Yeah, the preview pretty much tells me that buying the book would be a waste of time. As a journalist, one would think that she would understand that “astern” is different from “making sternway” and is different from “aft” and only one means “going backward” and it is a two word term. Portholes? In the accommodations and Officers’ Saloon? She also seems bent on proving her own attitude about shipping. There are other inequities (comparing fleet size randomly to “owned” and/or “flagged”).
Journalism isn’t about presenting the facts and letting a person form their own opinion any more. It’s about pushing a personal agenda and making a name for yourself based off of the most scandalous thing you can find.
Not sure I would agree with that necessarily. Does it seem like the articles we post have a hidden, or obvious personal agenda to them?
I suppose if we have an agenda it would be to support the maritime industry, but give us some honest feedback here…
No, I believe the news you post is very unbiased and to the point.
I suppose if we have an agenda it would be to support the maritime industry, but give us some honest feedback here…
No worries at all that the gCaptain staff has a personal slant to matters maritime. I personally would like to see more Op/Ed by you and John on the matters in the news be it announcements, incidents or books released. No reason that gCaptain cannot be a pro maritime site (especially pro US maritime!)…you are not mainstream media that needs to pretend to present a neutral position. Use the power of this site to further the case for maintaining a strong Jones Act, enacting new pro US maritime legislation and even more, use it to highlight my personal issue of all the jobs given to foreign mariners in the GoM at the expense of us Americans. You can be a thunderous howitzer lobbing shells right into the heart of that cesspool that is our Nation’s capital! WAKE THE MISERABLE FUCKERS UP THERE!
[QUOTE=Jemplayer;119363]Journalism isn’t about presenting the facts and letting a person form their own opinion any more. It’s about pushing a personal agenda and making a name for yourself based off of the most scandalous thing you can find.[/QUOTE]
And it can’t be found, make it up. . .
[QUOTE=c.captain;119367]No, I believe the news you post is very unbiased and to the point.
No worries at all that the gCaptain staff has a personal slant to matters maritime. I personally would like to see more Op/Ed by you and John on the matters in the news be it announcements, incidents or books released. No reason that gCaptain cannot be a pro maritime site (especially pro US maritime!)…you are not mainstream media that needs to pretend to present a neutral position. Use the power of this site to further the case for maintaining a strong Jones Act, enacting new pro US maritime legislation and even more, use it to highlight my personal issue of all the jobs given to foreign mariners in the GoM at the expense of us Americans. You can be a thunderous howitzer lobbing shells right into the heart of that cesspool that is our Nation’s capital! WAKE THE MISERABLE FUCKERS UP THERE![/QUOTE]
Preach on, brother! There are enough people out there who want to do away with the US Merchant Marine as it is, and many more who have no idea whatsoever it is we do–including a certain flower-themed author.
I used to be a miner, worked for Austin Powder Company and Hilltop Energy in Northern Ohio… blasted in the salt mines under Lake Erie, in the quarries in Northwest Ohio, and in underground coal mines in Southern Ohio. Every day in the mines you worried about a roof bolt failure and collapse or a methane gas explosion (particularly in the coal mines). Everything was an electrical hazard (440 V three phase electric, lots of exposed wiring). In the quarries you were constantly on the watch for a slope failure, hang fire with undetonated charges (particularly if you were the person operating a piece of heavy equipment and mucking out the pile after the blast), and getting run over by some dumb SOB driving a large mine truck (they go can 50 mph) who isn’t looking out for anyone but the dump truck to haul his load of rock out of the pit.
No one except yourself can keep you safe in the mines. MSHA is a piss poor excuse for a regulating agency.
The sea has it’s hazards, but mining, at least in my world takes the cake.
Uncle Duke
Mike, will you let me call our fair lady any kind of name now to describe how I feel about her book and her retorts to my opinions? I promise it won’t start with a B or a C.
c.captain, you can voice your opinions on her book all you want, just don’t make personal attacks. That’s where the line is drawn.
Quote from page 67 of her book:
“the Nowiegian academic Gunnar Lamvik revealed the alarming practice among Filipino seafarers of slicing open their penis with a razor and implementing ball bearings or coffee beans. The implants are called bolitas, and the logic behind them is flexible. They keep wives from straying by enhancing their sexual pleasure, and they are useful to attract Brazilian prostitutes. This 'secret weapon of the Filipinos,” wrote Lamvik, has something to do with the fact that 'Filipinos are so small, and Brazilian women are so big" Lamvik is told that nearly every Filipino seaman is equipped with bolitas. I don’t intend to verify that, not even verbally."
I don’t even know where to start but considering how pissed I’ve seen Filipino mariners get over a prank VHF call… I hope for the sake of her personal safety no Filipinos read this book.
[QUOTE=domer;119394]I don’t even know where to start but considering how pissed I’ve seen Filipino mariners get over a prank VHF call… I hope for the sake of her personal safety no Filipinos read this book.[/QUOTE]
Ha FUCKING HA! Such a Brit!*
*I can say Brit…right? oh wait, that starts with a B…
damned!
