Oh, and for the record, Guam is 30 miles long and between 4 and 12 miles wide. It has a land area of 212 square miles.
Just so we're clear on that.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
View all posts by Jimmy Akin
21 thoughts on “Guam To Tip Over?”
I think we really need to start requiring IQ tests before anyone can run for office.
Rick Moran posted this video at americanthinker.com. Moran also commented: “He contracted Hepatitis-C 12 years ago and often has periods of confusion and can lose his train of thought…”
I certainly sympathize with him and hope he can be cured and no longer have these “periods”, but perhaps, until that happens, he should resign from Congress.
Why should he resign? Sure he may have a medical condition causing his “periods of confusion”… but its no different than the decades long periods of confusion that the rest of the defectives that inhabit Congress are operating under. What’s their excuse? I’d say, right now this guy fits right into the legislative body that he’s part of. I would also add “fits right into the party he belongs to” but I won’t because that would make it seem like the members of the other party aren’t suffering from “periods of confusion” and that definitely ain’t the case. :-/
If it get’s two overpopulated, Johnson fears it will “tip over” and “capsize.”
Are the above spellings intended to convey some sort of satire or do they merely reflect an over-reliance on a spell checker?
Here’s a formal response from Congressman Johnson, via his spokesman:
“I wasn’t suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over,” said Johnson. “I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents – an additional 80,000 people during peak construction to the port on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 – could be a tipping point which would adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and over burden its already overstressed infrastructure. Having traveled to Guam last year, I saw firsthand how this beautiful – but vulnerable island – is already overburdened, and I was simply voicing my concerns that the addition of that many people could tip the delicate balance and do harm to Guam.”
I lived on Guam from 1990-1992 when stationed there while I was in the USMC.
I remember talk about the island potentially falling into the ocean if a large scale earthquake struck. This seemed to be fanciful thinking.
I was the “Safety NCO” of my company and had to review disaster plans. Typhoons were the biggest concern. I was there for two including a category 5 super typhoon Yuri in 1991 which hit the night before Thanksgiving. That was a fun night – really, it was.
After typhoons, the biggest threat we were worried about was tsunamis and earthquakes. Population, not so much. But I wonder if we could have arranged for everyone there to run to one side of the island at the same time…?
John: Yes. Satire. Thanks’s exactly what it was. Thanks for noticing.
Ann Althouse http://althouse.blogspot.com/ commented on this story.
“…It’s obviously a figure of speech. Guam is a tiny island, and it’s a vivid image to picture it tipping and capsizing. If you’d used a more well-worn image — like, I’m afraid the island will be crushed by over population — no one would visualize a crushing. You chose a fresh metaphor, and your listeners couldn’t handle the task of digesting it.”
It was a clumsy metaphor and worth a good laugh, but nothing to really get upset over.
It was not obviously a figure of speech. He even made hand gestures that reinforced the image of him picturing the additional people as causing the island to capsize. Using a fresh metaphor is commendable, provided that it makes sense in context. Keep in mind that according to the 2000 census Singapore which has 253 square miles has 3.87 million people whereas Guam has 212 square miles and has a population of 154, 805. When Singapore shows signs of capsizing then let’s worry about Guam. Based on these facts, even his claim that he meant a population metaphor wouldn’t be accurate.
You Capsizing Island deniers are probably Global Warming deniers as well. The debate is over. Capsizing Island is a serious threat. Just send my friend Al Gore some money and he’ll stop the threat of Capsizing Islands.
Guam is not Singapore. And it’s not the environmentally devastated Haiti, which is 39 times larger in area than Singapore but only twice the population. Perhaps if they started caning people in Guam and Haiti, they could be more like Singapore.
Ted-I can’t argue with your logic. It’s flawless!
This causes me consternation. You see, I had never considered the issue but may well be affected by a real danger.
I live in Central Florida, about 90 miles south of Ocala. With the weight of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa and St. Petersburg all lying south of Ocala, what if the peninsula were to break off anf flip over onto Cuba? This would displace a lot of people to say nothing of the deleterious effect on relations the U.S. has with Cuba.
Maybe we can get some Obamabucks to tie big floats to Miami and Naples and bouy up south Florida, taking some strain off the fulcrum! Write Congressman Johnson today! Save us please.
