An American Lion

I know that this will anger animal lovers out there, but I don't care.

I'm an animal lover, but I happen to value people over animals. I know that makes me a monster, but there it is. If I was given a choice between running over a hippie, or running over a hippo, I'd run over the hippo and blame it on the hippie, who was probably on drugs anyway, the filthy bastard. I'm that kind of a humanitarian, you know.

I think that animals are wonderful, but we have to value people more than animals, otherwise, what's the point? You can make this about ethics, religion, or whatever you've been believing lately in order to get cute girls to go home with you, but there is one aspect of this oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has been overlooked: the media does not understand the impact of the disaster, and our political discourse isn't helping, either.

Oil is more important than animals. Yes, yes it is. 

Did you spend any time outside in the Northeast over the past winter? It was harsh and unforgivable. Without oil, untold numbers of people would have been snowbound and starving for weeks; homes would have frozen over and we would have been looking at desperate anarchy. What did your dog do when the snow was piled a yard and a half high in front of your home? Did the dog shovel you out, drive to the supermarket, and get a bunch of juice boxes and DVDs for your howling, cabin-fever infected kids? The snowplow and the Hummer they all laughed at you for getting are what saved you, sir. Try running them on saltwater or rabbit pellets.

You can survive with animals, especially pigs, chicken and horses, but you can't survive without oil because there aren't enough pigs, chicken and horses for every family. The media knows this, but they never tell you up front that these things should be put into perspective.

To wit, you have this nonsense:

Natural disasters provide great opportunities, or great peril, for presidents. President Bush’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, magnified by his now-infamous “You’re doing a heck of a job, Brownie” praise of his FEMA director, Michael Brown, cemented an impression that his administration failed to act with enough urgency to address the suffering of tens of thousands of people.

The widening environmental calamity in the gulf is the first time Mr. Obama has confronted a domestic disaster. Complicating the White House response is the fact that the spill occurred just a month after the president announced he was expanding offshore drilling.

Officials note that a key difference between the spill and Hurricane Katrina is the pace of the onslaught of the disaster. While the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast in a fury, the oil has — literally — crept to the shores of the gulf. While the eventual harm from the leak could outstrip that of the Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, that will not be known for weeks, if not months.

To the people in the media, and, specifically, New York Times writer Helene Cooper, there really is no difference between thousands of drowned people and some dead birds, is there? I suppose we'll be treated to photos of animals carriers parked inside of a PetSmart store on the freeway outside of New Orleans now, won't we?

You can criticize President Obama for a lot of things, but this is an environmental and economic disaster; thankfully, thousands of Americans haven't been abandoned to their fate and left to float in filthy water for days on end. Some perspective is needed here, and I am afraid we're not getting it from the media. What's the President--or any other politician--really supposed to do anyway? Shouldn't we focus on the incompetent culprits who work for the oil company (see my post below) and the lax laws regarding safety precautions now in effect?

There are so many blind alleys to go down when it comes to this issue--be they race, economics, corporations versus people, that I believe it is time to evaluate priorities. First, stop the damage. Second, prevent it from happening elsewhere. Third, help the people who have had their livelihood affected by this disaster. At no point will the incessant coverage of the "horse race" over who looks bad or who died and what birds have oil deposits on their beaks solve anything. These are the same media people who, had this not happened, would be fussing about how the President isn't doing enough to promote offshore oil drilling.

These are the same media people, in point of fact, who fail to understand that someone dead in the water is a far greater implication than some dead birds or fish. The reason why Hurricane Katrina looms so large in our consciousness is specifically because of the dead bodies floating in the water. This oil spill has nothing on that--nothing.

I will say this--had the President stayed with his convictions, and had he done nothing to promote or expand offshore oil drilling, he'd be sitting pretty right now. Yes, the media wouldn't give him credit, but when do they ever celebrate a politician who does something so much smarter than they can comprehend?

This is a President who can't resist the opportunity to offend or abandon his base. He's smart enough to know that he doesn't really need them to get re-elected. He's also smart enough to know that offshore drilling is never going to produce enough oil to help us get off foreign oil. If anything, it's a procedure that should be well-regulated and used to supplement existing supplies. I don't mean to say that we should ban it altogether; I mean to say that it is never going to be as big as people make it out to be. 

This is what happens when you don't dance with them what brung you; the New York Times sends out a hack to get everyone talking about the wrong thing.