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We've all seen those movies. A rainy Saturday afternoon, turn on the TV, and here is "Horror Theater"; or something to that effect.
In the standard chiller flick, we have a poor unfortunate innocent idiot, on a dark night, walking alone. What he doesn't realize (but we do) is that only a few steps behind him he is being stalked by a hideous beast; with long sharp teeth and claws, red eyes, and a hungry expression. When the lone moron finally realizes his predicament, it is already way too late. He tries to run away but his legs turn to rubber. Salvation is visible but unreachable, and finally he becomes the gruesome monster's latest repast.
You know it's funny, but this same scenario is being played out, as I write this, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Here is the cast of characters:
MONSTER: Played very realistically by a blown out oil well, spewing thousands of gallons of oil into a once-pristine maritime ecosystem.
MORONS: Played by British Petroleum, with minor bit parts played by the Executive Branch of the US Government.
For six weeks now, Americans, who pride themselves on the grassroots value of neighbors helping neighbors, have been forced to sit and watch helplessly while members of BP and our Government are trying to run with rubber legs. It is like watching a slow-motion nightmare in black.
If you think that the Federal response to Katrina was staged like some sick practical joke, what we are seeing now is like watching mass-murder while eating popcorn.
For BP, they have not attempted to actually stop this runaway gusher. They are merely trying redirect it into surface ships (tankers.) WHY? Because it's OIL! More accurately, THEIR OIL.
For Mr. Obama, he is, quote, "furious!" Well shucks, I feel so much effing better about the whole thing now. He seems to spend a lot more face time on cam these days, being in charge of (and "responsible" for) the whole situation of delegated authority. We have yet to see him appoint an "Oil Leak Czar." More realistically, he is really "furious" that this whole bag of shit has stolen the wind from the sails of the Health Care agenda.
We would really like to have someone actually try to cut off the leak. As American Citizens, we all want to go and grab the nearest BP engineer and yell "Say old Chap, have you tried THIS YET?"
ITEM: In the 1960's, we, the US of A, put Men on the Moon by utilizing slide-rule engineering and old, transistorized, computers. On an average, our Earth's Moon is about 260,000 miles away.
This oil leak is a little more than 5,000 feet down, under one of Earth's Oceans.
Think about that for a moment.
1969: Men on the Moon, and then home again. 260,000 miles out and then back.
2010: Crude Oil leaking from a 22- inch diameter busted pipe. 5,000 feet down (without leaving the planet.) FAIL!
That's it for this extemporaneous bit...
... except for one last thing:
CNN.COM: a 21-year old prodigy engineer came up with a real neat idea to get this under control. To see it, follow this link for video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/06/07/am.int.prodigy.alia.sabur.cnn?hpt=C2
