I saw in the news today that Americans drove 1.4 BILLION fewer miles in the month of April this year than they did in April 2007 as reported by the Department of Transportation. It's the sixth consecutive month that total miles driven has dropped from last year.
Overall, Americans have driven 20 billion fewer miles so far this year and about 30 billion fewer miles since November.
Even though we are cutting way back on how much we use, the price continues to rise. Supplies are increasing, yet the price continues to rise.
I've heard the figures flying around the net saying that it only costs the Saudis a few dollars in actual production costs to produce a barrel of oil that they are now selling for over $130. I don't really know if the profit margin is that disgusting or not. I know they have more money than they know what to do with, so they buy things like diamond encrusted, sterling silver cars to drive around in. They live in palaces that puts the term "mansion" to shame. They built their own islands in the shape of palm trees and indoor ski resorts in the desert.
They're lining their pockets as are the speculators on the commodities markets and laughing all the way to the bank. It's basically legalized theft and they're getting away with it. For now...
I can't help but think that it will all come crashing down at some point. Artificial market inflations tend to correct themselves eventually. Just look at the housing market. When property values went skyrocketing too fast the market dumped and will stay slow until actual value catches up to the artificially high prices. Sooner or later, this will happen in the oil market.
I think that this drastic price rise will ultimately help to destroy the oil market in the coming years. They've pushed it past the tipping point where people are so fed up with it that they are making the commitment to end the dependence on oil as our main energy source. People want alternative, renewable energy and the push to replace oil has begun. You'll see ethanol production drastically increase as well as more use of solar and wind, even in small applications. People are starting to do whatever they can to beat them at their own game.
I'm lovin' it.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
This is getting disgusting...
Want more proof that we are being ripped off and the price of gas is being artificially manipulated?
Reported the other day on CNN.com, the U.S. government "reported" that crude supplies shrank more than expected last week. That and the weakening dollar caused the barrel price of oil to go up yet again.
However, in the very same article they said that the supply of distillates (which are used to make heating oil and diesel fuel) INCREASED by 2.3 million barrels and gasoline supplies are up 1 million barrels. Demand for gasoline fell 1.3% from the same period last year.
So even though we are clearly cutting our use of gasoline, demand is down, supply is up, the opposite of what is SUPPOSED to happen is happening. The price at the pump continues to rise.
See for yourself: http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/markets/oil/index.htm
I don't know any other way to say it, WE ARE BEING SCREWED.
Reported the other day on CNN.com, the U.S. government "reported" that crude supplies shrank more than expected last week. That and the weakening dollar caused the barrel price of oil to go up yet again.
However, in the very same article they said that the supply of distillates (which are used to make heating oil and diesel fuel) INCREASED by 2.3 million barrels and gasoline supplies are up 1 million barrels. Demand for gasoline fell 1.3% from the same period last year.
So even though we are clearly cutting our use of gasoline, demand is down, supply is up, the opposite of what is SUPPOSED to happen is happening. The price at the pump continues to rise.
See for yourself: http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/markets/oil/index.htm
I don't know any other way to say it, WE ARE BEING SCREWED.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Thank you Bill O’Reilly.
He came out in a strong way for energy independence on his show June 9, 2008 and I was so glad to see it. I’m glad someone in the mainstream media is speaking out about something that I have been saying for a long time now.
He said we need to end our dependence on oil as our main source of energy, we need more flex-fuel vehicles and that congress needs to do something about the situation NOW. Well actually, congress IS doing something. They are screwing us over every day.
We need to move from using gasoline to using more ethanol and methanol and even though we have ramped up domestic production, we could be importing a lot more. Brazil is leading the world in ethanol production and use and would like to export their excess to us but congress is blocking the import of fuel from them to PROTECT THE OIL COMPANIES. YES, THE VERY COMPANIES THAT ARE GOUGING US AT THE PUMP. Our politicians are in bed with big oil.
He also called OPEC a bunch of gangsters that are trying to hold us hostage to their oil and destroy the U.S. economy.
Glad to see SOMEONE has a firm grasp on the situation and I’m glad he has the guts to say it out loud. I just wish more people were listening, especially in Washington. Those boys up on Capital Hill actually think we have “friends” in the Middle East. Make no mistake about it friends, WE HAVE NO FRIENDS THERE.
President Bush found that out recently when he asked them to help stabilize the price of oil and they told him to take a hike.
The only reason they tolerate us at all is that we keep sucking up their oil and when we quit doing that, you just watch and see how fast they turn on us.
We need to do everything we can to end the stranglehold they have on us and our economy.
Listen to Bill.
