"I can't share the guilt, Reg, of either Wall Street, just because I use money, or of the oil mishap, just because I use oil products."

Ok, I understand that. I'll accept mine though at least on the oil side of things. I think the Wall Street thing is another matter entirely. That was a giant shell game, funny paper, a terrible but skillful sleight of hand, an invention and really the purest forms of greed and malfeasance mankind can display. That was not our doing and it was a manipulation of our system that suckered us and played us for chumps. That was ugly, vicious, and intentional. It also pulled back the curtain for us and showed our government completely surrender to them, it did not matter if they were Democrats or Republicans, when Wall Street used up all their credit at the tables they just gave them more (of our money) even though everybody knew we had been conned. Hey, now there was a bipartisan effort if I ever saw one! Shit, they even fought about who could take credit for throwing more money at them!

That story of Paulson on his knees, frantic, tears in his eyes, begging for the bailout money is forever horribly etched in my memory. What did that sound like to you? An addict perhaps? Desperate for his fix, pleading that he (we) can't make it without it. And you know the worst thing you can do is give in and give it to them because they'll only be back for more and addicts, the hardcore ones, will do anything to get more because that addiction needs to be fed no matter the cost.

The oil guys, when it comes right down to it, would prefer not to spill a drop because they are dealing with something that is finite and real. So while we know this spill is due to collective stupidity and it will cost us plenty, I think the oil guys would prefer it never happened. The Wall Street guys, I believe, would play it all the same way again and again if given the chance. There is not one ounce of remorse or regret there unless it is that the party did not last a little longer for them. The only thing they are sorry for is that they got caught.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm defending the oil guys, because I'm not, there is no defense for what happened but keep in mind there is nothing more central to our national security than oil right now. Hell, Cheney and friends used 9/11 as a new Pearl Harbor so we could go to war to secure areas rich in these natural resources. So, in a way through their stupidity and carelessness these guys should be held up for what they really are, THREATS TO OUR NATIONAL SECURITY! I mean if we were willing carpet bomb Baghdad and kill innocent civilians, send our troops to give their lives in an endless war for oil and natural gas, how should we treat these idiots who are dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of our precious crude into the Gulf for no other reasons than they are stupid and lazy? Hell, they are doing the terrorists work for them, right?

We'll never be able to separate oil and our government because they are the same thing, you can't really tell one from the other but maybe we should use a situation like this to level the playing field a bit. I think the oil guys have had an upper hand for quite a while but the fact is oil is now too important to be in the hands of morons. You'd think Cheney would want to invite these guys on a hunting trip and shoot them all in the face himself.