Friday, June 11, 2010

World Problems Could be Solved by Redefining

BP Stockholders


A high ranking BP executive said there are no plumes in the Gulf of Mexico. The news people jumped on that statement and ran with it, showing pictures of a huge shapeless oil mass lazily drifting on the Gulf of Mexico.

Then the CEO of BP realizing what kind of foolish statement his executive made said, more or less, "Well, it is according how you define 'plume'."

That brought me to remember one time in a major city the statistics of murder went down in numbers. The actual killings did not go down, the city just redefined some words. Like, most murders are done in a domestic situation, so since everybody knew each other, it wasn't included in the murder statistic - it was safely hidden away under another heading.

I have seen things redefined at the post office to make their numbers look better and I have read about other legal maneuvers of redefining something so the people in charge of the redefinitions would gain.

I wonder how that executive at BP defined a plume? A giant blob that ended life on earth? Hold on, its getting there.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eddie,

You grew up in the 50's and 60's. The definition of what was sex and what was not was part of the "good girl" and "bad girl" thing. The whole question of how do you define sex depends on when you grew up.

Now, impeachment for blow jobs, or even lying about them, that's another question entirely.

Mike D

Eddie said...

Mike, I deleted that part before I even knew you commented. I deleted it because it was just based on my speculation - I don't know that Clinton redefined anything.
I think Clinton was a great president, and what he did behind closed doors was executive privilege and Kenneth Starr or anybody right should have a right to ask a president about their personal sex life. I don't think Clinton should have done what he did and then lie about it...but the fact he did, the only thing I can say is "he fucked up!"