Theorem of Toxic Attraction

I'd like to introduce my Theorem of Toxic Attraction (ToTA), which states that toxic people, toxic activities and toxic places have an elective affinity that intensifies the damage they do. It’s not my entire theory for the existence of evil in the world, but it’s a start. Take, for example, the recent New York Times story headlined “A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste is Rising Over Detroit”, which describes a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block along the Detroit River. When people talk about dirty tar sands oil, they mean petroleum coke, a waste byproduct the EPA no longer permits to be burned in the United States. Who owns the growing toxic black pile along the Detroit River? Koch Carbon, a company controlled by Charles and David Koch.

Cigarettes have been dubbed the perfect product: they cost a penny to make, they sell for a dollar, and they’re addictive. They also cause cancer. Think of this pile of cheap toxic waste as a cigarette millions will soon have to smoke. “It is,” said an expert, “the dirtiest residue from the dirtiest oil on earth.”

So you have the Koch brothers pushing for the Keystone XL pipeline so that more cheap waste can be produced to sell at a huge profit to China and Mexico to burn as cheap fuel. And you have 501(c)(4) non-profits spending hundreds of millions of dollars given by anonymous donors to buy politicians who will get the government regulators off their backs.

Something stinks.