Drilling for Columbine

Among the silliest things the regressives believe is that big government is bad but big corporations are good--as if corporate bureacracies are virtuous but government bureacracies are inherently evil. Regressives long for the repressions and inequities of the Dark Ages, and huge corporate bureacraces are as close as they can come to the lavish and oppressive monarchies of the time. So, they revere and cherish huge, global corporations. To them, Enron, Worldcom and the merry band in the mortgage business were just exercising the royal prerogative to be stupid, venal, and dishonest. It all has to do with the worship of power, no matter how it is exercised.

The latest act of venal worship is to propose drilling offshore and in Anwar. That would reaffirm the privilege of the big energy corporations to gain further control over our energy future. Those folks who held their secret meeting in Dick Cheney's office have not exactly expressed much concern about $4-a-gallon gasoline, nor have they offered to turn some of their obscene windfall profits into enterprises that would help the country. While sitting on millions of acres that they can drill without any special exemptions from current law, they and their regressive idolaters can only wail about be allowed to drill offshore and to stick their nasty little drilling apparati into Anwar.

One regressive member of the blogosquare accused Rep. Herseth Sandlin of being responsible for the $4 gasoline because she voted not to drill in Anwar. Such is the level of reasoning enjoyed in our neo-Dark Ages.

The last thing the progressive world needs is for global energy companies to be given more power and authority to diddle with the economy. And while a few corporations run smarmy advertising saying that they are supporting alternative forms of energy, their record of energy leadership makes such statements preposterous. Only those longing for the Middle Ages can envision energy executives as King Arthurs.

If energy policy is taken over by progressives who don't keep their heads where the sun doesn't shine, it may well be that some drilling offshore might be allowed to help the country make the transition to alternative energy forms.

But at this time, we have only the word of coal companies that coal can burn clean without causing pollution and more global warming.

We have not the foggiest about what to do with nuclear waste.

We do have great potential to put wind and solar technology to use. We could be spending money on the development of alternative energy instead of the wasteful crusade the regressive knights imagine they are waging in Iraq.

And we could embark on an energy conservation program.

But that would jeopardize the feudal lifestyle that energy executives have come to think of as an inalienable right. Come November, we'll see if the American people have the will to release themselves from corporate serfdom.