Roger Eberts article on BP

[mucifer]

BP's tree fell on my lawn
By
Roger Ebert
on July 25, 2010 8:17 PM

Help me out here. There's something I've been spending a couple of months trying to get my head around. Why does BP enjoy such a peculiar immunity after having apparently been culpable in the Gulf oil spill? What is the nature of its invisible protective shield?

All I know is what you know. Like most other ordinary citizens, I try to keep up the best that I can with the news. I am not, as they say, walking in the corridors of power.

But you know, the more I read, the more I imagine those corridors smelling like those disinfectant cakes you see at the bottoms of urinals.

Here's what I think I know. Correct me if I'm wrong. The oil rig explosion set in motion the greatest man-made environmental disaster in our history. It may have been only a matter of time until that happened. Safety procedures were ignored. A safety device was not used because it would have cost BP $500,000. A Congressional oversight committee went along with that. Persistent trouble signals were not acted on. An alarm system was not operational. Complaints and misgivings by workers on the rig were ignored. There was no proven method to contain a leak should one occur.


Are we in agreement so far?...

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/07/bps_tree_fell_on_my_lawn.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. Broadly speaking

blog writers who go into print reiterating simply what they read elsewhere are either mad or both.

Not just on this subject - I have no faith in blogs whatsoever. That is based on the fact that if it subsequently becomes apparent that what they had written was wrong then rarely do they print a retraction.

[SemperEadem]

2. Roger Ebert rocks...

love his stuff!!!

[unapatriciated]

3. I don't know if the Gulf is the biggest man made - disaster - check out these...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoq2xwPAk70

[Jester Messiah]

4. I'm thinking Hiroshima/Nagasaki wins that dubious honor [nt]