Friday's Odds and Ends

We are looking ahead to a busy weekend. Some of our kids are coming out to celebrate my husband's retirement from the Permanent Deaconate. He has served the church in many ways for 35 years, and is now ready to just sit in the pew like everyone else. We will also have an early Father's Day party on Sunday, so this will be a weekend for just family and friends and fun. Aren't those the best?

Most distressing to me is news that dozens of anomalies, including dented pipe, were reportedly found along 60 miles of the southern segment of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline being constructed in Texas. TransCanada is calling these concerning problems with the pipe “small imperfections” along only nine sections.

Apparently, landowners in Texas, including those near my town of Winnsboro, have seen crews out digging up sections of the pipe that have been down for as much as six months.  A spokesman for TransCanada has said,  “The company does not have to reveal what happened, but seeing a completed pipeline having welds and dents cut out is reminiscent of other infamous low-quality pipelines built by a variety of companies that PHMSA has identified in the last few years. The odds are not favorable to avoid a leak when we are seeing problems such as these with a newly constructed pipeline, and a leak poses dangers for the people who live along this route.”
 
Did he really say what some of us have been saying all along? That the pipeline poses dangers?

We in the U.S.  are not the only ones against the pipeline. Government officials in Canada have rejected a plan to build the Northern Gateway pipeline in British Columbia which would pump tar sands through the province for export. The officials cited a lack of evidence that the company has the ability to transport the heavy crude safely, nor could the company prove that they would have a sufficient response to a spill should one occur. Those concerns are legitimate. People in Michigan are still cleaning up after a pipeline ruptured and dumped tar sands into the Kalamazoo River in July 2010.
 About the same time that I was reading the news report outlining Canada's objection to the pipeline, I came across a rather absurd comment made by Exxon CEO Tex Tillerson in response to a proposal from environmentalists to set corporate goals for cutting oil emmissions. He said, "What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?"

Huh?

Okay, that's enough of a rant for the day. Now about a bit of fun from the comics. This one from Luann, another of my favorite strips.  Luann's parents, Nancy and Frank are trying on their summer clothes after a winter of having them packed away. Frank says, "Look I put on my summer shirt and found a pen and a pair of sunglasses in the pocket. And in my shorts I found a quarter and a dollar bill."

To which Nancy reponds, "Lucky you. I put on my summer clothes and found five pounds."

Unfortunately I can relate to Nancy. How about you?

Life Lesson: "Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction." Oprah Winfrey speaking to Harvard University graduates.

Rising Gas Prices - What's the Fix?

With each uptick of the price of gas, people start clamoring for the government to do something, which has led President Obama to fast-track approval of the XL pipeline from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast of Texas. The Canadian pipeline originates above Montana, and was halted in the midwest due to serious concerns about the huge aquifer that serves water to many states should the pipeline ever break. Or perhaps I should say, when the pipeline breaks.

There is no doubt the pipeline will break. Pipelines break all the time, and one branch of the XL has already contaminated a large area of Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2010, and effects are still being felt. The chemicals needed to break down this tar-sands oil so it can flow through the pipes can contaminate water and land for generations, making it unsuitable for life.

What people who are pushing to approve this pipeline venture, as well as more domestic drilling, fail to understand is that supply has little to do with current gas prices. The oil companies control pricing, period. They sell crude and refined oil to whatever country pays the most, and if that is Japan or China, that is just fine with Exxon - Mobil.

The U. S. exports 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, so that begs the question, why do we do that and then turn around and import 13 million barrels? Some of the reasons are explained HERE, but the basic reason is that that is the way world commerce works.

I'm not sure that just because this can be explained, that is reason enough to keep doing something that might not be the right something. As Megan McArdle pointed out in a recent article about corporations that keep repeating the same mistakes because they are afraid to change, maybe it is time we, the people and the government, need to make drastic changes in how we deal with energy issues. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that our reliance on fossil fuels is not a problem. There are children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who are counting on us to give them a world they can live in.

On a different note, I am again part of a Mega-Event to help an author showcase her work. There will be a blog-fest and lots of other fun things happening from mid-April to mid-May, but ahead of time there are some neat opportunities for some free gifts.

Download a FREE copy of the Artella eBook, Artella Mae's NEW Altered Ancestors!, a 58-page eBook overflowing with ideas and techniques for using vintage photos in your artwork. Download your copy here!

Ramblings

Those of you who use Blogger.com for you own blogs noticed that there have been problems with the site most of the past few days. We couldn't get access to publish our posts, and that sure threw a wrench into our schedules, didn't it? And now I don't know what to title this post. It was written for my usual Friday's Odds and Ends, but what do I call it today?I really don't know. That's why I came up with that really catchy title.

Something new for the PC police to watch for - people who refer to their pets as pets. Apparently there is some concern among philosophers that the reason we treat animals as animals is because of the way we talk about some of them.  The Journal of Animal Ethics, a new publication, wants people to change some of the common terms applied to animals: Stubborn as a mule, sly as a fox, slippery as an eel.  Using terms like that supposedly makes us think poorly of those animals. The article in the Journal, also asks people, specifically writers, to refer to those cuddly creatures we share our homes with - the dog not our husbands - as companion animals, rather than pets. Apparently, "pets" is a derogatory term.

No wonder my pets, er, companion animals, are so deranged.

General Electric, one of the largest companies in the U.S. made $5.1 billion in profits in the United States last year, but according to a report in the New York Times, the company has not paid a penny of federal tax for 2010. Other large corporations that have paid little or no taxes include Exxon Mobil and Boeing, Bank of America and Citigroup. And they are not doing anything illegal. The tax laws allow for major loopholes for businesses.

And some people still think we don't need a massive overhaul of the tax system in the United States.

In a suburb of Dallas there have been two incidents of students fighting in a classroom and the teacher has not intervened. One incident was more of a beating than a fight as the victim was attacked at his desk and punched numerous times while the teacher just watched. Some teachers were quoted as saying that it is dangerous to try to intervene in a fight, and unless a policy is in place to deal with this type of violence, they are advised to do nothing.

It is a sad, sad day when students can rule a classroom like that. What kinds of parents are raising children who can strike such fear in their peers and other adults who are supposed to be in authority?