Friday, September 17, 2010
THIS BLOG HAS BEEN UNDER SURVEILLANCE BY PA'S DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY!
Posts from us from this point on are to be taken in jest only.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Goebbels Alive and Well in PA Gasland
In his brilliant novel 1984, George Orwell instinctively grasped the sinister techniques of modern propaganda. He unforgettably illustrated the theory Goebbels practiced in Nazi Germany: if you control the media and government’s “bully pulpits,” truth and sound reasoning are totally unneeded to work your evil will. As long as people stay busy and scared, and you drown out all opposing voices, constant repetition of shallow slogans and outright lies is all you’ll ever need.
Orwell would have warned us—and Goebbels might be envious—of gas promoters’ play for Pennsylvanians’ minds. Exploiting our economic panic, they rush to drill despite a worldwide gas glut and prices near their historic low. Wonder why? Because, as self-serving liars, they must strike, like Nazis, while our fear is hot—before economic recovery kicks in and Pennsylvanians can calmly assess the manifold dangers drilling poses. A panicked, impatient public, in a nation too busy to think, is Orwell’s biggest nightmare—but gas propagandists’ wildest dream.
Lamentably, the “Goebbels of gas” are living their dream. Via endless campaign and lobbying dollars, and a constant revolving door between Harrisburg and industry, Big Gas has turned our politicians into professional “gasmouths.” The worst cases, like State Senator Gene Yaw and State Representative Garth Everett, even gush like drilling cheerleaders who’ve bedded the entire team. When “never is heard a discouraging word” from so-called “representatives,” the lie quickly spreads that few oppose drilling in Pennsylvania. In fact, hundreds of thousands oppose it vehemently, and find justice and expert opinion squarely on our side. But with limited media budgets, and broadcasters and reps in bondage to Big Gas, we get roughly the media access offered pre-Holocaust Jews.
Industry spin doctors get unlimited access. Generally, they use it for shallow arguments, misleading information, and outright repeated lies. But sometimes, as when dubbing government theft “fair pooling,” they create masterpieces of Orwellian doublespeak.
The deception and shallow arguments are almost endless, like this technology being used safely for 60 years—which blends pretty badly with the other idiocy of gas developers being “infant industries” unable to afford a severance tax. Then there’s the sheer stupidity of calling drilling opponents hypocrites for driving cars—as if a society that sacrificed bike roads and cheap public transport to gas-guzzling autos offers any real choice. And as if WE’RE not the ones working to change that.
But what I love best are the true Orwellian bits, where evil corporate Big Brother gives us all a sloppy wet kiss. Their “Marcellus Shale community” strikes me as a “community” composed of rapists and their unwilling victims. So what’s next, a “Megan’s law community”? And when Chesapeake Energy happily declares “We’re all in this together,” I think, yeah, just like Hitler and Anne Frank.
Patrick Walker, Factoryville
Orwell would have warned us—and Goebbels might be envious—of gas promoters’ play for Pennsylvanians’ minds. Exploiting our economic panic, they rush to drill despite a worldwide gas glut and prices near their historic low. Wonder why? Because, as self-serving liars, they must strike, like Nazis, while our fear is hot—before economic recovery kicks in and Pennsylvanians can calmly assess the manifold dangers drilling poses. A panicked, impatient public, in a nation too busy to think, is Orwell’s biggest nightmare—but gas propagandists’ wildest dream.
Lamentably, the “Goebbels of gas” are living their dream. Via endless campaign and lobbying dollars, and a constant revolving door between Harrisburg and industry, Big Gas has turned our politicians into professional “gasmouths.” The worst cases, like State Senator Gene Yaw and State Representative Garth Everett, even gush like drilling cheerleaders who’ve bedded the entire team. When “never is heard a discouraging word” from so-called “representatives,” the lie quickly spreads that few oppose drilling in Pennsylvania. In fact, hundreds of thousands oppose it vehemently, and find justice and expert opinion squarely on our side. But with limited media budgets, and broadcasters and reps in bondage to Big Gas, we get roughly the media access offered pre-Holocaust Jews.
Industry spin doctors get unlimited access. Generally, they use it for shallow arguments, misleading information, and outright repeated lies. But sometimes, as when dubbing government theft “fair pooling,” they create masterpieces of Orwellian doublespeak.
The deception and shallow arguments are almost endless, like this technology being used safely for 60 years—which blends pretty badly with the other idiocy of gas developers being “infant industries” unable to afford a severance tax. Then there’s the sheer stupidity of calling drilling opponents hypocrites for driving cars—as if a society that sacrificed bike roads and cheap public transport to gas-guzzling autos offers any real choice. And as if WE’RE not the ones working to change that.
