saintfan

Taxes will be that high here eventually.

SapperSaint

As high as a female giraffes' female part!

It would sound better if I could type it the way you say it.

SloMotion

... of course, we'll somehow miss the boat on the 'free college education' and 'discounted healthcare' while any new, additional taxes will be applied directly to bailing out another 'too big to fail' company, another Wall Street crisis or some other misguided Congressional bull**** ...

QBREES9

ask that Idiot George W (I'm an Idiot) Bush. Born in New Haven Ct.

WHO_DAT_CAT

First, the point I am making is entirely unrelated to the increase in the price of gasoline over the last month. It is ludicrous to try to understand this problem from that microscopic perspective. But, if it helps, I agree with you about the repercussions of Wall Street speculation with respect to it being a partial influence on the price of oil, and that oil is a world-market commodity.

You are still trying to mislead the people here about world oil supply. That is shameful. The FACT that the world is running out of oil should be obvious, since we are now trying to dig it out of shale and even Canadian tar sands -- both of which are dramatically more expensive to recover and refine than Brent Blend or WTI. This leads me to question whether you are an oil company shill or simply ill-informed.

While you indict my political beliefs and factual analysis -- you didn't even try to debate the information I quoted. And, yes, I quoted the information because I don't try to make up the facts. We pay people, called scientists, to try to find as best they can, what works most of the time. That is what science and scientific research DOES. It is not perfect because we don't live in a world where perfection happens very often.

What you HAVE proved to me is this, you are a card carrying member of the "Facts Are Optional" Party. For you, anecdotal evidence and what your gut tells you is good enough. So, if I were you, I wouldn't go to a doctor or stand on the edge of a tall building ( science doesn't know how gravity actually works either, but your own assumptions might tell you that you can fly ). Perhaps you didn't get the memo, but, without science, we would not have put a man on the moon. Or are you a moon landing denier, too?

I have a question for you: Are you aware that under the Bush Administration American scientists were threatened with being fired ( and some of them were fired and black-balled ) if they published research which showed that global warming is caused by the CO2 producing activities of humans?

Have you seen video of the air pollution in China and Thailand? This is what happens when you have no EPA. The EPA depends on science to determine why air pollution happens and how many Americans will die, each year, depending on how filthy we allow the air to become. It also uses science to help determine how to clean up the air and prevent further air pollution. Do you notice that LA has much better air than it did in the 1970s? There is absolutely no debate here. It really doesn't matter what your gut tells you or what "assumptions" you've made. It didn't happen by magic.

Left un-policed, Big Oil will argue that 150,000 deaths per year, due to heart disease (yes, heart disease is exacerbated by air pollution), lung cancer, COPD, asthma and emphysema is a small price to pay for American jobs. But, the REAL QUESTION IS what do you say SaintFan? Because these are the questions that are incumbent upon us as individual Americans to answer. Is your and your families' health & quality of life more important than Big Oil's profits? Shall we allow Big Oil ONLY to influence energy policy? Or will we decide what our own priorities are, as Americans, and as human beings, who need to breathe clean air?

I don't hate corporations, I simply understand their raison d'etre, which simply is this: to make a profit. They have no other reason to exist. But, human beings care about MUCH MORE than that. We care about our children and their health, and our own health. We care about safety, and beauty, and truth and fairness and justice and peace. So, I merely accept the fact that corporations and human beings often have competing interests. They lobby for what they need and want -- and we lobby for what we need and want.

So, yes, SaintFan, we DESPERATELY need to have the GLOBAL WARMING discussion. There is no point in battling about it. It is happening, right now. Just tune your TV away from FAUX News. There is vitally important information out there -- all you need to do is look at it with an open mind. The sea level is rising. Global temperatures are rising. US weather is causing more damage in inflation-adjusted dollars than at any other time in history -- but you would have to actually read some technical articles to know this. Since you have children, do it for them.

Did I mention that California is full of generous, forgiving people?

lee909

Try living in the UK,$9.99 a gallon.

Choupique

Oil companies get bazillions in subsidies annually of tax money.

Ever year. EVERY SINGLE YEAR.

That is corporate welfare. That is socialism at its worst, the corporate variety.

Bail outs? Phffft. Subsidies have been going on SINCE 1913 people.

Wake up. The lobbyists are kicking our asse$.

You'd have to be pretty phuckin stupid to think a republican't will ever save you from a democrap, or visa versa. Get real, por favor.

skymike

Oil makes the world go round, honey.

Make up all the imaginary white collar capitalist bogeymen you want.

For every one of your straw men, there are 1,000 "good" people who have JOBS because of Oil. Everything you use is made of OIL. Everything you need is transported by OIL.

If you can catch a ride to work on a unicorn, knock yourself out. Maybe you can fill your tank with rainbows.

But if you screw Oil, you screw all of us, and yourself...

.... as your Anointed One is about to learn.

-- now go back to your indoctrination sources and come tell us some more of your amazing "facts."

Crusader

I don't believe that everything have to be transported by oil, less of all humans. Electric cars are getting rally good. I'd love to have a Chevy Volt or a hybrid like Toyota prius. Sure there will be oil for maybe 30-40 more years but if we all coninue driving like we do today and add that most everybody in India and China will gonna want a car there just will not be enough oil. IMHO the oil that is left is more needed for makine plastics etc than for powering motorcars.

SloMotion

You make a good point, but electric vehicles are not yet a viable option for the everyday consumer. I worked on the Volt platform and the rest of GM's alternative fuel vehicles and they're not as economical/reliable as GM would have you believe.

There has been a lot of pressure from the current Administration on the car companies to rush this technology to market, the result being an inferior, overpriced, under-engineered product. I'd rather have a golf cart then a Volt, seriously, or at least a Nissan Leaf.

From my point of view, the entire fuel infrastructure of a region/country is going to have to be uprgraded to allow for efficient, cost effective refueling of alternative fuel vehicles, regardless of what alternative fuel they may use (hydrogen, natural gas, electric), before this method of transportation is ever going to catch on.

Myself, personally ... I don't mind taking a bus or using mass-transit and love cities like WashDC, Tokyo, Rome, et... where you can get around basically without having to own a vehicle, but most people want their cars and until it's affordable and convenient, alternative fuel vehicles are for those with the money wanting to make a statement.

Raising fuel prices as a means to encourage people to use alternative energy sources, which I feel is what they're basically doing now, when they are not economically available to the masses does the exact opposite. As fuel prices rise, I see people just spending a larger portion of their budgets on fuel and cutting back on more and more on other necessities.

It's getting rough out here.