Americans are feeling helpless and frustrated over the current Gulf oil spill disaster and are looking for someone to blame.
Americans are feeling helpless and frustrated over the current Gulf oil spill disaster, and when we feel helpless, we get angry and look for someone to blame. We need to look deeper and learn important long-term lessons from this catastrophe.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments76 - Clavos
LOL, Cindy!
(If only Silas could carry a tune...sigh)
77 - Silas Kain
Who ever knew that the old Irish favorite Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder? would ever come to reality?
In a sudden spurt of michief, Silas pulls something out of thin air and takes a chance to see how long it will take for somebody to figure out exactly what was so prophetic.
78 - Cindy
lol :-) I recognize those. I've heard most of them twice on CD and read them all. But I can't figure out why you said 'prophetic', nor what it has to do with Mrs Murphy and her chowder???
(Oh and I have to say thanks because they saved one to release in Oct 2010. RBP died recently. I had no idea until just now that there is one more left.)
79 - Silas Kain
Well, Cindy, the way tell it there will be no clams to harvest for the chowder. So Mr. Murphy's overalls will have to suffice.
80 - Cindy
Clav,
I am trying to figure out which of the singers at the bottom of this page reminds me more of Silas--the one who received a flag as a gift from his friends for his talent or the one who appears to be naked and has grabbed a lamp from the living room to use as a microphone.
81 - Cindy
Oh Silas...this world is in sad shape...it needs overhaul(s)...but likely will only get overalls.
82 - Silas Kain
I'm a lamp grabber and closet nudist.
83 - Clavos
You go into your closet to get nude, Silas?
Must be hard to take a shower that way...
84 - Dr Dreadful
Oh, come on, Clav, you mess around in boats. You must be familiar with closet-sized showers.
85 - zingzing
oh!
(fist pump.)
(christine's about to come in with an "in the house!" comment.)
86 - Clavos
Oh, come on, Clav, you mess around in boats. You must be familiar with closet-sized showers.
True, Doc, but showers have light.
And actually, I have one listing right now (90 ft.) in which the shower in the master measures about 8' X 5', and which has shower heads on every wa...bulkhead.
87 - Silas Kain
And all this time I thought closets were just for Republicans.
88 - Geoff Hasler
Yes, BP IS to blame. Unbelievable that this was not foreseen and that preventative measures were not ready to go if it happened. A huge company, with gigantic resources, should have had high level risk management strategies ready to implement. It is devastating for the Gulf and BP, also for future exploration as few Governments will accept bland company reassurances in future without strict verification procedures.
89 - John Wilson
Think about it. You propose to drill a well in 5000 ft. of ocean water and access is with a pipethread about 5 ft. in diameter, about 1/1000 th the length. That means that it has the proportions of a hair. How could it possibly be stable? Then, you propose to drill the seabed another several thousand ft. with another hair.
Only extraordinary good luck could make such a thing work.
Yet, at the Management Meeting, anyone who protests this is told "you can't PROVE that it will fail, and besides, if it succeeds we make billions in profits, and if it fails those stupid Americans will be stuck with the oil spill and we can skate with a $75million cap (which our superb lobbyists have paid congressmen to pass). And if they sue we can stiff them for 20 years, as Exxon did with Valdez, to deny recompense to the old and reduce it by 9/10 to the young. Sounds like a winner to us."
YOU figure it out.
90 - Baronius
John, wouldn't the solution be to drill in shallower water?
91 - Dr Dreadful
And actually, I have one listing right now (90 ft.)
If it's listing I don't want it.
Put all hands to the pumps, have the ship's carpenter plug the leak and then we'll talk.
;-)
92 - Clavos
John, wouldn't the solution be to drill in shallower water?
Of course, Baronius, but nobody wants to let 'em drill closer to shore, or in ANWR or other, easier and safer areas.
93 - Clavos
F**k Akismet!!!
94 - John Wilson
Shallow water drilling has it's own problems, in addition to it's unsightliness and proximity to seaside homes.The funneling effects of shallowing waters edge causes deep sea waves to build up and climax, as surf does. Tsunamis are much more severe when they reach shallows as when at sea where they are just swells.
