Over the last several weeks, I've read countless articles which suggest that deep water oil exploration is matched only by outer space exploration in terms of complexity and difficulty. This may be so; yet, like so many other areas of complex undertakings (doctors have even gone so far as to call for their own court system, claiming that medical malpractice cases are just too complex for everyday citizens to comprehend), it seems that the failures that led to the Deepwater Horizon were not complex at all.

My wife's suburban has a movie player for the kids to watch in the backseats. Here is a standard "discussion" between my oldest girl and boy that occurs within a few minutes of buckling everyone in for a trip of any length: Oldest - "I'm older than you, so I get to pick the movie." Middle child - "Unh, unh. Mommy is the boss. We need to pick something we both like." Wife - "You two quit fighting. I'm going to pick the movie. You're going to watch Mary Poppins and like it."

Today's New Orleans Times Picayune contains a story which provides more damning information for BP. You can find the story here - (http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-14/127433713...).

There is an account of a sworn statement provided by Michael Williams, a Transocean employee who was chief electronics technician on the rig, in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. In the account, Mr. Williams describes "confusion" among BP, Transocean and Halliburton in the final hours before the explosion.