Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Gas Pains

My mind is reeling at the little tidbit in the business section today about oil company profits in the first quarter. The top three combined for a record 16-plus billion dollars in profit. Billion, with a B. No wonder Cheney has refused to let anyone in on his secret energy policy meetings. Now, conveniently, W promises to alleviate the supply problems (supply problems? Please. "Greed problem" is more accurate, but likely unsayable) by... eliminating environmental standards that have hampered refinery production.

Oh, goody.

It's a nightmare. A long, long nightmare that's impossible to wake up from. There are simply no limits to human greed, and when that greed is backed up by a post-millenial mindset that says the Rapture is coming anyway (quicker if we hasten it by barreling toward an apocalyptic showdown with Iran), well, it's worse than a runaway train or tidal wave or any other metaphor you can conceive. Because the scale of this self-inflicted disaster is, in the end, inconceivable.

I remember sitting up in '04, watching the returns come in, wondering how so many millions of people could be so short-sighted or ignorant or malevolent as to want the Bush administration to remain in office. Watching the Bushies slither out from each mounting calamity unscathed has been maddening, but maybe it's coming to an end. Maybe people will wake up just long enough to put some Dems in office who actually have spines and other anatomical features conducive to good oversight.

Yeah, maybe.

2 comments:

Homer said...

I think we've swung as far over to the right as we can go, and that things are now correcting themselves. Well, at least I hope so. I need to remember to renew my passport...

Anonymous said...

I second Homer's comment. I know I haven't been around long enough to experience the pendulum swing back from a true extreme yet (Clinton being semi-left in my mind), but I'm confident that this will break like a front of persistent bad weather...and soon! It is depressing that the US has to be a part of the world in both good and bad times, even though the neocons don't seem to recognize this. I guess all their religious pondering about the "end times" has made them eager to practice what they preach.