He said we need to end our dependence on oil as our main source of energy, we need more flex-fuel vehicles and that congress needs to do something about the situation NOW. Well actually, congress IS doing something. They are screwing us over every day.
We need to move from using gasoline to using more ethanol and methanol and even though we have ramped up domestic production, we could be importing a lot more. Brazil is leading the world in ethanol production and use and would like to export their excess to us but congress is blocking the import of fuel from them to PROTECT THE OIL COMPANIES. YES, THE VERY COMPANIES THAT ARE GOUGING US AT THE PUMP. Our politicians are in bed with big oil.
He also called OPEC a bunch of gangsters that are trying to hold us hostage to their oil and destroy the U.S. economy.
Glad to see SOMEONE has a firm grasp on the situation and I’m glad he has the guts to say it out loud. I just wish more people were listening, especially in Washington. Those boys up on Capital Hill actually think we have “friends” in the Middle East. Make no mistake about it friends, WE HAVE NO FRIENDS THERE.
President Bush found that out recently when he asked them to help stabilize the price of oil and they told him to take a hike.
The only reason they tolerate us at all is that we keep sucking up their oil and when we quit doing that, you just watch and see how fast they turn on us.
We need to do everything we can to end the stranglehold they have on us and our economy.
Listen to Bill.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Supply and Demand or Manipulation?
I always thought that what regulated prices for the most part was supply and demand. If the demand for oil goes down, then the supply goes up and the price goes down, right? Well that's the way it works for most things. Seems not with oil prices though.
Since the price has been steadily increasing, with no increase in demand I might add, people have started to decrease their usage. Every pole I see says people are changing their driving habits. More and more people are getting rid of their gas guzzlers and the sales of hybrids and economy cars are increasing at record rates. The sales of scooters have increased about 25% this year. People are carpooling, riding bikes, and using public transportation more than ever before. There are businesses that are going to 4 day workweeks to cut down on commuting.
Our demand HAS to be dropping. People are using less gas. So why is the price still going up? It's very simple. We are being ripped off by OPEC, big oil companies and Wall Street. I don't see how they could be any more blatant about it.
It may just end up coming back to bite them though. By pushing the price so high so fast, it pushed people over the edge. They started a trend and now people are actively looking for ways to save gas. I think that people are going to get used to using less and even consider it a challenge and they're going to meet that challenge. The resentment and anger over this price gouging is growing fast and it's going to be the motivation to make people fight back.
That's exactly what we need to do too. Get angry and motivated to do something about it. Fight back.
I love it.
Since the price has been steadily increasing, with no increase in demand I might add, people have started to decrease their usage. Every pole I see says people are changing their driving habits. More and more people are getting rid of their gas guzzlers and the sales of hybrids and economy cars are increasing at record rates. The sales of scooters have increased about 25% this year. People are carpooling, riding bikes, and using public transportation more than ever before. There are businesses that are going to 4 day workweeks to cut down on commuting.
Our demand HAS to be dropping. People are using less gas. So why is the price still going up? It's very simple. We are being ripped off by OPEC, big oil companies and Wall Street. I don't see how they could be any more blatant about it.
It may just end up coming back to bite them though. By pushing the price so high so fast, it pushed people over the edge. They started a trend and now people are actively looking for ways to save gas. I think that people are going to get used to using less and even consider it a challenge and they're going to meet that challenge. The resentment and anger over this price gouging is growing fast and it's going to be the motivation to make people fight back.
That's exactly what we need to do too. Get angry and motivated to do something about it. Fight back.
I love it.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Thanks for nothin’ Saudi Arabia
I want to know something. What does the United States do when there are people in need anywhere in the world? I mean, when there is a natural disaster, an earthquake, cyclone, famine causing drought, etc, etc…
What does America do? We offer aid of course. We offer to help and provide money, medical supplies, food or whatever is needed to lend a hand to those who are in dire need. Even when we can’t really afford it, like now when our economy is in the tank, we offer to do what we can.
So I’m curious, did any other government or people anywhere offer to help us when the devastating hurricane Katrina hit a couple of years back? I don’t really remember if the rest of the world offered to give us any help. Not that we asked or anything.
But now, today, our President asked for a little help from Saudi Arabia. He asked that they increase oil production temporarily to help ease the cost of gas in our country to help our economy a bit. It sounded like a reasonable request to me. Not too much to ask from the people that are getting filthy rich from the sale of oil to the rest of the world, right?
You know what they said? They said no. They said they’re not going to do that. Not we’ll look at it or we’ll consider it, just no. They pretty much told our President and our country to take a hike.
