I am very fortunate to live in a place where there are regular "gas wars" between the gas/petrol stations where they compete for who has the lowest prices in town. Fargo has always been this way even while Mama Ewok was growing up here. I filled up today at $3.529 per gallon. Yes, I realize that is better than most other places in the world.
*NEVERTHELESS* Having to spend $50 to fill up my tank is fucking horse shit!!!!
A big FUCK YOU to all the politicians perpetuating the "War on Terror" ...
...and a big "Where the fuck is it?" to all who claimed the U.S. was only in Iraq for the cheap oil.
21 comments:
It is enormously more despicable bullshit than most N.Americans realize. N.America has 7.3 trillion barrels of untapped oil!!!!!!!!!
The main reserves are
* ANWR
* Continental Shelf
* Alberta tar sands
* Colorado, Utah and Wyoming tar sands.
* Texas -whatever is left.
Why are these reserves untapped? Because tapping them might damage the environment, and might increase the N. American "carbon footprint" because tar sands require somewhat more energy to extract.
So, to the delight of the radical, anti-American, Leftist, environmentalists', N. Americans must pay a fortune for energy, with profits going to pay for terrorists and Islamic law-fare --all to plunge us back to a 7th century standard of living.
What is the actual environmental cost? Almost nothing! Open pit tar-sand mines look awful while active but have proven less expensive than expected to return to a natural state. Scroll down this web page to see before and after photos. Recovery takes longer in cold regions, of course.
The fear of oil drilling on the Continental Shelf is based on two arguments: oil slicks harming wildlife, and oil slicks harming (Florida's) tourism industry. Both of these are preposterous nonsense taken seriously. Offshore drilling has taken place for decades with very very little environmental damage. Even oil released from tanker accidents have only caused short term damage. In fact, the ocean abounds with bacteria able to digest emulsified microscopic oil droplets. These bacteria eventually become a boon to the food chain, dramatically increasing fish populations along with their predators (sea birds to seals, and fishermen). But the environmentalists will not tell you that.
The Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge does not lie above tar sands, and is cleaner source of oil. The 'damage' to the Refuge would consist of the narrow roads and rights-of-way used for access and pipelines, plus an acre or so for each drilling rig. Only a tiny fraction of ANWR would be effected, and that fraction would be far easier to reclaim than any open pit mine. But "Oh No!" cry the environmentalists, we mustn't disturb such precious and pristine habitat. What a crock of sh_t.
Because of the environmentalists and the politicians who use the force of law to back them up,
your travel is more expensive,
your food is more expensive,
your plastics are more expensive, and everything shipped to
your shopping district is more expensive. That makes your life, and the lives of your children, more limited. It becomes harder to pay for Health Care, Education, a home, a car and so on. What justifies your greater struggle? The 'protection' of a few ragged spruce trees, billions of mosquitoes and blackflies, some small birds, so all of which can be slightly more numerous in the middle of a sea of wilderness where billions more abound.
Anyone who sent even one cent to, or wrote one letter supporting, an environmentalist cause is YOUR enemy, and the enemy of your children. Environmentalism is not pro-Nature, it is anti-Human.
Phew...in Perth we are currently at 142.9cents a LITRE!!!
You've really got it good...it now costs over $90 to fill our Tarago!!! I see that the world oil prices are dropping, but its definitely not reflected at the petrol pump!
Luckily we dont have to drive to work!!!
That's only $3.49 a gallon. Gas is $3.99 (regular unleaded) in SW VA right now. It's even higher in northern VA. Some stations continued selling for the previous $3.80 until they ran out and closed until gas went down again. About 1/3 of stations in Roanoke did this and are now closed. They've been closed for days.
I expect rationing to take place in VA soon.
You're lucky.
We're paying $3.49 a gallon and every time it drops a penny, I want to get some even if I don't need it.
It was shocking to our son, the day he got his license and he couldn't afford to put gas in his car to go anywhere.
Gas prices totally suck big donkey dick if you ask me!!
:)
Hugs!!
