I’m off for the weekend to the land of no electronics.
But before I go let me take a public moment to send my appreciation for those who stand in the line of fire for the rest of us. You risk everything – including your whole lives that can be lost in an instant.
May we always treat you well and may you always know that we know we’re lost without you.
(View of the road last time I went at the beginning of April)
a) You create a product and you sell it in order to make a profit.
b) someone else spends more money than they make and finds themselves in fiscal ruin
c) That same someone else decides that you should give them your product at a loss because healthcare is that important and you’re just mean if you don’t.
Novo Nordisk is pulling an insulin product out of Greece after Greece decided they should drop their price for it by 25% resulting in a loss for them.
Pavlos Panayotacos, whose 10-year-old daughter Nephele has diabetes, has written to Novo Nordisk’s chairman to criticise the move. “As an economist I realize the importance of making a profit, but healthcare is more than just the bottom line,” he wrote.
“As you well may know, Greece is presently in dire economic and social straits, and you could not have acted in a more insensitive manner at a more inopportune time.”
The Greek diabetes association was more robust, describing the Danes’ actions as “brutal blackmail” and “a violation of corporate social responsibility”.
The Danish chairman, Lars Sorensen, wrote to Mr Panayotacos stressing that it was “the irresponsible management of finances by the Greek government which puts both you and our company in this difficult position”.
I love the Danish chairman’s reply. “You put both me and you in this position!”
ROFLMAO at how unfunny this is.
After weeks of trying to figure out what to do, what to do about hiding the Joe Sestak job offer, someone finally figured it out.
Offer up Bill Clinton as the sacrificial lamb to then be tossed under the bus. Yes, Bill Clinton offered the job so nothing illegal ever happened. It was all on the up and up and perfectly ethical and fine don’t you know.
How the hell did Bill ever agree to this? They must have something big on Hillary.
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of bending to U.S. pressure to pass new United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
“Our people are in doubt about Russia’s intentions,” Ahmadinejad said. “I hope that the Russian leaders would take into consideration our sympathy and keep the Iranian nation from counting them among its historic enemies.”
The Russian leadership was outraged by his remarks. A Kremlin aide, foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko, on Wednesday accused Ahmadinejad of “political demagoguery.”
Seriously, go read it. It’ll make your day.
General impression: (and I couldn’t stand watching it so I read it) Obama said he was “in charge” so many times, it’s pretty clear he’s not in charge. I suspect he went this route because he guestimated this latest top kill technique was going to work. Now what if it doesn’t. I wonder who will be “in charge” then. Hopefully we don’t have to find out.
Quotes:
Just how annoying is this?
We will demand that they pay every dime they owe for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused. And we will continue to take full advantage of the unique technology and expertise they have to help stop this leak.
But make no mistake: BP is operating at our direction. Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance.
BP is a business that could, if it so desired, disappear. If the power is in Obama’s hands its because BP allows it to be. At this point it still makes sense to them, but I see no reason to threaten and demand and yet “take full advantage of”, no matter how big they screwed up.
…………
I’ve designated Admiral Thad Allen, who has nearly four decades of experience responding to such disasters, as the national incident commander. And if he orders BP to do something to respond to this disaster, they are legally bound to do it.
So, for example, when they said they would drill one relief well to stem this leak, we demanded a backup and ordered them to drill two. And they are in the process of drilling two.
Personally I’m curious to know the safety precautions they have in place for the drilling of 2 more deep sea wells when Obama himself has just cancelled all drilling of wells due to lack of safety precautions.
…………..
And in the meantime, I should also say that Americans can help by continuing to visit the communities and beaches of the Gulf Coast.
How is this not the equivalent of “Americans should just go shopping”?? What the hell?
………..
Let me make one final point. More than anything else, this economic and environmental tragedy, and it’s a tragedy, underscores the urgent need for this nation to develop clean, renewable sources of energy.
This is his most empathetic, caring statement in the whole speech and yet…..and yet….11 mens lives were lost and they are not mentioned.
………..
So when it comes to the moment this crisis occurred moving forward, this entire White House and this entire federal government has been singularly focused on how do we stop the leak and how do we prevent and mitigate the damage to our coastlines.
I’m just calling bullshit on that line.
……….
Well, it turns out that the way the process works, first of all there is a thorough environmental review as to whether a certain portion of the Gulf should be leased or not. That’s a thoroughgoing environmental evaluation. Then the overall lease is broken up into segments for individual leases, and again there’s an environmental review that’s done.
