Demonstrators pour oil and feathers outside the entrance to the Tate Britain gallery, in London, which is hosting the Tate Britain summer party, as part of a protest against BP sponsorship of the arts on Monday. (AP Photo / Dominic Lipinski,pa)

The above image, which I saw on the All Eyes blog of the St. Pete Times a few days ago, struck me as a little off, but I couldn't really figure out why until today.

It feels like astroturfing from BP. Googling the name of the protest group, The Good Crude Britannia, I feel more like it's astroturfed by BP. The way I figure it is this: BP's public relations firm realizes that they cannot start a straight-up PR campaign to boost BP's image right now, because there's no way they can take attention away from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

How then, to bring some good press coverage to BP? Stage a mock protest against non-profits that receive BP sponsorship and charitable donations. News agencies will pick it up because it's a new twist on public outrage with BP, but people who hear about the story will really only come away with the impression of "Hmm, I did not know that BP donated money to the Tate Museum." More careful readers will learn that the protest is aimed at a party the museum is holding to celebrate two decades of BP sponsorship.

I can't prove it, but I'm fairly sure.

In my dreams

I write like
Arthur C. Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

To be fair, I got Kurt Vonnegut first when I put in a few papers, but then I copy pasted into the analyzer every single paper I've ever written in my college career.

maybe this blog will last

I've started blogging about ten years too late, and thirteen years since I started spending a lot of my time online. I've started one or two others, which died due to my continuing belief that nobody would really care to read my prosaic and desultory thoughts about current events. Of course, that hasn't stopped me spending decades on message boards posting those same thoughts, so perhaps I'm just a hypocrite. Another stumbling block has been that I haven't really known what to write about. I was pretty worked up about how much I despise the American South last year, and started a blog about Confederate flags and Confederate generals being paid tribute by our modern society which should rightly condemn them as low traitors.

I suspect that attempt failed because it's difficult to really sustain any kind of genuine effort around being against something. At least, something in particular.

I've recently had some very strong feelings about how I think education, specifically the professional standards and training of educators, is being run badly in this country. It was pointed out to me that I frequently feel very strongly about things that few people care about, and that thought finally landed me on the idea that possibly I would find writing all of my thoughts out online to be good for my mental well-being.

If you're reading this blog (this post in particular), know that I'm frankly shocked. Not because I am possessed of significant humility, but rather because there are so many people vomiting forth their inane thoughts onto the internet and so many intelligent people constantly churning out worthwhile reading on a daily basis that I have trouble imagining that my own meager efforts will be noticed by anyone.