There are aliens in Arizona and black oceans?

First of all I'd like to say fuck protesters in general. If you've protested something with a bunch of other needy scumbags just to make a lot of noise, and to try to convince people to change their mind you're foolish. Now that I have your attention, I'd like to add an amendment to that statement. If your protest involved something other than arts and crafts with a brightly colored piece of construction paper, you may get a pass. If you boycott a product in order to force someone to change their mind or just to target their beloved greed then i can understand your stance. But if you're just one of the hundreds of college kids, minorities, upset pro lifers, anti war, pro or anti gay sign holders that are doing nothing more than that, you should swallow a pitch fork covered in battery acid. What is yelling and holding a sign going to do to people who made a law? When is the last time some one said, "well there are a lot of people out there with signs we should probably do what they say"? Oh I remember, it was the 12th of never. So all the hundreds of people in Los Angels getting their Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on with non violent protests against Arizona's sb1070 immigration law what are you helping? Even if it did come up in a political meeting, hundreds of miles away, guess what shit faces Arizona citizens have to vote on it. Not you LA protesters and especially not any people affected by the immigration law.

What I'm trying to get across here is this; protesting alone is like wiping before you poop, it makes no sense. If coupled with boycotts of products or something that will actually affect some one's money maybe they'll listen. Of course there is the more outlandish approach; in the words of Judah Uno, "If I blow up a gas station will they feel my indignation." Yes blowing something up will probably also get the attention of the people making the laws, but i will also get you 25 to life and a possible lead heart implant from a trigger happy Wal-Mart security guard. Am I for it or against it, I don't know. I'm sure they are not going to go around asking people like Steve Nash to see identification but that is not my point. My point is this, just because you can write your opinion in block letters on a piece of construction paper and stand with hundreds of other similarly skilled people in front of buildings containing fairly powerless people doesn't make you the next civil rights activist. Without other action, it makes you a fool.

My next point has to do with the black sea. Okay, not really the black sea but the Gulf of Mexico that is fairly black now with 200,000 gallons a day of oil leaking into the ocean. Shit like this happens all the time but these companies have so much money and pull that we don't hear about it. Yes this even is a little larger in scale but still effects the world in the same way. If you live under a rock, here is a link to an up-to-date story about the effects and initial occurrence BBC story>.

The thing that makes me want to kick random people in the balls is the fact that companies like BP are allowed to operate knowing things like this can happen without a sure fire plan to stop it. Yes I know there are accidents but there should be some type of policy that makes it harder for these things to happen without a 99% chance that catastrophic events can be stopped or at least have way to be stopped. Yes the oil is going to mess with a ridiculous amount of sea life, birds, and what not but it won't be the last time. Companies like this, especially in the oil industry can and have been greasing the pockets of politicians all over the world so the can continue to get rich and turn our oceans black with little regulations to stop them.

Yes this has been a rant and a tirade, but definitely not a protest. I have not done any arts and crafts making a sign and I have not stood in highly congested fool zones. These are issues that I have been hearing a lot about and this is my opinion. If you don't like it, fight me. =)

Grant W.