LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

I can't wait to get back to my shop

Tags
question
3K views 47 replies 16 participants last post by  Roger Clark aka Rex 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Been immobile now for 3 months with my right leg in the air. Not much you can do in this situation; maybe read about what you could be making in the shop, reliving all Law and Order and Star Trek episodes, and if I want something beamed from a different planet, then there are so many alien media channels that can enhance nausier to an unpresidented level with the geatest offering of misinformation and brainwashing since the Third Reich.
One thing is certain, the media does not report the news as it really is, but instead makes up fantasies, provokes, demonizes and invents scenarios to sway opinions, make policies and generally assure constant conflict to make their "story" into a series of invented strife.
Free Speach is a right we are lucky have, but Free Lies, free insinuations, Free Mass Opinions are how the media translates this Freedom mean. Free Speech I believe is an entilement for a citizen to express, his or her's opinion freely without prejudice but does this freedom extend to a news reader? Is he or she expressing their own opinion, someones elses or a statement from a "Media think tank for inventing or embellishing the bland truth" into something more marketable and ultimately, money making.
Current case in point:
We have an oil dissaster in the Gulf and the media has really jumped on the bandwagon stirring up "public" oppinion, blames and solutions which are obviously bent on continuing conflict.
Yes, the oil leakage is real and there has to be a rational reason for the accident - or would you think anyone would do it on pupose? Just read the facts:
Does BP own the Well? No the rig is leased, BP only owns the oil produced by the rig.
Has BP taken the responsibilty for the oil spill? Yes from day 1
Did BP's equipment cause the problem? No, it was leased rig and Equipment.
Why did the auto shutoff safety not work? Ask Halliburton, they made it.
Has BP been dragging it's feet? NO, looks like they pulled out all the possible stops (impossible not counted) The Admiral on site with USCG states they are doing everything possible.
Government issue immediate order to change dispersents? To one that does not have enough supply to do the job and is less affective - really smart move by Gov!
Who esle can help?Does it not surprise you that no other oil comapny has come forward to assist? Why not?
Why is this dissaster a political nightmare? Just another added feature for loss/gain
.Who wants the Feds to push BP aside and take over BP? All those who vote communist I guess.
Gov adds NASA scientist to overseeing group? Wow, do they think this spill will reach Space?
What vital equipment does BP need? A Magic Wand??
One thing is certain. This is a dissaster caused by an accident or safeguard failure. People where landfall of the oil are concerned, and rightly so. Every effort should be made to stop or reduce the impact and BP should pay the bill for it, but whining about what is fact and what is "what if" and doing nothing does not help. Stop the grandstanding and do something practical.
I'm as anxious as anyone to see this dissaster over and I think it could be handled better if the media was more responsible in their newscasts.
I don't buy BP gas, don't own any shares in BP, never worked for them but I think crucifiction is not needed.
The above example just demonstrates how the media translates a high profile disaster into a soap opera. That is unless you really think that this disaster was an act of terrorism, and that BP, the Government and Gulf Coast residents are not doing all they can to get this resolved as soon as possible? If it were my money at stake for financial responsibility, I would certainly be in haste.

This post only talks about the current oil spill, but the real gist of this post is to expose
"Terrorism by Media" or should our declaration be changed to "We the Media"…….

No political views or intentions in this post.

Can't wait to get back into the shop and make sawdust to put on the oil spill !!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Roger, the bottom line is that sensationalism sells. The media will always add fuel to the fire in the interest of ratings. Whenever things like this happen, conspiracy theories start coming out of the woodwork. The truth is usually much more mundane.

In the case of the gulf spill, I think time will reveal that it was nothing more than a case of accident-meets-incompetence-meets-insufficient adherence to established safety and testing procedures.
 
#3 ·
Charlie,
I believe your analysis is spot-on. It concerns me that these "stories" give the average reader or viewer a confused set of fact, fiction and conspiracy that ventures far from reality. I believe the media should be held more responsible to report verifiable factual news, not stir up controversy by adding incorrect content.
BTW Are you beloved crawdads threatened by the oil?
 
