Behaving Badly

There's a lot of cultural nonsense about how enlightened Europeans are versus the boorish behavior of Americans. Then things like this happen and we're reminded that anyone from any nation or any culture can behave like a total dick.



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Part of Obama's Sneaky Plan

Remember how, in Rush Limbaugh Land, Obama praised oil production and offered to open up more American drilling suspiciously just before the Deepwater Horizon disaster? It was all a plot by TEH EBIL KENYAN ANTI-COLONIALIZMS!! to scare Americans away from the selfless executives of those community minded oil industry that create American jobs for Americans in America!

I wonder what El Rushbo's going to say when he finds out the President specifically praised nuclear power - in Japan! Suspiciously before this latest disaster! OH NOES TEH MARXISMS HAVE EARTHQUAKE CONTROLZ!!! Espcially now that Americans are questioning our national "renaissance" with noocyoolar power!

We'll not even mention the deregulation necessary to make both oil drilling rigs and nuclear power plants safe for the communities they serve...

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Japan vs. New Orleans

This train is never late.

There are many comparisons and contrasts that reporters and punditry could make between the disasters in Japan and the disasters in New Orleans. A short list could include a comparison where officials ignored warnings of impending danger, you could contrast the differences in response, or you could examine the parallels of energy safety failures.

Instead of those policy failures at the hands of highly placed officials, who have so often let us down while serving as mouthpieces for well-moneyed interests let us focus on the "real" story here - why there isn't any "looting" going on in Japan.

You don't have to wonder what they're trying to say.

But if we're going to go down this road, maybe we should ask why certain Japanese citizens and local police didn't start gunning down other citizens for "looting".

Update: You knew the narrative would get busted (at least in some quarters). The news is just in - the Japanese people are just as human as the rest of us, and while they might be more "culturally resillient" in the face of many natural disasters, they still experience thieves at a fire like all other cultures.

Update 2: Yet another comparison between Japan & New Orleans and the corners cut that made local energy infrastructure unsafe. More deregulation, anyone?

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