The Gulf Coast Leadership Summit was convened last week at the Hilton to remember and discuss the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and the oil gusher that followed. The first day of the Summit included a forum with former Oil Spill Commission members as well as forums with political leaders from affected coastal regions. Much of […]
Author Archives: Mark Moseley
Mark Moseley blogs at Your Right Hand Thief. Until mid 2014, Mark Moseley was The Lens' opinion writer, engagement specialist and coordinator for the Charter Schools Reporting Corps. After Katrina and the Federal Flood he helped create the Rising Tide conference, which grew into an annual social media event dedicated to the future of New Orleans.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Could ‘Trumped’-up birther campaign be a secret deal with Dems?
A billboard on I-10 near Roanoke, Louisiana, asks drivers, ”Where’s the Birth Certificate?” The reference here is to President Obama, part of a long campaign to spread doubts about his citizenship. Many on the political right buy into the idea that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii. They insinuate that he’s something strange, something scary, a […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Anti-creationism crusade gains support; Capitol rally slated
I’ve neglected to update an issue raised in a previous post, so let’s seize the opportunity. Skeptics might say this alleged “update” is a poorly-disguised excuse for self-promotion, to which I’d firmly reply, “Hey, I think I hear an ice cream truck coming!” Anyway, let’s get going, because there’s no time to waste like the […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
In a world gone mad, don’t get mad, go crazy!
This weekend I’m taking my family to Texas for Earth Day, which is sort of like flying to Iran to celebrate Easter. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to the trip because I’ve decided to simply embrace the absurdity of the times rather than continue to be mystified and puzzled by it. Instead of making wisecracks like […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Katy Perry defeats conformism and 200 million fans cheer
Like many of you, in recent weeks I’ve been totally consumed with Katy Perry’s “Firework” video Why?. First off, the song is up tempo and has fireworks, which are fun. Second, some of these fireworks are shown spewing from Perry’s upper torso — and you don’t see that every day. Third, Katy’s personal fireworks are infectious; […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Cutting coastal cash is perfect complement to Big Oil’s free ride
Belated thanks to Gambit for reprinting a Bloomberg News article on the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s unwillingness to hand out big fines to the oil industry. I linked to a summary of the article in my Feb. 24 opinion column, and was pleased to see that Bob Marshall cited the Bloomberg piece in his […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Limbaugh’s clownish guess at Katrina costs no laughing matter
Here’s a lovely quote from Tuesday’s Rush Limbaugh radio show: LIMBAUGH: “Does anybody know how much it cost to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina? Anybody have the number? Snerdley, they have started it. I have been to New Orleans. They have started rebuilding. It’s got to be several hundred billion, right? Has to be. I have […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Louisiana pols fiddle with facts while Japan’s reactors burn
The onslaught of disasters in Japan right now stuns the imagination: a huge earthquake, a devastating tsunami, overheating nuclear power plants, and even an active volcano. Thousands have perished, hundreds of thousands are homeless, and millions are enduring winter nights without reliable power. The human suffering is appalling. While I understand that U.S. TV news […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
As penance, maybe Rev. Storms can save other ‘Christian’ bigots
It’s a shame that 99 percent of the hard-line “family values” moralizers ruin it for the rest of them. Take Grant Storms, for example — please. The reverend, best known for protesting the Southern Decadence festival in the French Quarter, was recently arrested after two women said they saw him masturbating in his van at […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
$16 billion question: BP’s liability in Macondo disaster
When The National Oil Spill Commission’s Final Report was released last month, Commission Co-Chair William Reilly summarized the findings, saying: Our investigation shows that a series of specific and preventable human and engineering failures were the immediate causes of the Deepwater Horizon fire. But, in fact, this disaster was almost the inevitable result of years of […]