;-) I don't have that kind of reaction to either Mort or Fred. I appreciate Charles, but I roll my eyes when he advocates a higher gas or energy tax and wish for a surprise appearance of Walter Williams to straighten him out on that issue.
I actually read that as a very smart challenge to those who demand an energy policy that will make us independent of middle east oil. You want independence from ME oil? Fine, make oil so expensive that it pays for good old capitalists to come up with an alternative. Let the market work for you instead of against you. It's classic American economic policy, only applied to do good for our country instead of to make some socialists feel good about their hatred for our country.
And I'll put Charles and /or Ben Stein up against Walter Williams any day of the week. Williams is OK in an academic setting, but he couldn't debate his way out of a paper bag against those two.