Artful Dodger:

> Americans consume petroleum products at a rate of three-and-a-half gallons of oil and more than 250 cubic feet of natural gas per day each! But, as shown here petroleum is not just used for fuel.

Now we have an excuse to continue being dependent and to continue polluting.

Yes, 90% of the consumer crap we buy is made of oil in some way or another. So we should just keep consuming and wasting because pollution (like global warming) is fictitious.

Then many countries don't want to give their oil cheaply, or give any at all. Those "enemies" of our high standard of living should be forcibly removed and replaced with puppet dictators that will give us whatever we want. A dictator is "evil" when that dictator refuses to give away commodities to the empire cheaply. Good examples are Iran, Lybia and Venezuela. If a dictator does what the western empires want, that dictator is undesirable, but we can "work" with him. Good examples are Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, etc.

Rebels are "pro democracy" when they are willing to set up governments that give away commodities cheaply in exchange for money or weapons. The rebels in Lybia are a good example. They hadn't even organized into a proper government, but the tankers were there even before the fighting really started. Rebels are terrorists when they refuse to give commodities cheaply or do business in a way that benefits the empire's monopolies. A good example is the Taliban which refused to let Unocal (now owned by Chevron) build a pipleine through Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the meantime, the empire would rather continue the status quo: promoting war and dependance. Promoting alternative energy sources or educating the public to stop wasteful consumption are convenient only when the empire wants a certain politiician to be elected by the already apatehtic and poorly educated masses.