I paid $3.989 for diesel over my weekend drive. I filled up the rv last week at Costco and paid $3.699.
I can't disagree with Richard, we have untapped oil here in our country and Canada. Its just a little harder to get to.
I am not positive of this statistic, but an Op Ed in Canada's National Post reported that tar sand oil was economically viable when pump prices exceeded CAD80 cents/liter; that is US$2.816/USgal. Why aren't they using it? ...environmentalists and Luddites have pushed through legislation against using it.
In spite of all that, I have a shocker for you, in my following comment. First...
***
Here, prices per liter have just dropped a bit from CAD$1.349 to CAD$1.294.
(That's from US$4.749/USgal to US$4.557/USgal)
***
TTEyes' AU$1.429/L converts to US$4.255/USgal.
***
In Canadian or Oz dollars, these prices exceed $5.00 per USgal!
***
In the UK. prices are 120.3 p/l (pence/L); the British Pound (£) is 100p. So they are paying US$8.16/USgal; Ouch!
(A lot of their gas comes from Russia.)
Now, here's the shocker!
In constant dollars, gas costs little more now than it did prior to 1944, or from 1979 to 1983 (during the gas crisis)!
You can see historical prices on the Dept of Energy website.
Although the cost of gas has certainly jumped, a portion of that jump is due to the declining value of the currencies of Western nations (incl. UK and Oz). That decline is because our governments print money when they feel like it. Usually they do so to ensure that quasi government businesses (like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae) and the military do not go bankrupt .
When money is first printed, it is just worthless paper. Once distributed into the economy, there is more 'money' available. The people first influenced by that money are able to buy more goods at existing prices. However, as companies experience an improvement in market demand, they raise prices. Then the rest of the population finds they have to pay more using money that is worth less.
That is, price increases are not so much corporate or union gouging, as government induced 'inflation' of prices, due to deflation of the value of a dollar. It is another effective way of taxing citizens.
When the US mortgage crisis struck, G.W. Bush and Ben "Helicopter" ** Bernanke added US$60 billion to the US economy. Now Americans are paying for it
In parentheses, I mentioned Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They have just received the biggest bailout in history: US$200 billion!!!
Americans will be paying for Washington's encouragement, and even legislated pressures, on banks and loan companies to lend to people who cannot really afford mortgages. Now, as people defaulted on their mortgages, many lenders —who would otherwise have refused risky mortgage loans— are becoming insolvent. It was not truly the lenders' fault, so much as the guarantees the government provided through Freddie and Fannie. So, the government had to follow through with its bailout. But that solution meant printing more money, which means YOU, the taxpayer, will be paying the price.
On top of that, I mentioned the cost of the military. The, so-called "War on Terror" is costing US$16 billion per month, and will likely exceed a total of US$3 trillion!
Each of the 154.9 million employed US citizens must therefore contribute
(US$3,000,000,000,000 / 154,900,000 =)
US$19,367.33 to that war.
What a citizen KILLER, solely for a "foreign adventure" the Founding Fathers would have objected to.
(Military costs are another good reason why I argue that a true shock-and-awe bombing, of all nations sponsoring or harboring terrorists, would have been morally proper. You are being ripped off by an improperly prosecuted war.)
Of course,income taxes are on a sliding scale, so lower income people will contribute less, but they will still pay through the not-small-pain of inflation... as businesses are forced to raise prices to compensate.
** Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve, announced his willingness to use a "helicopter drop" of as much money into the economy as it would take to fight deflation. Deflation is a good thing if not too dramatic.
What economists do not seem to grasp is that inflation and deflation are, at root, caused by government interference in the economy. The solutions offered for either problem is always more government interference.
It is interesting how most people attribute the high cost of gasoline to the President. It is actually the Democrats in Congress who are to blame.
[rant]
It is also interesting how people think that Barack Hussein Obama will help the economy if he is elected. Anyone with half a brain can figure out how his taxes on the 'rich' will trickle down and make everything worse for all of us except for those lower class getting handouts from the government. If Obama is elected, people will eventually see how bad it gets and will praise the Presidency of Bush in comparison (and that is pretty bad.)
