Only In America

[thatonethere]

The people in this town are having their beaches cleaned up by people who are doing their jobs, and they still want to complain? How about they clean their own damn beaches themselves .... uppity ungrateful bastards.[url="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38406839/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/"]
[/url]
[url="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38406839/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/"]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38406839/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/[/url]

[Rani]

I don't know..... I mean, look at it from the residents point of view. They have this small little town where they never locked up anything because they knew everybody, and suddenly through no fault of their own, their beaches and fishing are destroyed by an irresponsible international conglomerate and now their town is flooded with people they don't know, and have no history with, living in trailers in groups and hanging out at the local bars. Not much different from the fleet coming into town in a port city. Over reaction? Maybe a little, but an understandable one. I think the reality is the town is being extra cautious with an influx of strangers, the strangers are away from home and trying to have a good time, and the media needed a story to escalate things. Anybody causing trouble will be arrested, and some friendships will form and in the long run few will remember the bad press.

'Rani

[kyleSD]

If anything's to blame it's probably just the small town mindset. The people there are trying to help. Yes, they are outsiders but they aren't just rolling through town like a gang in the old west they are trying to fix a huge mistake. Not to mention having more people in a small town only betters its economy with the people helping buying food and what not. I wouldn't say only in America I think most small towns across the world would have similar reactions. You also have to consider we have no one PHYSICALLY to blame other than a corporation so I'm sure what's happening is also a manifestation of the towns frustrations. Unfortunate scapegoats I guess. When the local bars and business find out their revenue stream is like triple they'll reconsider their feelings.

[thatonethere]

[quote name='Rani' date='26 July 2010 - 10:54 AM' timestamp='1280163256' post='476388']
I don't know..... I mean, look at it from the residents point of view. They have this small little town where they never locked up anything because they knew everybody, and suddenly through no fault of their own, their beaches and fishing are destroyed by an irresponsible international conglomerate and now their town is flooded with people they don't know, and have no history with, living in trailers in groups and hanging out at the local bars. Not much different from the fleet coming into town in a port city. Over reaction? Maybe a little, but an understandable one. I think the reality is the town is being extra cautious with an influx of strangers, the strangers are away from home and trying to have a good time, and the media needed a story to escalate things. Anybody causing trouble will be arrested, and some friendships will form and in the long run few will remember the bad press.

'Rani
[/quote]

These guys get tourists who come in just to vacation in their little town for their beaches. There's even a guy who rents units to tourists, so they should be used to strangers by now. If anything, the strangers will build their economy by visiting the bars, and eateries. They should be glad there are a lot of new people with money to spend in their town.

As long as the workers do their jobs and don't cause trouble, I don't think the locals should worry about anything. Edited July 27, 2010 by thatonethere

[thatonethere]

What??? No coments???

[acolorado]

[quote name='thatonethere' date='29 July 2010 - 03:25 AM' timestamp='1280395530' post='476923']
What??? No coments???
[/quote]

I grew up in a small town that depended completely on tourism for it's economic welfare.

Nearly everyone I knew hated tourists.

In a small town most people just want other people to stay out. Doesn't matter how much good they're doing or how necessary they are.

[joytron]

do you see the irony in you yourself complaining about the situation?

[acolorado]

[quote name='joytron' date='29 July 2010 - 12:41 PM' timestamp='1280428918' post='476962']
do you see the irony in you yourself complaining about the situation?
[/quote]

Of course - that's my point.

[Arcane]

they should just pack up and leave that place then...then when the locals wonder why the seafood they're eating is making them sick and asking for help...

the rest of America can say, FUCK YOU!!

[TheScotsman]

The idiot-looser cleanup workers segregate themselves into racial groups, then start fights, but you blame it on the town's people. That is precious.


Hope it happens in your neighborhood.

[Rani]

[quote name='TheScotsman' date='30 July 2010 - 07:41 PM' timestamp='1280544074' post='477114']
The idiot-looser cleanup workers segregate themselves into racial groups, then start fights, but you blame it on the town's people. That is precious.


