the gulf catastrophe, and what it really means

.

first, an admission:

as any regular reader of this blog knows, i've always been an unabashedly "drill, baby, drill" kinda guy.

having (a) come from a family of somewhat successful east-texas wildcatters; and (b) an understanding of how dependent we as a nation have become on a foreign oil supply which is mostly in the hands of crazy-ass motherfuckers who could capriciously cut said supply [and thus, the balls of america] off at any moment, i naturally and readily bought the oil industry's line that, with today's sophisticated technology, offshore oil disasters such as santa barbara '69 were a thing of the past.

and besides, with the government regulators watching 'em like hawks, what could possibly go wrong?

right?


with the explosive destruction of deepwater horizon on april 20 of this year, the last shred of my illusions about the competence of our overlords was effectively destroyed.

the sad truth is, the unholy, fascistic commingling over the last twenty or so years of big government and big business has resulted in the complete and total corruption of every aspect of what was once called american free enterprise, and all the safeguards that went with it.

and even if the safeguards failed, there was once a time when we as a species were protected from the folly of man by, if nothing else, the limitations of technology.

today?  one idiot with a keyboard--whether it's in a high-rise on wall street, a bunker in chechnya, a deepwater oil rig in the gulf of mexico, or [insert nightmare scenario of your choice here]--now has the power to single-handedly fuck up the planet if he intends to.

or [and this is one of the things that drives mkf to drink alone late at night]

even if he accidentally doesn't.