When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Hunter S. Thompson

13 February 2005

Tom Friedman: "No Mullah Left Behind"

Thank God for Tom Friedman. Day in and day out, he is one of the most coherent, thoughtful columnists in the New York Times.

He wrote a real corker today about our muddled energy policies and the effects that they're having in the Middle East.

Money 'graf:
By adamantly refusing to do anything to improve energy conservation in America, or to phase in a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax on American drivers, or to demand increased mileage from Detroit's automakers, or to develop a crash program for renewable sources of energy, the Bush team is - as others have noted - financing both sides of the war on terrorism. We are financing the U.S. armed forces with our tax dollars, and, through our profligate use of energy, we are generating huge windfall profits for Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, where the cash is used to insulate the regimes from any pressure to open up their economies, liberate their women or modernize their schools, and where it ends up instead financing madrassas, mosques and militants fundamentally opposed to the progressive, pluralistic agenda America is trying to promote. Now how smart is that?
Not too long ago Philip Greenspun suggested that we all equip ourselves with a supply of bumper stickers reading "I'm funding Al-Qaeda, one tankful at a time" and keep them handy for affixing to every oversized SUV we see on our streets.

(I am sorely tempted to cruise right over to MakeStickers.com and order a big batch of these. Anybody want some? Tom? Philip?)


Rough rendition courtesy of MakeStickers.com. Posted by Hello

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