ATLANTIC AGAINST THE OIL ADDICTION. With all the recent chatter online about Jon Zobenica's hilarious and insightful article on Playboy in the January/February issue of the Atlantic, it seems like the paradigm shift in that same magazine is being ignored. I'm referring, of course, to a pair of articles, by Ross Douthat and Clive Crook, that deal head-on with our country's unhealthy addiction to oil. (Douthat profiles a scientist working on technological innovations, while Crook advocates a gas tax.) Why is this important? Because both Douthat and Crook are fairly conservative, at least on economic regulatory matters (Douthat interned for National Review and Crook was an editor of The Economist.) When you've reached a point where even conservatives agree that our oil addiction must be cured and join in searching and advocating for solutions, it's a watershed moment. If every conservative with intellectual integrity recognizes the problem and is amenable to making the necessary changes, we have only the industry shills left to win over. Alas, they control the White House -- but at least we're making progress.
--Ben Adler