Hope it happens in your neighborhood.
[/quote]

Look! Up in the sky!

It's a bird..................!

It's a plane...........................!

It's pigs flying - again.

Scotsman we have GOT to get off the same page. We're causing an imbalance in the space-time continuum! Civilization is in danger of total collapse!

'Rani

[TheScotsman]

[quote name='Rani' date='30 July 2010 - 10:09 PM' timestamp='1280545759' post='477117']
[quote name='TheScotsman' date='30 July 2010 - 07:41 PM' timestamp='1280544074' post='477114']
The idiot-looser cleanup workers segregate themselves into racial groups, then start fights, but you blame it on the town's people. That is precious.


Hope it happens in your neighborhood.
[/quote]

Look! Up in the sky!

It's a bird..................!

It's a plane...........................!

It's pigs flying - again.

Scotsman we have GOT to get off the same page. We're causing an imbalance in the space-time continuum! Civilization is in danger of total collapse!

'Rani
[/quote]



It's getting a bit frightening.
Must be something in the water????

[Rani]

[quote name='TheScotsman' date='31 July 2010 - 05:01 PM' timestamp='1280620913' post='477219']
[quote name='Rani' date='30 July 2010 - 10:09 PM' timestamp='1280545759' post='477117']
[quote name='TheScotsman' date='30 July 2010 - 07:41 PM' timestamp='1280544074' post='477114']
The idiot-looser cleanup workers segregate themselves into racial groups, then start fights, but you blame it on the town's people. That is precious.


Hope it happens in your neighborhood.
[/quote]

Look! Up in the sky!

It's a bird..................!

It's a plane...........................!

It's pigs flying - again.

Scotsman we have GOT to get off the same page. We're causing an imbalance in the space-time continuum! Civilization is in danger of total collapse!

'Rani
[/quote]



It's getting a bit frightening.
Must be something in the water????
[/quote]

"Water? Never touch the stuff. Fish fuck in it."
[i]- WC Fields - [/i]

[thatonethere]

[quote name='TheScotsman' date='30 July 2010 - 08:41 PM' timestamp='1280544074' post='477114']
The idiot-looser[b] cleanup workers segregate themselves into racial groups, then start fights,[/b] but you blame it on the town's people. That is precious.

[b]
Hope it happens in your neighborhood.[/b]
[/quote]


Where does it say that they "segregate themselves and start fights" in the article? The people are under strict rules enforced by BP to stay out of trouble. Please read the article again.

What makes them "idiot losers"?
An "invasion" of sorts has already happened in my neighborhood. There are more Mexicans on my block than there are White people. To be honest, I've had no trouble from the Mexicans. That's more than I could say about my White neighbors.

It sounds like there might be some pent up anger regarding the people in this article and yourself.
Do you care to elaborate why you classify these people as "idiot-loosers"?

[thatonethere]

[quote name='acolorado' date='29 July 2010 - 10:19 AM' timestamp='1280420349' post='476945']
[quote name='thatonethere' date='29 July 2010 - 03:25 AM' timestamp='1280395530' post='476923']
What??? No coments???
[/quote]

I grew up in a small town that depended completely on tourism for it's economic welfare.

Nearly everyone I knew hated tourists.

In a small town most people just want other people to stay out. Doesn't matter how much good they're doing or how necessary they are.
[/quote]

I guess I could understand this mindset, but the interesting thing about it is these tourists provide income for the people. If the tourists stayed out, they'd complain about not being able to support themselves, or invent some way to attract tourists.

It sounds like they want it both ways.
I guess if they didn't want people to stay or hang around, they should build a truck stop. That way people come in to fill up their tanks, and drive away.
They keep the money,and the people leave.
Problem solved? Edited August 2, 2010 by thatonethere

[TheScotsman]

[quote name='thatonethere' date='01 August 2010 - 08:34 PM' timestamp='1280712856' post='477288']
[quote name='TheScotsman' date='30 July 2010 - 08:41 PM' timestamp='1280544074' post='477114']
The idiot-looser[b] cleanup workers segregate themselves into racial groups, then start fights,[/b] but you blame it on the town's people. That is precious.

