# Bush Bans Drilling in Mariana Trench **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 6, 2009, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091 "2009-01-06T15:01:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/41 "2009-01-07T03:05:06Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > I assume you are asking me where Tikrit is wrt Baghdad… Nah, I was noticing how Rumsfeldian your localization of the Marianas was. Perhaps [the trench](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_Mariana_Islands_volcanoes.gif) is where Saddam finally stashed his WMD’s. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/42 "2009-01-07T03:10:18Z")
[Mountaintop Removal Mining.](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/us/23coal.html?ref=todayspaper) This kills me when I see what has been done to the Appalachian mountains. They cut off the mountain top and dump all the debris into the valley. Bush had a hand in this being easier to do with less responsibility for the mining company in the end. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/43 "2009-01-07T03:17:22Z")
> [@zut](#): > > How would I know? > > But the presence (or lack therof) of oil in the area wasn’t part of your original complaint, was it? What complaint? I found the whole thing amusing, and vaguely inexplicable. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/44 "2009-01-07T03:36:49Z")
> [@detop](#): > > Maybe he wants to protect his [Dread Lord’s residence](http://www.summeroflovecraft.com/images/cthulhu-6.jpg) ? Now that you mention it, there just might be a residence down there. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that _Glomar Explorer_ built Howard Hughes a little hideaway bungalow at the bottom of the Trench. Wanna bet no one under forty has the vaguest idea what I’m talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/45 "2009-01-07T03:41:28Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > What do you think the statue of our beneficent Bush in the trench is going to be made of? I don’t know about the rest of it, but the shoes are going to be made of concrete. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/46 "2009-01-07T04:26:57Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > [Mountaintop Removal Mining.](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/us/23coal.html?ref=todayspaper) Oh god, that’s disgusting and ugly. [This one I just found out about](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4764271). They’re _filling in a CANYON_ to make it harder for illegal aliens to cross over into the US. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/47 "2009-01-07T04:37:24Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Oh god, that’s disgusting and ugly. > > [This one I just found out about](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4764271). They’re _filling in a CANYON_ to make it harder for illegal aliens to cross over into the US. Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out that some of the work crew was made up of illegal aliens? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/48 "2009-01-07T04:41:07Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Nah, I was noticing how Rumsfeldian your localization of the Marianas was. Perhaps the trench is where Saddam finally stashed his WMD’s. [/QUOTE] Well, I was on the right planet at least! And really, I was in the ball park. MUCH better than Rumsfeld and the theoretical WMD (which were pure fantasy…I mean at least the Mariana Trench actually exists!)… Cut me some slack here! 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/49 "2009-01-07T18:19:07Z")
> [@BJMoose](#): > > Now that you mention it, there just might be a residence down there. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that _Glomar Explorer_ built Howard Hughes a little hideaway bungalow at the bottom of the Trench. > > Wanna bet no one under forty has the vaguest idea what I’m talking about? Manganese Nodules! Russian subs! The CIA! What do I win? RE Drilling: The islands in question, being part of an arc-trench system, should have essentially no hydrocarbon potential. Protecting them from fishing is a great idea, although enforcement will be essentially impossible. While Bush II’s environmental record is shitty, we may as well be happy when something good happens, even though it’s a result of legacy crap. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/50 "2009-01-07T19:55:04Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Why the U.S. has jurisdiction: The area designated appears to be within the territorial waters of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (in the same relationship to the U.S. as Puerto Rico), possibly with some in the Territory of Guam, a U.S. possession pure and simple. We own the Earth’s vagina! U! S! A! U! S! A! We’re #1!!! WOOO!!! ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/51 "2009-01-07T21:23:52Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out that some of the work crew was made up of illegal aliens? No doubt. I was surprised there wasn’t a bigger outcry about this, but I suppose in the scheme of awful things the Bush Administration has done, it’s pretty paltry on the outrage scale. Still, filling in a frickin’ canyon! Canyons are there for a reason other than smugglers and illegal aliens. Come the first flash flood…oy! ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/52 "2009-01-07T23:32:12Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > I swear to God I thought you were going to link to a picture of Dick Cheney in his bunker. Naaaah, Dick Cheney is moving to [L.A.](http://www.teevee.net/tvcc/business/cheney_to_join_wolfram_hart.html) ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091/53 "2009-01-08T01:03:16Z")
> [@scule](#): > > I don’t get it, what jurisdiction does the US have over the Marianas Trench? None. Bush just thinks he’s protecting that call-girl he lost his virginity to on Spring Break in '67… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-bans-drilling-in-mariana-trench/480091.md?page=2)