By Scott Wright

First of all, let me answer my own question. I care if global warming exists, if for no other reason than the decider-in-chief keeps insisting the phenomenon is nothing to worry about and I already know what a moron he is.

But I realize that many people consider the concept of global warming to be crazy liberal hocus-pocus, like evolution or the separation of church and state. Conservatives, generally, had rather stick to more simple sleight-of-hand deceptions, like making the Bill of Rights disappear or constituting a pile of weapons of mass destruction from a bucket of sand. Whatever.

Regardless of your preference in political prestidigitation, Americans of all parties should agree on one thing, which is that our dependence on Middle Eastern oil is disastrously harmful to our nation's future.

Even if you don't believe the build-up of carbon monoxide is causing the Earth's atmosphere to heat up and melt ice shelves off into the sea, as Al Gore and I do, we should all act like it is happening because even if the seas don't rise and cause us all to float away, the whole world is going to blow itself away fighting in the Middle East for control of those billions and billions of barrels of oil as long as we're convinced we can't live without that form of lubrication.

In his newly-released book "American Theocracy," author Kevin Phillips points out that a revolution in energy-efficiency in the years following the 1973 OPEC oil embargo "tightened America's energy belt." Phillips points out that between the years of 1977 and 1985, U.S. oil demand fell by one sixth as a result of conservation measures. For example, Phillips states that during that time, "the percentage of oil that had to be imported shrank from 46 percent to 30 percent." Phillips surmises that "the conservation weapon, once 'fired,' was probably at least as efficient as the military option would have been."

Thanks to the nation's current thirst for $70-per-barrel oil and oversized SUV's to pour it into, it's time to tighten that belt again. The nation's reliance on the sludge we're buying from beneath the feet of some of most maniacal people in the world and our threats of military action against them are ridiculously counter-productive. We'd be better off without the oil and the fight over it. Someone in Washington should start thinking about making our dependence go away instead of threatening how high in the sky we'll blow whoever gets in the way of our obtaining more of it.

Did you happen to see the story last week about the outgoing Exxon-Mobil CEO who's retirement package is worth nearly $400 million? How much further down the road to an affordable hydrogen-powered car do you suppose $400 million worth of research could get us?

Believe in global warming or not, but I believe if the US government could make their oil reserves a moot point, we could leave the fanatic with no leverage and nothing to scream about. We'd be gone from their part of the world forever, and they could go back to killing each other instead of thousands of American soldiers.

Scott Wright is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and an award-winning member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is a native of Cherokee County.