One Hand Clapping

Turns out the prez was just speaking, um, metaphorically or something when he said in the SOTU that he wants to reduce dependence on Mideast oil by 75% by the year 2025. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman explains that "this was purely an example" and we might still have to import large amounts of oil from these friendly client states in 20 years because, by golly, that's just where the oil is. I mean, what are you gonna do?

Asked why the president used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands."

See, he's not lying, he's dramatizing. Suddenly the whole WMD thing makes sense.

"In 2025, net petroleum imports, including both crude oil and refined products, are expected to account for 60 percent of demand ... up from 58 percent in 2004," according to the Energy Information Administration's 2006 Annual Energy Outlook.

Oh no, cognitive dissonance! (I hate when that happens.)...or maybe it's like a Zen koan, and our challenge is to perceive the deeper truth at the heart of the conundrum that is the sound of George Bush talking.

Then we will be rewarded with a flash of insight, like a cudgel to the side of the head, and achieve bliss in a post-oil economy.

Good night and good luck, grasshopper.