Saturday, May 31, 2008

Government to probe oil prices

I was just reading the news and had to add this article...

"Amid soaring oil prices that some say are caused by nothing more than rampant speculation, the government Thursday announced a wide ranging probe into oil price manipulation and said it would get more information on the effect investors are having on the market" (Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com, 2008).

You have got to be kidding me!! The government NOW wants to look into price gouging and overcharging??!! Why didn't they do this three years ago? All of a sudden the Bush Administration wants check into this when he's on his way out? Not that he can do much about it now. Hey Georgie boy, the horse is already out of the barn, too late moron.

Here in Arizona the average price for regular unleaded is $3.81 a gallon. In my city it's $3.89 a gallon. This is nuts! I almost can't afford to drive to work only 12 miles away. When is this going to stop. They say it's because the summer blend gas is more expensive than winter blend. That's got to be just a smokescreen. I know it's not the gas stations jack up the price because they're paying nearly the same price. The profit margin is so small I can't believe anyone would want to own a station. I guess quantity makes it up but damn. I'm thinking of riding my bike to work, and that's saying something coming from a fat guy that has the exercise abilities of Homer Simpson. This sucks!! I'm spending, between my wife and I, about $300 a month in gas and we work 12 miles away, right next door to each other (literally). What sucks worse is that we go to work at different times so we can't even carpool.

Is it that hard to get oil out of the ground. I mean aren't the oil companies doing the same thing as ten or twenty years ago? Does it cost that much to ship it? What happened to all the car companies and their bright idea of hybrids and fuel cell cars. I work for a GM dealer and our hybrids are great but the price outweighs the savings in fuel. So where's the incentive to "GO GREEN!" and help our world?? I worry about the environment and try to do things to help. But half the time it's such a big pain in the butt or costs twice as much I fall off the wagon.

Americans have got to just stand up and say enough is enough, but the problem is how the hell do you do it. We can't stop buying gas. Plus many people use their vehicles for work or, in my case, to get to work. Carpooling is a fabulous idea but many people live 30+ miles from their jobs in this area, so that is hard to do. The public transit system stops its lines east right on the same road my workplace is located. It does not come any further east. So that's out of the question. The last resort is my bike (reference Homer Simpson here). I'll let you know how it turns out.

In the beginning...

This is the opening of my new blog. I welcome all to read and share with me the trek through obscurity I like to call, LIFE. I started out as a bright, stunningly handsome rogue with the world at my feet. Then came school and I found out I was merely a clog in the giant machine of torture that is the American public school system. My life, similar to that of a hamster, began as I learned to run in place wondering were I was going but not really sure how to get there. Shortly after the first real school yard beating I received I realized I had better learn how to fight. I decided at that point not to let people take advantage of me (little did I know corporate American would continue the beatings). I fought back and made a mark in life that began to shape my world. The best thing was I no longer was picked on, but as with most humans my new found powers went to my head and I became the tormentor. This all changed the day, a girl, my best friend told me "I don't want to be your friend anymore because you're mean". It was then that I realized the path I had taken was one that was leading to destruction. I lost my best friend and found that nothing could mend those fences. Fast forward to high school, I learned to wield my self confidence in better ways. I made new friends and treated them like gold. That is until I found a girlfriend. OH CRUEL WORLD! WHY??! Well I married my "sweetheart" while still in school, and all was well until after high school I realized this was not what I wanted. Plus she was a drug-addicted floozy, so it worked out for both of us. I left and began a new chapter in life. This is when it gets good (for me at least), I met a lovely woman and remarried. We have two wonderful boys and a billion responsibilities. At this point life happened, I never thought that bills and responsibility could suck the wind out of your sails so fast. Plus raising children in this day is similar to the Witness Relocation Program; keeping them out of harms way, giving them the support they need without crushing them, and hoping they don't get found by the "bad guys" is more work than I could ever imagine. Fortunately they have become wonderful, smart, and devilishly handsome rogues (reminiscent of their father) with good ideals and morals. I contribute this, mostly, to their mother because she, fortunately, was a stay at home mom. This brings us to present day, now we have a 17 year old with a girlfriend, thank GOD she's a sweetheart, and a 13 year old, whose a skateboard fanatic, trying to keep them on the straight and narrow, but still let them experience life's ups and downs so they know what it's all about. Well this is basically my life, there are many more highlights (past, present, and future) to come so don't go away.