95 - Clavos
@#94:
There are no waves in ANWR, or any of the other ONSHORE sites in which drilling is prohibited.
The deep water drilling was taking place because it was almost the only area in which drilling was permitted -- the government FORCED them into deep water by closing and/or restricting everywhere else.
You can ban the use of oil, but you will collapse, yes COLLAPSE, the entire world's economies, not just the USA's.
Banning drilling everywhere is as stupid as allowing it unregulated.
96 - Clavos
Seaside homes belong to the rich, the most despised group in America, except when protecting them fits another agenda.
97 - handyguy
Only 30% of US production is offshore -- and that 30% is less than 2% of total world production.
When the oil starts coating the white sand beaches of the Florida panhandle, any day now, will you then stop pretending that this is OK?
It's not worth it.
98 - Zedd
John,
The ADD nature of this thread supports your premise. We cant focus enough. We want to be entertained constantly and simply have no interest in doing anything that requires complete sincerity or commitment. It's not fun so we support deregs and we under evaluate (cause we get free stuff from the company... woohooo) and hope for the best. We vote for the person with the most entertaining quips and despise the intelligentsia (they are un American and I'm assuming commies or some villain from a movie that I saw last week!!)
99 - Clavos
When the oil starts coating the white sand beaches of the Florida panhandle, any day now, will you then stop pretending that this is OK?
Nope. Not even when it starts coating my dock and my boat, which by all accounts, it may do within days or weeks.
100 - roger nowosielski
A better question, Handy, is - what percentage of our oil use comes from domestic sources?
That should give us a better picture as to the viability of offshore drilling.
101 - Baronius
Zedd, our last four presidents have represented Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, Yale (2x), and Oxford. Do you really think we're ignoring the intelligentsia? Truth be told, we'd be better off with an oil man in the White House right now.
102 - John Wilson
"...the government FORCED them into deep water..."
Huh? Did the US point guns and FORCE them? Is BP under some obligation to produce a certain quota? What does this statement mean?
100-Roger inspires me to, once again, point out tha oil is fungible: it doesn't matter where it comes from. It is as if all the oil mined everywhere is put into one huge tank and then customers bid for and draw from that huge tank.
The "USA" (whatever that means in this context) does NOT get first dibs on oil mined from our oil lots. Nobody does, on any oil. It is NOT as if we first use oil from our own territories and then had to go as beggars to the international market, although it may LOOK like that to the naive because exigencies of transportation may create that appearance.
Oil wells in US territories produce (thru international oil companies, 60% foreign owned) about 1/3 as much oil as is consumed in the USA, which means that we are very successfully exploiting foreign oil supplies. Our society is rich on "Other Peoples Oil", just as some get rich on "other Peoples Money". Good deal, for us. That's why gas prices have been stable and low for 50 years.
103 - Clavos
"...the government FORCED them into deep water..."
Huh? Did the US point guns and FORCE them? Is BP under some obligation to produce a certain quota? What does this statement mean?
You can't possibly be naturally that obtuse, so you must be trying for an effect to make your point.
Of course, if you had quoted my statement in its entirety, your "point" would have been shown to be the inane non sequitur it is:
The deep water drilling was taking place because it was almost the only area in which drilling was permitted -- the government FORCED them into deep water by closing and/or restricting everywhere else.
104 - Mark Saleski
i'm not sure that the deep water is all the relevent...there was a similar accident way back in 1979 in very shallow water. look up 'ixtoc'.
it took them a long time to fix the problem.
105 - Clavos
@#102:
What you don't mention is that, precisely because of oil's fungibility, drilling and mining oil in the US lots adds to the total world supply, thereby helping to keep prices down, and ensuring an adequate supply for all the nations slathering at that "huge tank."
106 - Clavos
That's absolutely right, Mark, although in the Ixtoc case, the ineptitude of my countrymen in the form of Pemex, the Mexican state-owned oil company, had a lot to do with how long it took to stop that leak.
