Minerals Management and Mental Midgets

Because they have no interest in nuance, many conservatives are arguing that issuing a blanket moratorium on drilling at depths greater than 500 feet is exactly like grounding all airplanes because one crashed. For the benefit of all, I will show how an actual analogy works: If it turns out an airplane crashed because of a failed sprocket, and it turns out that sprocket had never been safety tested because the safety regulations in the industry had been thoroughly gutted, and further, it was likely that most other airplanes had similar sprockets that had never been safety-tested, you're god damn right the government would ground all of those airplanes pending inspections, or else it would be criminally negligent. (Also, if a judge who owned stock in a few airlines struck down the order grounding all of those planes and you defend him by saying a lot of people own stock in airlines, you're not exactly disproving a serious conflict of interest)

Basically, what people like this numbnuts are saying is that even if all of these rigs went up at a time when the regulatory body was so completely corrupted as to be made into a cheerleading organization for the industry, it doesn't matter if they're safe or not because they're grandfathered in and there's nothing you can do about it so nyah nyah. Which makes about as much sense as saying, "You can't prosecute me for murder! I paid off that cop to keep it quiet!"