Sorry if I've had anything to do with it. I don't mean to be haughty...I doubt I'm in there but in case...oh and don't "contribute" it to lack of sleep....ATTRIBUTE it

Oh dont get me wrong I love nature! I just think that the whole people = bad; Nature = good thing is wrong headed. I think we have ways of getting the oil out of places without destroying the natural beauty of those places.
As for ethanol; when we use our corn which is really the main staple for our nation's food supply and when the price of corn goes up all the prices for all the other food goes up too. This can price a lot of things right out of the reach of a lot of people. The problem of course is that we can and do produce way more corn, wheat, beans, etc. than we eat so we sell the excess on the international market. We then compete against all the other third world nations and other first world nations that have way cheaper corn etc. than we do because the governments subsidize their farmers out the wazoo.
Now I understand that its hard for the farmers I am from Iowa way back in the day and most of my family is still there and we have farmers in the family so I feel for them. But to crank all of the food prices up for what really is an ineffective fuel is fairly not good.
BTW I was watching CNN the other day and the guy talking about ethanol said that it takes 1 acre of corn to make 50 gallons of ethanol! Thats insanely inefficient and on top of that 1 gallon of ethanol has between 30 and 40% less energy in it than the same gallon of gas. which means if you drive 20 miles on 1 gallon of gas you get to drive about 12 miles on a gallon of ethanol.
I agree that we need a different fuel for our economy but we simply MUST have the internal combustion engine it is what powers freedom here and around the world, every single thing we do in one way or another depends on us having a reliable and cheap fuel for our engines.

wow I really didn't mean to hammer you with all that and its way longer than i meant but I guess i kinda am energized about the whole thing :)

I hope you get to clear your head and get yourself feeling holidayish a few days in the middle of no where definitely clears my head. Feel better!

-T