Answering A Columnist's Dumb Fracking Questions

Take one inspired and agitated relatively wealthy progressive legislator, whose vacation domicile has been despoiled by fracking wells, and what do you get? Well, one activated member of the political elites now out to work on behalf of the PEOPLE - as opposed to shilling for oil and gas corporations!  Such is the case of Colorado congressman Jared Polis - who now has the state's energy predators running scared as well as scores of state lawmakers in their pockets.

Polis, because of his proposals to regulate fracking locally, has actually been branded a "terrorist" (by Steve Durham, a lobbyist for the Colorado Association of Home Builders) and also an "extortionist" by the fossil fuel industry's media lackeys including Denver Post Libertarian columnist Vincent Carroll ('Jared Polis' Big Adventure', Sunday, July 13).

Now, as signatures for Polis' initiatives play out here in Colorado, money, power and politics are clashing in a way that some commentators assert "hasn't been seen in 40 years."  But the issue is huge and make no mistake could well have repercussions for your own burg or state as the fracking wars play out nationally.

In Colorado, citizen anger erupted after the Denver Post published an analysis of how many oil spills have occurred in our state, many threatening our precious water stores.  Worse, the Post investigation found that state fracking has polluted the soil as well as water.  According to the Post (May 4, p. 1A.):

“There’s about one gallon of toxic liquid penetrating soil every eight minutes.”

In addition, the Post notes: “drillers churn up 135 to 500 tons of dirt with every new well, some of it soaked with hydrocarbons and laced with potentially toxic minerals and salts.”

Given this, is it any wonder adults – kids living near frack sites often have severe health complaints, ranging from horrific rashes to bleeding orifices to breathing problems? According to Eugene Kelly, chief of soil and crop science at Colorado State University – quoted in the piece:

“The overall impact of the oil and gas boom is like a death sentence for soil. It could be the next limiting component when we talk about feeding the planet and having a sustainable lifestyle- - because all the good stuff is gone and the soil is being degraded.”

 

And the most astounding and equally disturbing finding:

 

“State data also show that 12.3 percent of the past 1,000 spills (since June 24, 2012) already had contaminated groundwater before companies began cleanups.”

 

Beyond the contamination of soil and groundwater, the Post's data analysis showed that drilling of new wells unearthed an estimated 652,000 tons a year of sludge-like drill cuttings. These are supposed to be taken to special landfills but more often than not  spread them instead on “leased fields”.

How did Polis enter the ring? Well, after his own 'Ox' was gored on visiting his vacation home in Weld County and seeing a frack operation despoiling the landscape. He then became mobilized to use his wealth on citizens' behalf to expedite ballot measures for local control of fracking operations in every locality that wants to see them reined in. The Oil and Gas bunch went nuts, and so did our guv  - John Hickenlooper-  who is also a pal (he once drank fracked water to show there is nothing wrong with it - a one time stunt I doubt he will repeat.)

In order to try to thwart Polis' efforts, Hick (our Neolib Guv) cooperated with lobbyists and Colo. Home Builders Association to seek a "compromise" measure. But, as Carroll notes, the effort to try and square the circle "split both the energy industry and home builders" - hence the remark about Polis being a "terrorist" - which shows the extent to which the bogus "war on terror" has created collateral damage on our language.

Carroll in his piece is riled because Polis' initiatives reveal:

"a spectacle in which a wealthy, powerful individual pledges to fund ballot measures feared by nearly the entire business community."

Well,, uh, fuck the business community, nuh?  I say that because to me citizens' health and their environmental quality trumps business - but hey that's just me. I prefer to be able to drink water free of xylene, toluene, benzene and 633 other carcinogens, and breathe air free of all the contaminants -  plus methane - the Denver Post exposed in its 2-part series.

