Heading out to the auto slums to shoot up some oil
Well, the President just finished his State of the Union address, and as far as presentation goes, it was fairly strong. He spent a large part of the speech talking about how certain issue positions—anti-globalization, anti-immigration, etc—are indicative of “economic retreat.” No problems from me there.
And then, annoyingly, he went on to talk about our “addiction to oil.” So let me get this straight: we’re supposed to stand up to the defeatism of economic retreat, but let’s, er . . . reduce our energy usage? And stigmatize oil? I don't know if you're aware of this, Mr. President, but economies require energy. Growing the economy—an absolute necessity if we want to make true inroads against poverty and hunger—requires expanding energy usage. And right now, that means oil and other carbon-based fuels. If treating our primary energy source as a dirty syringe that we ought to be sent to a halfway house for using isn’t “economic retreat,” I don’t know what is.
If the President equivocates on retreat, though, there’s one man who won’t: Jack Bauer. Apparently Rush Limbaugh read from this list of “Jack Bauer Facts” on the air today (a takeoff of the already old news Chuck Norris Facts), and if, like me, you’re a fan of America’s number one terrorist-killing, torture-advocating CTU hardass from 24, it’s sure to give you that heroin-like kick that we all apparently get when we fill up our cars.
posted by Peter @ 1/31/2006 11:04:00 PM
3 Comments:
So, what you're saying is that we need to expand the use of petroleum?
My position is that, as John J. Miller wrote at NRO this morning, saying oil is "an addiction" is absurd. It's the equivalent of saying that "humans are addicted to food." Energy is what powers our economy, and demonizing it with those sorts of comparisons is irresponsible.
gotcha. i thought you were saying that focusing on the expansion of alternative energy sources was the wrong thing to do....
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