# A Hateful Curse On BP **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 1, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941 "2010-05-01T01:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/141 "2010-05-05T05:30:21Z")
This song isn’t really about dead shrimp, but I suppose I wouldn’t be comprehensive if I left it out: [Dead Shrimp Blues](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgYlmiKBAlY) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/142 "2010-05-05T05:54:49Z")
Corporations insist that, when its convenient to them, they be treated like persons. Well, persons can be executed. Just spitballin’, here. Ideas. ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/143 "2010-05-05T14:10:49Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Hey BP! > > What’s your market value today? > > Better sell right away! BP shareholder here, and I think this is a great time to buy the stock. The hysterical overreaction (IMV) in the price has driven the dividend yield on the U.K. common stock up to almost 8%, a terrific return for a company of BP’s size. Also IMV, it’s very unlikely that this accident will force a dividend cut or the retraction of the first-quarter dividend declared on April 27 and scheduled to be paid on June 21. BP has lots of financial resources, and as noted above by **LonghornDave** , the company has insurance in place through its own unit that will soak up a lot of the costs. In any case, there are several companies involved here, and when we finally know what actually happened and who’s responsible, it’s possible that BP won’t be the one who deserves to be first in the firing line. For the moment, though, I’m sure the U.S. powers that be are happy to blame this on a foreign company. Where are you going to get 8% on a bank account right now? Furthermore, while BP’s dividend is frozen at the moment, I think an eventual return to growth is likely. I’m not buying the stock myself, but that’s only because I already have both BP and Shell in my portfolio and don’t want to get too overweight in oil shares. If anyone asked me, I would not hesitate to advise buying. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/144 "2010-05-05T14:33:01Z")
Well, I’m getting 8% or better, but I get a deal through work… ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/145 "2010-05-05T14:36:57Z")
> [@ColonelDax](#): > > BP shareholder here, and I think this is a great time to buy the stock. The hysterical overreaction (IMV) in the price has driven the dividend yield on the U.K. common stock up to almost 8%, a terrific return for a company of BP’s size. Just hope that not too much of BP product comes from consumer sales in the USA/Southeastern United States. Once the shores that up to 2/3rd of the United States population can easily visit are destroyed for generations I’m thinking that they won’t be able to operate stores in the region. We stopped buying Exxon products in 1989(?) after the Valdez spill and have never returned as customers. I don’t doubt that it’s an overreaction in the short run, but in the long run time will tell. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/146 "2010-05-05T14:52:01Z")
> [@ColonelDax](#): > > BP shareholder here, and I think this is a great time to buy the stock. Way to put this in the proper perspective here! Obviously, we should be looking at this in positive terms - we can potentially enrich ourselves personally! I mean, that’s what life is all about, right? With any luck, this spill will also increase the GDP of the United States as well. It’s win-win! ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/147 "2010-05-05T15:45:31Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Way to put this in the proper perspective here! Obviously, we should be looking at this in positive terms - we can potentially enrich ourselves personally! I mean, that’s what life is all about, right? > > With any luck, this spill will also increase the GDP of the United States as well. > > It’s win-win! :rolleyes: Another poster made a comment that touched on the company’s market value and seemingly advised selling the shares, so I replied. If you think I’m an asshole for suggesting that people capitalize on an oil spill, fine. Obviously I would prefer that the spill hadn’t happened in the first place, but the world is dependent on fossil fuels, and as long as that remains the case, there will be oil production and hence risks of accidents. ---
**Author:** ![LonghornDave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LonghornDave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonghornDave)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/148 "2010-05-05T19:07:45Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Just hope that not too much of BP product comes from consumer sales in the USA/Southeastern United States. Once the shores that up to 2/3rd of the United States population can easily visit are destroyed for generations I’m thinking that they won’t be able to operate stores in the region. > > We stopped buying Exxon products in 1989(?) after the Valdez spill and have never returned as customers. > > I don’t doubt that it’s an overreaction in the short run, but in the long run time will tell. You don’t really understand how oil companies make money. They make the majority of their money selling the crude oil and natural gas. Retail gasoline sales don’t really make anything at all. In fact, many of the retail stores are not even owned by the company that has the name out front. Less than 5% of gas stations in the U.S. are actually owned by the major oil companies. Your protest against Exxon doesn’t really do anything. Individual distributors own those stores and simply use the Exxon or Mobile name for a small fee. Exxon has no desire to be in the retail gasoline sales business. Those retail gasoline stores make a good portion of their operating cash flow from sales of drinks and candy inside. Further, in many cases, the gas stations are more of a real estate play than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/149 "2010-05-06T02:45:54Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Corporations insist that, when its convenient to them, they be treated like persons. Well, persons can be executed. Just spitballin’, here. Ideas. An excellent idea, sir! ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/150 "2010-05-06T02:54:27Z")
It seems clear that some posters are not getting what this thread is all about. I posted a link to Hellhound On My Trail upthread. It sounds like gibberish, so here’s the lyrics: > [@](#): > > I got to keep moving, I got to keep moving > Blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail > Mmm, blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail > And the day keeps on remindin’ me, there’s a hellhound on my trail > Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail > > If today was Christmas eve, if today was Christmas eve > And tomorrow was Christmas day > If today was Christmas eve and tomorrow was Christmas day > All I would need is my little sweet rider > Just to pass the time away, to pass the time away > > You sprinkled hot foot powder, mmm, around my door > All around my door > You sprinkled hot foot powder, all around your daddy’s door > It keeps me with ramblin’ mind rider > Every old place I go, every old place I go > > I can tell the wind is risin’, the leaves tremblin’ on the tree > Tremblin’ on the tree > I can tell the wind is risin’, leaves tremblin’ on the tree > All I need is my little sweet woman > And to keep my company, hey, hey, hey, hey, my company BP is _fucked_. They cannot un-stick this from themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/151 "2010-05-06T03:13:36Z")
Here’s a more stable[link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqgcM_CmhdA). ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/152 "2010-05-06T03:25:06Z")
For these lyrics: > [@](#): > > I got to keep moving, I got to keep moving > Blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail > Mmm, blues falling down like hail, blues falling down like hail > And the day keeps on remindin’ me, there’s a hellhound on my trail > Hellhound on my trail, hellhound on my trail > > If today was Christmas eve, if today was Christmas eve > And tomorrow was Christmas day > If today was Christmas eve and tomorrow was Christmas day > All I would need is my little sweet rider > Just to pass the time away, to pass the time away > > You sprinkled hot foot powder, mmm, around my door > All around my door > You sprinkled hot foot powder, all around your daddy’s door > It keeps me with ramblin’ mind rider > Every old place I go, every old place I go > > I can tell the wind is risin’, the leaves tremblin’ on the tree > Tremblin’ on the tree > I can tell the wind is risin’, leaves tremblin’ on the tree > All I need is my little sweet woman > And to keep my company, hey, hey, hey, hey, my company ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/153 "2010-05-08T02:49:34Z")
Here it comes: [the dead critters](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/gulf-oil-spill-photos-ani_n_560813.html#s88776). ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/154 "2010-05-08T05:10:19Z")
I see a lot of talk about tons of oil, in this or that place. How many tons of _creatures_ will die as a result of this misstep? How big a monster would that make? BP, you’d best have a Medusa’s head ready, because I wanna release the Kraken on yer ass. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/155 "2010-05-08T14:52:04Z")
Everyone ought to take a look at Klee’s [Angelus Novus](http://www.unirioja.es/listenerartcriticism/images/RUHRShadowtimeAngelusNovus.jpg). From the [wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus_Novus): > [@](#): > > Angelus Novus is a watercolour by Paul Klee, painted in 1920. > > Walter Benjamin, who owned the painting for many years, saw it as depicting “the angel of history. His face is turned towards the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage.”[1] The straight dope is that quote doesn’t stop there, fools: > [@](#): > > and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/156 "2010-05-08T15:18:46Z")
[Let us crawl back into our caves, and hide, quivering in fear.](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100428-new-species-pterosaur-dinosaurs-dallas-texas/) ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/157 "2010-05-08T16:04:52Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > [Let us crawl back into our caves, and hide, quivering in fear.](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100428-new-species-pterosaur-dinosaurs-dallas-texas/) Wait a minute… is that a reference to bona-fide hen’s teeth?!? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/158 "2010-05-08T16:23:39Z")
Yes, yes it is. I like Klee’s work well enough **T2BC** , but that description was pushing it pretty hard. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/159 "2010-05-08T16:53:15Z")
Too bad. Suck it. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941/160 "2010-05-09T13:41:19Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Here it comes: [the dead critters](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/gulf-oil-spill-photos-ani_n_560813.html#s88776). You know, I’ve been looking at those pix of derad critters, and the thing that strikes me is that all the sites have the _same_ pictures of the _same_ dead critters. It’s almost as if the photographers are having to look _real_ hard for dead critters with which to shock and appall us. Heck, some of em don’t even look oil damaged. Perhaps we should wait until any schlub with a camera can go down to the beaches of Alabama and shoot photos of oil soaked osprey corpses before getting hysterical. As of this morning, they’re counting **tar balls** on Alabama beaches, and coming up with [terrifying numbers like SIX.](http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/02249F701A5F8B2B8625771E000C5D51?OpenDocument) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hateful-curse-on-bp/537941.md?page=9)