Here's a thought: Offshore drilling and drilling in ANWR (Sarah Palin's fave) would leave us with one, teensy little problem.

As American's, we're afflicted with forgetfulness. You know, the kind of memory loss that leaves us thinking that sampled music is new, platform shoes are cool and that the generation gap is something novel (Madison Avenue thought-sellers count on that one). Lethe's children that we are, we can't seem to remember that the Alaska pipeline promised to bathe us in petrol. Only, then, as now, that oil belonged to the oil companies who found it. Exxon, BP and their ilk slurped that goo outta the dirt, piped it merrily through that expensive pipeline and then sold it to the highest bidder.

Now, we're to believe that after having raped (yes, I said it) the Alaskan wilderness and dotted the coastline with new objects d'art to enjoy while sipping mojitos on the veranda, the oil companies will dredge up all that crude and send it to US refineries, selling it to the American consumer at a loss.

Chubby chance of that!

I'm not at all certain why, after having railed about "corporate greed" and those evil, profit-loving CEO's here of late, we can't quite put it together that publicly-traded companies have one mantra: Make mo' money for the stockholders (people like us with 401(k)'s), while at the very same time, we bitch about corporate salaries of those execs tasked with producing those profits

(Note from the HR strategist--me: They're contract employees, ya'll. Want to see them make less? Have your HR VP and the Board negotiate different deals...and deal with the rash of defections and cross-corporation poaching that will most certainly follow as they seek out greener pastures for their rare talents. Oh, and you might want to look at the payouts to the members of those Boards of Directors...staggering sums. Really.)

Seems that, as long as those CEO's keep raking in the green, we don't mind what it takes to keep those companies pumping out the profits. That is, until they stop. Just ask any stockholder if they'd be willing to give up a winning CEO--no matter what his (or rarely, her) salary and perquisite package might entail.

This brings me back around to my original point: with their marching orders having been set in the permafrost and the firmament of the ocean floor--profits or perish--those oil wells which we'll pay for with higher gas prices, pollution and loss of habitat and those animals dependent on it will continue as usual.

And we'll be the poorer for it.

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin and her GOP cronies count on us to be stupid enough and desperate enough that we won't notice.

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