If You Had Read The Paper | Thursday June 10
Words Grant Cothran
Thursday, June 10th, 2010 at 8:07 am
Today is Thursday, June 10. What it is.
Local BP stations brace for backlash from oil spill
“Consumers who choose to stop buying BP gas in response to the spill won’t punish the oil company but their own neighbors,” said Jeff Miller, president of Miller Oil Co., which owns 16 BP stations and supplies BP gas wholesale to about 50 other small operators, in the article.
Intellectually, avoiding BP gas is on par with eating inferior ketchup because the opposition presidential candidate’s wife has ties to the Heinz family. Mark Coeckelbergh argues in a recent Guardian article that perhaps, “we’re all to blame for the oil spill.” In essence that argument goes that when you ask a monkey’s paw for cheap oil, there will be unintended consequences.
Moreover, the corporate responsibility here is downright “knotty.” Where do contractors like Transocean, Halliburton, and Cameron International fit in?
So a different way to look at the boycott idea: BP has spent at least $1.25 billion on this disaster to date, and I reckon this will be the tip of the iceberg. We might as well buy our gas exclusively from BP stations, knowing that a good chunk will go directly to aid cleanup efforts.
Piracy suspect seeks to move Norfolk trial
“One of 11 Somali nationals accused of attacking U.S. Navy ships off the coast of Africa is seeking to have his trial moved out of Norfolk, home to the world’s largest naval base.” It seems Mohammed Jamah doesn’t think he’ll get a fair and impartial jury so close to the world’s largest navy base.
Mental health center won’t move to Ghent location
“A proposal to move a mental health crisis center to a Redgate Avenue location near Sentara Norfolk General Hospital is no longer being considered.”
The 2010 NIMBY Award goes to Ghent. Congratulations, everyone.
Norfolk schools’ campaign touts education, grads
“The marketing push, called ‘Thank You, Norfolk,’ focuses on graduates’ gratitude and perspectives on the public schooling that culminates with commencement ceremonies next week, division spokeswoman Elizabeth Thiel Mather said. … The campaign also acknowledges that the division has endured six months of public scrutiny into school problems including irregularities on state assessment tests at four schools.”
Tanning salons feel burned by tax tied to health care law
This article is actually from Sunday, but it’s still being widely read and circulated. It seems the white, female small business owners of Hampton Roads are feeling a little discriminated against. The ire results from Obamacare: “starting July 1, indoor tanning salons must charge their customers a 10 percent tax on sessions involving ultraviolet rays to comply with the health care law passed in March.” I thoroughly enjoyed John’s related write-up last Friday.
Xe Services, formerly Blackwater Worldwide, up for sale
The Pilot’s Tom Breen reports: “The security company formerly known as Blackwater is looking for new ownership, announcing Monday that it is pursuing a sale of the company that became famous for its involvement with the U.S. government in Iraq and elsewhere.”
When Blackwater first changed its name to Xe, I thought it was a clever move: escape the sinister connotations and tarnished reputation of the old name with a rebranding campaign, making the new name so obscure that people won’t even know how to pronounce it. The leap in logic went, I assume, that sound-biters would simply give up and let Xe shrink away from the spotlight.
Apparently the PR guy has never heard of what happened when Prince changed his name to the symbol of an Egyptian ankh: now, “Xe Services, formerly Blackwater Worldwide” actually gets a moment more time in every clip. Ironically the owner and founder, who approved the name change, is named Erik Prince.
48-Hour Film Project: Review of Screening A
This was great fun, and I encourage everyone to get out of the house tonight and drop a well-spent $9 at the Naro. Then on Saturday, 48HFP will show the best of both nights, followed by awards and a wrap party.
Part of what I enjoyed – on an experiential level – about the “rough” screening last night was that we weren’t watching a best-of reel. Some were better made – Undetectable, Hard Milk, and The Chase come immediately to mind – and I applauded the efforts of many others. But I laughed hardest at a “suspense/thriller” whose dual plot lines merged like the San Andreas fault. It was awful, and I loved every minute.
What was transparent throughout the evening was that last weekend, while I was at a Bat Mitzvah on Long island, teams of friends were out chugging energy drinks, making art and having a lot of fun doing it.
Buy the paper and support its advertisers. If we were all moochers, the terrorists would win.
""
COMMENTS
Facebook comments:
ABOUT THE WRITER
Grant works with Norfolk Southern Intermodal, helping companies reduce their logistics costs and cut the number of trucks on our highways. In 2010, IEDC recognized him as the world's youngest certified economic developer. After hours, Grant serves as president of Re:vision Norfolk, a non-profit seeking long-term change to broaden the region's creative class. He has called Virginia home for as long as he's had a choice, and currently lives in Downtown Norfolk with his wife, Nicole.
Other posts by Grant Cothran.
Other posts by Grant Cothran.
RELATED POSTS
- Op-ed: Bus Rapid Transit a Viable Alternative to Extending The Tide
- Release: Hampton Roads Gets its ‘Reality Check’
- Candidate op-ed: Norfolk: Find your home here
- Follow-up Story: ODU Students Pitch App Ideas to Tech-Gurus and Entrepreneurs at This Weekend’s Start Norfolk
- Op-Ed: An Account of a (Horrific) First-Time HRT Experience
More Opinion Posts
RSS
Thank you Grant for calling out Ghent on their nimbyism.
