He brushed by energy policy with a simple statement that, “I’ll not walk away from the promise of clean energy.”

Libertarians generally believe that the least government is best; they demand nothing except, according to P.J. O’Rourke, “the one thing which no government in history has been able to do — leave us alone.” The Unitarian message has always been overwhelmed by politicians who have the illusion that the interests of the Republic are best served by an activist government that is dedicated to anything but leaving us alone.

Last Sunday around 6 p.m. about 38 million Americans were watching the Denver Broncos play the Pittsburgh Steelers. Aside from Denver and Pittsburgh fans, the almost record-setting number of viewers were tuned in because the Denver Broncos, led by Tim Tebow, their evangelical Bible verse-spouting quarterback, were on the verge of defeating the storied Pittsburgh Steelers. Other than Pittsburgh and Denver fans, people were watching for one reason and one reason only — Tim Tebow is a phenomenon.

If there is a phrase in the English language that explains this dismal time of political gridlock, miscalculations and deceptions it is “unknown knowns.” At least this is the opinion of Geoffrey Wheatcroft writing in Sunday’s The New York Times.

A news report from Reuters tells us that the old year is going to end much like it began and the new year will begin much like the old year ended. A senior Treasury Department official, according to Reuters, said that the White House plans to ask Congress for another increase in the debt limit by the end of the year. Seems the debt limit is projected to fall within $100 billion of the current cap by Dec. 30, so our president will ask for an additional $1.2 trillion in borrowing authority. For those keeping score, this would raise the debt ceiling from the current level of $15,194 trillion to $16,394 trillion.

It is a truism to say that the vital mentality of the Western world has spread throughout the world and has come to infect every culture on earth. As Thomas Cahill wrote, “For better or worse, the role of the West in humanity’s history is singular. Because of this, the role of the Jews, the inventors of Western culture, is also singular, there is simply no one else remotely like them; they are unique.”

Back in the good old days when Monday Night Football really was special, “Dandy” Don Meredith used to sing out “Turn out the lights, the party’s over” to let us know the winner had been decided even though time was left on the clock. Given the Obama administration’s coal policy, Dandy Don, were he with us today, might well sing, “Turn out the lights before they turn them out for us.”

Last week, in these pages, my erstwhile friend and fellow columnist, Tom Burgum, decried the existence of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, labeling it a chaotic conglomeration of “anarchists, communists, disillusioned students, the unemployed and the unemployable.”

I’m getting a bit tired of the Occupy Wall Street goings-on. I’ve wearied not so much of the protestors but of hopeless politicians who pretend to be running our cities or the inept corporate collaborators who are so spineless they hope to buy off the anarchists, communists, disillusioned students, the unemployed and the unemployable with ridiculous signs claiming they too are the 99 percent

I quoted Jonah Goldberg in an earlier column but it’s worth repeating. “For years, environmentalists have been selling snake oil about energy policy, claiming that we can give up on nasty but affordable carbon-based energy such as coal, oil and gas, and embrace wind, solar and geothermal (but not nuclear) at little to no cost