It's soon to be two months, and BP's broken oil well is still gushing gunk into the Gulf. Their latest efforts are capturing some of the leaking oil -- operative word some -- but reality is that a permanent fix in the form of a "relief" well is still months away. They estimate August, but their estimates have been overly optimistic so far. It's the biggest mess we've ever seen.
There are some common-sense rules about excess in this world: If a business has an unfair monopoly, bust the trust. If a bank is too big to fail, make it get smaller. If the baseball team can't knock any HR's at their home park, move the fences in. If the ultra-huge 2 lb. burger is more than you can eat, order something else. And if you've drilled an oil well so fucking deep in the ocean that you can't get to it when it blows out, well then, you shouldn't have drilled there in the first place!
That's kinda what a Shell Oil exec said when asked about such deep-water drilling. According to him, the government shares the blame because our misguided regulations prevent oil companies from drilling nearer to land, like say, right on the goddam shoreline. So, you see, BP had no choice -- they were forced to drill way, way out in the briny deep.
And then a BP spokesperson suggested there was actually a silver lining to this horrible black cloud. He explained that the spill would have atmospheric benefits because all those millions of barrels of leaking crude cannot now be turned into gasoline or diesel fuel for internal combustion engines. So, see? Less oil, less gas, less air pollution! Then he further explained there would be health benefits for America as well, because seafood can be high in fat and cholesterol, and since so many fish and shrimp have now been poisoned, we can't eat 'em, so we'll all lose a little weight! I never thought of that.
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