It was very interesting to watch Bush and the Crown Prince.  The kisses and hand-holding looks very odd in America but if you go to Saudi and see thousands of men holding hands (it's comcial to see several of them, swinging their hands up in the air) and kissing (some, pecks on the lips) you realize how different our cultures are.

What I didn't see was Rice's interaction with the Saudis.  The Saudis have two views of women:  the 'traditional' view (six paces behind, silent, and covered) and the 'enlightened' view ('almost equal').  At one point, the Saudis would not allow foreign contractors to have women in the same room during conferences, etc. Some Saudis who followed the traditional view would leave the room if a woman spoke or presented a briefing.

Some American contractors would have a non-written rule: no women and no Jews on the Saudi projects.  After a number of lawsuits, the contractors became less strident and more subdued in their employee assignments.

I wonder how the Crown Prince dealt with Rice. That gray military dress and black spiked boots she wore earlier would have been a hit!

They look conspiratorial....,

The record of oil discovery shows clearly that all is not well. The world's biggest oil-fields, the giants of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, were discovered way back in the 1930s and 1940s. The last time a major oil province was discovered was in the 1970s. The last time we discovered more oil in a year than was used was a quarter of a century ago. Half the world's current production comes from the 100 biggest fields, and almost all of these are more than 25 years old. The recent rate of discovery of "giant" oil-fields, of more than 500 million barrels, is as follows: in 2000 there were 16 discoveries, in 2001 nine, in 2002 just two, and in 2003 none. It takes six years from the discovery of an oil-field for the first oil to come to market. And even if they're called "giant", they still represent less than a week's global supply at current demand rate.

The Opec countries have been exaggerating reserves for almost two decades. The common understanding is that the Middle Eastern Opec countries are overflowing with proved reserves. However, a growing number of oil industry insiders claim that they have been inflating their statements of reserves ever since Opec agreed a quota system for production based on the size of national reserves.

A former energy advisor to the Bush administration, the investment banker Matt Simmons, thinks that the Saudis - the nation with the largest reserves in the world - are already past their topping point.

American are the dumbest people on the planet. Saudis destroyed the WTC, funded Al Queda (and still do while the Saudi goverment looks the other way), and the Preznitwit of the US practically begs them for the opportunity to give them more money. Little did we know US citizenship also came with an honorary membership to the Bizarro World.