Let's all hate BP

Remember the novel 1984? Regularly, the brainwashed masses were required to face the TV and actively hate the political enemies of Big Brother.
And here we are. Each night the masses mass to glare at the TV screens and hate the corporation British Petroleum. An "enraged" president leads the throng.
This carefully orchestrated hate-in is in keeping with this president's all-out assault on free enterprise and individual freedom. He is out to reshape America in his own vision, as a socialist state.
He is aided by the media, which blamed President George Bush for the Hurricane Katrina disaster immediately but has yet to fault Barack Obama.
Now they have fixed on a comment by a BP press flack, who allegedly said there are other places to get shrimp besides Louisiana.
This is being portrayed as a Marie Antoinette-style remark when it could as easily be regarded as a simple statement of fact, in answer to concerns about shrimp not being available.
Rational people understand that the Gulf oil spill was an accident, not a deliberate act by BP. It isn't even clear that it was the result of gross negligence or incompetence. BP, which has been a politically correct corporation seeking government blessing and a donor to liberal causes, deserves no sympathy, just the benefit of doubt.
Oil companies would not be drilling for oil in 5,000 feet of water where an accident is difficult to fix if it were not for liberal politicians who refuse to let them drill in shallow water or on land, where there would be less risk.
They would not be drilling at all if it were not for the billions of people who drive cars and use electricity.
Those blessed with perfect hindsight now insist we should be using windmills and the sun instead of oil, forgetting perhaps the billions that have been spent unsuccessfully trying to develop those sources into a reliable and efficient means of delivering electricity.
The fact is that oil is necessary to modern life and until the private sector finds something better, it must be used.
Don't hold your breath waiting for politicians to invent a replacement. All they know how to do is order other people around: "Mr. Edison, invent that electric light right now!"
As long as they are doing everything they can to quench the entrepreneurial spirit, progressives will delay progress.
Meanwhile, they seek to deflect blame, as they did in the housing crisis, from themselves to the people who are our only hope for better solutions and a higher standard of living.