[b]
Hope it happens in your neighborhood.[/b]
[/quote]


Where does it say that they "segregate themselves and start fights" in the article? The people are under strict rules enforced by BP to stay out of trouble. Please read the article again.

What makes them "idiot losers"?
An "invasion" of sorts has already happened in my neighborhood. There are more Mexicans on my block than there are White people. To be honest, I've had no trouble from the Mexicans. That's more than I could say about my White neighbors.

It sounds like there might be some pent up anger regarding the people in this article and yourself.
Do you care to elaborate why you classify these people as "idiot-loosers"?
[/quote]



Ah, you see, to know that little tid bit, you had to read the original article, not the twisted-spun-and vastly edited PMS-nbc version. It seems pms lets out the heart of the story. I guess maybe you should read the real article, eh?

Ya, these are the loosers working for BP:


...The seafood guy gestures in the direction of the floating barracks being built on barges in the bay to house the lower-skilled cleanup workers, and says that people think the barracks will keep those workers—who are mostly black—from "jumping off" onto dry land and causing trouble.That night, dozens of men in race-segregated packs crowd around to watch strippers dance around and then tussle inside the bouncy inflatable ring set up inside Daddy's Money. Female oil wrestlers need, obviously, to be oiled. Plastic cups full of baby oil are being auctioned off, along with the right to rub their contents all over one of the thong-bikinied gals. "I hope there's no dispersant in that oil!" someone quips. The bidding before the first match starts at $10; it ends pretty quickly when some kid offers $100.

"He outbid me!" the guy next to me yells. His name is Cortez. He bid $80. He has dollar bills tucked all the way around under the brim of his hat, and piles of them in his fist. He has spent $200 of his $1,000 paycheck already tonight. "I am coming here every Saturday from now on," he says. He gestures expansively at the scene—writhing women; hollering, money-throwing men. "Sponsored by BP!" he yells, laughing, then throws his arms around me and grabs my ass.

Upstairs, on the open-air deck, the supervisors and professional contractors drink. One comes over to talk; he calls me a Yankee when I don't get that when he says "animals" he means black guys. Another tells us about the crime-prone "monkeys." I have already stopped counting how many times I've heard the n-word on Grand Isle today....

(shamelessly poached from an article by Mac macllelland in Mother Jones. Disallowed link, you are going to have to google it if you want the truth, or you can just happily go on thinking pms-nbc isn't full of bullshit, guess that is your choice.)


[b]And you are coming down on the people of grand isle, because PMS-nbc was trying to stir up trouble, then blame the locals. Amazing you would both believe pms-nbc about anything, then go along with the erroneous belief that you actually have even a slight clue of what is really happening.
[/b]

[thatonethere]

I'll have to check this article out when I get home from work. My job doesn't allow me to view the article. (but it lets me view a hookah website...go figure). I'll get back to you when I read it.

[TheScotsman]

sorry, my post sounded like I was being a condescending ass. It seems to be a natural occurrence... don't take it wrong.

PMS-nbc has been so flagrant in skewing stories, but more, just plain twisting the available information into something it completely isn't, then using it to support a lie they made up. Makes me a bit nuts. Any time I see PMS-nbc, then check out the original sources, I find out they came up with something completely of their own invention. Hard to trust an organization like that.

Often they (meaning pms-nbc) fall into that category of "complete lie". I don't know about you, but once a "news" outlet just completely lies to me, they are no longer news, but a giant BS-fountain, to never be trusted without verification ever again.

[thatonethere]

Ok. I just read the article, and all I can say is "wow".

