8:51 PM// Oil Wars

"No blood for oil!" Gee never heard that one. War is ugly; we should always always always try to avoid it. To kill for a non-renewable resource that pollutes the environment anyway and increases the pocketbooks of already rich Texans doesn't sound very idealistic either. Sound familiar? As a First World citizen, what are some things I'd be willing to go to war far? Oil is at the top of the list.

unless you're a starving naked hippie living in a clay hut stop screaming about the fuel that powers your lifestyle.

Next time you feel like randomly shouting "no blood for oil" out of a speeding car, think about your way of life. First of all, what do you think makes that car you're screaming from move? Ok, that one's obvious. Unfortunately, that's about as far as most idealists get. Private vehicular use constitutes the smallest portion of the oil-pie. Most of the oil in the US ends up as diesel for the train and trucking industry -- moving goods around. It is what our entire infrastructure is built upon. Considering our current system, let's take a moment to see what life would be like sans oil:

• Agriculture. Machines that plant, maintain, and harvest crops are gone. Wiped out. That's a fair number of oxen we suddenly need. Forget eating veggies, grains, fruits, anything generally good for you for a while.


• Meat. Yeah, that's out too. All farm equipment really.


• Groceries. Most people drive to the grocery store, but the point is moot anyway, since there are no trucks to deliver the groceries for which there are no machines to grow.


• Construction. No oil means no areas to deforest implies no lumber and no trucks to deliver the lumber to the construction site.


• Clothing. May be made by little children in the Third World, but no way to get it here. No way to truck it to department stores and no way for customers to get there.


• Electricity. With over 70% of our electricity coming from fossil fuels, most of which is delivered by train, your local power plant has no fuel for which to boil water, creating steam to turn a turbine, creating electricity. But all that doesn't matter because we can't mine coal or gas either.


• The postal service can't deliver mail. That's means you can't pay bills or taxes. You can't receive services you can't pay for, so the government is broke and you've no water or electricity (of which there is none anyway).


• The Internet is gone.


• Pretty much every material object you own is gone.

So there you have it; unless you're a starving naked hippie living in a clay hut stop screaming about the fuel that powers your lifestyle. Bush is an idiot; we shouldn't have invaded Iraq; we desperately need alternative fuel sources; but right now, in this moment with our infrastructure and system the way it is, we really need oil too. $500 Billion and 10 years would better have been spent developing a resource that won't become extinct in the next 50 years anyway, but if our oil supply is seriously threatened, I can't imagine a better excuse for war.