[/rant]
Glad we're not in the UK then...
Thanks Richard, I've been following the crash's but never really understood all the ins and outs...you've clarified it...basically the world's fucked!
H Nads wrote"
"It is interesting how most people attribute the high cost of gasoline to the President. It is actually the Democrats in Congress who are to blame."
Here in Canada the blame seems to be aimed at the oil companies themselves. They snarl with the usual "greedy corporate swine" remarks. The President and Cheney are blamed for prolonging the war, supposedly so they can get more money out of it via Haliburton. Of course, both of the above are considered typical Americanism.
I am not sure it is fair to blame the Democrats in Congress because plenty of Republicans agree with them and vote the same way. The Republicans are redistributing wealth as vigorously as many Democrats. The Democrats are becoming more religious. The scary result is that the Left and Right seem to be fusing. The two main parties are becoming so alike it is no wonder new Presidents win by 1% of the vote, or so.
Yes ...basically the World's fucked, with nowhere for sane people to escape to!
I am not sure it is fair to blame the Democrats in Congress because plenty of Republicans agree with them and vote the same way.
You are kidding, right? Republicans never vote for anything that the Democrats write, and vice-versa. That is why the political parties are ruining government. If a Republican writes a great bill, Democrats will not vote for it for its merits, they will vote against it because it is a Republican bill. That is the way it works in Washington. It is idiotic to say the least.
Speaking of politics and government... how about the AIG bailout. What a joke! Now companies know they can fuck up royally and get bailed out by the government. Insane.
Don't get me started on the Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac fiasco...
Hay Nads, yo're right.
I worded that too simplistically.
To make up an example showing what I meant:
If the Democrats put forth a popular-with-the-public bill for a total ban on guns, the Republicans will oppose the bill. Then, at some other time, Republicans will put out a bill for registering and licensing guns.
If the *Republicans* put forth a popular-with-the-public bill to create a new National Wildlife Refuge, the Democrats will oppose it. Then, at some other time, the Democrats will put forth a bill to protect wetlands.
Basically, they all agree that government intervention is always the solution regardless of what the "wish" is, and they will argue endlessly about the minutiae of "making it so". And, as I said before, the worse things become, because of their intervention, the more people demand intervention...
"I am being poisoned by arsenic! Help"
"What we need, to make you well, is more arsenic!"
"Yes. yes! Get me some more arsenic!"
"Great, we have some arsenic. We can fix you right up!"
"Okay! We need change (or, "We need religion").
"You have the arsenic? Great, I'll vote for YOU. You are so cool."
___________________________
The proper response would be, "Get the F_ck Out of my 'house'.
It's not that the World is fucked, it's that nearly everyone, of the 6 billion people of the World, has *minds* that are fucked.
Now here is a good thing. America, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, is the first politically sensible nation in the world. Except, it has all but collapsed.
That near collapse was not because of what its Founders started, but because of what subsequent politicians and citizens failed to understand, and have failed to vote for (even in the election of Adams, 1797, a Federalist who thought, fundamentally, that the State superceded the individual.)
Having said that, I must admit that I do not know the platform of Adam's political opponents. Perhaps they were worse. This raises the problem of voting for the least evil. Instead, what is needed is someone with *rational* integrity, but the best of those would refuse, because they would not want to work in such an insane 'world'.
I'm reading a lot of crap today about the financial crisis...like banks move to boost global confidence ...or.... regulators target short selling...or...hysterical share holders bail out of market...or..the Russian stock exchange has been shut down!
Seems the world really is financially pretty much fucked, is it just a matter of time before it all collapses!?!
Oh yeah, but we can all stop worrying now after dubya's following announcement...
President George W Bush said the markets were adjusting to the "extraordinary measures" taken in recent days.
"Our financial markets continue to deal with serious challenges," Bush said in two minutes of remarks.
"As our recent actions demonstrate, my administration is focused on meeting these challenges."
