"the grist" is awesome!

i have too much homework today to write about my theology class--that will have to wait for the weekend i guess. so i'm going to steal an article from elsewhere...

so do you all know about the grist magazine? it's an online eco-news magazine that's hilarious, and they'll deliver it free to your email account every week day if you want. go to www.grist.org.

anyway, pertinent to yesterday's post, they had a great article today about the state of the union address. i'm not sure if it's legal to post stuff that others have written without permission, but oh well--here it is:

Feds Say the Darnedest Things
Bush's quasi-bold pronouncements on oil prompt criticism, backpedaling

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Bush declared that "America is addicted to oil" and that he would "make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." Within 24 hours, fiasco ensued. Saudi Arabia's ambassador said he would ask Bush, ahem, "what he exactly meant by that." Oil industry lobbyists squealed; libertarians nigh fainted. Energy experts (read: the literate) pointed out that most of the R&D programs mentioned in the speech -- "clean coal," nuclear, wind, solar, etc. -- are designed to generate electricity and wouldn't have any effect on oil consumption. And to cap off the furor with appropriate absurdity, administration officials said Bush's declaration that the U.S. would cut its Middle East oil imports 75 percent by 2025 was not meant to be taken literally. It was meant to dramatize the issue in a way "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands." So ... lies lead to understanding. We're starting to get the whole WMD thing!