I agree, Love. It isn't quite right to let a stereotypical impression of a group of people fuel one's argument. There are liberal assholes who are hypocrites, but there are conservative assholes who are just as bad in that respect. I am just a liberal, but a liberal who "gets" the importance of free-market capitalism, and how it can only work when it is justly (and timely) applied. Instead of "defending" our one-trick economy by plundering oil (or, to be fair to our strategy, changing foreign govts so that we can more effectively negotiate for our oil prices....the same way an armed assaulter negotiates with a cashier), we should have elected a "real" conservative leadership that would hold free-market capitalism a little higher in theri ideals (up there near our national reputation). We should have let petroleum be priced out our reach, and then let our innovative people find new ways of sating those energy and plastic needs. We've been wholly short-sighted in all of this.