There’s a lot of talk right now about the skyrocketing oil and gas prices. With the summer blends kicking in and the flooding in Iowa jeopardizing the corn crops, most people will be paying $4 a gallon for the majority of the summer. Who is to blame for the high pump prices?

Republicans and Big Oil?

The Democrats, liberals, and Greens say this. And they point to the oil companies and say “Windfall profits! Price gouging! Bush! Cheney! Enron! Evil!” These people are still pushing the theory that Bush & Cheney are doing this to “make their buddies rich”. I offer you this: they’re already rich. They’ve been rich for years. It’s not like they were poor and all of a sudden they’re millionaires. “But they’re doing this to get more rich!” 

Does anyone believe this anymore? Seriously?

They’re rich because — like Bill Gates and Doug Daft — they are the top-tier management of global corporations with shareholders who demand profits. They are rich because they are responsible for managing the exploration for, and the drilling, refining, and delivery of, a global resource. These “greedy oil companies” employ tens of thousands of people worldwide, and operate on a profit margin hovering around 8%, which is about 1/3 that of CocaCola and Pepsi. They make a lot of money because every around the world buys their product, so they sell a lot of it.

As fast food companies have blossomed, so have the sales of Coke, but Doug Daft isn’t hauled in front of Congress to testify about CocaCola’s record profits last year, earned on about a 28% profit margin. And I don’t hear you complaining that a medium Coke that used to cost 30 cents is now a buck-twenty-five. Why not?

So if Big Oil, Bush, and Cheney are not to blame, who is? (more…)

Four years ago I got into a debate with someone who decried the war as “blood for oil.” (He also went on to call American servicemen “pawns”, but I’ll leave that for another time.) I said then that the supply and demand of oil is a global problem, not just a United States problem. I explained how high oil prices would affect the price of food and its availability. I explained how essential it was to the global economy that the global oil supply wasn’t effected.

He didn’t agree with my assessment, said there was “no connection”, and that Bush was just “trying to make his oil buddies rich”.

Recent headlines prove who was right:

• Wal-Mart customers are feeling the pinch of higher food prices
• Corn hits $6 a bushel
• Rice prices jump 10% in Africa
• Rice Jumps to Record on Philippine Imports, Curbs on Exports
• Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing
• Food Costs Rising Fastest in 17 Years 
• UN chief warns world must urgently increase food production
• Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

Oil prices and food prices & availability are intrinsically linked. This is a lesson we all must learn, and learn quickly. Taking part of our food supply (corn) and burning it as an inefficient fuel source (in the form of ethanol) is beyond idiotic because it causes both prices to increase and there’s no appreciable benefit to burning an inefficient fuel source.

Do we need an alternative to oil? Yes. But ethanol is not the answer, and until we find one, the stability of the world’s oil market and price is essential to everyone. And closer to home, it is essential to the preservation of our liberties.

Read More to view my original email:
(more…)

Al Gore must take all of us for fools. Unfortunately for him, we’ve been paying attention. Here’s a collection of the latest “global warming” stories:

• Caribou, Maine set a new all-time snowfall record of 182.5 inches, breaking the last record set in 1955
• Snowfall records were also set in Ann Arbor, Michigan and its college rival Columbus, Ohio
• In Milwakee, it was the second snowiest winter on record
• New evidence suggests that since 1998 global temperatures have either plateaued or have gone down.
• Less than a month ago, parts of Ohio were digging out from a record-setting blizzard, which dumped over 20 inches of snow in parts of the state, besting the previous record (set in 1910) by over 5 inches
• Chicago, Grand Rapids, and New England all got hammered hard with the fluffy white stuff
• Quebec came close to tying its 1971 snowfall record
• Snow cover over North America, China, Siberia, and Mongolia is the greatest its been since 1971

And one last tidbit:

• After calling people who don’t believe in man-made global warming “flat earthers” on 60 Minutes, Al Gore launches a $300 million dollar advertising blitz to raise global warming awareness. Where is the $300 million coming from? Mum’s the word there. And Al, just wondering… if it’s such an obvious problem, why do you have to raise awareness of it?

Sorry, Al. I’m just not buying what you’re selling. And most people aren’t either.