But what I love best are the true Orwellian bits, where evil corporate Big Brother gives us all a sloppy wet kiss. Their “Marcellus Shale community” strikes me as a “community” composed of rapists and their unwilling victims. So what’s next, a “Megan’s law community”? And when Chesapeake Energy happily declares “We’re all in this together,” I think, yeah, just like Hitler and Anne Frank.
Patrick Walker, Factoryville
Letter to Editor - 27 Aug 2010 Scranton Times
Dear Editor:
The people pleading loudest for a moratorium on natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania are NOT “environmentalists.” They’re actually regular people…some of whom you may even know. They’re people who teach our children, drive the school buses, work in our grocery stores. They’re people who’ve minded their own business for years, who went about raising their families, working at careers, paying their taxes. And suddenly, these people have woken up to a nightmare: threats of economic and environmental carnage they never thought possible in America.
I’m one of those people. And having never been an “activist” before in my life, I’m amazed at the complacency of those who live throughout the Scranton area who continue living their lives as if this industry of destruction isn’t steamrolling straight for their doorsteps! Do they not realize that the natural gas industry is relying on that complacency? Do they not realize that this time, it will NOT all work out? That we are on the threshold of a return to the days of the coal barons…and that after the natural gas drillers are done with us, they will leave us in even worse shape than ever?
Here’s what I know. I know that right along with our children’s school buses, there will be thousands upon thousands of tanker trucks filled with toxic chemicals roaring down I-81 and all roads leading in and out of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. I know there isn’t a single fire department in the local area capable of handling a major spill or a well blow out, and that the nearest emergency response team is located in Texas – five hours away. I know that the only emergency response plan in existence for an accident is evacuation. I know there are well pads being constructed within a mile of Lackawanna State Park. I know that the waste water (filled with almost 600 chemicals that are carcinogenic and disruptors of the endocrine system in fetuses) are being disposed of by crystallization and sale to PennDot to de-ice our roadways this winter. I know that what remains is being diluted and dumped into our local rivers. (You see, the technology for cleaning those fluids hasn’t been invented yet.) I know that 70 percent of the jobs in the industry are going to people from out of state…not to Pennsylvanians. I know the gas industry hopes to have 168,000 wells in place during the next five years and 785,000 wells in the next ten. I know that hunters who shoot deer that have ingested frack-water from ponds on drill sites will be taking their lives into their own hands by eating the venison.
So. Now that you know it’s not just tree-hugging radicals protesting this industry’s invasion into our area, are you the least bit concerned? I hope so. Write your legislators. Tell them to slow down. Demand a moratorium until this industry gets the kinks worked out.
Virginia Cody
The people pleading loudest for a moratorium on natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania are NOT “environmentalists.” They’re actually regular people…some of whom you may even know. They’re people who teach our children, drive the school buses, work in our grocery stores. They’re people who’ve minded their own business for years, who went about raising their families, working at careers, paying their taxes. And suddenly, these people have woken up to a nightmare: threats of economic and environmental carnage they never thought possible in America.
I’m one of those people. And having never been an “activist” before in my life, I’m amazed at the complacency of those who live throughout the Scranton area who continue living their lives as if this industry of destruction isn’t steamrolling straight for their doorsteps! Do they not realize that the natural gas industry is relying on that complacency? Do they not realize that this time, it will NOT all work out? That we are on the threshold of a return to the days of the coal barons…and that after the natural gas drillers are done with us, they will leave us in even worse shape than ever?
Here’s what I know. I know that right along with our children’s school buses, there will be thousands upon thousands of tanker trucks filled with toxic chemicals roaring down I-81 and all roads leading in and out of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. I know there isn’t a single fire department in the local area capable of handling a major spill or a well blow out, and that the nearest emergency response team is located in Texas – five hours away. I know that the only emergency response plan in existence for an accident is evacuation. I know there are well pads being constructed within a mile of Lackawanna State Park. I know that the waste water (filled with almost 600 chemicals that are carcinogenic and disruptors of the endocrine system in fetuses) are being disposed of by crystallization and sale to PennDot to de-ice our roadways this winter. I know that what remains is being diluted and dumped into our local rivers. (You see, the technology for cleaning those fluids hasn’t been invented yet.) I know that 70 percent of the jobs in the industry are going to people from out of state…not to Pennsylvanians. I know the gas industry hopes to have 168,000 wells in place during the next five years and 785,000 wells in the next ten. I know that hunters who shoot deer that have ingested frack-water from ponds on drill sites will be taking their lives into their own hands by eating the venison.
So. Now that you know it’s not just tree-hugging radicals protesting this industry’s invasion into our area, are you the least bit concerned? I hope so. Write your legislators. Tell them to slow down. Demand a moratorium until this industry gets the kinks worked out.
Virginia Cody
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