A bit of a pickle...

...that we found ourselves in. Didn't we learn in 1973? 1979? President Bush says we are addicted to oil. No shit? Really? Since he and Dick Cheney are oil guys, aren't they partially responsible for this? In the presidential campaign of 1980, John Andersen said that he would raise the gas tax by $.50 a gallon with all of the money going to research alternative fuels. Oh, the horror! What a bad, bad man. How dare he to raise our taxes? I wonder where we would be now if we would have had 25 years of federally funded research to kick our addiction to oil behind us. Instead, we went back to sleep and let Congress and the White House, fueled by lobbyists money, succumb to the oil industry and the carmakers. Fuel economy? What? How dare the government tell the carmakers what to do. Now, Iran hates us, Venezuela hates us and the Saudis are getting impatient. The next oil "crisis" will shake us to our foundation. Meanwhile, we drive our hummers and gas guzzlers and continue to sleep. Exxon made more money in the last quarter of last year than ANY OTHER COMPANY EVER. I would almost believe that this a one big conspiracy, but I am not sure our leaders are that smart. And the band plays on...