Slog
News & ArtsThursday, August 5, 2010
News Don't Drink the Water and Don't Breathe the Air
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 1:32 PM
I'm sitting here reading the news—and posting to Slog just to annoy the boyfriend—and I'm just wondering: Am I the only person listening to the feds claim that Gulf seafood is safe to eat—oil all gone! toxic dispersants all dispersed!—who's thinking about how the feds told us that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe in the days and weeks after 9/11?
Hope not.
And, Lindy, loving the Tom Leher clips. My mother had me singing along to Tom Leher with her before I was five. Personal favorite: "When You Are Old and Gray" and "The Masochism Tango."
1
No Dan, you're not the only one who really thinks we are being fed a line of BS from the administration.
I think we should have the Obama's dine on some of that "safe to eat" bounty of the Gulf Coast. (see The Simpson's and the radioactive fish episode)
I think we should have the Obama's dine on some of that "safe to eat" bounty of the Gulf Coast. (see The Simpson's and the radioactive fish episode)
2
They are also trying to claim that most of the oil is cleaned up or has dissipated with only a few slicks of oily balls remaining. Yeah right!
If you believe that, I have oceanfront property in Arizona and alligator free swampland to sell you.
If you believe that, I have oceanfront property in Arizona and alligator free swampland to sell you.
3
My parents had the ten-inch of his first LP, with the red cover. My favorite was "I Hold Your Hand in Mine, Dear" -- "the night you died I cut it off".
4
I'm reading the news too, and it tells me we're not the only ones wondering that - I love this one:
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/0…
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/0…
5
I'm certainly skeptical, and as a vegetarian, personally unconcerned. The rest of y'all should be careful though. Also, as I recall, Prince William Sound's ecosystem and fishing industry is still fucked two decades down the road.
6
I adore Tom Lehrer. I had a teacher introduce me to him when I was 12 (Naturally, for the Periodic Table of Elements song). I found "We'll All Go Together When We Go" absolutely hilarious, although I didn't really understand it until a few years later.
One of my personal favourites is Poisoning Pidgeons in the Park.
One of my personal favourites is Poisoning Pidgeons in the Park.
7
Naw, I've been eating it all along and I'm just fine. Except I drool a little bit more now. AND WOULD SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING ABOUT THOSE FUCKING BUGS CRAWLING ALL OVER ME? Goddammit. Shit piss fuck.
Good stuff. You should have some.
Good stuff. You should have some.
8
Fight Fiercely Harvard, I Wanna Go Back to Dixie, and The Great Lobachevsky are my personal Lehrer faves.
9
Nope you're not the only one. This has been their PR strategy all along with the use of the dispersants. I think the "the geyser is stopped and all the oil is gone!" rhetoric almost looks coordinated.
11
My mother sang us The Irish Ballad (Rickety Tickety Tin) with a full Irish brogue constantly. It's one of my most cherished childhood memories.
12
"In German, oder Englisch, I know how to count down, and I'm learning Chinese", says Wernher von Braun.
16
Heard "The Masochism Tango" on Dr. Demento and recorded for my mom when I was 13 (46 now). The song totally broke her up.
We had a vocabulary word in junior high - "genuflect" and all I could think of was "The Vatican Rag" ("you bow your head with great respect and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!") - and I'm not even Christian, let alone Catholic.
We had a vocabulary word in junior high - "genuflect" and all I could think of was "The Vatican Rag" ("you bow your head with great respect and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!") - and I'm not even Christian, let alone Catholic.
17
and we cannot forget the nuclear fears of the 60s...
"We'll all go together when we go
Every Hottentot and every Eskimo
There'll be grand participation in that last annihilation,
We'll all go together when we go."
"We'll all go together when we go
Every Hottentot and every Eskimo
There'll be grand participation in that last annihilation,
We'll all go together when we go."
18
I too grew up to Tom Lehrer, introduced by my most awesome math teacher. Fond memories of "Poisoning Pigeons" and "Be Prepared," as well as the obligatory Periodic Table song. Good times.
19
"posting to Slog just to annoy the boyfriend" .... ahhhh, isn't marriage grand?
And Lehrer is a sorely unappreciated genius.
And Lehrer is a sorely unappreciated genius.
20
Be afraid, be very afraid.
http://gocl.me/9Cae9O
Dispersants are causing rectal hemorrhaging in people exposed to them, like the cleanup workers.
"Well, we‘ve seen anecdotal information of mammals in the water, like dolphins, bleeding from their orifices; some of the workers who have done the spill cleanup are having the same problem. The dispersant and oil mixtures are supposed to atomize materials like oil. Well, if that gets into your system, that atomizes your cells, and that‘s why there‘s hemorrhaging."
http://gocl.me/9Cae9O
Dispersants are causing rectal hemorrhaging in people exposed to them, like the cleanup workers.
