Tom Friedman has an excellent OpEd piece in the NY Times today.

Here's how Tom starts.

"Two dates — two numbers. Read them and weep for what could have, and should have, been. On Sept. 11, 2001, the OPEC basket oil price was $25.50 a barrel. On Nov. 13, 2007, the OPEC basket price was around $90 a barrel."

Tom's basic point is that we need energy independence for our own national security. Our refusal to tolerate short term pain is going to lead to some long term misery for us.

I've always beleived in the saying of Jim Rohn. "In this life you must choose between the pain of discipline or the pain of regret." As a country, we're showing no discipline, so we're headed for lots and lots of regret.

The NY Times has a lot of restrictions on re-publishing Friedman's stuff. I've provided a link and hopefully you will be able to see it without subscribing. If you can't, then its worth your time to track down a copy somewhere and read it, even though that takes some discipline.

Here's the link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/opinion/14friedman.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin