You are forgetting that most corperations are too stupid to learn or too greedy......

Is it wrong to think it not-that-bad if it results in a coast of oil-slick covered beach babes? Is it self-mockery if the petrol was going to power cities and make plastic computer components?

There was a documentary I saw once that did a point-by-point comparasion with the american corporate structure and the qualification of a psychopath. It ws very calm and reasoned, but the background music should have been lowered..

I remember seeing that as well. My take on corporations is to believe them when they say that their only responsibility is to their share-holders to earn a profit. It's a self-admission that they should be held ethically and economically accountable to the public by regulation. Of course, the corporations want it BOTH ways. They want to be ammoral AND un-accountable to anyone. We've been stupid enough to allow it, too. Where we haven't simply striken regulations from the book, we've allowed corporations to police themselves. Imagine trusting a drug dealer to arrest himself if he catches himself selling drugs! Hah!

Wasnt there a very real fear that the spill in alaska could potentially set the surface of the water on fire? i dont even want to think what that would look like here...most of florida would have to be evacuated...And the effected area of ocean may never recover, biologically from the level of water deoxygenation...

I hate to make this political but this is what the union gets for being big oil's bitch... *People of the united states* find us a viable alternative energy source, even if its less efficient, and make it affordable" *politicians grab their wallets in horror* "but...but...oil companies will stop buying us hummers!....you...You dont want to drive around in electric vehicles! They only drive five miles per hour and can only make it to the store and back on one charge!...and...and the only really clean way of powering them is nuclear energy! and we all know nuclear energy is eeeeeviiiil...even captain planet (protect the environment or he'll fucking kill you) knows that! and what, are you going to wire solar panels to the roofs of your house?!" *Sheep* "well, i guess it is kind of a baaaaaahd idea..."

Actually almost fell over laughing at someone who started lecturing me about how hydrogen cars might explode in a traffic accident... the willingness of people to believe fox news never ceases to amuse...

There have always been industrial accidents in history, this is just another one.

Besides I don't think going to a future with no cars and no air conditioning would be so great.

I don't relish a future with no cars or air conditioning either... though I feel compelled to point out that I was never able to afford a car.

But oil isn't the only way to generate electricity. We have several viable options. It may be that they will be more expensive for a while -- you may want a smaller car in future, or to leave it in the driveway when you could as easily bicyle to the 7-11 -- but the energy is available. The worst that could happen if we went solar, geothermal, or even nuclear is that we might have to get used to those small cars and using the bike.

Better that than industrial accidents that we KNEW were going to happen.

Bhopal India was just another industrial accident, when Union Carbide's chemical plant exploded or leaked. It must have been 20 years ago, so the details aren't fresh in my memory. But tell that to the people who lived in the city of Bhopal. The conservative estimate is that 5,000 died the same day, and that the total death toll grew to 20,000 due to related causes. Sure, accidents happen. Tell it to the survivors. Because accidents happen, there are some things it just isn't smart to do. Building a chemical plant inside a city is one of them.

Deep sea drilling appears to be another. It's mainly safe... but accidents *will* happen and they *will* cause unacceptable damage when they do. That is simply the nature of the forces involved.

The local evening news tonight featured another oil refinery explosion, great billowing black clouds of smoke arising from twisted massed of wrecked equipment. Confucious say "When you eat rice, remember the rice farmer." When you put gas in your car, there's blood going in as well.

Even if the US stops drilling in the Gulf, the Mexicans and even the frigging CHINESE are drilling there.

That's what warships and planes loaded with air-to-sea missiles are for, I'm afraid.

Except the Chinese are drilling in Cuban waters, and the Mexicans in their territory.

Washington has always wanted an excuse to declare war on Cuba. Mexico is a little dicier... while coveting Mexican territories, nobody wants to have more Mexicans particularly.

Me, I'm about ready to throw in the towel. No matter what the rest of us do, somebody, some nation will end the world for us.

My money is on Islam.

Not a bad horse to back. And all you have to do is buy a prayer rug and you can be be sure of your own place in paradise when the atomic jihad comes!

With my luck, none of the 72 virgins would be into bondage....

I thought most Middle Eastern women were into bongage -- what else is a burqa?

Hard to say, but I hear that sometimes they only conceal some very lacy underthings....

I don't know if they're "Into" it so much as acclimated.

I'd pass out from heat prostration before I'd acclimate to one of those.

At this point I'm almost rooting for the oil. The damage is done, regardless and I'm thinking of what will ultimately go in the "Guiness Book of Records." 100 million litres! Can we go for 200 million? How about 250?"