Life in the madhouse

It seems that we Americans are living in a space gone mad and hardly anyone has noticed.

George W. Bush thinks it is talking dirty to push Detroit to get serious about fuel efficiency. He wants to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And he may be very close to winning.

In the meantime, the current issue of The Week points out that "the oil would likely not go directly to the U.S. Because the global oil market knows no national boundaries, oil is usually shipped to the most convenient market. That means anything pumped out of ANWR would probably be shipped to Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries."

The Week also reports that the big oil companies are not excited about ANWR. "Chevron, Texaco, British Petroleum, and ConocoPhillips have stopped paying Arctic Power, ANWR's leading pro-drilling lobbying group; Exxon Mobil still contributes, but only minimally."

Hmmm. Maybe George is smoking funny stuff again and - worse - most of the country is being affected by his second hand smoke.