The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

I love this guy.

I only wish that Captain's Blog mentioned that this balmy, pristine wilderness was only turned into a national wildlife refuge after ruminations of oil drilling started.

[ANWR] is a barren, tundra wasteland, latitudinally equivalent to Siberia. Anyone that does .000012 seconds of research can figure that out. [Drilling causes] no environmental damage. Of course, you're talking to the wrong person. I'd be just as happy planting derricks and a refinery in Key West.

My take on this is that it's never been about the environment. It's about primitivism.

You can't find a better (better = greener) place in the U.S. to drill for oil than ANWR, and yet, the left is up-in-arms about it. Environmentalism isn't about saving the earth. It's about a longing for primitivism (and ultimately, collectivism). As such, no energy source, renewable or otherwise, is a good energy source. They don't care where the oil comes from, just that it's evil. And cars are evil. And everyone should be required, by law, to ride their bikes to work in the morning. Where the oil is obtained to lube the bike chain, I'm not sure.

Primitivism.

This realization hit me like a ton of bricks. It first came to me when I read that the environmentalists were protesting windmills for various reasons: birds, blight, noise, Quixote-charging, whatever. That was my "eureka" moment. It's not about how you produce the power, it's the fact that we rely on power at all.

On the bright side, if we do revert to primitivism as the environmentaluddites yearn, and are forced to give up the Internet, computers, television, electricity, and so forth, then at least the Daily Show/Kos and Atrios should go away, too.

Maybe.