What's the Arabic word for 'Chutzpah'?

The Onion has a harder and harder time keeping up with the absurdity of actual events, such as this call by the Saudi's that they and other oil-producing nations be compensated if reduced use of oil by wealthy countries causes a drop in their revenues.

Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers.

The oil-rich kingdom has pushed this position for years in earlier climate-treaty negotiations. While it has not succeeded, its efforts have sometimes delayed or disrupted discussions. The kingdom is once again gearing up to take a hard line on the issue at international negotiations scheduled for Copenhagen in December.

The chief Saudi negotiator, Mohammad al-Sabban, described the position as a “make or break” provision for the Saudis, as nations stake out their stance before the global climate summit scheduled for the end of the year.

“Assisting us as oil-exporting countries in achieving economic diversification is very crucial for us through foreign direct investments, technology transfer, insurance and funding,” Mr. Sabban said in an e-mail message.

I wonder what they've done with all those years of windfall oil revenues that they need subsidies to achieve economic diversification? Oh right! They were using it to live like Saudi princes, partying, whoring, and exporting radical Islam to cover their tracks. Yes, by all means, lets give them some more money as we'd hate to lose the non-oil contributions of the Arab states to the world.

Here's an idea. We can take a page from current government idiocy and pay the Saudi's not to produce oil. That will reduce the supply, raise the price and lower energy usage. Asking American's to pay for something that raises the cost of their consumption as well has worked so well for farm products over the years. Although to fully capture the idiocy of farm policy we would also have to provide export subsidies to domestic producers so that we can make oil cheaper for people outside the U.S. too.