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The Way Things Are Going, They’re Gonna Crucify Me.

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  April 26th, 2012 at 02:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Apologies to John Lennon. Concept by Al Armendariz, Administrator of EPA Region VI. Repair Man Jack posted the video with analysis here.

No apology is necessary, Mr. Armendariz. In a perverse way, your comments reveal the tactics of your agency, and more importantly, the philosophy which motivates Mr. Obama’s entire Administration.

It also speaks of the arrogance of a government that thinks its citizens are its subjects, and whose middle managers find amusement in crushing people’s lives and livelihoods.

One more thing about the Roman analogy — mmm, as I recall, that strategy didn’t work out too well for the Romans. Does Mr. Obama play the fiddle?

If it sounds like I take this issue personally, I plead guilty.

My employer is a small oil and gas company. All of our operations are in EPA Region VI which Mr. Armendiaz oversees. I’m the operations manager, so the threat of crucifixion falls squarely upon me.

Rush Limbaugh characterized the crucifixion comment as a vendetta against Big Oil.

Wrong-o. EPA is after smaller oil and gas companies, like Range Resources (800 employees) and my company (24 employees). Big Oil has unlimited resources and staff attorneys to fight back. EPA can much more effectively achieve their goals by singling out the little guy who they can crush like a bug.

Or crucify, as it were.

I am a citizen. I am a taxpayer.

You work for me.

Don’t threaten me with crucifixion.

This guy Armendariz needs to go. His boss need to go – Armendariz’s comments were recorded in 2010.

We’ll take care of the Big Guy in November.

Cross-posted.


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  • Repair_Man_Jack

    http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/masaccio/crucifixion-of-st-peter-1426

    The subtle joke there that you die a much kinder death in an inverted crucifixion.

  • Deskpilot

    The left is oh so worried about the religious background of ANY Conservative, because they are so afraid that some self guided morality might creep back into the atheistic government that they desire.

    Well, the principles that guide them are SO perverse to this GREAT country’s needed guidance that this fool bring to HIS position must be called into scrutiny and the Region that he heads needs to be decapitated.

  • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

    H/T Steve Everley via twitter (@saeverley)

    Statement by Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter on EPA?s
    Withdrawal of Order Against Range Resources

    AUSTIN – Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter today applauded the United States Environmental Protection Agency for its decision to withdraw the Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Order, issued on December 7, 2010, to Range Resources Corporation.

    ?Today the EPA finally made a decision based on science and fact versus playing politics with the Texas economy,? said Commissioner Porter. ?The EPA?s withdrawal of the emergency order against Range Resources upholds the Railroad Commission Final Order that I signed concluding that Range is not responsible for any water contamination in Parker County.?

    ?Al Armanderiz and the EPA?s Region Six office are guilty of fear mongering, gross negligence and severe mishandling of this case. I hope to see drastic changes made in the way the regional office conducts business in the future ? starting with the termination of Al Armanderiz.?

    ?Today?s decision reflects my long standing position that the EPA and the Obama administration should stay out of regulatory matters in Texas and let us remain in charge of protecting our own natural resources.?

    • cbartlett

      Governor Perry fights the EPA (and all those other federal alphabet soup agencies) every chance he can. We need more conservatives in the House and Senate!!

  • romeg

    I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Mr. Armandiaz doesn’t speak for Mr. Obama. How do I know this? Because that Boy Scout of a White House press spokesman, Jay Carney, says so. Well, he probably would no longer qualify as a Boy Scout because Boy Scouts take an oath to be Truthful, something with which Mr. Carney seems to struggle on a daily basis when confronted with difficult questions and live footage of Obama Administration appointees presented by determined reporters. But that aside, he’s like totally believable.

  • Ausonius

    Crucifixion was in general reserved for criminals and rebellious slaves. An exception was the Jewish Revolt in 70 A.D.

    When the Romans conquered an area, even a group that had attacked them first, the policy of the Senate was to turn the former enemy into allies. By treating the conquered well, the Romans built up long-term loyalty.

    For example: when in the Second Punic War Hannibal and the Carthaginians invaded Italy, they were hoping for Rome’s allies to revolt and join them instead of supporting the Romans, who were on the ropes.

    Rome’s fair treatment of its former enemies paid off: Hannibal’s strategy had depended on being joined – and supplied – by Rome’s Italian allies. They refused, and he lost the war.

    And by the way: NO Turks lived in the empire, because the Turks dwelt in Central Asia until the Middle Ages.

    And by the way again: Rome’s history as a major state encompasses 600 years. I am not so sure that with America electing people like MAObama that we will come close to a life of half of that length.

    I hope we do…but…

    • garfieldjl

      I’m guessing everyone else is talking about the Roman Empire, you’re talking about the Roman Republic. The behavior between the two were very different in many respects.

      While you are correct concerning the Turks, that is more of people got the name of the people in the area at the time wrong. The were right about the Romans committing the attrocities.

      • Ausonius

        The claim is still false even for the Empire:with an established empire, why on earth would the Romans go around – during the Pax Romana – and stir up trouble by “crucifying the first 5 guys” in a village?!

        Trust me: that was NOT Roman policy! Observe how Pilate, for example, is upset about the demands for Christ’s death! He does NOT want to crucify him, and does so to stop “a riot from breaking out.”

        If it is Roman policy to crucify people at random, that scene makes no sense!

        Did Romans occasionally commit atrocities? Yes. Was random crucifixion a policy during the Imperial Pax Romana? Absolutely not.