Pete-You’ve brought up some good points and made me realize that I am at risk also. I live on Long Island in New York and we have 7,448,618 residents. A statistical website states that Long Island extends 118 miles from New York Harbor, and has a maximum width of 23 miles. That doesn’t sound like a lot of land for all those people. Ted’s point is also well taken though I’m not sure if the caning he mentions lowers or raises the possibility of an island capsizing. I am writing Congressman Johnson today, I’m sure he’ll know. I looked it up on the internet and could find no correlation between caning and capsizing except for the fact that the both begin with “c”.
Did anyone else notice that though Guam is not as highly urbanized or rich as Singapore, it is also not a third world nation like Haiti. In fact, it is part of the United States.
Cephas —
You don’t need to worry about Long Island capsizing. Manhattan is a lot more crowded, so it will tip over first, giving you folks a good early warning system.
I’m not buying a word of Rep. Johnson’s excuse. The video shows a man having so much trouble uttering simple sentences that he could only be demented or drugged. His speech patterns reminded me of nothing so much as a hardcore stoner trying to wax philosophical about how ‘like, deep, man’ Pink Floyd is.
C’mon…his reminds me of Harlan Pepper on “Best Of Show” namin’ nuts.:
I used to be able to name every nut that there was. And it used to drive my mother crazy, because she used to say, “Harlan Pepper, if you don’t stop naming nuts,” and the joke was that we lived in Pine Nut, and I think that’s what put it in my mind at that point. So she would hear me in the other room, and she’d just start yelling. I’d say, “Peanut. Hazelnut. Cashew nut. Macadamia nut.” That was the one that would send her into going crazy. She’d say, “Would you stop naming nuts!” And Hubert used to be able to make the sound, he couldn’t talk, but he’d go “rrrawr rrawr” and that sounded like Macadamia nut. Pine nut, which is a nut, but it’s also the name of a town. Pistachio nut. Red pistachio nut. Natural, all natural white pistachio nut.
Hi, all. I’m back.
Its been really frustrating only having public media sources to read on topics. I guess blogs do have a place in making things clearer.
I think I’ll start posting on topics, de novo, instead of going back over the topics I’ve missed (although some look very interesting).
The Chicken
Welcome back, Chicken!
When will the politicians all tip over? We need new ones.
I live in Guam. Of course it’s just funny and probably was just a metaphor for the expected increase in population due to the proposed military buildup. But coming in the wake of the ignorance (or malice) displayed in the health care vote, we really do have to wonder who the h__l is running the country.
I think we really need to start requiring IQ tests before anyone can run for office.
Rick Moran posted this video at americanthinker.com. Moran also commented: “He contracted Hepatitis-C 12 years ago and often has periods of confusion and can lose his train of thought…”
I certainly sympathize with him and hope he can be cured and no longer have these “periods”, but perhaps, until that happens, he should resign from Congress.
Why should he resign? Sure he may have a medical condition causing his “periods of confusion”… but its no different than the decades long periods of confusion that the rest of the defectives that inhabit Congress are operating under. What’s their excuse? I’d say, right now this guy fits right into the legislative body that he’s part of. I would also add “fits right into the party he belongs to” but I won’t because that would make it seem like the members of the other party aren’t suffering from “periods of confusion” and that definitely ain’t the case. :-/
If it get’s two overpopulated, Johnson fears it will “tip over” and “capsize.”
Are the above spellings intended to convey some sort of satire or do they merely reflect an over-reliance on a spell checker?
Here’s a formal response from Congressman Johnson, via his spokesman:
“I wasn’t suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over,” said Johnson. “I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents – an additional 80,000 people during peak construction to the port on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 – could be a tipping point which would adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and over burden its already overstressed infrastructure. Having traveled to Guam last year, I saw firsthand how this beautiful – but vulnerable island – is already overburdened, and I was simply voicing my concerns that the addition of that many people could tip the delicate balance and do harm to Guam.”
I lived on Guam from 1990-1992 when stationed there while I was in the USMC.
I remember talk about the island potentially falling into the ocean if a large scale earthquake struck. This seemed to be fanciful thinking.
I was the “Safety NCO” of my company and had to review disaster plans. Typhoons were the biggest concern. I was there for two including a category 5 super typhoon Yuri in 1991 which hit the night before Thanksgiving. That was a fun night – really, it was.
After typhoons, the biggest threat we were worried about was tsunamis and earthquakes. Population, not so much. But I wonder if we could have arranged for everyone there to run to one side of the island at the same time…?
John: Yes. Satire. Thanks’s exactly what it was. Thanks for noticing.