107 - Dr Dreadful
Anyone else out there wishing Red Adair was still alive?
108 - Lynette Yetter, author of the novel, Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace
I was shocked to see you listing "clean nuclear" in the same list of "or" options as "solar". Perhaps this was a grammatical error?
109 - John Wilson
The USA government didn't force anyone to drill in deep water. BP made a business decision to drill where they got the best value for investment. There are plenty other places in the world to mine oil besides the Gulf. However, they got several cost reduction benefits from the USA, including that the US taxpayer became the insurer-in-fact because of the $75million cap on claims.
There were incentives and dis-incentives, just as in any business opportunity, but the US government didn't FORCE them to do anything.
110 - lissa
I agree I agree
111 - Allergic2Apathy
BP's gross negligence has somehow been lost in all the arguments about the left and the right. Can we get back to the topic at hand? This isn't a philosophical debate. We should be focused on finding a solution. Who among you would be willing to donate their time to help the people and wildlife affected by this catastrophe? I'd be willing to wager next to none of you. So stop flapping your gums. The ceaseless chatter does nothing but cause more confusion and fuels more displaced anger. We the People should be unified in our response to this disaster.
112 - Heloise
"Let's point the finger where it is deserved, at ourselves. We, the American people, encouraged our government to support deep ocean oil drilling, knowing the risks. We, the American people, valued our desire for cheap gasoline far above our respect for nature and for leaving our grandchildren a world that is still livable."
Really? I didn't know about this shit. If we knew that they had lease to drill a hell hole I think we would have thunk twice about it. They should have dug in Anwar. This well from hell could leak for a decade.
The only good thing might be that the fed coffers will be enriched by the big fines that BP will pay. If they succeed in capturing all the oil and reselling it to us and making islands in the Gulf, which I advised from day one, but they had too many other tips to notice, then maybe all will be forgiven.
If Obama survives this Bay of Rigs he might see the light of a second term. But right now the well from hell has got us all by the balls. You can't take that to the bank.
This has ruined my summer.
113 - roger nowosielski
What shall we use as currency, though? Petroleum dollars?
114 - roger nowosielski
I didn't know you were planning to go to Louisiana? It hot and muddy in a summer time, just as in the Bronx.
115 - Cindy
89 - John Wilson makes a lot of sense.
116 - Cindy
109 and again.
117 - roger nowosielski
Yet Tony Hayward, BP's CEO, lamented he's more affected by this mess than anyone else.
"I want my life back," he said.
118 - Cindy
Roger,
I haven't mentioned this but, my father had 5 children whom I'd lost touch with. We have recently reunited (via facebook).
Anyway, my sister Jennifer is the Captain of an oil rig. Her opinion is that BP's ordinary practices were an accident waiting to happen.
Juts an opinion, for what it is worth. Not sure what, since it is tainted by competitiveness.
119 - Cindy
But, she claims she has felt that way, as an industry insider, for a long time.
120 - roger nowosielski
Do you want to watch a good movie tonight, for relaxation? Both of you will like it.
It's a hell of a thriller.
121 - Cindy
What is it?
122 - roger nowosielski
You've got to learn to trust me.
It's called "The Odessa File."
123 - Cindy
Good choice.
124 - roger nowosielski
Well, do you want it or not?
I've seen it yesterday, and I'm seeing it for the second time right now.
125 - ja concerned citizen
All i want to know is were there no checks on these shut off valves that did not work? Could there have been preventative maintenance and checks that could have been done to stop this from taking place. I work at a podunk factory and there are checks weekly and monthly on every piece of equipment within the factory. I find it hard to believe there was nothing that could have been done to prevent this from occuring. Futhermore I find it hard to believe that we as a nation allow things like this to be put in place without contingency plans being tested and in place to contain/control any possible faults/malfunctions with the equipment being used. I have seen this crap on the news everyday and have heard nothing about wether or not any routine checks had been in place or ignored. I think these are some things that should be looked into.