But let's get back to reality and Carroll's claims. In terms of wealth, Polis' is decidedly on the low end - roughly in the mid- double digit millions. In no way does his wealth even remotely compare to that of the billionaire  Koch brothers, or the Oil tycoon, T. Boone Pickens. Let's get that straight from the get go. And at least Polis, having had his ox gored (seeing wells drilled across the street from his property), is willing to put those millions to practical legislative use for citizens  - so give him credit. But this is also what has the business community and especially the frackers, shitting bricks. See, in their worst nightmares they can visualize this scenario playing out not only here in Colorado, but elsewhere in the country. The thought they won't be able to poison our soil, water and air for big profits has them staying up all night long.

Now, as to Carroll's insipid questions, posted at the tail end of his Jared jeremiad, he writes:

"If oil and gas production constitutes an outrage on property adjacent to the Polis' retreat, where exactly should it be allowed?"

That's easy! Only where citizens by their vote in passing the relevant referendum, deem it allowable!

Indeed, the precedent already exists!  As per an AP report published July 1 (Denver Post (p. 15A),

"New York's top court handed a victory to opponents of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas by affirming the right of municipalities to ban the practice within their borders."

This State Court of Appeals "affirmed a mid-level decision by an appeals court that said state oil and gas law doesn't trump the authority of local governments to control land use through zoning."

Which has been the case in this country for many years. Thus, a neighbor in a residentially zoned neighborhood cannot just suddenly decide to start a hog farm, or now - in Colorado - a marijuana grow operation. Local zoning ordinances prohibit it! The same clearly applies to the practice of fracking,  irrespective of its claimed economic benefits.  It doesn't matter! Whatever those benefits are they don't trump citizens' rights to proscribe the operations via zoning. Indeed, the whole practice of zoning was established to be able to exclude those intrusive, disruptive or inappropriate activities (including porno dives and pawn shops) that didn't fit in with a neighborhood's profile. I mean, Jeebus, why would any right-thinking citizen want pawn shops or sex toy emporiums right next to schools or their homes ? So why would you want a frack well right in your neighborhood?

Carroll next asks:

"Should it be allowed only where the horizon is empty in all directions? "

Again, the placement in terms of disrupting views is not as critical as the environmental and health impacts which that proximity foretells. The impact on soil, air and WATER!

Carroll's parting shot is to denigrate the distance of Polis' guest house from the now abandoned frack well (800'),  as well as its quality ("looks like a large shed")

But it doesn't matter what the distance is, since as we know frackers can insert their drills from a distance, intruding far beneath any home and wreak havoc. Also, it doesn't matter what the guest house looks like. So long as a living, breathing human can visit and stay there - and be subject to all the frack toxins - Polis has an argument.

Alas, Vincent Carroll doesn't.

Holocaust Deniers - Need to Be Force-Read 'Doctors From Hell'

Denver Post columnist Vincent Carroll, this past Sunday, extolled the efforts of his aunt,   Vivien Spitz,  to get the word out about the horrific Nazi medical experiments, as she documented in her book, Doctors from Hell. He noted she especially was energized in 1987, after reading in The Denver Post of a German Language Arts teacher who actually referred to the Holocaust as the "Holo-hoax'.  In addressing her Denver suburb high school class the teacher was actually quoted as saying: "Some say holocaust, some say holo-hoax".

Right! But I say that those who declare  "holo hoax" are ignorant fools (revealing themselves as such), who merit no input into any serious historical discussions. Their opinions aren't worth even an ounce of doggie lickspittle. That includes those like the character Robert Sungenis, responsible for the pseudo-science travesty 'The Principle' (previous blog post), which proposes the Sun revolves around the Earth. Well, anyone who disputes the Holocaust has already lost all credibility in any other venue, including scientific. 

Anyway, as Carroll notes, seeing this baloney - and coming from the mouth of a teacher (who ought to know better) spurred Vivien Spitz to not only go on an educational circuit to show teachers and students what happened, but to write a book about her experience at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.  An expert at manual and machine shorthand, Ms. Spitz was recruited by the War Department in 1946, to provide a record of the trial of the Nazi war criminals. These transcripts would later be put to use providing presentations to groups across the country: schools, churches, veterans organizations, bar associations and civic organizations. Ms. Spitz felt, after her 1987 wake-up call people could not be allowed to forget what happened, lest it happen again.

