Enabling

Alaska...The definition of enabling! This morning there was an interview with Sen. Ted Stevens on NPR. Among other things he was talking about climate change and how it was affecting Alaska. He supports a change in car manufacturing to make them more efficient and a change in energy consumption because the lower 48 are causing all this climate change that's affecting his state (since Alaska only has like 2 roads and 5 people he doesn't feel they are really contributing).

Now here's the fun part: He doesn't, however, feel Alaska should stop pushing into the protected lands in search of oil because this has no bearing on the problem. Energy consumption is the evil, not drilling for the stuff that makes the energy possible.

So let me get this straight, if this were, say, heroine instead of oil then it would be okay to raise poppies for the express purpose of making heroine, though heroine itself is bad. Makes perfect sense, so why don't we let the farmers in Afghanistan do it?

I understand that natural resource development is the base of the Alaskan economy, and that he has a responsibility to his constituents to protect their interests, but for crying out loud this is a really dumb argument. It's right up there with, "I knew he was a homicidal maniac and I sold him the gun, but I didn't tell him to use it."

Good Grief.