So NBC "went green" during the Cowboys and Eagles game. I feel cooler already. Then again, who doesn't compared to Bob Costas and Keith Olbermann in a candle lit TV studio. I tuned in the middle and thought it was "The Batchelor" gone horribly wrong, with Olbermann torn between giving the rose and his undying love to either Costas or his own ego.

Let me see if I've got this straight. Twenty-two million people basking in the warm glow of their electricity sucking televisions, creating a carbon footprint the size of Olbermann's self regard, watch two guys sitting in a darkened TV studio and suddenly rise up from their recliners and dash out to join the Green Party.

Somebody run me down with a Prius.

Let's look at this logically. The most environmentally sensitive thing the dynamic duo could have done was encourage viewers to turn off their TV's. But that might have upset NBC, which is owned by General Electric.

GE wants to get the message out it cares about the environment. That's at least partly because it's corporate strategy is to hit about $20 billion in revenues by 2010 in products specifically geared toward addressing environmental concerns. One way to do that is to heighten public perception of an environmental crisis, push for governmental regulation requiring abatements, then sell the goods and services business will need to meet their new found obligations.

This is not to say there are not legitimate environmental concerns. It's just that you might want to keep your hand on your wallet when you're getting news about a disease from the company that wants to sell you the cure. NBC is making Costas and Olbermann highly paid shills in front of a corporate medicine show tent.

Which brings me to this. The reason I watch sports is so I don't have to think about political issues. You can believe there is no more political or ideologically charged issue than the environment. Leftists want to shut down industry because they hate the idea that someone is making money off capitalism. Meanwhile the right rides around in SUV's that look like armored personnel carriers with "Nuke the Whales" bumper stickers.

I majored in economics and political science in college, and used to enjoy discussing the news of the day. But over the last few years I came to the conclusion everybody I talked to about politics was a raving fanatic. Except for me. And I wasn't too sure about me.

So I retreated to a simpler world where you judged a man not by the content of his character but the three digits of his batting average. A world where the only chad that was hanging was Pennington, and the value of bonds was set by how many home runs Barry hit. Economics is whatever ARod will make, social justice is Michael Vick in a Virginia jail cell, and green is the color of the monster in left field at Fenway.

To Bob and Keith I say this. How rude of you to barge into my happy neighborhood with your candles and your CFL light bulbs. Sunday night we invited you into our homes for a football game, not a lecture in group think.

I'll read the news about the environment, I'll decide what I do and don't believe, and I'll do what I think is appropriate to be a good steward of the environment.

Meanwhile, turn on the lights and get back to work.