>did you hear congress passed a bill to allow oil drilling in a nat'l 
wildlife
>refuge in Alaska  "to make money to reduce the deficit"  ha.  and i have a
>bridge to sell you.  Goodbye caribou ( the drilling site is at the 
caribou's
>breeding site,   to which they migrate every year)

Caribou are indigenous to all of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and I
believe most of northern Russia. ALL of these caribou go to this one
location in Alaska to make whoopee? I think not. (Oh, how cruel,
heartless, etc.)

>funny enough, the Alaska senator is now saying they don't want to share the
>oil taxes 50 50 with the feds, but 90 10.

...and they then return a lot of it to the citizens of Alaska. Kudos!

>so for those who say, well you drive, don't bitch,  I say,  you can't 
really
>believe that these companies are acting in anyone's interest but their own
>pockets.

Why, that's horrifying!!! How DARE they look out for themselves??? They
should GLADLY accept decisions that go against business interests, and set
them at a disadvantage to other companies who are trying to compete them
right into the ground!

>What wrong with holding them to standards that are in the public's
>interest?

See above. Do you think oil companies going out of business, are in "the
public's interest"? I can't believe people still fall for this tunnel-
vision-oriented poppycock.

>Caribou are important too.

I'll support my family before I support caribou... and, right now, I can't
do both. Maybe I could if half my income wasn't going for income taxes, 
sales
taxes, etc. etc. Sorry, caribou-- that's what you get for being the wrong
species in a world of Human Chauvinist Sapiens.

>They don't drive cars.

Too much time resting after long treks for making whoopee.   :^)

<now taking this offline, while changing into asbestos underwear yet again>

Steve Maher   smaher@gi.com   '71 VW Transporter, great for making whoopee
                              '80 V6anagon, jury's still out