Well, metric has absolutely nothing to do with the issues of "refusing help" raised in the BP article. There are two issues there:
*EPA Standard: It is intended for bilge water discharged by ships and makes sense in the context, when the ocean is clean and the bilge is dirty. However, when attempting to clean the ocean, any sane person would agree that putting back water cleaner than what you sucked in contributes to the solution, not the problem. BREAKING NEWS: Bureaucrats are STUPID (and bureaucratic). *Jones Act: The Democratic Party is pretty beholden to labor unions. The last time a Republican President issued an exemption to the Jones Act, the Democratically controlled Congress took away the power of the President to do so in the future. Only Congress can approve an exception. What are the odds? (Zero, in my opinion, labor union votes are more important than oily beaches). Some "command presence" and executive direction might have marshalled solutions to the obstacles more rapidly, but, in fact, didn't. The bureaucracy was allowed to bumble along at its preferred pace (dead slow). These failures of the administration are frustrating quite a few Americans as well as those countries who offered to help and got the cold shoulder. ________________________________ From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Thu, July 8, 2010 11:20:42 AM Subject: [USMA:48096] Re: attitudes Hopefully most on the list will remember all this as (almost) total bunkum from previous attempts. The anti-US spin is just the cherry on the cake. For clearer realistic responses and final outcomes please refer to the previous times that this consolidated effort below have been raised and put to bed. These can be found via searching on the USMA list archives via the web front end rather than the distribution list. ________________________________ Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2010 07:29:56 -0700 From: barkatf...@ymail.com Subject: [USMA:48095] Re: attitudes To: usma@colostate.edu America has always thought of itself as being holier than thou. When you have a superiority complex it makes you look inferior all of a sudden if you adopt the practices of those you have always looked down upon. Now that America is no longer superior it is still hard to break the habit and belief. It would seem Americans would prefer to be dirt poor and unemployed than to adopt the ways of the "French". Other than the obvious road signs and pint glasses in pubs, I see no other major uses of non-metric in the UK (the pint glass issue is somewhat a minor issue). Being a pro-metric person who wants total metrication you may see this as the UK not being as fully metric as you would like it. An anti-metric person would harp continuously on these two instances to claim the UK is not metric at all and ignore the 90+ % that is metric. Even road signs are not entirely non-metric in the UK. There are signs along highways that show kilometre distances that are ignored by the anti-metric fringe. There are signs that show metres but are marked off as yards (denied by the anti-metric fringe). And soon there will be height signs, possibly width signs too, that will show metres (in addition to out-dated units), something the anti-metric fringe is opposing. Even in pubs you can purchase products other than beer in metric amounts, such as wine and hard licquor. Products in the supermarkets are sold in metric only sizes and even the scales used to weigh your asked for goods are metric only. If you ask for an old amount you get a metric amount. You purchase petrol by the litre and hear weather reports in metric. Remnant uses of old unit names exist in every country and may continue to do so for a long time. You should at least be grateful that the UK is not in the same position as the US. I highly doubt the US will ever regain its pre-eminence even if it does metricate. No empire that has ever collapsed has ever returned to greatness. All have become insignificant and poor. Look at Iran (Persia), Iraq (Babylon), Egypt, Greece, Rome and the UK. ________________________________ From: John Frewen-Lord <j...@frewston.plus.com> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Thu, July 8, 2010 9:52:52 AM Subject: [USMA:48093] attitudes Does America not adopt the metric system out of sheer bloody-mindedness? On the BP oil spill, this article I find very telling (mostly imperial unfortunately). The UK is not much better, at least at governmental level. The day America changes its attitude to the rest of the world (of which SI is a fundamental part) is the day that the US will regain its pre-eminence, not until. http://www.financialpost.com/Avertible+catastrophe/3203808/story.html#ixzz0sGacwW4e John F-L ________________________________ Get a new e-mail account with Hotmail - Free. Sign-up now.
