Word: oil
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John McCain stood atop an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and proclaimed that he had the key to solving America's energy woes, slashing the price of gas, and unfettering U.S. foreign policy from its addiction to foreign oil. Drill. Drill here. And drill now. "Americans across our country are hurting because of the cost of energy," said McCain in a speech on the Chevron-owned rig. "It's time for America to get serious about energy independence, and that means we need to start drilling offshore at advanced oil rigs like this...
...oil rig was 100 miles from the Louisiana coast, but if McCain had listened hard, he could have heard environmentalists and Democrats grinding their teeth in opposition. As McCain repeats his drilling mantra, critics point out that there is far too little untapped oil in American waters to make a significant difference in gas prices, especially considering the vast and growing global demand for petrol. Besides, "drilling now," as McCain says, won't yield results for years, and offshore exploration still has serious environmental risks. (That last point was underscored by the timing of McCain's visit - his rig trip...
...sheer scale of the energy and climate crisis facing America and the rest of the world. (Indeed, the other 6.3 billion people factor into this equation too.) The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently estimated that under a business-as-usual scenario - which the U.S. seems intent on abiding - global oil demand would rise 70% by 2050. That increase represents five times as much oil as Saudi Arabia produces annually. You could drill America with exploratory wells until it looked like Swiss cheese and still not make much of a dent in that figure...
...gold medalists in recruiting foreign-born athletes are Qatar and Bahrain, tiny oil-rich Gulf states that have poached top runners from Kenya, Morocco, and Ethiopia. The effort took off in the 1990s, when Qatar began importing Bulgarian weight lifters, one of whom, Angel Popov, won a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics under his adopted Arab name, Saif Saeed Asaad. Since then, Qatar and Bahrain have each shelled out millions of dollars to persuade athletes to change their citizenship, tossing in lucrative incentives for setting world records and bringing home Olympic gold...
...year's more controversial cases involves two American basketball players who showed up in China wearing the uniforms of the U.S.'s former Cold War rival. Russia may possess oil and nukes, but it is sorely lacking in point guards. In 2004, Vladimir Putin personally authorized the passport granted to J.R. Holden, a journeyman American guard who never made it to the NBA but who has been a catalyst for the Russian national team. But the real sniping began with the "defection" of Becky Hammon, a WNBA star who signed a contract with a Russian club that helped her gain...