Rush: The ocean will clean itself.

[EVAY]

Look, guys, this thing makes me sick.

I have refused to go to Texas beaches ( the ones off Padre) for years because every time I went I got tar balls on my feet. And I have gone within the last ten years.

I used to go to North Florida beaches quite a lot, and they were some of the whitest sand, prettiest beaches on the planet, and that white sand extended all the way to the Mississippi coast.

Now I fear that those beaches will end up looking like the Texas beaches.

Rush is an under-educated, drug-addicted ass who is en led to his opinions, and who makes lots of money by saying things that appeal to the basest emotions of his listeners. That does not make his opinions worthy of being repeated or defended by those who would present themselves as serious thinkers or debaters.

[Yonivore]

This is seriously what you're basing your belief that there are no long term effects from a spill?

Going to a beach hundreds of miles from the incident and 30 years after the fact definitely signifies the lack of long term effects anywhere.

Yep.

So, who was still suffering the effects of that spill beyond 1983?

The Texas shrimpers were doing fine. So were the off-shore oil companies. Everybody cleaned what they could and went back to living life. That spill was significant for a couple of years and then, things went back to normal.

[Drachen]

Look, guys, this thing makes me sick.

I have refused to go to Texas beaches ( the ones off Padre) for years because every time I went I got tar balls on my feet. And I have gone within the last ten years.

I used to go to North Florida beaches quite a lot, and they were some of the whitest sand, prettiest beaches on the planet, and that white sand extended all the way to the Mississippi coast.

Now I fear that those beaches will end up looking like the Texas beaches.

Rush is an under-educated, drug-addicted ass who is en led to his opinions, and who makes lots of money by saying things that appeal to the basest emotions of his listeners. That does not make his opinions worthy of being repeated or defended by those who would present themselves as serious thinkers or debaters.

I go to mustang every year (usually 2-3 times) and I just noticed this year that I haven't seen tar in about a decade. I know it used to be cyclical and maybe just by sheer dumb luck I have missed the "tar weeks" (i.e. May-June is seaweed, July is man-o-war time, etc), but I can't even remember what time of year the Tar weeks (if they still exist) are.

However, I fear that we are going to be looking at some major tar time for the forseeable future. It's disgusting that they are finding softball sized tar balls in FL already.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

I'm confused... are some of you really trying to argue that the effects of this spill aren't that serious because you'll be able to go to the beach without noticing in a few years?? you can't be this ing dumb... you just can't.

[Drachen]

Yep.

So, who was still suffering the effects of that spill beyond 1983?

The Texas shrimpers were doing fine. So were the off-shore oil companies. Everybody cleaned what they could and went back to living life. That spill was significant for a couple of years and then, things went back to normal.

Though I really think you are just trolling at this point:

Show me your catalogue of all sea life in the immediate 250 miles surrounding the aforementioned spill before and after (1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, today). Then the same catalogue for the immediate 500 miles? 1000?

Once you have shown me this information and the differences are only subtle, I will cosign your ideas. Until then you are a blind, selfish prick.

Absent that information, you can go collect at least 2 sets of every life form (male and female where there is a distinction) in a 1000 mile radius, put one set in a tank filled with regular sea water, and one mixed heavily with oil, and if the oil group gets on as good or better than the seawater control group, once again I will cosign your ideas on the subject.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

Yoni's idea of "back to normal" is being able to go back to the beach and forget anything ever happened...

[Yonivore]

Yoni's idea of "back to normal" is being able to go back to the beach and forget anything ever happened...

Nope. Had family in the shrimping business. They had a heck of a time for a couple of years...but, yeah, by 1983, they were back to normal, as well.

So, who was suffering the effect of that spill beyond, let's say, 1985?

By the way, that "Brown Tide" is much harder on the Gulf industries than any oil spill has ever been.

[Yonivore]

Though I really think you are just trolling at this point:

Show me your catalogue of all sea life in the immediate 250 miles surrounding the aforementioned spill before and after (1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, today). Then the same catalogue for the immediate 500 miles? 1000?

Once you have shown me this information and the differences are only subtle, I will cosign your ideas. Until then you are a blind, selfish prick.

Absent that information, you can go collect at least 2 sets of every life form (male and female where there is a distinction) in a 1000 mile radius, put one set in a tank filled with regular sea water, and one mixed heavily with oil, and if the oil group gets on as good or better than the seawater control group, once again I will cosign your ideas on the subject.

I don't need to. The industries that depended on the Gulf before '79 suffered no lasting effects beyond '82-'83.

I call that back to normal.

[Drachen]

I don't need to. The industries that depended on the Gulf before '79 suffered no lasting effects beyond '82-'83.

I call that back to normal.

Ok so as long as you aren't affected, it isn't happening. Got it.

[Yonivore]

Ok so as long as you aren't affected, it isn't happening. Got it.

So, who was affected beyond 1985?

[Drachen]

sealife. how many species died out? What did this do to the food chain? Are there less shrimp (for example) than there otherwise would have been causing an unknown alteration in humanity. How many mexicans, Texans who lived off of what they could catch in the ocean died? Bahamians? Other peoples of the Gulf/Carribbean? How did the wholesale destruction of ecosystems contribute to the lowering of oxygen levels in the gulf? Did this contribute in any way to the oceans ability to absorb and store CO2? and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on. I can come up with valid questions all night long, and I am not even an expert on the subject (which may be why I can come up with so many questions).

