Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Arctic drilling: like the same bad dream night after night

The oft repeated phrase "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" has been attributed to both Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein (and no doubt others). The latter probably got it from the former, unless you believe in Einstein's theories, which predict the possibility of time going backwards.

The return of the Arctic drilling proposal is like dreaming of returning to the dentist repeatedly to have the same tooth extracted.

The following is from an Alaska Coalition email:

On Thursday, March 9, for the umpteenth time, the US Senate once again took up the debate about oil drilling in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Despite having brought this issue up in every conceivable fashion for the last 26 years, drilling proponents are once again attempting to cynically manipulate the budget process to pass an Arctic drilling bill. Somehow, despite having attempted this over and over again and lost every single time, Senate drilling supporters think that all of sudden, trying it for the 27th time, now it is going to work. Ralph Waldo Emerson also said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

You have to give these guys (and they are guys) credit: They don't give up. But when money's involved... well, that's one heckuva motivator, Brownie!

For other discussions of this issue on Vox Verax, see:

• "Nobel economist on U.S. oil policy"
• "Twenty-four House Republicans sign letter opposing Arctic drilling"