But when it comes to a specific company with its exploration plan in that one particular area — you know, they’re going to drill right here in this spot — Congress mandated that only 30 days could be allocated before a yes-or-no answer was given. That was by law. So MS — MMS’s hands were tied.
And as a consequence, what became the habit predating my administration was, you just automatically gave the environmental waiver because you couldn’t complete an environmental study in 30 days.
Yes friends, our most environmentally correct administration in history….when it came time for environmental assessments decided that the Yes answer really should be the default vs the No answer since they are only given 30 days. HUH?
Here’s an article about how BP has done a far better job of handling this disaster than others (Exxon-Valdez).
Do read Krauthammer too who notes that because the environmental movement has moved oil drills out of site, off of land, and far from the coast, we’re in the pickle we’re in.
Moreover, Obama has never been overly modest about his own powers. Two years ago next week, he declared that history will mark his ascent to the presidency as the moment when “our planet began to heal” and “the rise of the oceans began to slow.”
Well, when you anoint yourself King Canute, you mustn’t be surprised when your subjects expect you to command the tides.
Apparently BP went with the riskier, cheaper method of drilling – perhaps because they were in a hurry.
Free marketers are big on defending the big corporations because frankly someone has to. They aren’t evil, but they are beholden to their holders and not to the public at large. In the case of disasters, the public at large has a stake and maybe that’s where the government needs to step in an be a part of discussions. Perhaps by making sure safety measures and disaster fixes are ready and in place BEFORE disaster strikes.
Do we go with plan A which is extra risky, but if it works we save 1 billion and 5 months?
Or do we go with plan B which is less risky, will cost a lot more and take more time?
Ok – lets do plan A, but we’re going to need X,Y,Z in place to pass government guidelines.
That’s where the government can potentially be a good thing. BP’s interest is not coastal wetlands. Mine is.
Oh – yeah, the government isn’t really working for my interests either.
Turns out the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration back in 1994 drafted plans for responding to a major Gulf oil spill, a response called “In-Situ Burn.”
Ron Gourget, a former federal oil-spill-response coordinator and one author of the draft, told the Times of London: “The whole reason the plan was created was so that we could pull the trigger right away.” The idea was to use barriers called “fire booms” to collect and contain the spill at sea — then burn it off. He believes this could have captured 95 percent of the oil from this spill.
But at the time of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the federal government didn’t have a single fire boom on hand. Nor is there any evidence that the government required BP to have any clear plan to deal with a massive spill. How is this OK?
It’s all money and maybe I’m the hard one for caring more about the natural disaster occurring than for the ability for the poor to afford to heat their homes, but frankly I think we have a lot of wiggle room on the price of oil whereas those animals have got no where to go.
I admire people (ok, they annoy me but still there’s some admiration there) who can keep up a good outrage for a long time.
American Thinker writes about the Mexican President’s little lecture to us about Arizona while the American President just sat back and took it and Congress said nada. Title?
Is This Just a Nightmare, or Did It Really Happen?
I’m not even slightly surprised at this. I think maybe my outrage meter is on the fritz or something which makes blogging a bit trickier. Sure I’d be outraged, but …. I knew who got voted in.
Note to those Americans who have not yet noticed: Barrack Hussein Obama does not like or sympathize with this country.
I noticed.
Legal Insurrection has a VERY long list concerning “little noticed” items. (ht Instapundit)
He included the provision about covering “children” to the age of 26. I was certain that baby was noticed so I linked through to the article. Sure enough….”little noticed”.
Seriously journalists….isn’t your job to notice things? No wonder you fear the blogosphere. We (ok – better bloggers than I) actually scoop you with actual understanding of you know…news.
Wow – people seem disappointed in it, but I loved it.
How the hell else were they going to wrap this up? Seriously, I ask.
Isn’t it what we’ve been thinking for years except maybe a little more twisted?
And isn’t it a nice thought that even people who are genuinely “lost” will find their way in the end?
This was no Soprano’s ending my friends, this was good TV.
ps – For the preshow hype machine to be talking about how the show changed the “culture” of America and blah, blah, blah….gimme a break. Doesn’t anyone remember Twin Peaks? They also got themselves twisted into knots and just never took the time to untwist a bit before their major ending.
UPDATE: Megan McArdle on Lost.
Also – I’d like to add/point out that by leaving it the way they did they explained the time situation which always bugged me. We all have our demons and the Lost world helped these particular people in those different versions of time to work it all out and end up where they did feeling more like the people they were meant to be vs who they were when they first got on the plane.
(still trying to write without a spoiler here)
It was an excellent, excellent ending.