We'll get to the festivities in a moment. But first, I have a tiny rant.
This has been the Year of the Spill.
Spill. What an inadequate word. It was a gush, a cascade...
It was a torrent.
And what we need instead now is lavalas: a cleansing flood.
So, after a brief bit of amusement I'm starting us out with the song that came to my mind when I thought of this. Jump in, bring us songs of water, rivers, oceans, and rain. Anything about clean water.
But first:
A friend passed on this e-mail to me:
As all of us consider donations for the end of the year, here’s one acknowledgment letter that you should receive, but won’t:
Dear average American taxpayer,
As 2010 comes to a close, your friends in the oil industry would like to acknowledge your ongoing generosity and support.
Last year, in addition to the roughly $2300 you spent on gasoline, you gave us at least $10 billion in subsidies. You have our assurances that this money will be used to continue to buy your government, violate human rights, pollute your backyard and the whole planet, and greenwash our image. We’re sorry about that little issue with the Gulf of Mexico, but we’d like you to believe its all gone now, and so we’ll spend several tens of millions more on an advertising campaign to reassure you.
Your contributions to the oil industry are generously matched by, well, no one. You give us the most. Thanks.
Over the coming year we’ll keep buying your democracy, you keep giving us billions, and it’ll all be good.
Sincerely,
Big Oil & Fracking Gas
Seriously, you should get that letter, but you won’t.
To visit this worthy site, click this link.
As for my musical contribution, it's this.
And please remember, for those with low bandwidth, to post links -- please do not embed.