There's another interesting concept: Things like heat, light, transportation, industry, and petrochemical products are only "feelgoods."

I know from many past posts that if civilization collapsed you and your dog would probably do just fine living in the bush, bringing down deer with homemade weapons (or, knowing you, maybe with your teeth), but a lot of the rest of us have gotten to kind of like living indoors and taking long, hot showers.

I am fully in favor of energy independence. But standing on the mountains of Galt's Gulch and watching the lights of the cities go out is not tops on my list of solutions. Geez, let's build the nukes already. Are we really going to let France show us up?

One more small reality check: We get almost twice as much of our imported oil from Canada and Mexico (4 million barrels a day in 2006) as we do from the Persian Gulf (2.2 million barrels a day). So a lot of this cash is ending up enriching Canadians, who race moose instead of camels. I'm not sure what Mexicans race.