Sniff Your Own Hypocrisy

So I am at Target today buying some groceries and hot wheels for the kids. As we are walking around I notice a woman wearing a t-shirt with picture of a baby duck, a seal, a fish, a shark and a sea gull all covered in oil underneath the caption which read, "Thanks BP for killing us!"

Really?

Let me get this straight. This is the tax free weekend in Texas. Every year before the school start Texas has a weekend wherein you can go to the store and buy things like paper pencils, hand-tools and TV's without paying the tax. People are supposed to be duped into thinking this is a sale and usually the store will knock off some ten percent to encourage people to buy. So this woman, trailing a kid behind her and a seriously beaten looking man is say !@#$ BP because they are a big evil corporation who (GASP) killed (SIGH) BABY DUCKS WITH OIL!!!!

AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

BOOOOOOOOO

HISSSSSSSSSS

Understand I think BP is an evil corporation, but to bitch about BP when your at Target to buy paper processed in China packaged in Kazakhstan and shipped form Norway via train plane and truck to your local Target where you get into your brand new SUV to drive to the store to save five cents and sales tax on paper is the epitome of hypocrisy. And I am supposed to think you love the baby ducks?

The first time I had this conversation it was at McDonald's and a woman was wringing her hands about the sea gulls. I told her she was nuts. She told me I was a republican. I told her if she really cared then she shouldn't be at McDonald's eating beef flown in from Venezuela.

Maybe I am the ass here (well OK I am an ass anywhere I am) but when I see the news reporter who flew in company lear jet to the five star hotel and rode a stretch Benz to the beach bitching about the baby ducks I just want to reach into my TV and slap him for being stupid. Screw you and your cause you !@#$ hypocrite. And screw the baby ducks too.

My biggest problem with this whole thing is the underlying assumption and there are two.

One, most of the worlds pollution is produces by people too poor to make the news and no one gives a rip roaring snot because odds are they re part of the group. I understand why a person wants cheap note book paper, but don't complain about child labor and oil companies when you buy it. The fact is BP is not on the news because they killed some ducks. They are on the news because they are an oil company and they are rich. And nothing makes consummerist crazed Americans madder than a person with more money than they have; so any chance to stick it to the wealthy and famous is a party for most of the embittered house fraus and disgruntled box haulers of the world who come home to a crap house in a crap neighborhood each night to laugh at Lindsey Lohan so they don't have to feel quite so badly about themselves. And the furor over BP is this same mentality run amok because everyone hates the oil companies even though they could not live without them for a week.

Two is the belief that this disaster underscores the need to find alternate energy. Not that alternate energy is a bad thing, but it seems a lot of people think it is a free lunch. A lot of people when they talk about renewable energy act as though solar power will solve our energy problems, it won't. Apart from the massive amount of energy which would be consumed to build the infrastructure to make such an undertaking possible, current technology as well as any foreseeable technology suggests that solar power not only will not replace fossil fuels, but won't even pay for itself. Wind power seems nice unless you live close enough to a turbine farm in which case you will likely suffer from nausea, headaches, insomnia and worse and more lasting health problems because of the constant high intensity frequency of the turbines spinning. Renewable fuels seem like a great idea but they still have to be produced which takes fuel and the lower energy of fuels like ethanol basically negate any money saved by using them. Batteries have to be charged and the lead disposed of and battery powered cars still need fossil fuels to make up for their limited range.

In fact the only alternate fuel source that really seems viable is nuclear energy but man if you ever want to see a tree humper so apoplectic with rage he burns his own flannel suggest that you replace oil with nuclear power.

The fact is a lot of people want something for nothing and it will never never never happen no matter how super hard you close your eyes cross all your fingers and make a super duper birthday triple swear wish. In fact the only way to save the baby ducks from BP is to consume less but man if you ever want to see a soccer mom so mad she burns her own SUV suggest she consume less. The reason why is that if there was no oil industry the trucks trains and planes would no longer be able to deliver consumable goods to our unsustainable cities and any population center anywhere in America would devolve into cannibalism inside a week if there were no Big Macs to eat.

So kindly take your social conscience and job up your shiny new tail pipe until you are ready to get by with less and be satisfied. Until then don't insult the world by pretending you care about it if your sole contribution to the cause is BUYING A !@#$%^& T-SHIRT MADE IN CHINA!

Just thinking.