        • garfieldjl

          They practiced that in areas they just conquered, or selling a portion of the populace into slavery, or some other atrocity.

          After they had established their control, they weren’t as apt to practice that behavior because they knew it could start a revolt, because they would turn fear into rage, which would cause a revolt.

          • Ausonius

            Read a basic history of the – very few – areas added to the Empire, mainly Britain and Dacia.

            Trajan deports thousands of Dacians after their surrender as slaves: random crucifixions? When and where?

            In Britain, the Romans depended on client kings, like Herod in Judaea, to handle the peace and to handle local affairs which were of no interest to them. King Cogidubnus in England was adopted by the Emperor Claudius: how exactly would he have been able to stay an ally of Rome if the Romans were crucifying at random his people in their villages?

            Again, did the Romans commit atrocities? Yes. Did they have a policy of random crucifixions in villages during the Pax Romana? NO!

          • Mars the Avenger

            Ausonius,

            You are fighting an uphill battle against ignorance and lack of historical perspective, due to the state of education, as it has been for decades, and a Hollywood view of what Rome was….

            One more, and I shall strike them down!!!! (LOL)

          • Ausonius

            The original statement from the EPA character is just completely ignorant on so many levels, and part of the problem is that the authority of this person seems to give some validity to the ignorant statement.

            And so the errors spread and multiply.

            This is also how con men work: they wear nice clothes, have an elevated, knowledgeable, and trustworthy tone, and suddenly your bank account is drained.

            On that basis, despite the ignorance of MAObama and his minions about so many things, he and his advisors must be considered one of the most fraudulent in American History.

            And Mars, nice quote there from Epictetus! :)

          • Repair_Man_Jack

            I ask because he paints a pretty sick picture of how the ROman Legions behaved in The Jewish War. Perhaps he does to Rome what De Las Casas did to the Spanish. A native author writes a negative history of a people and the critics take it and run….

          • Ausonius

            Keep in mind that Josephus was a pro-Roman Jew!

            Historians do not find sections of his history credible: his hyperbole about the savagery (famous is a claim about “rivers of blood in Jerusalem put out the many fires”) is in fact meant to honor the Romans and their general Titus, a future emperor.

            He is completely black and white about his role in the war and about the leaders of the revolt: he wears a white hat, and they wear black hats.

            His imagination for horror comes into play about the events at Masada and in Jerusalem, which he could absolutely NOT have witnessed.

            To be sure it was a brutal affair: the Romans were not pussycats when crossed. But they had their limits, and historians find that Josephus a little too often goes beyond the truth.

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

      .

      • funwithknives

        so few teachers.

        I notice your detractor [gfjl] made no effort at honest refutation,made no reference to any countervailing research, & gave not one single solitary link, in answer to your presentation.

        So what grade does he get, “Teach” ?? {be nice and go on class curve…}

  • norris

    This rouge agency wants to control not only business but private citizens . If I want to sell a house I have to remove lead paint with a certified contractor. Then if you have buried fuel tank it must removed and all contaminated soil taken to an approved disposal site the inspections add thousands to the job. They decide what kind of light bulbs,washing machines,toilets and the type of cars we have to drive.

    • davesinsanantonio

      also Homeland Security who wants to make us comfortable, or at least compliant, with pat-downs, confiscations of bottled substances, and X-rays, etc. Or NLRB who wants to force us all to join the unions they pick out for us (as in trying to force Fed-Ex employees into the union the NLRB approves, etc. Or Dept. of Ed. trying to control what parents can and cannot do in their child’s school, including what they can send in the kid’s lunch box, etc. ETC. ETC.
      We will have some major house cleanings to do starting in January. That is why not only taking back the White House is absolutely necessary, but also the Senate, and state legislatures and city halls because we will need lots of local help to overcome the federal government overreach that has been going on now for a century.

      • arthurjake

        I wanted to bring in the new year with my family drinking good German beer. I made it through customs no problem but didn’t think to recheck my bag. All the TSA agent could say was glass and liquid I am going to have to confiscate that. I wasn’t allowed the option of checking my luggage since I still had time to do so. His smile as he told me no suggested that he would be enjoying the K?lsch. Somehow I don’t feel any safer as a result of providing the TSA with free beer.

  • gmscan

    … what’s his name saying they had their boot on the throat of BP. SOP for this crowd.

  • paco12348

    Of course Obama plays the fiddle. That’s all he does while the US drowns in debt.. The only thing Obama does is run around the country at tax payer expense and lie, deny and blame. He has diarrhea of the mouth.
    By the way, has anyone seen Bo lately. I heard Obama was crooning something about “Bo-delicious, Bo-delicious”.

  • ihateliberals

    Have determined that they have taken lessons from the old German Gestapo. The new logo for all the agencies should have this added to the logo, (SS). For example TSA (SS), EPA (SS) etc. An additional tool of the administration is under the guise of healthcare and it is Obamacare. With this in the name of your health and safety they can regulate just about everything plus they wil have the ability to track your whereabouts etc. TSA(SS) the new Terrorist control’s how you travel about the country. EPA (SS) controls what you drive, type of gasoline, type of paint etc etc etc. i wonder how much longer before the TSA (SS) agent wil say to you as you got through security: “Paper’s Please”. If they were to be so polite to say Please. Now don’t forget that Bush stated this crap but Obama has taken advantage of ti and corrupted their meanings.

  • snowshooze

    http://blog.heritage.org/