We’re Not Addicts! - The case for energy abundance and diversity.

National Review Online ^ | June 19, 2008 | Clifford D. May

[Tzimisce]

Addicted?

Question: How do we grow food without gas powered tractors?

[Liberty Valance]

[Coffee200am]

[marron]

The “addicted to oil” line is just a line designed to demonize ordinary people so you can get control of their energy resources. The government already controls 95%, but they want 100%.

Turning the rest of it over to government control won’t lower the price a nickel. Not a nickel. Remember, in Europe they pay twice what we pay. Thats the model the “addicted to oil” folks are trying to guide us toward.

[chaos_5]

Every time I hear the phrase “addicted to oil” I want to punch someone. I don't know which left wing enviro freak coined the phase, but I hate them any way.

[gidget7]

I absolutely REFUSE to be forced to move to a city, ANY city! And in America, that should never ever happen!

[21twelve]

I’m not addicted either!!! I can log off from FreeRepublic anytime. If I have to. I guess.

[lightman]

Zoning codes were one of the worst legal innovations of the past century. They have created this patchwork quilt of housing over here, stores over there, factories who knows where stitched together by a transport system friendly only to single occupant vehicles.

[TigersEye]

Addiction is a ridiculous analogy for the basic fuel of society and commerce. It’s like saying we’re addicted to air because we refuse to stop breathing. Which a lot of liberals would love to mandate.

[Salvation]

 

 

Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.

U. S. Senate

U. S. House of Representatives

[Dr. Frank fan]

Sneering that we are "addicted to oil" is like sneering that we are "addicted to food". It is essentially a statement that the rest of us should f**k off and die.

"Oil" is nothing but the most economical form of stored energy at present. (There is nothing special about oil per se - 100+ years ago it was kerosene? long ago it was wood for fire - and perhaps sometime later some other energy form will supplant oil - but for now, it is oil). We use stored energy because (and conversely, because we know how to harness stored energy) we have created, and built up a society on, technology and infrastructure which can harness energy to do things. Among the things these technologies do are: feed us, clothe us, shelter us, keep us warm.

You know - keep us alive and thriving and stuff.

In other words, having an energy source is what keeps us alive. Sneering that we are "addicted" to that energy source is implicitly a declaration that our lives are not worth living - not really, or not on terms that leftists don't like.

I think that's at the root of why "addicted to oil" grates on me and others so much. People who say this are telling others to shrivel up and die already. They are writing off the lives of millions of other people as...not all that important to fuel at current rates. There is no reason to pay such an offensive viewpoint the slightest heed.

[ModelBreaker]

Question: How do we grow food without gas powered tractors?

Government funded studies on alternative energy. Duh.

[onedoug]

We're all addicted to fuel giving us motion.

So what?

[wolf78]

To those politicians and “activists” who are demanding we do less, have less, and learn to like it, we should say: Stuff it. Americans have no reason to feel guilty about living like Americans.

True energy efficiency is not about doing less. It's about making the right choices as a customer. Many people get angry at the fuel pump, but overlook their heating (and cooling) bills. However, you can reduce that greatly using proper insulation, with modern superinsulation you get a more or less passive house. If you switch to a geothermal heat pump you also reduce annual cost by a large percentage and oil consumption at home by a whopping 100%.

All without changing your standard of living. Superinsulation + geothermal heat pump is alternative energy that works.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the links.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the links.

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

Every time I hear the phrase “addicted to oil” I want to punch someone. I don't know which left wing enviro freak coined the phase, but I hate them any way.

I don't know either, but I can remind one and all which first class RINO President used this same Environut mantra in his 2006 State of the Union Address:

Yes, that right our very own GBW,who until yesterday has done little but give lip service to how to really alleviate our energy supply shortages--and even then, this very nice man (but first class wuss who refuses to defend himself from attacks or to show some leadership) basically has gone hat in hand to Congress to beg them (like he did his hand-holding, corrupt, most dangerous terrorist supporting buddies, the Sauds) to Puleeeeze lift the ban.

Shessh. Makes me want to puke.

In his State of the Union address to the US Congress on Tuesday night, President Bush said that "America is addicted to oil" and he set a target of reducing US oil imports from the Middle East 75% by 2025 through use of alternative fuels. "The best way to break this addiction is through technology," he said."

http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10004714.shtml

[neverdem]

Civilization without energy is dead or dying. The watermelons are Luddites. They are not serious, or they wouldn't obstruct everything.

Geothermal meetings set in energy-hungry West

Inventors: Solar Dish Could Revolutionize Energy Production

Putting Up The 'For Shale' Sign

Drive a stake in the Donkey's heart with the issue of energy. Exporting energy and the technology to generate it will hamstring our adversaries.

[Enchante]

Unfortunately, Pres. Bush adopted the “addicted to oil” phrase for that SofU address awhile back..... he made me physically ill when he did that. Instead of challenging the dishonest Demagogues at every turn we have too many Republicans who adopt the terms and frames of reference of the fanatical left.