"Well, we‘ve seen anecdotal information of mammals in the water, like dolphins, bleeding from their orifices; some of the workers who have done the spill cleanup are having the same problem. The dispersant and oil mixtures are supposed to atomize materials like oil. Well, if that gets into your system, that atomizes your cells, and that‘s why there‘s hemorrhaging."
21
The Gulf is a big place (I'm from near there, which makes me, like, a doctor or something). A really really big place. There are large areas that have not been contaminated by this spill. And, no, I wouldn't eat the fish/shellfish from there.
I like how in the NPR piece they said careful things like "toxin levels aren't higher than normal". The oil spill is confined to a mind-bogglingly large area, but the rest of the Gulf has had 60 years of chemo-petrol industrial pollution. That place is downright filthy.
I like how in the NPR piece they said careful things like "toxin levels aren't higher than normal". The oil spill is confined to a mind-bogglingly large area, but the rest of the Gulf has had 60 years of chemo-petrol industrial pollution. That place is downright filthy.
22
If you're into Tom Lehrer-type stuff, go to YouTube and check out Flanders and Swann. My dad turned me on to them a few months back, and they do some great stuff in a similar vein ("20 tons of TNT", "Have Some Maderia My Dear" and "The Gasman Cometh" are real gems).
23
He gives the kids free samples/because he knows quite well/that today's young innocent faces/will be tomorrow's clientele. The Old Dope Peddler. some songs are timeless.
24
How about his song, "My Old Town"?
"I remember Sam! He was the village idiot, and though it was a pity it was so. He used to burn down houses just to watch the glow ... and nothing could be done, because he was the Mayor's son .. "
"I remember Sam! He was the village idiot, and though it was a pity it was so. He used to burn down houses just to watch the glow ... and nothing could be done, because he was the Mayor's son .. "
26
All Tom Leher is great, but I think I like The Vatican Rag and National Brotherhood Week best. @# 12, I think the line is "in German und (and) English, I know how to count down . . ."
27
@26... no, it's "German, oder Englisch" ('oder' == 'or', and 'Englisch' pronounced as a German would)
29
Why believe them then, if you won't believe them now? Mightn't that be a line of bullshit as well - good way to keep people cowed and scared.
who's thinking about how the feds told us that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe in the days and weeks after 9/11?
Why believe them then, if you won't believe them now? Mightn't that be a line of bullshit as well - good way to keep people cowed and scared.
30
@24, what about the most Slog-appropriate line from that song?
"That fella was no fool/Who taught our Sunday School/And neither was our kindly Parson Brown/I guess I'd better leave this line out just to be on the safe side/in my home town."
"That fella was no fool/Who taught our Sunday School/And neither was our kindly Parson Brown/I guess I'd better leave this line out just to be on the safe side/in my home town."
31
Ah, Tom Leher... also from Vatican Rag
"first you get down on your knees
fiddle with your rosaries ..."
"first you get down on your knees
fiddle with your rosaries ..."
32
I grew up on Tom Lehrer... Gotta love Masochism Tango, National Brotherhood Week, The Old Dope Peddler and Smut. And Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. And It Makes a Fellow Proud to be a Soldier. And... Basically everything he ever did.
I bought the sheet music for all of his songs a couple of years back. Best purchase I've made in forever.
I bought the sheet music for all of his songs a couple of years back. Best purchase I've made in forever.
33
Another Tom Lehrer fan here! Love to hear these old YouTubes. But anyone remember his stuff on The Electric Company? Look!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4KybdSi1…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dAVZ-rT9…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4KybdSi1…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dAVZ-rT9…
35
In a real democracy public officials who promote corporate propaganda go to jail. The seafood is not safe to eat, the water is not safe to play in, and if you listen to the government you're going to get cancer and it's going to suck balls. I know 200-300 parts per million of oil isn't that big of a deal, but that's 200-300 more parts per million than I'm ever used to. Not to mention the government's own bullshit contradicts itself. On the one hand everything is fine and dandy, on the other over 75% of the oil is still in the ocean in one form or another. You cannot have it both ways, that's called sucking corporate cock.
36
Anyone who trusts any assurances of public safety by government officials is a fool. The coast guard looks like it's been bought and paid for from day one, and now the EPA has joined the act.
37
And if anything bad happens to you down the track, why, that cancer could have been caused by anything...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plausible_d…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plausible_d…
38
The thought of a mother and five-year-old son singing The Masochism Tango will now haunt my dreams. Thanks, Dan.
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