  Quote -- "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell sharply on Wednesday after a surprise decision by OPEC to cut oil output sparked concerns that higher energy costs could stifle an economic rebound. " If there's an example of why we need to be less dependent on foreign oil-- this statement is it. A conglomeration of rich, middle-eastern oil merchants decide, on what looks to be a whim, to just take it easy for a while and not pump as much of the black stuff. And this throws our financial institutions into chaos. A 150 point drop in the market on the news that they don't feel like doing the rest of the world the favor of letting it buy their oil. Politically, everybody has to be nice about it. Read this -- "The OPEC cut ... might be playing itself into the market, just raising concerns about rising fuel costs," said Stacie Weiss, head trader at U.S. Bancorp Asset Management. Which is a nice way of saying, "Hey, they got us by the balls, we better put a nice spin on the fact that they're fucking us all. " And for those who would say that we get most of our oil from Canada, so it doesn't matter what the Arabs do with their oil. Today's plunge blows that theory right out of the water. If it didn't matter so much, why would OPEC's news cause such a drop in the financial markets? If we get most of oil from Canada, who would give a shit? Also, drilling in Alaska is no solution. We could suck the Alaskan soil dry and run our machines for another 500 to a thousand years. And then what?
Back to filling the pockets of Arabs and rich oil-magnets? Shouldn't we be leading the world by example. Don't we want the people of this planet to look at America and say, "Hey, let's be like them. Look how far they have come. " How can we expect that if we are led around by the nose by a culture that still treats it's women like animals and has a belief system that pre-dates the pyramids. We need to separate ourselves from the source of our addiction. And we are addicted. Big oil is the dealer. Think about it. Taking American ingenuity into mind, don't you think we could come up with a better way to supply ourselves with power?
I'll tell you this -- if we HAD to, we would. If it was a matter of life and death, we would figure out how to run a bus on chick peas that have been soaked in ethanol? But big business will never allow the chick pea/ethanol research to come to any fruition. Come on, people, this country has grown strong mainly because we have led the world in financial and technological growth. It seems absurd to me that a group of countries, who's only role in the world economy required them to dig a hole in the ground, dictates a superpower's means of financial well-being.
(I have to note here that oil-rich countries can't even dig the holes without help. Part of the reason France was against the war in Iraq was because they had the contracts with the Iraqi government to maintain and supply a good portion of their oil-well machinery. ) Anyway, this has been a long rant and I'm sorry. I guess I'm like a lot of people in this country.
It just doesn't occur to me on a daily basis that our lives are so greatly affected by middle-eastern policy. On top of that, the solution is right in front of us. But big business and it's partner, special interest-politics, keeps squashing American technological advancement in favor of the almighty dollar. All I can say is, even after writing this long soliloquy, I'm gonna be awake all night steaming over this. Thanks for reading. 