[QUOTE=c.captain;119367]You can be a thunderous howitzer lobbing shells right into the heart of that cesspool that is our Nation’s capital! WAKE THE MISERABLE FUCKERS UP THERE![/QUOTE]
I’m as big of a fan of Tony Munoz style editorial as you are… but what changes has his rants affected?
We have been in the past. I have also been called by congressional committees and my testimony has entered in the congressional record. I have used profanity with four star navy and uscg admirals. The problem is they all agree with me (and you) but are essentially powerless to do anything.
Sure they technically have the power to effect some changes but no congressman can risk his lobbyist payments if he wants to get reelected and no admiral can resist the promise of a big $ job when he retires. They all want to help but they are also human. We could do a better job of calling individuals out but that takes investigative work… money we don’t have. It also alienates the people we are hoping to influence.
In our defense gCaptain has affected a handful of new laws and CG rules… but this isn’t really a good defense. Actually I would say that, at times, we have done more harm than good because even our best intended initiatives turn into two headed monsters once they pass through the political meat grinder of various subcommittees.
So, you’re right, we could be a thunderous howitzer lobbing shells… but I’ve been there, done that and got little more than a t-shirt for my efforts. It’s time to rethink our strategy but, to be honest, I’m running out of ideas to affect change.
Our biggest problem is that no one in the nation knows anything or cares about ships and, I HATE TO SAY IT but, if it sells millions of copies, Rose George’s book, by raising national awareness to shipping, may become a more effective tool for saving the Jones Act than all of gCaptain’s editorials combined.
Maybe the solution is to help her more copies of her book… bolitas and all?
[QUOTE=c.captain;119386]Mike, will you let me call our fair lady any kind of name now to describe how I feel about her book and her retorts to my opinions? I promise it won’t start with a B or a C.[/QUOTE]
You are far too creative for that solution to work… we could ban all 26 letters and I do believe you’d find a way to properly insult her 
Did any of you monitored the shit storm she and her armada of followers created on twitter today? All I can say is, well played gCaptain! But her latest tweet is the most puzzling. It says " Rose George:
Last thought: how come I’m so regularly referred to as a journalist in the context of having written a book?"
What kind of question is that?
Maybe it’s because your book is a journal of your experience aboard the M/V Kendal? Or maybe it’s because the bio on the back cover of your book, the one right under the ten year old picture of you, says “Rose George is the author of… She has written [B]journalism[/B] for…”?
What does she want us to refer to her as?
Rob sorry if I offended I forget that you guys also run a blog and do report on news. You guys are great at just reporting the facts, but yall will never be main stream, if for no other fact that the content you report on is so specific, but for somebody who wants to be part of the mainstream media and bring home the big pay check then you have to push a personal agenda, usually one that agrees with what ever left agenda is hot right now.
Part of why John’s book wasn’t a huge seller, which is a shame because I did really enjoy it, is that it just told the facts and kept to the middle of the road when assigning blame and avoiding the political aspects of oil all together.
[QUOTE=john;119402]You are far too creative for that solution to work… we could ban all 26 letters and I do believe you’d find a way to properly insult her ;)[/QUOTE]
This should get a prize for quote of the day… 
[QUOTE=UncleDuke;119385]
The sea has it’s hazards, but mining, at least in my world takes the cake.
Uncle Duke[/QUOTE]
I don’t know anything about mining but I’d wager you’ve don’t have to concern yourself with RPG attacks in the mine.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;119482]I don’t know anything about mining but I’d wager you’ve don’t have to concern yourself with RPG attacks in the mine.[/QUOTE]
That may be true, but I also think only a relatively few mariners have to worry about RPG attacks. Whereas I suspect most miners–if into all–have to worry at least about mine collapses, and possibly worse.
[QUOTE=awulfclark;119488]That may be true, but I also think only a relatively few mariners have to worry about RPG attacks. Whereas I suspect most miners–if into all–have to worry at least about mine collapses, and possibly worse.[/QUOTE]
Don’t know the numbers, my point is that when people say “hazards of the sea” they are likely unaware of what hazards that we are actually dealing with for example pirate attack, terrorist attack, arrest or detention in a foreign port and so on.
EDIT: We can take a stab at the number. How many American ships are right now in the Suez canal? I’d guess one or two so that’s 20 - 40 mariners that right now face the threat of RPG attack. Maybe you’re not one of them but that likely does not make the ones that do feel safer.
[QUOTE=awulfclark;119488]That may be true, but I also think only a relatively few mariners have to worry about RPG attacks. Whereas I suspect most miners–if into all–have to worry at least about mine collapses, and possibly worse.[/QUOTE]
Plus I’d assume that mines are a nice cozy place to be during a Force 12 storm. Then again a ship is a nice and cozy place to be during an earthquake.
Apples and oranges.