Sucker Bet

Take a gander at the grinning pundit fool that arranged to make a bet with Matthew Simmons over the price of oil in a few years. John Tierney low-balled the price, showing his "faith" in the "market". He apparently knows the ways of rhetoric, having plainly stated his experiences mentoring under Julian Simon (Population Bomb-denier and anti-ecologist).

NYT op-ed columnist Tierney will not lose the bet, because his trade-craft involves only the continuous investment in his popularity as a bloviating right-wing pundit and John Stossel-like cynic. So it doesn't matter if he actually "loses" the bet in terms of Tierney paying out to Simmons; his faithful legions will look at his strength and resolve in facing up to the unhinged progressives who spout off about Peak Oil. They will continue to reward him in readership either way it turns out.

Kind of like BushCo to the true-believer minions.

Of course, if I inhabited Simmons shoes, I wouldn't have made the bet. Instead I would have mocked the living hell out of Tierney. Certainly, Simmons does not have the same media outlet as Tierney, so no one would likely listen to such an outburst, but no one will remember about some poor NYT fair&balanced columnist's mistake in a few years anyways.

I made a bet with mine own self when I postulated this prediction back in March when Tierney took over William Safire's OpEd position at the New York Times. He clearly has lived up to his reputation as the modern-day CEO of the Good News Industry.

Watch Tierney carefully, as he will likely cover energy issues in his column while sounding positive about our future prospects, kind of like a John Stossel in print.

So, how much do I win?

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Update: I remain blameless in naming my post exactly the same as monkeygrinder's. He has a different take that I whole-heartedly agree with.