A World of Idiots

A few days ago, I turned on CNN for 15 minutes.  The stupidity was far too depressing for me to go on any further.  They aired a clip from a recent Palin speech in which she addressed off shore drilling. She said that Obama switched his stance on it for the first time during the second Presidential debate.  She was wrong, and unfortunately, not in the way I'd like her to be wrong. It actually wasn't the first time.  Obama had first stated he might back off shore drilling in late July/early August.  

Palin then said, "It seems Obama is not willing to drill for oil, but is willing to drill for votes."  The crowd cheered and erupted into a "Drill, Baby, Drill" chant.  It was ridiculous beyond belief.  It was less like a campaign rally and more like a scene from a movie mocking society's sheer ignorance.  How do these people not open their eyes and see what we're doing to the Earth?  Have they heard of global warming?  Do they plan on having grand children that don't have to try to live on Mars?  I want cheap gas as much as the next guy, but I'd rather have a fucking planet.

Rather than look for alternate energy sources, advance hydroelectricity and wind power, these people want to suck the world dry of all of it's oil and continue to kill the planet.  The only reason I can possibly fathom for this, is that this is what we know.  And, it's easier to go on doing what you know.  Who wants to actually buy a new energy efficient car?  Who wants to figure how and where to charge an electric car?  Or where to fill up a car on Hydrogen?  Who wants to take a train or the subway?  Who wants to turn down the AC?  And god forbid, who wants to walk a three blocks to the grocery store?  That just seems like too much to ask in order to save a planet.  Because, hey, I didn't make it.  I don't own it.  I'm not paying any rent on it.  I'm just living on it.  So, who cares?  

Well, this guy cares. 

And this this guy cares, and he's pretty smart.

And this guy will care when his world is dying.

 I hope that Palin's joke is the one thing she is actually correct about.  (Is it too far fetched to think that she may be right on something?)  I'd much rather have Obama lie to garner votes, than to actually continue down this path of oil dependency.  I am Liberal, and I'm voting for Obama.  I agree with probably 75% of what he says, and I feel that is a pretty high percentage. But I do not agree with either candidate on this issue.  I've heard Obama talk a lot about alternative energy sources, and hope that is the path he pursues when in the White House.  But hoping something happens, and actually believing something will happen are two different things.  I believe we do not need to continue to "rape" the world of it's oil and burn it into the atmosphere.  I believe we (we being scientists and engineers, not the people at Palin's rally) are smart enough to figure out other options.  But, fearfully, I can't say that I actually believe that will happen.

A statement that is repeated over and over in election time is "We need to put an end to our dependency on foreign oil."  That statement is almost true.  To correct it, you just need to remove the word foreign.  Do that, and I agree 100%.  

If we don't, I can picture the world 100 or 200 years down the line, barely surviving.  They'll be wondering, how were our ancestors so stupid to do this?  Then, they'll dig up that clip of Americans shouting "Drill, baby, Drill" and they'll just have to find some 250 year old that can explain the stupidity to them.  He'll say  "Our lives were comfortable, there was no reason to change."  And I agree.  I don't even know my grandchildren.  They might be assholes.  Why should I do anything to help them?  Let's kill this planet.