Drill No More, Baby

Georgia man turns
himself in for biting
eight year-old girls.

Can you believe there are still people who insist we keep on drilling even after we know there has been one oil disaster after another for years and years. I confess I had no idea how many there have been until Rachel Maddow did a quick summary tonight, and I am quite sure she only reviewed the most major ones. Of course this current spill is going to make all others pale into insignificance and there is no telling at the moment just how awesomely terrible and destructive it will prove to be. Even President Obama seems to have consumed the oil drilling kool-aid, as he has said we will do no more drilling until after we know what went wrong with this one. This is magical thinking at its worst, all these accidents wouldn’t have happened if only…If we keep on drilling for oil after this super disaster it will only prove that human beings don’t have the sense God gave an earthworm. Governor Schwarzenegger seems to be the only one to see this clearly and says no more drilling off California. It could well be that this ongoing disaster may prove to be so overwhelmingly destructive that even Republicans will see the light and stop insisting we continue this suicidal path of drilling ourselves into oblivion. Weaning ourselves of our oil addiction will be painful for a while, maybe even quite a while, but is not impossible. There are all sorts of ways to create energy that have not been utilized even close to their potential: solar, wind, hydro, and waves, to mention a few, and of course people might even come to their senses enough to actually attempt to conserve energy for once. Notice I did not mention nuclear power as that, for me, is totally out of the question, as the dangers there are worse even than with oil. And don’t try to tell me that an occasional spill is just the price we pay for such a wonderful fuel. The price we are going to pay for this little mistake is going to sober everyone up very quickly. I say “we” because you can bet it’s a sure thing BP is not going to pay for it all. It seems we are not merely slow learners, we are apparently incapable of learning at all.
It appears that Republicans are simply never going to return to responsible participation in our government. They have obviously opted to dedicate full time to destroying the Obama Presidency even if it means destroying our country as well. I can see no other explanation for what they are doing. For example, trying to blame this oil disaster on Obama, an accusation so ridiculous it can have no other explanation than purely political. According to some, not only did Obama somehow bring it about, he also failed to respond in a timely fashion (as Bush/Cheney did to Katrina), another accusation simply absurd in the face of the facts. They are also complaining that the fact this failed bomber actually drove his van into Times Square proves it was a successful attack even though the bomb didn’t explode (this is stretching things so far as to make one laugh out loud, except that it is part of their ongoing pattern of criticism no matter what is happening). According to McCain the bomber should not have been given Miranda rights even though he is an American citizen (you see, Bush was right, the Constitution is nothing but a damn piece of paper). That McCain would stoop this low just proves once again he is either too senile or too dishonest to be taken seriously about anything. As hopeless as he has become, he is probably still better than his opponent and will quite likely get re-elected, which tells you something about the horribly sad state of American politics.

There is no doubt we are fouling our nest, our only nest. There might be some doubt as to whether this will destroy us before some nuclear disaster does, but it is clear that up until now we have not demonstrated any ability to intelligently manage our affairs. There is considerable doubt in my mind that we will ever demonstrate any capacity for thoughtful management, at least not until the corporations that control us can be domesticated, and the profit motive controlled, and it may be too late for that. It is 2010 and all is not well! Indeed, things are worse than ever.

LKBIQ:
Do not seek evil gains; evil gains are the equivalent of disaster.
Hesiod

TILT:
Farro was the standard fare of the Roman Legions.