NYT/Gail Collins: Wishing Will Make It So

[last_texas_dem]

>>>>Americans have always raised their children to believe in the power of the dream. This is probably why hundreds of thousands of young people are certain they are destined to become the American Idol. Or Next Top Model. Or marry a Jonas Brother.

A few of these dreamers grew up to run oil companies. They believed with all the power of their fierce, tiny hearts that they could drill farther and farther down into the ocean without ever having a really big accident. We learned that from the oil C.E.O.’s who trotted over to the Capitol recently and testified that their plan for handling a huge deep-water spill is not to have a huge deep-water spill.
Their official, on-paper contingency plans were completely impractical. Yet the dreaded Minerals Management Service, which oversees oil drilling, rubber-stamped them. This is because the M.M.S. is bad and we hate it. Also possibly because of a Congress-passed rule that gives the agency, which has 60 inspectors overseeing nearly 4,000 drilling platforms, only 30 days review time.

We now know that as things stand, no amount of will and work can contain a deep-water spill once it happens. So President Obama suspended drilling for up to six months so we can get a handle on this stupendous, terrifying problem.

Politicians were outraged. Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi came out foursquare against the suspension because, as he argued succinctly: “This is the first time anything vaguely like this has ever happened.” Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said the moratorium could cause “even more economic damage than the spill itself,” although she did add that “we have to make sure that these 33 floating rigs that drill in deep water ... are safe.”
Which they will be. If you believe hard enough, things will work out. Also, Justin Bieber may ask you to the prom.>>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/opinion/19collins.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fopinion%2Findex.jsonp

[patrice]

1. Wishing/Believing will make it so. Is a trademarked brand owned by ChurchCo.

[Demeter]

2. And Walt Disney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkIZ4lXjfJo&feature=related

[patrice]

3. Yeah, forgot about WD. And "Death to those who would dis-ILLUSION our kids about the Easter Bunny,

or Santa Claus, or the Tooth Fairy, or whatever the myth of currency is.