News & Articles

Rex Tillerson is mad. In fact, Fracking Mad.This 61-year old farmer from Bartonville, Texas is another victim of Big Oil’s fracking boom that has invaded people’s homes and lives from upstate New York to Southern California. Polluted air, contaminated water, depleted aquifers, multiple health problems, and even an inexplicable epidemic of earthquakes are a few of the side effects caused by this massively-destructive drilling process.But the frackers hadn’t counted on Rex getting mad, speaking out, and suing the bastards. What ticked off Tillerson was the erection of a 160-foot-tall water tower built by a company that can provide millions of gallons of water for fracking gas wells. But Rex is no environmentalist, so his objection is not to the waste and contamination of people’s water, nor does he object at all to fracking. Rather, he’s hopping mad because the 15-story tower stands above the tree line on his 83-acre, $5-million horse farm, spoiling his view.Tillerson, you see, is not just some local dirt farmer. He says he and his wife moved here to have a weekend getaway so they can enjoy the rural lifestyle. He’s not a farmer, at all – unless you count “farming the government” and harvesting billions of dollars in special tax breaks and subsidies. Rex (whose name means “king” in Latin), is the $40-million-a-year CEO of Exxon Mobil. Now, guess which oil giant is the biggest fracker in the USA. Right? Exxon Mobil.So what we have here is a case of “phallic justice” – an upright, cylindrical water tower that’s part of the fracking infrastructure, symbolically extending the middle-finger salute to Exxon’s CEO every time he visits his horsey farm. How fitting that a guy who’s gained a personal fortune from the ugliness of fracking now has some of that ugliness right in his face.
“Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson gets 15 percent raise to $40.3 million,” www.dallasnews.com, April 12, 2013.
“Exxon CEO Joins Suit Citing Fracking Concerns,” www.wsj.com, February 20, 2014.
“Colorado Becomes First State to Regulate Methane Emissions From Fracking,” www.alternet.org, February 25, 2014.
“Water tower suit involving Exxon’s CEO prompts a fracking fracas,” www.star-telegram.com, February 24, 2014.
“Exxon CEO Comes Out Against Fracking Project Because It Will Affect His Property Values,” www.thinkprogress.org, February 21, 2014.

Ted Nugent brings bigotry and misogyny to Texas governors race

Ted Nugent, the old rocker from the Seventies, is now just plain old… and off his rocker.
A political novelty act for the far right and a front man for the National Rifle Association, Nugent regularly spews venomous, vulgar, race-laced, abusive hate speech about liberals, Democrats, gun laws, and creeping communism. In January, for example, he tongue-lashed President Obama, calling him a “communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel.”
So, naturally, this scurrilous lout was promptly invited to come to Texas by the leading Republican candidate for governor. It seems that Greg Abbott, currently the state attorney general and a dyed-in-the-wool tea party extremist, thought it would juice up his far-out GOP flock to have the rabidly-nutty Nugent come campaign with him. Ted came, even embracing the gubernatorial wannabe as his “blood brother.”
But the brotherhood gambit backfired. Even Republican leaders wondered aloud why Abbott would, as one put it, “keep company with a noted misogynist and bigot.” In addition to Nugent’s disgusting “subhuman mongrel” slur, the old rocker is also well-known for being a sexual predator of underage girls.
The issue, however, is not Nugent’s sordid character, but Abbott’s. Hugging an infamous predator and hate-monger for political gain is both morally repugnant and politically stupid. Yet, Abbott continues to cling to Nugent’s embrace, tersely (and cluelessly) saying: “It’s time to move beyond this.” A campaign aide even tried to paint Nugent’s endorsement as a positive: “We appreciate the support of everyone who supports protecting our constitution.”
Everyone? Sexual predators, overt racists, mass murderers? Shouldn’t a candidate for governor – even in Texas – draw a sharper moral line than, “He loves the Second Amendment?”
“Abbott Courts the Nuge… and His Guns,” Austin Chronicle, February 21, 2014.
“Davis blasts Abbott’s values,” Austin American Statesman, February 23, 2014.

The Army makes a pizza for the ages. Literally

From the Gatling gun to the nuclear bomb, from hot air balloons to drones, the military has enlisted scientists to develop evermore-effective war technologies. But now comes a long-sought scientific breakthrough that the military brass considers the ultimate advantage for battlefield effectiveness: Ready to eat pizzas.
With the spare-no-expense determination usually associated with something like the Manhattan Project, teams of the best scientific minds at the US Army Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center have been focused intently on this secret Pizza Project. It seems that the combat troops have been asking, even begging, that the individual field rations they get – called Meals Ready to Eat – include pizza.
Not easily done, however. MREs are prepackaged, shipped to faraway combat zones, and stored for months. Problem is that the sauce, cheese, and toppings of pizza contain moisture that turns the dough soggy, allowing bacteria to grow, spoil the pie, and poison the eaters. Using humectants, food engineers were able to stop the moisture from reaching the dough, but that was not the end of it, for the Army was gunning for the holy grail of MREs: A prepackaged pizza that could be stored in 80-degree heat without refrigeration for three years… and still be “fresh.”
At last, the scientists have announced, V-P day! By adding acid to the ingredients and iron filings to the packaging, science has triumphed over nature, delivering a pizza that’s literally for the ages.
Perhaps you’re wondering, about taste? Well, picky-picky. After three years, the crust is not exactly crisp, and the things are not served hot, so these are hardly the pies of Mario Batali. However, Mario doesn’t do battlefield deliveries. But wait – maybe that would be a good use of drones. Someone call Amazon!
“Military nears holy grail: Pizza that last 3 years,” Austin American Statesman, February 15, 2014.