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This is a nonsensical discussion. No one is suggesting that the world's aggregate supply of oil is at issue, or arguing the fact that the U.S. economy won't, ultimately, adjust to attempts by middle eastern countries strangle the flow of oil to this country. Those are simply beside the point Rush made so well in his article.

Our economic health and national security are at risk when countries that don't like us can interrupt our oil supply. And policies like those espoused by a bureaucratic, big government Dracula like Daschle can do serious harm to the nation. And don't forget, a doomsday scenario only has to come true once to ruin America's whole day.

And, Alberta's Child, if you believe that the economic and cultural "corrections" are painless, go ask some of the folks who lost their life savings when banks like Penn Square in Oklahoma City, Seattle First National in Washington state and Continental Illinois in Chicago crashed after the energy market collapsed in the early 80s. Those banks failed, to the tune of hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars in bailout costs, due to horrendous government energy policies and foreign domination of the oil market at the time.

I would suggest reading Rush's article again.

That last paragraph makes almost no sense in the context of this discussion. Energy prices went through the roof during the energy "crisis" of the early 1980s, which you claim was caused in part by "foreign domination of the oil market." Areas of the country that were dominated by the oil business boomed during this period of high oil prices, but when things returned to normal there was an economic collapse that resulted in many bank failures.

You can't have it both ways -- either the oil "crisis" was bad or it was good.

It's also worth noting that the bank failures of the 1980s had nothing to do with oil prices. Ironically, the two major causes of these failures were strong economic growth (resulting in rapidly declining interest rates) and the 1986 Tax Reform Act. The first issue is something that is difficult for people to understand, while the second is something that most people in government don't want to admit. It's much easier to just sit around and mindlessly blame it all on the "Decade of Greed."

A small additional point, before the knives come out on my last comment.

I understand that, when those banks failed, depositors recovered all of their deposits from the federal government, even though it wasn't legally obligated to do so at the time.

Tremendous economic damage occurred to all of the investors in the companies that became insolvent when their cash sources dried up. A number of good companies, in addition to the fly-by-night operators, were destroyed when the market collapsed.

Thank you for your continued support and remember to Buy American.