That oil spill

I haven't commented on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I haven't commented on anything for some time. But something has been bothering me.

All the news -- well, most of it, anyway -- has focused on the environmental impact of the spill. Pictures and stories about animals with oil on them were all over the Internet... before there were any animals found with oil on them; they used pictures from past incidents. And recent stories about dolphins and turtles dying have been tied to the spill, even though they may be from other reasons.

And, while I do think that oily animals are bad -- especially oily animals that haven't been anywhere near an oil spill -- I haven't heard a lot about the first group of animals that was impacted by the accident in the Gulf: humans.

Eleven people died. That bothers me. Those are people. And people are more important than birds or turtles or dolphins.

To me anyway. But not, it seems, to news outlets. The worst thing about the spill, to read the news, is the environmental disaster. They don't all call it "environmental disaster." Some just call it a "disaster." But all the bad stuff mentioned in the stories are all about the environmental impact. They seem to gloss over the fact that eleven people died.

Of course, being a conservative, I'm naturally more likely to think that the death of people is worse than oil on a duck. Silly me.