I had the displeasure of sharing a coffee shop with some concerned citizens who were organizing against the mental health center. There was a lot of misinformation, and selfishness driving this move and people should be held to task for it.
I am not exactly sure what neighborhood this will land in now but allow me to give you some of its characteristics.
1. It will be poor.
2. Its population will not have the disposable income or time to fight the center.
3. It will probably be predominantly black.
Meanwhile, Ghent will remain not caring that we concentrate poverty, class, and all of the negative consequences of this modern life.
Oh and the patients you might ask? How do they feel? Well they are now separated from the medical facilities that was driving this decision in th first place. They are also in a neighborhood that maybe far less conducive to their recover and /or treatment.
Thanks again Ghent… and less sarcastically thanks Grant for calling them out.
Black Water to Xe, Xe is one of the Noble gas elements, completely inert and non-reactive. Such can’t be said of Black Water now Xe.
Im sorry but to say we should support BP becuase thry are paying out $ for cleaning the spill is kinda like saying lets keep getting our crack and herion from from a corner drug dealer. Sorry but if your a part of something massive the little man will get squeezed first. not much different then a drug mule. So Mr Jeff Miller’s stocks in the company will go down… So he may not make any extra profits in one of the most lucrative industries there is. So he might not have the extra money to spend on a Florida coast vacation but hey who wants to go there now? Sorry but there are plenty of other places to get gas. As far as your comparrison to the Heinz thing, thats not on par as a correlation. By not buying BP is a way to get back at the heart of the company. The stocks for them are slowly dropping as I type this. Yes we are all to blame but if BP did not have a way to stop such a problem before drilling this well then they should have never started drilling in the first place. So by all means I WILL BOYCOT BP!!!!!!
Agree with Jay. Shame on Ghent. Big, big, big shame on ghent.
Also agree on buying BP gas. I think the spill should remind us that we shouldn’t be buying ANY gas. I agree that it’s WE who are to blame.
HAHA ‘Are you serious??’ wrote “Sorry but there are plenty of other places to get gas. As far as your comparrison to the Heinz thing, thats not on par as a correlation”
I’d say it’s much more relate-able than your drug analogy.
But by all means, keep making yourself the victim and blaming everyone else.
HAHA ‘Are you serious??’ wrote “Sorry but there are plenty of other places to get gas. As far as your comparrison to the Heinz thing, thats not on par as a correlation”
I’d say it’s much more relate-able than your drug analogy.
But by all means, keep making yourself the victim and blaming everyone else.
I have to agree with grant about buying BP gas. I predict BP will file bankrupcy before this is all over, and the government will just have to bail them out and finish cleanup after they run out of money. So go ahead and pat yourself on the back as you fuel up your Expedition at the Citgo station instead.
Casey if you think this multi billion dollar company is going to file for bankrupcy you are delusional… And your making an ass out of yourself by assuming I own a SUV and would buy gas from a place where BP sells oil too. Ill have you know I ride my bike pretty much everywhere, I still have a car and pay my taxes on that so you know before you start trying to trash talk about not contributing to paying for roads etc. Keep on supporting big business the CEO’s will be happy to keep writing bounus checks for themselves and allowing them to bully the government so they get what they want.
ha “But by all means, keep making yourself the victim and blaming everyone else.”
Please tell me how my statement makes me sound like a victim? And where is it written that Im blaming everyone else? If you would read and not judge so quickly I said we are all to blame…
And if you dont get the addiction comparrison your just not very bright. I did not think I would have to spell that out…
Okay, now, you’re all pretty.
AYS?:
I hate to state the obvious, but I was not seriously advocating that anyone buy BP gas exclusively to support clean-up efforts. To do so would be as ludicrous as making the judgment to boycott before this thing is sorted out. I understand the desire to strike back and I suggest you go outside, do some fist-pumping and yell FUCK as loud as you can. Because it’s the whole goddamn system that’s to blame for this disaster – “BP” is simply the shortest sound bite. But yes, they really screwed the pooch on this one.
I suggest, until the criminal trial, we all continue to buy gasoline based on convenience factors like price, location, and clean restrooms.
I guess BP is too big to fail? The problem is that if they don’t fix this mess, there really isn’t anyone else who can do it. If BP goes out of business, who are we supposed to turn to? That’s what I find most disturbing about this whole situation. We have no choice but to rely on the people who got us into this mess.
I think boycotting BP sends a message that consumers are paying attention and will hold irresponsible corporations accountable, and I think that’s a valuable message. It is a shame that some of the middlemen will get hurt in this process, but I don’t think that in itself is a good enough reason to oppose a boycott. If customers don’t show their anger, then what message does that send? That we’re not paying attention? That we don’t care?
I agree that there is a systemic problem that goes beyond just BP, and to focus all of our anger on BP misses the bigger picture. But I think it’s equally possible that making an example out of BP could send a jolt to the system as a whole, leading to better and more meaningful checks on corporate power.