[Yonivore]

sealife. how many species died out? What did this do to the food chain? Are there less shrimp (for example) than there otherwise would have been causing an unknown alteration in humanity. How many mexicans, Texans who lived off of what they could catch in the ocean died? Bahamians? Other peoples of the Gulf/Carribbean? How did the wholesale destruction of ecosystems contribute to the lowering of oxygen levels in the gulf? Did this contribute in any way to the oceans ability to absorb and store CO2? and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on. I can come up with valid questions all night long, and I am not even an expert on the subject (which may be why I can come up with so many questions).

I don't know the answer to any of those questions. Do you? That you're not spouting any statistics of lingering effects tells me that you're not able to find anything that says there were...

What I know is the Gulf-dependent industries along the Texas Gulf Coast were fine after a couple of years. I caught as many flounder, whiting, and hard heads after '79 as I did before '79 and the Shrimp were as tasty as ever.

[Drachen]

You are absolutely right, I don't have the answers, I don't have any statistical data to back it up. Unfortunately there weren't very many studies done for this catastrophe. But you are basically saying that if someone gets really really sunburned, its no problem as long as their skin goes back to normal. Cancer could be lurking, but there is no superficial proof thereof, so why dig any deeper.

In the event that you were unaware, intellectual curiosity is not only a virtue, it is the seed of all progress.

[Yonivore]

You are absolutely right, I don't have the answers, I don't have any statistical data to back it up. Unfortunately there weren't very many studies done for this catastrophe. But you are basically saying that if someone gets really really sunburned, its no problem as long as their skin goes back to normal. Cancer could be lurking, but there is no superficial proof thereof, so why dig any deeper.

In the event that you were unaware, intellectual curiosity is not only a virtue, it is the seed of all progress.

I can only go on what is, not what boogey man may be around the corner...

Your rationale is the same philosophy upon which anthropogenic global climate change is based. How's that working out?

[Yonivore]

By the way, Drachen...

Scientists Find That Tons Of Oil Seep Into The Gulf Of Mexico Each Year

Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

But the oil isn't destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that's been going on for many thousands of years, according to Roger Mitc , Vice President of Program Development at the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) in Rockville Md. "The wildlife have adapted and evolved and have no problem dealing with the oil," he said.

Oil that finds its way to the surface from natural seeps gets broken down by bacteria and ends up as carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. So knowing the amount of fossil fuel that turns to carbon dioxide naturally is important for understanding how much humans may be changing the climate by burning oil and gas.

Using a technique they developed in the early 1990s to help explore for oil in the deep ocean, Earth Satellite Corporation scientists found that there are over 600 different areas where oil oozes from rocks underlying the Gulf of Mexico. The oil bubbles up from a cracks in ocean bottom sediments and spreads out with the wind to an to an area covering about 4 square miles.

"On water, oil has this wonderful property of spreading out really thin," said Mitc . "A gallon of oil can spread over a square mile very quickly." So what ends up on the surface is an incredibly thin slick, impossible to see with the human eye and harmless to marine animals.

Once they stop the well from flowing freely, the same will happen with that oil.

[ChumpDumper]

God damn, that stupid argument again?

[MannyIsGod]

God damn, that stupid argument again?

Was thinking the same thing. So amazing.

[Yonivore]

Was thinking the same thing. So amazing.

I must have missed the rebuttal. Please, do enlighten me.

[ChumpDumper]

I must have missed the rebuttal. Please, do enlighten me.

Even Wild Cobra took a steaming dump on that "argument" when DarrinS's email told him to post it. Search for "tar ball" if you are interested.

[word]

He's absolutely correct. Give or take a million or so years but Mother Earth will take care of herself.

Nonsense. There have been worse spills in the Gulf, just not in our country. Mexico had a similar blowout and it lasted 9 months. Nature will take care of it, in time, and it won't take a million years. 20 years from now, this will be a distant memory...if not sooner, much sooner. In the early days there was such a thing as surface oil. So he is right, oil is a natural product of the earth. Now, does that mean this isn't serious ? No. But it's not the end of the world as we know it.

[MannyIsGod]

And just who has named it the end of the world? Why is this the argument of choice?

[Drachen]

By the way, Drachen...

Scientists Find That Tons Of Oil Seep Into The Gulf Of Mexico Each Year


Once they stop the well from flowing freely, the same will happen with that oil.

Did you know that eating rat poison in small amounts can be beneficial to one's health in certain situations. If you, however increase the amount of rat poison being ingested it becomes quite toxic to the point of killing people.

[Sisk]

Rush, instead of his broadcast, is the talking point now.

Isn't that always the case? Predictable tactic

[rjv]

i love the moral relativism of the conservative voice today. if it pertains to a political opponent or is on the ideological opposite side of the coin then there is an absolute referenced. 'death panels are immoral ! ;ACORN is unethical'...

and yet when there is a closer relation to the events at hand and the party they swear allegiance to then everything gets more amorphous. suddenly the moral absolutes evaporate and we are left with perfunctory relativism. 'well so what, nature will take care of itself', what's the big deal, it's happened before'...

[Fabbs]

I went to the beach a couple times and no Man Eating Tar Bars got me.