William K. Wolfrum's picture

    William K. Wolfrum’s Morning – July 28, 2010


    Humans – the cure for a tranquil planet.

    News/Politics

    Oil Spills for All!: It seems few things are more American that having oil spew out of the ground uncontrollably. It happened in the Gulf of Mexico. It happened in the Gulf of Mexico again. And it happened in Michigan.

    Static Kill!: If oil companies spent as much money protecting their product as they did in creating spectacular names for how to stop it when it starts spilling, this would be a far less oily nation.

    War Supplemental Passes: Another $37 billion is heading to Afghanistan, where things continue to be quite deadly.

    California Wildfires: Two out-of-control wildfires in Kern County lead to a state of emergency call from Gov. Schwarzenegger.

    Al Gored: The former Vice-President talks to the police about the sexual abuse allegations made against him.

    Opinion

    Howard Kurtz: On the Wikileaks documents, the media parrots the White House’s “this is old news” meme.

    Harold Meyerson: The Washington Post columnist doesn’t see any jobs showing up soon.

    Lighter Side

    The Onion: Newly Discovered Documents Shed Light On Nation’s Creepy Founding Uncles.

    China’s rats: China has a rat problem, so they trained foxes to get them. Using logic from “The Simpsons,” this will eventually lead to unleashing gorillas. But that’s cool. They’ll die in the winter.

    Blogs

    Media Matters: Fox & Friends have on special guest Jim Crow.

    Contentions: Where’s the outrage over Oliver Stone’s vile anti-Semitic remarks?

    Stephanie Robinson, Esq.: A child actress has Acute Myeloid Leukemia, shining light on the lack of representation of African-Americans on national bone marrow transplant lists.

    The Political Carnival: Laffy loves links.

    Oliver Willis: No filibuster reform for you!

    Gin & Tacos: Some very bad hockey logos.

    Massive Infographic Section

    Why should you forgo bottled water? Glad you asked:

    Bottled Water
    Via: Term Life Insurance

    –WKW

    Crossposted at William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

    Comments

    Re the creative video-game-like names BP came up with for its attempts to stop the oil leak: Given how badly things went, I'm surprised their PR guys didn't simply call one "Oh my God, the oil suddenly stopped pouring out all by itself!" That method would no doubt have also failed, but all the average TV viewer would retain from hearing the story would be "Oh my God, the oil suddenly stopped pouring out all by itself." Even when subsequent stories reported that the leak was continuing, a good proportion of the public would remain convinced it had stopped. "I think I heard it on Glenn Beck." Hey, it makes as much sense as garbage and golf balls.

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