Ann Althouse http://althouse.blogspot.com/ commented on this story.
“…It’s obviously a figure of speech. Guam is a tiny island, and it’s a vivid image to picture it tipping and capsizing. If you’d used a more well-worn image — like, I’m afraid the island will be crushed by over population — no one would visualize a crushing. You chose a fresh metaphor, and your listeners couldn’t handle the task of digesting it.”
It was a clumsy metaphor and worth a good laugh, but nothing to really get upset over.
It was not obviously a figure of speech. He even made hand gestures that reinforced the image of him picturing the additional people as causing the island to capsize. Using a fresh metaphor is commendable, provided that it makes sense in context. Keep in mind that according to the 2000 census Singapore which has 253 square miles has 3.87 million people whereas Guam has 212 square miles and has a population of 154, 805. When Singapore shows signs of capsizing then let’s worry about Guam. Based on these facts, even his claim that he meant a population metaphor wouldn’t be accurate.
You Capsizing Island deniers are probably Global Warming deniers as well. The debate is over. Capsizing Island is a serious threat. Just send my friend Al Gore some money and he’ll stop the threat of Capsizing Islands.
Guam is not Singapore. And it’s not the environmentally devastated Haiti, which is 39 times larger in area than Singapore but only twice the population. Perhaps if they started caning people in Guam and Haiti, they could be more like Singapore.
Ted-I can’t argue with your logic. It’s flawless!
This causes me consternation. You see, I had never considered the issue but may well be affected by a real danger.
I live in Central Florida, about 90 miles south of Ocala. With the weight of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa and St. Petersburg all lying south of Ocala, what if the peninsula were to break off anf flip over onto Cuba? This would displace a lot of people to say nothing of the deleterious effect on relations the U.S. has with Cuba.
Maybe we can get some Obamabucks to tie big floats to Miami and Naples and bouy up south Florida, taking some strain off the fulcrum! Write Congressman Johnson today! Save us please.
Pete-You’ve brought up some good points and made me realize that I am at risk also. I live on Long Island in New York and we have 7,448,618 residents. A statistical website states that Long Island extends 118 miles from New York Harbor, and has a maximum width of 23 miles. That doesn’t sound like a lot of land for all those people. Ted’s point is also well taken though I’m not sure if the caning he mentions lowers or raises the possibility of an island capsizing. I am writing Congressman Johnson today, I’m sure he’ll know. I looked it up on the internet and could find no correlation between caning and capsizing except for the fact that the both begin with “c”.
Did anyone else notice that though Guam is not as highly urbanized or rich as Singapore, it is also not a third world nation like Haiti. In fact, it is part of the United States.
Cephas —
You don’t need to worry about Long Island capsizing. Manhattan is a lot more crowded, so it will tip over first, giving you folks a good early warning system.
I’m not buying a word of Rep. Johnson’s excuse. The video shows a man having so much trouble uttering simple sentences that he could only be demented or drugged. His speech patterns reminded me of nothing so much as a hardcore stoner trying to wax philosophical about how ‘like, deep, man’ Pink Floyd is.
C’mon…his reminds me of Harlan Pepper on “Best Of Show” namin’ nuts.:
I used to be able to name every nut that there was. And it used to drive my mother crazy, because she used to say, “Harlan Pepper, if you don’t stop naming nuts,” and the joke was that we lived in Pine Nut, and I think that’s what put it in my mind at that point. So she would hear me in the other room, and she’d just start yelling. I’d say, “Peanut. Hazelnut. Cashew nut. Macadamia nut.” That was the one that would send her into going crazy. She’d say, “Would you stop naming nuts!” And Hubert used to be able to make the sound, he couldn’t talk, but he’d go “rrrawr rrawr” and that sounded like Macadamia nut. Pine nut, which is a nut, but it’s also the name of a town. Pistachio nut. Red pistachio nut. Natural, all natural white pistachio nut.
Hi, all. I’m back.
Its been really frustrating only having public media sources to read on topics. I guess blogs do have a place in making things clearer.
I think I’ll start posting on topics, de novo, instead of going back over the topics I’ve missed (although some look very interesting).
The Chicken
Welcome back, Chicken!
When will the politicians all tip over? We need new ones.
I live in Guam. Of course it’s just funny and probably was just a metaphor for the expected increase in population due to the proposed military buildup. But coming in the wake of the ignorance (or malice) displayed in the health care vote, we really do have to wonder who the h__l is running the country.