This was first published in the old format in the “Editor’s Notes” column. I’m not sure I will continue this in the future as most of what I say is editorial in nature.

What follows is my last rant in the old format:

I’ve decided to change this column to an Editorial so I have a special place to pick bones. I don’t really need to tell you how the rest of the issue was constructed. So from here on this is the editorial section of The Network Post.

The bone I wish to pick today is with the British Petroleum Corporation. You may have heard of this company a while back when one of their oil rigs blew up in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and dumping untold millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf waters.

We have all heard of the gigantic settlement BP was forced to pay. You may also have heard that some 80% of that settlement was tax deductible, increasing profits and reducing overall taxes paid by BP.

On top of all that, BP has obstructed the payments of reparations to those effected by the oil spill, using every tactic available to them. Despite the relatively large amounts of money spent in the area, the effected economy has not yet recovered.

To add insult to injury, I get my new BP oil credit card (Backed by Chase Manhattan Bank) in the mail a few weeks ago, only to find out yesterday that all the BP stations in Florida have been closed, and my new credit card will only work at a BP gas station. This just seems too vindictive even for BP. Don’t they make their money selling oil products? Maybe not. Did they make so much off of the settlement that they don’t need to sell oil anymore? Somehow I don’t think so.

So, the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that Corporations are individuals when they spend their money any way they wish. But the fact remains that Corporations are not really individuals until the Courts decide that they can be put into jail for crimes like theft and murder. Until such time, Corporations are entities without social responsibilities or consequences for their actions. What will it take to make the corporation responsible? Certainly not massive, tax deductible, financial consequences. Probably not even putting some executives in jail. Maybe if there were the threat that their corporate protections could be removed, with the assets used to pay reparations for their crimes. Maybe then corporations would be accountable for their actions.