforested the Mediterranean because it had to keep its baths good and hot. Wasteful patterns, once established, are hard to change. It's likely that Rome's ecological wastefulness contributed substantially to its impoverishment. The good counselors of Ephesus pointed out the danger of stripping the hills of trees, but the city's port became silted up anyway: probably, contractors to the baths had to keep cutting wood, until it was gone. And then Romans did the same thing in Rome and Ravenna.
Will we now poison the whole world in our inability to leave oil and coal behind, and use renewable, non-polluting energy?
The oil companies--and the coal companies--need their profits; the drillers and miners need their jobs. The companies are politically well connected. What do you think is the most likely outcome?
How can we change it?
Scream bloody murder--of the Earth. It's that serious.
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