Back to the pump…
Yesterday, I drove my half-full (not half-empty) Toyota T100 pickup truck to Costco to see what gasoline prices were up to, since it had been awhile since I had been there last. Regular gasoline had increased to $4.409/gallon, and I filled the tank and again drove home to let the gas appreciate.
I don’t know about you, but I find it less depressing to fill the tank when the needle points to “1/2 tank” than to fill it when the tank is empty. 
(Note added on July 5, 2008: But see THIS…)
I looked in vain tonight for a news article that I read last night (Ahhh, electronic media – George Orwell would have appreciated it! To paraphrase Heisenberg, “It’s tough to pin a good electron down.”) from a major news source online, in which the author stated that folks who were tiring of scapegoating oil executives for the high price of fuel were now criticizing legislators.
Really.
Maybe the author went to different schools from the ones I attended, or maybe he slept through his, but “scapegoat” means “one who bears the blame for others.” Neither oil executives (who COULD settle for merely EXCESSIVE profits instead of OBSCENE RECORD profits) or legislators (some of whom recently voted against taxing windfall profits of oil companies and against eliminating some of their tax breaks) could be called scapegoats. The folks above bear some of the responsibility for the problem, and are in a position to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. They are just driven by greed, instead.
I read with amusement tonight (not sure how I missed this) a CNN interview with Chevron Corporation CEO David O’Reilly, in which Mr. O’Reilly defends the record profits of Chevron and says that the market, not greed, is driving gas prices.
Well, greed is driving THE MARKET, and always has, so the statement seems pretty circular to me. It is too bad that George Carlin died before he could take a crack at THIS.
California is once again in the position of “walking point,” testing to see “what the market will bear,” while the country as a whole endures an economic downturn that is, in major part, promoted by Big Oil. While California is testing the market, politicians (and Big Oil) are once again promoting drilling for oil off California’s coast, which (along with drilling in Alaska) may be what the high prices here are REALLY about.
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
You can view higher-resolution photos (*generally* 7-30 megabytes, compressed) at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. Apparel and other gifts decorated with some of our most popular photos can be ordered from the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Store on CafePress®. Both Shutterfly™ and CafePress® ship to most international locations worldwide!
