Fisher Price Drill and Spill

Where did they do this survey (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37116587/ns/politics-more_politics/) about offshore drilling that shows “overwhelming” support, and what exactly was the question? Why don’t we get that part of the story? I would believe that an overwhelming majority of Americans are concerned about economic benefit, but I find it hard to believe that spewing oil over half of the U.S. coast will ultimately prove economically beneficial. Perhaps BP can contribute to the economy by employing the homeless to scrub sea shells with toothbrushes, or maybe ocean currents will simply divert the disaster to France.


On NPR, BP’s Irish Guy compared Deepwater Horizon to Apollo Thirteen or fatal aircraft accidents. The argument, I gather, is that we don’t stop doing what we’re doing because things don’t go quite as planned, although even a BP executive with normal intelligence (for a BP executive), might think that the situations aren’t completely equivalent. What was the potential for environmental damage from Apollo Thirteen? Maybe we could speculate that debris from Apollo Thirteen might have eventually hit the sun, causing an uncontrolled solar flare resulting in a burst of energy that might conceivably have penetrated the earth’s atmosphere through a hole in the ozone layer and coincidentally singed off a BP oil executive's eyebrows.


Oh wait a minute. Apollo Thirteen made it back to earth without spilling anything more hazardous than a little oxygen in deep space. No doubt the Irish Guy got the assignment based on the well-documented Celtic ability to keep things in perspective and resist the temptation to immoderate hyperbolation. Regarding aircraft accidents, however, he’s got us there. The North American continent is littered with the remains of hazardous things falling carelessly from the sky, including Russian space stations and Buddy Holly. So far, we haven't stopped breathing to allow for acid rain, although perhaps we should consider it. I’m sure the environmental effect is an indisputable argument to continue deep water drilling unabated, well, pretty sure.

Here's Thinking for You.
Iffy