I have to admit I got a slight sense of the coming apocalypse while wandering through the smoke and haze hanging over Greensboro. Vehicles crashing all over the place. My cheeseburger arrived with lettuce, mayo and pickle, but no tomato. I saw my first $4-a-gallon gas sign and, all people, O’Reilly’s been freaking out over our oil-based economy. Day after day I’m hit with media accounts of bad things are. My dad told me in no uncertain terms the other day that it just can’t get any worse than Bush.

But, as only he can, Antiplanner calms my nerves about the price of oil, telling us “don’t panic and don’t encourage panicky government policies. Let everyone deal with oil prices in the way that best suits them.” Thank you. I thought I was crazy.

Antiuplanner was adressing Charles Krauthammer’s solution, which is raising the gas tax:

To the Krauthammers, Kunstlers, and Holtz Kays of the world, automobiles are by definition evil, and anything that reduces use of them is a good thing. In fact, mobility is the good thing, and automobiles provide far more mobility than their precious transit systems.

….Somehow, I doubt that Charlie Krauthammer, James Kunstler, or Jane Holtz Kay would be satisfied never traveling beyond the borders of their towns. But they all imagine that their mobility is more important than other peoples’, and so we can sacrifice general mobility without giving up our own.

As a disabled person, Krauthammer should know more than anyone that automobiles have provided disabled people with more mobility than they could ever imagine.