#6 ·
who the hell drag you out of the black hat Roger :))

good to see you back but you shuold have someone to come with a knife
and a carving set and some wood , then start carving woodghost´s
that wood realy killing your time instead of try to think, havn´t you hear
it can be painfull to do that…......LOL

stay tuned Roger

Dennis
 
#7 ·
I agree there is an overabundance of worthless rants coming out of the media and also from the politicians. Thoughtful discussion is pretty scarce, but it does pop up from time to time. Even here on LJ.

I am very skeptical that there is any reasonable excuse for BP losing control of the well, killing 11 people, burning down a rig, and spilling an awful lot of nasty crude in the gulf. The time for them to take responsibility for what they were doing was before things got out of hand. I suppose its possible that something truly unexpected happened, but its far more likely that the decision makers (BP) were not applying best practices leading up to the loss of well control and the resulting explosion, fire, deaths and spill. If BP can't do better than this then I wouldn't let them operate. If the industry can't do better than this, then I'll support a ban on offshore drilling - and I work in the industry.
 
#8 ·
Sorry to hear that you're laid up, Roger. I did 8 weeks like that,then 9 more of physical therapy. Get well soon!
 
#9 ·
Greg, I think it is pretty obvious that something utterly unexpected happened, but so far no reasons have been given by anybody, maybe its because they don't know yet. IF best practices and required laws and rules were not adhered to then bashing BP would be in order, but if there is no evidence available yet it is pretty safe bet to assume that this kind of industry is inspected by various independent authorities on a regular basis, if so where are the reports?
Was it BP's taking ownership of oil from someone else's Rig (TransOcean ??) with someone else's (Halliburton) fail safe equipment, with inspections by industry bodies, isn't this a confusing way to suggest ownership and responsibility?
Don't get me wrong Greg, you could be perfectly correct about it all, but all I see so far is a blame and smear scenario without any facts or REAL information.
I expect that if you are working in the industry then you must be aware of speculation that other people are not privy to, and which the media has ignored.

This BP issue is not posted to be a debate about who is right or wrong, it just is an illustration of how the media behaves and stirs up mischief as a way of "keeping the pot boiling"

I really do hope the oil deal gets concluded for all concerned and puts the responsibility where and on whom it belongs and restitution fairly received.

I still don't understand why none of the seven sisters and other oil companies have not offered help, smell anything sinister there?

Hairy, Yes I'm going to be required to physical therapy for 1 or 2 months. bummer!
 
#11 · (Edited by Moderator)
Makes it hard to believe that the Obama Administration came forward saying that our oil sands extraction system was not up to the fine standard that he had set for the U.S.
We have not had a "spill" with the system as yet and like most responsible countries we are working with science to sequester the remanants of the extraction process. <g>

But…. you can always go into the ocean and drill for yet another bonanza!

BTW, Mr. Obama the egg is supposed to go in the mouth not on the face.
 
#12 ·
Deke,
Many thanks for your input, I will indeed look forward to being released from my "bonds".

I guess it serves me right as I always thought people with broken bone and ankles were a bunch of whiners with exaggerated inconveniences. ..................Boy have I learned to eat crow !!!!!
This easily the worst incapacity I have had to endure, total boredom and not able to do the most mundane things. I'll be much kinder and sympathetic to the next person I see in a cast.

Love the story about your travels.
 
#13 ·
Roger - What I've seen in the media about the BP spill is pretty worthless - which is your point. My opinions about industrial accidents are based on other information - including decades of safety awareness training in the oil industry. But enough of that.

LJs - Maybe we should start sending Roger all those small parts that need a lot of hand sanding ;-)
 
#14 ·
Deke,
Yeah I'm sure I have it worse than you. The only woman I get to meet is the wife, and when this ankle deal started, I must say I had a pretty good and was spoiled. Time has taken its toll however, I now have had to spend 100% of my miserable existence with some unsympathetic woman vacuuming around me and barking all the time.
So now I'm doing some research on poisons while checking out a multi-tool purchase I could make with an insurance check.
Thanks for the ideas.
 
#17 ·
it's good to see you are progressing ,
and have some vinegar left .

nothing like being flat on your back ,
to make it ache even more .

get well soon ,
and you can roam around the shop some more .
 
