Hello Dk and Everyone,

Gas prices rising...about 10cents a week here in NY...now it is over 4.05/gal...really, 10cents a week ...can't recall when this little price game started...late March? Now, for it to rise 10 cents a week is an absurd but very blatant act by the pushers of the oil cartel they know we are hooked, as hooked as we can be and we will pay whatever they ask...because there is a three day weekend coming and folks like to travel. One thing is for certain the oil cartel know how to plan for their four start events to make the mostest with their hostess(my neigborhood gas station.)

Oh, I just got my fix...ahhhhhhh...I feel so much better, calmer, happy go lucky...I can hit the road again!

I hate to think how cranky folks will be when they can't afford their next fix.

Seriously, it is a serious situation, what more can I say? hmmmmmmm.

DK, I'd like to say I appreciate your HIGHLY balanced description.

You were able to articulate each sector's problem without pointing to a scapegoat.

The biofuels one has really perplexed me, since biofuels can encompass a LOT of different things. Just as you can fashion E=MC2 into either bounty or bombs, the biofuels solution can do likewise. As I mentioned in the past, photobioreaction of algae could do a LOT of things. Especially since warm, acidic oceans are now teaming with the stinking crap anyway.

What's different now than the Deutsch Marks you reference is that the German's suffered as a result of the deliberate politics of retribution. They were under the lash of heavy penalty for having lost WWI. In reality, France may actually have indirectly caused the outbreak of WWII due to their petulant demands, forcing the Germans--who were quickly losing hope-- to embrace a mythic hero bent on stamping out the Jew money-changers (sound remotely familiar?) and wrestling back Strasbourg out of plain principle.

Now, on the other hand, we're simply running out of room to breathe, whether we favor Jews or war or wine or not.

Eschatological aspect of the free market and democracy and Christianity demands exponential population growth at any cost. It's an idealogical form of suicide. A stupendous ponzi scheme as we screwed our way into teaming swarms of buyers and voters and Church-goers. Gabriel Garcia Marquez articulates it best in one of his novels where political candidate travel like the circus, unfurling hastily painted backdrops of opulent promise. Giving speaches then rolling them back up and moving on to the next town. (I forget what novel it was, but the image made its impression.)

So now--here in the richest and most rapturously religious nation on the planet--you have Mormans stocking enough food for twenty for twenty years. And when you store THAT much fat in the locker, you want to be right. More than anything...

And then there's me, sifting through used french fry grease for my car, grinning at the dim horizon, laughing at the fix we're in and what High Crime I will have committed.

PS. To explain the reference to Gabriel Garcia Marquez a litle further in terms of my comments on population growth, I got the impression from his description that "democracy" was simply a numbers game employing an artificial backdrop of promise (I.E. the American Dream) for nothing other than effect.

PPS I was just thinking that while it may be true that "Jesus is coming again", there's no reason I can see to wreck the place in the meantime.

Practically speaking, Jesus's coming would probably not impact the price of oil since it is a Muslim world that seems to sell it outright. What difference would Jesus make to any but a Christian?

I just read a teriffic article trying to tell its readers that $4.00 a gallon is a real bargain in comparison to European market prices. However, the author of that article forgot to mention that volume is what the market is about and that Americans use fuel at a greater volume than do all those Europeans with their cheap little teeny, tiny cars.

That article is on MSN by the way.

Oh well, I did love the battle for Strasbourg remark in the above post. Very funny! It does belong to France! Historically, if they can hold onto it. A lot like what Ben Franklin said about freedom to Americans when they finally earned it.
I will interject one thought here in criticism of George Bush who begged the Saudi prince to export more oil...why should that Prince honor Bush anything when he defends Israel so openly and honestly, hugging the prince on one hand, and then hugging his opponent on the other. It is not just Iran and Palestine who are against Israel, so where is the USA and George Bush's mind when it comes to begging the Saudi's to think about the poor common man at the gas pump.

Our political leaders are all a bit slow in the intelligence department it seems to me and act as though they aren't playing with a full deck most of the time.

Likewise, arizonasunset, your comments were interesting, too.

I'm not altogether convinced that Israel is an enemy to the Saudi royal family. I believe they play it up big to provide a ready enemy and an cause. Keeps themselves in power.

I think it's the same thing that Iran's president, and the US president and most every leader is up to these days.

I really feel like we're entering a neo-feudal period, where the deal is struck: you work hard for me, and I'll protect you from bloodthirsty hordes just outside the wall.