Now this is a country that is supposed to be friendly to the United States. Some friends… I guess we know how much we can count on them when we need them. I guess we know what we get if we ask for help. Gee thanks Saudi Arabia. I wish we had more friends like you.
One day soon, we are going to come up with an alternate energy source that is going to make that oil you ration out so carefully to keep the price high, totally worthless.
I can’t wait for that day.
What does America do? We offer aid of course. We offer to help and provide money, medical supplies, food or whatever is needed to lend a hand to those who are in dire need. Even when we can’t really afford it, like now when our economy is in the tank, we offer to do what we can.
So I’m curious, did any other government or people anywhere offer to help us when the devastating hurricane Katrina hit a couple of years back? I don’t really remember if the rest of the world offered to give us any help. Not that we asked or anything.
But now, today, our President asked for a little help from Saudi Arabia. He asked that they increase oil production temporarily to help ease the cost of gas in our country to help our economy a bit. It sounded like a reasonable request to me. Not too much to ask from the people that are getting filthy rich from the sale of oil to the rest of the world, right?
You know what they said? They said no. They said they’re not going to do that. Not we’ll look at it or we’ll consider it, just no. They pretty much told our President and our country to take a hike.
Now this is a country that is supposed to be friendly to the United States. Some friends… I guess we know how much we can count on them when we need them. I guess we know what we get if we ask for help. Gee thanks Saudi Arabia. I wish we had more friends like you.
One day soon, we are going to come up with an alternate energy source that is going to make that oil you ration out so carefully to keep the price high, totally worthless.
I can’t wait for that day.
Unbelievable...
I saw in the news today that the U.N. is blaming the United States for a downturn in the WORLD economy. As a matter of fact, they said the U.S. will "continue to be a major drag for the world economy extending into 2009."
For crying out loud, is there anything else that rest of the world can blame us for???
I've about had it with being held responsible for everything that's wrong in the world. I swear, no matter what the U.S. does in any situation, we get flack.
If there's injustice and tyranny in some third world country and we ignore it we're cold and heartless and don't have any compassion. If we get involved with our military we're accused of being "war mongers" or trying to "impose" democracy on them. If there's a natural disaster somewhere and we send aid, we're accused of trying to exert our "influence" and establish a "presence" in their country.
Well, enough is enough. I think we need to start a movement in this country to insist our government remove our military presence and our "influence" from every other country on the globe.
We can start by withdrawing our influence in Myanmar. Everything that is getting sent in there is being stolen by their military government anyway so it's a waste of our tax dollars. Let our detractors lend a hand.
We should have never offered help to China either. They're not a poor country; they don't want or need our help. Why should we bother? Let the rest of world help them out.
I think we should withdraw from the Middle East totally. Bring our troops home. Let the religious fanatics have their way and butcher each other. We'll just leave the whole situation for the U.N. to handle. They'll be able to take care of it.
We can use the military to strengthen our own borders and stop the illegal immigrants from invading OUR country.
We can use all the money we're spending trying to keep the world’s dictators, tyrants and terrorists in check to pay down our debt and get our economy back on track.
We'll stop spending our hard earned dollars importing lead laced crap from China and overpriced, poorly made clothing from third world sweat shops just because some Hollywood type slaps their name on it to make it this week's "in" thing. Next month it will be a shop rag in a garage somewhere.
Start wising up America. Let's keep our dollars at home. Let the rest of the world buy this garbage. We don't need it.
Does this sound like a rant? Do I sound like I'm pissed off? Well, that's because I am and I think it's time the rest of the country got pissed off as well.
Let's make some noise.
Let's do something about it.
Let's start that movement.
For crying out loud, is there anything else that rest of the world can blame us for???
I've about had it with being held responsible for everything that's wrong in the world. I swear, no matter what the U.S. does in any situation, we get flack.
If there's injustice and tyranny in some third world country and we ignore it we're cold and heartless and don't have any compassion. If we get involved with our military we're accused of being "war mongers" or trying to "impose" democracy on them. If there's a natural disaster somewhere and we send aid, we're accused of trying to exert our "influence" and establish a "presence" in their country.
Well, enough is enough. I think we need to start a movement in this country to insist our government remove our military presence and our "influence" from every other country on the globe.
We can start by withdrawing our influence in Myanmar. Everything that is getting sent in there is being stolen by their military government anyway so it's a waste of our tax dollars. Let our detractors lend a hand.
We should have never offered help to China either. They're not a poor country; they don't want or need our help. Why should we bother? Let the rest of world help them out.
I think we should withdraw from the Middle East totally. Bring our troops home. Let the religious fanatics have their way and butcher each other. We'll just leave the whole situation for the U.N. to handle. They'll be able to take care of it.
