About oil

The "war" in Iraq was primarily about oil, so claims Alan Greenspan in his book which is about to be released. This will be a bit awkward for the White House as they have denied for years that it was about oil, had anything to do with oil, what oil, oh, that oil. If Greenspan believes it was about oil why didn't he say so years ago when it might have done more good. Of course it was (is) about oil. Did you really believe it was about anything else? Non-existent WMD's? Getting rid of a dictator? Spreading democracy in the Middle East? Helping the Iraqis? It's about oil, pure and simple. That is precisely why Bush/Cheney have no intention of ever leaving (until, perhaps, the oil is exhausted), never had any intention of leaving, and why most of the Democratic candidates believe we should stay there also. Oil, oil, oil, better these days, than gold. It's going to run out one of these days, but what the hell, drive all you want in whatever you want before the good times run out. What do you think will overtake us first, global warming or no oil? I wonder what will happen to all our freeways, highways, parking garages, service stations, mechanics, and etc. when we no longer have any oil. The assumption seems clearly to be that we will (with our great homo sapiens ingenuity) figure out some new method of moving our cars and trucks (electricity? hydrogen? rubber bands? or?). But what if we decided to do something actually sensible, like turn to efficient and more economical train travel like they do in Europe? Had we been sensible we would have stuck with the trains in the first place and not listened to the auto and oil industry siren songs, about the biggest mistake we ever made. What if we'd been more salmon friendly and not designed so many destructive dams? What if we'd controlled our use of chemicals more rigorously? What if we'd paid more attention to global warming? What if...Oh, never mind. We have never as a species done anything but foul our own nests, why expect anything more now? Besides, it might cost money and require leadership to do anything sensible.

I see where some of our fast-food chains are switching to a more healthy cooking oil. I guess that is sensible, for a change. But I also noticed today that Wendy's is apparently bucking the trend. They have an ad on tv at the moment for a burger that has not only two hamburger patties with a piece of cheese in between, but also six (count em!) slices of bacon. Why don't they serve us a razor blade so we can just cut our wrists? This would seem to fit right in with Spokane's annual event aptly named "Pig out at the Park." It's truly ironic, I think, that when I was a child my mother always cautioned me to think about the starving Chinese, or the starving Armenians, and such. Now I worry about the not starving at all Americans who are pigging out and eating all you want to the point of epidemic obesity. So why should I worry, in the immortal words of Donald Rumsfeld, "stuff happens." I guess he was too prissy to say "shit happens," like it does on the mugs, from where he probably got the idea. Ah, Donald, I wish I could say I miss you, but I certainly don't. You either Gonzales.

LKBIQ:
"My argument is that War makes rattling good history, but Peace is poor reading."
Thomas Hardy