Well gosh I feel so extraordinarily confident now that he's said that!
"It is also interesting how people think that Barack Hussein Obama will help the economy if he is elected. Anyone with half a brain can figure out how his taxes on the 'rich' will trickle down and make everything worse for all of us except for those lower class getting handouts from the government. If Obama is elected, people will eventually see how bad it gets and will praise the Presidency of Bush in comparison (and that is pretty bad.)"
With what due respect is polite: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? With nearly a trillion dollars gone in two days in the stock market, you honestly think that the GOP policies of the last 8 years will be lamented? Obama isn't a panecea for all the ills of this nation, but compared to another term of Bush policies, (McSame) I'll roll the dice...
The whole thing is an F'ing mess. Over the years I've noted an odd trend between Republican or Conservative (R/C) administrations and Democrat or Liberal (D/L) administrations.
R/C's end up spending as much or more money than the previous D/L administration. Voters get fed up with the R/C's, and elect D/L's. Then the D/L's find the government is so strapped for cash they cannot spend as they had planned.
In effect, the D/L's end up being more fiscally conservative than the R/C's. So T&A is probably right.
Obama, if he is elected, will be 'unfairly' restricted and will not be able to spend, spend, spend as he would like. However, I am confident that if he and Dems had their druthers they'd do every bit as much harm as Dubya's administration. They would likely be worse than McSaim, but now whoever wins will be inheriting an economic nightmare.
The real PIA is that they have so much wealth at their fingertips they won't suffer at all... but the very people they claim to be helping WILL!
I wish a POX on the bastards, regardless of party affiliation!
With what due respect is polite: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? With nearly a trillion dollars gone in two days in the stock market, you honestly think that the GOP policies of the last 8 years will be lamented?
You honestly believe that this was caused by the President and GOP?! The Dems are the ones in control of Congress. I would bend as far as to say it is the fault of both parties, but when the House and Senate are controlled by Democrats... just how do you think the GOP is making all this bad stuff happen? It is not a monarchy.
On top of all the BS that the Dems are causing, why don't we elect another Democrat for President (one who is the most liberal of the Senate, mind you.) That is like trying to put out a fire by throwing lighter fluid on it.
Hey Harry Nads,
Technically I was agreeing with you, but did not word it well enough to make that clear. I just do not think the Republicans are any better, in the long run.
In effect —and this will likely really fucken' piss you off— I am suggesting that America has a better long term hope if
a) the Dems are more clearly exposed for what they are, and
b) the religious crap the Republicans will certainly add is resoundingly snubbed by voters.
It is the only way I can see a better chance for America in 2012. The first hope is that the Democrats will infuriate decent Americans, completely betray average Americans of any political stripe. The second hope is that the Republicans will drop the religious crap and return to something more in line with Barry Goldwater.
If Americans don't respond in that way, then the colonialists who fought the Revolution, the Founders, and even those who fought in WW2 will have struggled, and died, in vain.
"It's a Republic, if you can keep it." —Franklin
I hope keeping "it" does not mean either another war, or a new colony (on another planet!?), but it is heading that way. So, I think YOU ARE FUCKING RIGHT! :-)
Richard, I understood what you were saying. My last post was in response (and quoted) el chupacabra.
Bueno H. Nads!
The key to your comment was "in comparison"... If Obama takes the reins America will be reduced to rubble... rather like the buildings in the opening scenes of Atlas Shrugged.
Actually, I have toured some areas of Detroit (though not the main skyscraper parts) that fit the description perfectly. The Autoworker Unions did that to their own workers by forcing all sorts of expensive crap standards into the factories... I buy Honda. I don't think American car makers have done anything truly significant for drivers since, what, the Shelby Mustang (January 27, 1965)?
OMG,
No honest person could vote for Obama knowing this.
Any of today's politicians, with the possible exception of Ron Paul, would have been viewed as treasonous in 1790. I would rather see him as President, even if he did manage to overturn Roe vs Wade... which is despicable of course.
Post a Comment