The Associated Press reported yesterday that only two weeks after BP finally put an end to what seemed like an impossible oil gusher, most of the oil seems to have…disappeared. So where did the oil go? “Some of the oil evaporates,” explains Edward Bouwer, professor of environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University. That’s especially true … Read more
There are lessons of wisdom to be found in every folly, however painful the extraction. The ongoing, almost comic bungling efforts and non-efforts of the federal government dealing with the oil spill in the gulf is no exception. The most important political lesson is both conservative and Catholic. The conservative lesson? When dealing with a … Read more
Free market capitalism gets blamed for everything from the financial collapse to salmonella-contaminated meat to the BP oil spill, and this is primarily due to a misunderstanding of the term. The economic system we have in the United States is not free market capitalism, but corporatism. Free market capitalism allows two parties to exchange goods … Read more
I must admit to feeling a bit lost in the sea of ink being spilled over the BP oil spill. It’s not that I want to ignore the drastic impact it’s having on the surrounding area. I just find myself having a difficult time comprehending what exactly is happening down there in the Gulf. I’m a visual person, and written descriptions of … Read more
The Mississippi Gulf Coast still has not fully recovered from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and yet here we are, awaiting another catastrophe. Massive quantities of oil are being released from a sunken off-shore drilling platform, about 5,000 barrels per day. The full impact of this disaster has not yet been realized, … Read more