It’s Never Too Soon (Late?) for a Great Idea
June 23rd, 2010 - 11:00 am
On yesterday’s Trifecta I ran a clip of former Shell Oil chief John Hofmeister on Meet the Press, wondering why BP and the White House weren’t using some imaginative, effective, and not-too-far-fetched clean-up systems.
Turns out, The Anchoress was all over this weeks ago.
Well, “why can’t they?” is easily answered.
They “could”, but if it didn’t work, they’d be lambasted endlessly for “wasting time and money on pie-in-the-sky untested bullshit instead of doing what we know works”.
There’s no incentive to take risks in such a situation.
If you do and it works, you got lucky.
If you do and it fails, you “wasted precious time and resources”.
If you don’t, you get carped at, but nobody can prove it would have worked, and you can say you didn’t want to “waste time and money…”.
The political calculus looks pretty clear, don’t it?
(I continue to protest PJM’s insipid DEFAULT TO CHECKED for “Daily Digest” subs. Like PJTV, it’s proof of PJM being essentially not reader-focused and basically non-competent.)
Cranky often? Like most of the folks on my course here in the UK, it’s much easier to criticize than to get the main point. Things aren’t being done that could be done with a waiver of the Jones Act to get us off high center. You do what you can – that means try what you must. People’s livelihood is at stake. This isn’t the time for political shenanigans or “poll-watching.” It’s time to act. That’s what courage is. The willingness to act, even if defeat is a possibility.
Thanks for the link, Steve!