This sort of thing happens in Alaska (oil rigs, and oil pipeline welding jobs),trucking, or any male dominated line of work where they are worked to the bone, are away from home, etc. The same goes with military towns as well. That still doesn't justify how crazy they have been acting. Unfortunately some of the riff raff will affect the town one way or another. I'm not saying its acceptable, but it comes with the territory. Besides what the hell did they expect to go on in a place called "Daddy's Money" anyway? A quiet evening of bridge, tea and crumpets!??? GTFOH.

As far as the racial segregating goes, think about it like this. If you are invited to a party, and there are a very few people there who look like you, I'm sure you'd join the group of people who look like you, or find some people you know until you feel comfortable enough to mingle with the rest of the folks. Also, it is the South. I'm sure quite a few people come from towns or cities where there are Black neighborhoods and White neighborhoods still and so they tend to drift to what they know or what they are most familiar with. Humans do this quite a bit regardless of what region they are from.

None of this is directed at you Scotsman, but it sounds like the people in the town are really oblivious. I still feel the same way I felt before, but I do think the workers really need to respect the townspeople and keep that crap on their barracks, and not let it spill out into the town.

And I can understand your beef with Msnbc. I feel the same way about Faux (Fox) News. It's harder and harder to find out what real news is. The media is so saturated with info-tainment, crap and spin artistry that none of it is even believable anymore. Edited August 5, 2010 by thatonethere

[TheScotsman]

[quote name='thatonethere' date='05 August 2010 - 05:15 PM' timestamp='1281046529' post='477851']
Ok. I just read the article, and all I can say is "wow".

This sort of thing happens in Alaska (oil rigs, and oil pipeline welding jobs),trucking, or any male dominated line of work where they are worked to the bone, are away from home, etc. The same goes with military towns as well. That still doesn't justify how crazy they have been acting. Unfortunately some of the riff raff will affect the town one way or another. I'm not saying its acceptable, but it comes with the territory. Besides what the hell did they expect to go on in a place called "Daddy's Money" anyway? A quiet evening of bridge, tea and crumpets!??? GTFOH.

As far as the racial segregating goes, think about it like this. If you are invited to a party, and there are a very few people there who look like you, I'm sure you'd join the group of people who look like you, or find some people you know until you feel comfortable enough to mingle with the rest of the folks. Also, it is the South. I'm sure quite a few people come from towns or cities where there are Black neighborhoods and White neighborhoods still and so they tend to drift to what they know or what they are most familiar with. Humans do this quite a bit regardless of what region they are from.

None of this is directed at you Scotsman, but it sounds like the people in the town are really oblivious. I still feel the same way I felt before, but I do think the workers really need to respect the townspeople and keep that crap on their barracks, and not let it spill out into the town.

And I can understand your beef with Msnbc. I feel the same way about Faux (Fox) News. It's harder and harder to find out what real news is. The media is so saturated with info-tainment, crap and spin artistry that none of it is even believable anymore.
[/quote]

Oblivious??? A bunch of bussed-in unemployed rejects show up, and commit crimes, act like assholes, start race fights, and you call the people that own land, and pay the taxes there oblivious? That is precious.
Hope it happens in your neighborhood, so I can call you oblivious when a bunch of rejects come tear up your property.



Oh, by the way, I would call trying to join a crowd of people that.. how did you put it... "look like you" to be a perfect , very perfect, definition of racism itself... One has to be damn shallow to consider appearance as a reason to join any group of people, much less a group of people engaged completely idiotic behaviour. Isn't the KKK, or the Black Panthers nothing more than a group of people that "look like" eachother? (to use your own words) As was the SS in Germany... along with a long line of organizations of utter assholes, set up around your reasoning for joining a group. Nope, no joining groups that base entry into the group on looks... especially mine.

