Yesterday, I put up an article about Congressman Hank Johnson, who actually thought that if we added a few more people to Guam, it might capsize, like an overloaded ferry.
Well, I expected someone to comment on it and either laugh at how stupid he was or have some Dem reply that I was racist for pointing out a black man’s comments.
Instead, someone decided that Johnson was not crazy enough and decided to out-crazy them.
He made a LONG reply saying that the drilling we are doing is causing continental shift, that Manhattan will slam into Connecticut in 2018, and we should use nukes to fix it. I will post it in its entirety at the end. I am going to make a long reply explaining how stupid it is.
I HOPE that this is a joke. I hope that no one could be that stupid, but just in case he is serious:
First a quick science lesson. The earth is like an onion, with various layers. The outermost layer, the crust, is solid plates. These plates “float” on the mantle, the molten layer directly below it. Over millions of years, the continents have shifted and changed shape. As plates are pushed together, mountains form and as they are pulled apart, they release lava from the mantle. All of this happens SLOWLY, but the amount is measurable. Scientists have used lasers and other instruments to identify the drift (in millionths of an inch per year) as well as identify the plates themselves. There are about 16 major plates. This is all known as plate tectonics.
Keep all this in mind
1. There has never even been a hole drilled from the surface of the crust of the Earth to the mantle. The average depth of the crust is 20 miles. The deepest drilled hole ever is the Kola Superdeep Borehole at 40,230 ft. This is less than half the distance to the mantle. There is one hole that they are drilling that they hope will get to the mantle in a few years, being made in the ocean where the crust is thinnest. The deepest oil drilling is at the 5 mile range, with most much shallower. Our drilling, both by depth and by virtue of the tiny amount of drilling done means mankind has zero effect on plate tectonics. The arrogance to think that we could actually drill enough to cause a major effect on something that makes up about 3,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons of the earth is mind bogglingly stupid and arrogant.
2. The North American Plate is one of the larger tectonic plates, extending from California (hence the earthquakes) to the middle of the Atlantic. Both Manhattan and Connecticut are both located far from the edge of the plate and there is no way they could ever meet. To be able to meet, the entire plate would have to be buckling severely which would cause continual earthquakes and lava flows, raising a mountain range between them. Rest assured, I have seen nothing on the news about lava on Wall Street, nor is the Empire State Building now on a mountain top.
3. Take a look at this picture. Its a road shifted a few feet by an earthquake. For Manhattan and Connecticut to meet in 2018, they would have to shift about 10 miles in 8 years. That’s about 18 feet per day. If you live in NY or Connecticut, look down. If the roads don’t look 10 times worse than this picture, you are ok. If you go way for a long weekend and find your neighbor’s house has crossed the street and is now in your yard… well then I would worry.
4. Fix it with nukes? Even need to bother?
So, after this long discussion, here is the comment. Read it and enjoy the stupidity:
There is a looming ecological catastrophy that needs to be addressed or the world will see unfathomable destruction by the year 2040, say some prominent scientists. According to studies done by the Society for the Promotion of Overall Continental Kinetics [SPOCK], man-made continental drift is quickly developing as a major threat to the lives of between 1.8 and 2.3 billion people.
Over the course of human existence, the continents have been moving. Prominent scientists from SPOCK now believe that human activities such as drilling holes for oil or water, mining underground for diamonds and minerals, digging foundations for new buildings, tilling the ground for farming, and driving heavy vehicles [such as trains, subway cars, trucks, and SUV's] across the earth’s surface or through tunnels underneath the earth have all played important roles in speeding up continental drift. Many argue that, if left unchecked, Manhattan Island will crash into Connecticut by the year 2018, and the British Isles will slam into Iceland and Greenland by the years 2027 and 2035, respectively. These disasters alone would cost millions of lives, the experts agree, especially among those too poor or elderly to escape to safer locations. But what really causes concern with the scientists is their prediction that by 2040, the Continental Divide–that boundary which separates the rivers and streams so that some flow east towards the Atlantic Ocean whereas others flow west towards the Pacific Ocean–will be the actual points of divide of the Western Hemisphere. This would result in North and South America becoming Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest America. A similar division has already begun in Central Europe, necessitating the creation of two new countries in what was once Czechoslovakia as well as multiple new countries in the former Yugoslavia.
Luckily, all is not yet lost, but scientists warn that the world does not have much time left for inaction. They believe that, if the world works together, it can avert this horrific, man-made calamity by following a logical plan. This is what the experts propose:
1. End all unnecessary disturbances of the earth’s crust.
2. Plant small-scale atomic bombs over the globe so as to enable the scientists to redirect continental drifts. [Iran has already promised to donate some of the enriched uranium used for their proposed nuclear power plants to alter the direction of Israel's drift.]
3. Use a combination of large magnets, long cables, and wenches to pull the continents back to where they properly belong.
The only major issue left for the scientists and politicians to answer is how much needs to be done to correct the damage already caused by man-made continental drift. While some experts believe that moving the continents back to where they were in 1800 would be enough to avoid most of the imminent destruction, more drastic measures might need to be taken. The famous geologist Dr. Shel Silverstein believes that the continents must be pulled back together to how they once were when they all formed the single, united continent of Pangaea. In August 2009, SPOCK published his article, entitled "Where and Why the Sidewalk Ends: Reversing the break-up of the continents." In the article, Dr. Silverstein noted that:
We cannot merely allow the world to be only partially mended. We cannot accept a proposal that only returns the continents to where they were a mere two centuries ago. Such a quick fix would delay, but not solve, the destruction at hand. Indeed, if we do not want our children or our children’s children to face the devastating, accumulated effects of this crisis, we must act promptly and act boldly. Let us follow the recent example of the Russians. Faced with a growing chasm between their country and Georgia, the Russians last year attacked the problem vigorously. As a result, Georgia is no longer drifting westward as it was during the Bush Administration but is being pressured northward towards Moscow.
As I see it, this pulling of land northward is, in fact, the ideal solution for two major reasons. First, it employs the magnetic force of the North Pole to reconnect straying lands and peoples. Second, by locating Pangaea on or near the North Pole, we will be supplying much-needed food and land for starving polar bears, thereby warding off their extinction.
It is rumored that the Obama Administration is considering convening a group of U.N. experts, led by either Joe Biden or Rahm Emmanuel, to address this looming catastrophe of man-made continental drift. When asked to confirm this, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs elusively gave the resonse, "Concerning man-made continental drift, a crisis which we inherited from the previous administration, President Obama loves polar bears and will do everything in his power to help them, but I am not able to offer further specifics about the issue at this time."