#18 ·
hey roger..man i scored tonight…yep the polish sausage came out and a can of kraut…with baked beans of coarse…with all this time you have…i want you to open a can of kraut…and count the strands in there…report and let me know…...until then…i think its my duty to continue to eat the stuff….....but man oh man..what is that smell….......hoooweeeee roger…don't you ever change your shocks….or is that me….....lol….....how come you aren't watching norm or this old house…...and you have got to be the snack king by now…what would you recommend ….how about summer sausage and cheese…i bought some buffalo sausage a while back…made my hair thicker…...lol….......hope to see you up and about soon…....your kinda whiny these days….....lol…grizzman
 
#19 ·
Hang in there Roger. Be thankful it isn't your rotary cuff. It was a couple of months before I could even use my mouse to run the puter;-)

Last week on 60 Minutes, they interviewed the last survivor off the rig. All the training for disasters went to h&*^ in a hand basket! Life boats left without getting all the people off the rig. After jumping a 100 feet into the sea, he was swimming in burning oil!

The well was way over budget. Big wigs were coming the next day to celebrate the completion. There was a broken seal in the valve on the well. They knew it. There was an inoperative operator on the valve too. They knew it but kept drilling. At the last minute in preparation for the big wigs visit the next day, the order was given to skip a step in the capping process. That is when the explosion happened.

We all know Congress is for sale. BP lobbied against using a better valve that would probably have prevented this as too expensive. It is not in use.

Last but not least, Transocean or BP, filed in Texas Fed Court to limit their liability to 27 million. Not sure how that is going, but Congress has past a law in the past that limits their liability to 750 million.

The Exon CEO makes more in 1 year than all the people whose lives were destroyed by their spill in Prince Williams Sound got paid 20 years after the fact. That is justice for you.

Another thing you will not see in the media is 1500 citizens standing in line to get jobs in AZ when 300 illegals were deported.

No political opinions, just the facts, just the facts.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
Greetings Roger,
I"ll elpaso on talking about the oil spill… I think you and the others have that covered pretty good.
But….. I will go along with CharlieM on them delicious crawfish, or as we say in the South "crawdads".
Man I love them little suckers…boiled in that Cajun hot spice…I could eat about 7-8 lbs. of them dudes right now…some short corn on the cob, and little taters…uuuummmm uuummm…. yummy!!!!!!!! Nothin like sucking heads and pinching tails… I'm talking about crawdads, of course…..!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
#21 ·
Greetings to the Unblocked,
Grizz, you have got to get out of the shop and let the air clear for a while, don't understand why there has not been an explosion there with all your natural gas. I don't watch much of "Norm" as it just shows me more tools than I could ever afford, a shop that never gets dirty and projects that are way out of my league using techniques called "joints", and nothing ever goes wrong!
Topamax gave some good insight as to what goes on behind the scenes. I often wonder what it would be like today if Standard Oil was never broken up years ago, we might be the USO not the USA!
As for the crawdad brigade and Cajun delicates. I used to work with a Cajun, did not quite understand what language he spoke and was always curios about his lunch box as sometimes it moved on its own. The "food" he had looked like things a Klingon would eat, and curiously this guy had a resemblance too. Give me a steak and kidney pie any day!
And so another day for me in purgatory, wondering how the shop is and thanking that a south wind is blowing to keep Grizz's gas away.
Got to go now….vacuum cleaner just started up….here we go
 
#23 ·
Charlie, that sounds about right and I guess Road Kill Casserole is another coveted Cajun dish?
I've been to N.O. several times, visited the French Quarter (block), and was surprised nobody seemed to speak or understand French, only some colloquial tongue which employed the word DAT profusely. Nothing like France at all.

Honi soit qui mal y pense
 
#24 ·
New Orleans has its own dialect, which is actually something like a cross between between Boston and the Bronx. If you want to hear anything that resembles French, you have to go south or southwest to the bayou country. Cajun French is a fascinating blend of French and English words, set to rules of grammar which resemble neither one.
 
#25 ·
That's very interesting Charlie, I must say I did expect to hear some French in N.O. and brushed up my little French before the visit. I was thinking it would resemble my wanderings in France, Belgium and other French speaking and cultural countries. I am not impressed with Cajun coffee, too muddy for me and seems to have a lot of chicory added. I much prefer Dutch or German coffee with real French bread and butter for breakfast.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top