We can use the military to strengthen our own borders and stop the illegal immigrants from invading OUR country.
We can use all the money we're spending trying to keep the world’s dictators, tyrants and terrorists in check to pay down our debt and get our economy back on track.
We'll stop spending our hard earned dollars importing lead laced crap from China and overpriced, poorly made clothing from third world sweat shops just because some Hollywood type slaps their name on it to make it this week's "in" thing. Next month it will be a shop rag in a garage somewhere.
Start wising up America. Let's keep our dollars at home. Let the rest of the world buy this garbage. We don't need it.
Does this sound like a rant? Do I sound like I'm pissed off? Well, that's because I am and I think it's time the rest of the country got pissed off as well.
Let's make some noise.
Let's do something about it.
Let's start that movement.
Monday, April 7, 2008
What’s with Hollywood?
I just read a story about the weekend opening of the new George Clooney movie, “Leatherheads”. They’re calling it a flop because it only took in $13.5 million on the first weekend. ONLY… The story said how disappointed they were for Mr. Clooney because the movie is such a failure and were wondering “what went wrong”…
Are you kidding me??? $13.5 MILLION is a failure? What standard of measure does Hollywood use anyway? I don’t know about you, but $13.5 million seems like a pretty good haul for one weekend to me.
The really stupid part about the story though is that they also talked about the movie with Jodie Foster in it, “Nims Island”, and how they are pleased with the results of that release. Here’s the stupid part: it only took in a fraction more than Leatherheads. In fact, the article said the takes for both movies are so close, the final tally isn’t in as to which one took in the most.
The article also said that the movie “21” was a monumental success saying it “kept up it’s winning streak” and “stayed on top of the box office” by taking in $15.1 million.
Seems like a fairly narrow criteria there, don’t you think? $13.5 million is a failure and a flop but $15.1 million is a huge success. The whole spectrum between total failure and top of the heap is a mere $1.6 million. OK… now I got it…
I guess I’ll feel sorry for George Clooney. He just didn’t make the cut. Too bad his movie couldn’t eek out that extra pocket change to make it to success…
I’ll also feel sorry for the studios and the Hollywood set in general because their business is slow. They're complaining that revenues are down. They only took in $80.9 million for the top 12 movies released this year. Such a shame… Their total revenues for the year are a mere $2.24 Billion. How depressing… ONLY $2.24 BILLION for the whole first quarter of the year… I don’t know how they will make it. Maybe they should all file for welfare and apply for food stamps to get by…
I guess they can’t understand why people that are spending more of their income on frivolous stuff like food and gasoline and are maybe even facing foreclosure don’t want to run out on the weekend to buy $10 movie tickets. Yeah, let’s spend $60 to take the family to the movies, we’ll worry about groceries later…
You think that maybe the rich Hollywood set are as out of touch with reality as our politicians are?
Are you kidding me??? $13.5 MILLION is a failure? What standard of measure does Hollywood use anyway? I don’t know about you, but $13.5 million seems like a pretty good haul for one weekend to me.
The really stupid part about the story though is that they also talked about the movie with Jodie Foster in it, “Nims Island”, and how they are pleased with the results of that release. Here’s the stupid part: it only took in a fraction more than Leatherheads. In fact, the article said the takes for both movies are so close, the final tally isn’t in as to which one took in the most.
The article also said that the movie “21” was a monumental success saying it “kept up it’s winning streak” and “stayed on top of the box office” by taking in $15.1 million.
Seems like a fairly narrow criteria there, don’t you think? $13.5 million is a failure and a flop but $15.1 million is a huge success. The whole spectrum between total failure and top of the heap is a mere $1.6 million. OK… now I got it…
I guess I’ll feel sorry for George Clooney. He just didn’t make the cut. Too bad his movie couldn’t eek out that extra pocket change to make it to success…
I’ll also feel sorry for the studios and the Hollywood set in general because their business is slow. They're complaining that revenues are down. They only took in $80.9 million for the top 12 movies released this year. Such a shame… Their total revenues for the year are a mere $2.24 Billion. How depressing… ONLY $2.24 BILLION for the whole first quarter of the year… I don’t know how they will make it. Maybe they should all file for welfare and apply for food stamps to get by…
I guess they can’t understand why people that are spending more of their income on frivolous stuff like food and gasoline and are maybe even facing foreclosure don’t want to run out on the weekend to buy $10 movie tickets. Yeah, let’s spend $60 to take the family to the movies, we’ll worry about groceries later…
You think that maybe the rich Hollywood set are as out of touch with reality as our politicians are?
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