No-ooo! Don't Do It!

[dr_phil_physics]

Game Reset

Let's just remind everyone where we are. Today crude oil was selling for $135/bbl. Nationwide in America, regular gasoline is averaging above four bucks a gallon. It was $4.06.9/gal in Allendale MI, and three cents more in Kalamazoo. In Santa Rosa CA, gas was selling for $4.49.9/gal and diesel for $5.19.9/gal.

I Keep Warning You Guys And You Just Won't Listen

I realize that being a pundit on radio and TV is something of a spectator sport in this country and everyone has a damned opinion. My opinion is that there are some things you should not speak aloud, because it merely gives the enemy permission to do the unspeakable.

But They Didn't Ask Me. (sigh)

So Here It Comes

"They" are rumbling about oil jumping up to $200/bbl. And get this, not only are they talking about five dollar a gallon gas, they're talking about the price surging to $5/gal by the Fourth of July. That's in just a couple of weeks, folks.

The idiots are nuts. The idiots are wrong. People are already driving less and driving slower. And SUV sales have tanked. Except now the idiots have given the marketplace "permission" to run up the price. (double-sigh) It has nothing to do with supply and demand -- it never has. It's about speculation, pure and simple. And it's got to stop, because the world's economies cannot take it for long.

Oh, But Wait -- It Gets Better

Not content to predict five bucko gas, "they" continue on and say that gas will exceed six dollars a gallon by the end of the summer. $6/gal by Labor Day.

Even better it's an election year. Oh this is all so not good.

Repeat after me: There are dark things one should not talk about. Speak the words and the words become real. That's the power of the dark magic, Voldemort.

Dr. Phil

Comments

[mgsmurf.livejournal.com]

Exactly. If the oil companies think we're willing or thinking of paying that much, they will make us do so.

Of course, I've also been laughing at SUV drivers as they try to pass me and my pretty (43 mpg highway) prius for weeks now.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

It's not the 20-21 mpg of the 1996 Blazer that's the problem, it's the 155 miles a day of my commute. For a part-time teaching job. (grin)

Dr. Phil

[mgsmurf.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I've got a 145 or so mile commute each day. But then I'm paid a decent salary for that commute (and the people I work with are great).

I've got a friend who'd be interested in adjunct teaching where I work. But here in the south at a technical school it doesn't pay enough for the gas to get here even just once a week.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Well, sometimes you do the work in order to get experience. Though with me that excuse expired about fifteen years ago. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Thank goodness

[wendyb-09.livejournal.com]

I live in a major metropolitan area with adequate mass transit alternatives. Yes, MARTA routes and scheduling leaves much to be desired at times and I did get stuck on a bus that broke down last week in 95 degree heat.

HOWEVER, with gas prices what they are now, I haven't owned a car in years and with a little creativity can usually get where I want to go between the local systems. Surprises my friends that can't imagine life without their SUV's when I show up for something off the beaten path.

And to think Atlanta used to have some of the lowest gas prices in the country and we're now above the national average these last few weeks.

Re: Thank goodness

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Both Grand Rapids MI and Kalamazoo have some decent local mass transit -- but there's nothing connecting the two. It's not like near New York City where there's a network of busses and trains which allow you to get all over the bloody place. We're going to have to rebuild some of this infrastructure that we foolishly threw out during the automobile orgy post-WWII. Of course, by the time gas hits $10/gal and the political will is finally there, it'll be too late. (sick grin) (sigh)

Dr. Phil