[antouwan]

reminds me of an old lebanese saying: ana w khayi 3a ibn 3ami w ana w ibn 3ami 3al ghareeb. OR me and my brother against my cousin and me and my cousin against the foreigner.

also, i'm sure the cleanup workers are seen as an embodiment or an extension of bp and the catastrophe even though they definitely weren't the cause for the oil spill and probably only have only a nominal affiliation with bp themselves (as they're mostly all employed by subcontractors).

can't really say i blame them all that much, especially for resenting the hell out of the workers. is it right? that isn't the question. and why should they clean finance the cleaning up of their own beach? BP has already ruined them enough financially, i don't they can afford to take any more time off of work.

[thatonethere]

Regarding segregation in this situation:
I was speaking on a purely sociological standpoint in general. People gravitate towards who or what they are familiar with, plain and simple. It just happens that the employees were acting like drunken fools. I can bet if there were no trouble amongst the two groups,segregation between the two would have been irrelevant. Besides, crazy behavior like that is to be expected in a bar with drunks, girls, and sexual-like acts. It comes with the territory (like I said before).

Personally, I wouldn't choose to belong to a group of people based on whether or not they look like me. I prefer to center myself around people with similar interests regardless of how they look. If the people happen to have similar interests and look like me, then that's fine. If they don't look like me then that's fine too. [b]It all boils down to whether or not they are assholes[/b].

You might find this article interesting. It happened "in my neighborhood" long before I was born. It was a similar situation but ended much worse. Honestly, I think the event in this article was a whole lot worse than some bar fight in a small town.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Fi_Murders

[thatonethere]

[quote name='antouwan' date='06 August 2010 - 10:05 AM' timestamp='1281110727' post='477975']
reminds me of an old lebanese saying: ana w khayi 3a ibn 3ami w ana w ibn 3ami 3al ghareeb. OR [b]me and my brother against my cousin and me and my cousin against the foreigner. [/b][color="#0000ff"]I can see what you mean by this. Usually, that's how huge fights start. It's a group of people who share something in common with each other in general vs another group of people with something different in common (for example: Conservatives vs Liberals, Democrats, vs Republicans, etc).[/color] [color="#0000ff"]People have a tendency to group themselves with people who have things in common[/color]. [color="#0000ff"] Thanks for seeing that.[/color] [color="#0000ff"] (no sarcasm intended)[/color]

[b]also, i'm sure the cleanup workers are seen as an embodiment or an extension of bp and the catastrophe even though they definitely weren't the cause for the oil spill and probably only have only a nominal affiliation with bp themselves (as they're mostly all employed by subcontractors). [/b][color="#0000ff"]This is likely as well. If it weren't for the BP situation, everything would have been business as usual for the townspeople. Their anger is mostly with BP for letting the spill go on for so long, so they take the anger out on the workers since BP isn't there to vent at.[/color][b]
[/b]
can't really say i blame them all that much, especially for resenting the hell out of the workers. is it right? that isn't the question. and [b]why should they clean finance the cleaning up of their own beach?[/b] BP has already ruined them enough financially, i don't they can afford to take any more time off of work.
[/quote] [color="#0000ff"]I said they should clean up their own beach because the workers were attempting to clean up the mess, and the townspeople didn't like the help they got. They were acting like the workers weren't cleaning it fast enough, or doing a good enough job considering that BP is paying the townspeople until the beach gets cleaned up (even though it isn't nearly enough money to help out) . I was under the impression that the workers were to abstain from any drugs, alcohol or crime, and were under strict rules and regulations to govern their behavior. They were to clean the beach, and were forbidden to wander throughout the town (especially at night)[/color]. [color="#0000ff"]If they were to break any rules, they were to be shipped back to where they came from, no questions asked. I figure as long as the workers do their job and leave the townspeople alone, then all should be good, right?

That being said, I do hope they get the beach cleaned up soon so the townspeople can move on from there (if possible). I know the oil spill is going to take quite the toll on their economy. Hopefully the employers can keep the workers from acting like dumbasses. They aren't doing anybody any favors by acting like that even if they are off of work. Nobody (regardless of whether they are a local or not) does.
[/color]