The book, meticulous in its detail, is not for the squeamish - but then neither are the actual autopsy photos and records of the Kennedy assassination. Historical validity and nicey-nice often don't go together, and those who want their history neat and tidy are usually the ones left out in the cold as to actual history. They are the ones who continue to be gamed and spinned by those who would alter it for their own agendas.

I was already familiar with a lot of the infamous Nazi medical experiments thanks to video documentaries such as detailed in "The Holocaust Testaments".  These narrow in on each major concentration camp- from Auschwitz, to Birkenau, to Dachau, Buchenwald and Ravensbruck, to show what was done to hapless men, women and children.

In the Auschwitz record, for example, one beholds a 12 year old boy who's  been infected with Leprosy and the results after just 6 weeks. In another segment, one watches with heart break as the bandages are removed from a 10 year old girl's foot, showing blackened flesh - after she had been forced to stand ten hours in freezing temperatures. In yet another segment, a 9 year old boy is unable to exercise or move either of his arms - they had been amputated and replaced with the arms of a 9 month old infant.

As Carroll observes:

"The bone, muscle and nerve regeneration experiments - and incredibly, bone transplantation- were among the most savage, sadistic and inhumane."

 He also refers to others including: infecting prisoners with typhus, lathering prisoners' arms with a phosphorus mixture and igniting it, immersing prisoners - including children - in ice water, to see how long they could survive, and forcing them to drink sea water for days on end to see how long they could live off it before their kidneys were destroyed.

Other experiments, summarized in Ms. Spitz' book (pp. 44-46) included:

- High altitude experiments, carried out in a low pressure chamber in which the victims were suddenly exposed to extremely low atmospheric pressures such as would be experienced at Everest, for example, and even higher (up to 68,000 ft.) with the subjects then dying in horrible agony.

- Mustard gas experiments, with wounds directly inflicted on the exposed flesh of men, women and children using a mustard agent, and then the doctors documenting how long each took to die in agony.

- Sulfanilimide experiments: to determine the efficacy of drugs, exposing victims to a range of diseases: tetanus, streptococcus, and gas gangrene - with wood shaving and ground glass later forced into the wounds.

- Nerve regeneration experiments, in which living nerves were actually removed from victims causing intense agony and debility, and often agonizing death.

- Sterilization experiments, with victims subjected to sterilization by x-rays, various surgeries or drugs, causing great mental and physical anguish.

- Poison experiments: Poisons, including strychnine and arsenic, were secretly administered to experimental subjects in their foods leading to death - after which autopsies were performed.

- De-fleshing and skeleton collection: to create skeletons for display by the Nazi doctors over 1200 Jewish men, women and children were selected, killed and de-fleshed for skeleton preparation - with the specimens sent to the Reich University.

Meanwhile, in the Holocaust Testaments (Auschwitz) one also found:

- Removal of skin for chairs, and art 'canvas':   In this case the selected bodies of certain gassed victims had their skin later removed and used to form the fabric for chairs - generally by the particular concentration camp Kommandant - and also for "art" canvas, with the art often pornographic.

- Bodies of fetuses (expelled by their mothers in the gas chambers) designated for autopsies.

Yes, one beholds a true 'House of Horror's created by these Nazi doctors.  All documented, and in meticulous detail. So much that no rational person can counter its truth by confecting any kind of fulsome rejoinder or nonsense,   that it "never happened" or that  it's all a "holo -hoax".

Vivien Spitz wrote:

"I would spend the rest of my life trying to recover from what I had heard and written.. From that point on I would no longer tolerate any bigotry.

Meanwhile, the best prescription for Holocaust deniers like Robert Sungenis would be to have 'Doctors from Hell'  force -read to them while they're tied down. Then, afterwards, show them the Holocaust Testaments on an endless loop with eyelids taped open - like Alex in "Clockwork Orange".

Horrific torture? Too terrible for these fuckers? Hardly!  This conditioning is nowhere near the level of what the Nazi doctors from Hell inflicted on their innocent victims.  And look at it this way, at least the deniers aren't being imprisoned for ten years as they would be in Austria or Germany!