$1.55 a gallon here. When it went up, it was the fault of George Bush and the evil oil executives. Where are all the press stories about what a great job they've done--bringing the gas prices down?

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Dark:
Where are all the press stories about what a great job they've done--bringing the gas prices down?

One never knows, do one?

I thought the reasons for the drop were:

•The end of summer. Driving slows, reducing demand for gasoline. And federal requirements for clean air, summer-blend gasoline end next month, making gasoline cheaper to refine and import.

•Sluggish demand. Gasoline use in the first eight months of the year is up 1% vs. a year ago, less than the 1.5% to 2% growth that's typical, says Michael Morris, analyst at the U.S. Energy Information Administration. "Wholesalers are trying to get rid of product. The growth in demand for gasoline has really tapered off," he says.

Wholesale prices are falling faster than retail gasoline prices, meaning stations are making more money than when prices were $3. Wholesale prices Tuesday ranged from $1.77 to $1.79 a gallon, well below the $2-plus prices typical until recently.

•Petroleum traders, worried that prices are too high to last, are selling their holdings. That pushes prices down. They also believe hurricanes won't disrupt Gulf of Mexico production, OPIS senior analyst Tom Kloza says.

Crude oil, which accounts for roughly half the price of gasoline, ended New York trading Tuesday down 90 cents, at $69.71 a barrel. That's the first time it's closed at less than $70 since May 4.

At least that's what the newspapers say.

I'm paying less than 1/2 what I was paying in the summer. That is far too large a change in far too short a time for the kinds of typical market variances you cite. The fact is, when prices went up it was Bush's fault, now that they're going down, it's market variances. So much for a free and unbiased media.

Mr. D: "free and unbiased media!"
"Oxymoron!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6deudS3t7E

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,

Oxymoron. I think that is true! In my view, the biggest damage in this past election as the glaring bias of the media--from Chris Matthews leg tingling over Obama to the refusal to investigate questions on Obama's past and relationships (minor, token investigation), the slobbering over Palin's Alaska/Russia comment while ignoring Obama's references to his "Muslim faith" (generously corrected by George Stephanopoulus in their interview), and the constant references to McCain as "impulsive" and "unreliable" (although, having been in the Senate for decades, his record was well known), etc. A real travesty of election coverage.

Olbermann anbcd Matthews, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of quality modern journalism!

(A new Great Generation will need to step up to purposefully right this ship! I offer my very humble efforts daily. Let's just hope it doesn't take the "next 50 years!")

I, as might be surmised from my postings here, have found my once lost roots and have abandoned the Republicans and joined the other side. I really feel much more comfortable on the Democratic side. There is less single-mindedness, more acceptance to other points of view and a general feeling of equality of opportunity for all in this country, regardless of Race, religion, age, sexual orientation, and gender.

The so called Moral Majority have had their day and basically have left the country with this mess, soon to fall into a true depression, where prices will actually fall, not rise. There are no Free Markets, only markets that are responding to pressures from those who can manipulate them to their own advantage, on either side of the issues. This great pulling and pushing generally is preferable to total control over the outcome, or centralized planning, as in the Communist world, proven not to work well over the long haul.

So, the pendulum must swing from one side to the other and while in the middle we can experience some calm. Now, we are in the end game of a long period of excessive consumption, built on cheap and then cheaper credit. It will now turn around and saving will be king again. Cash will be in the seat of power, not credit. People will have to retrain themselves to put off what they want for that which they truly need. Having it all has a dear price, and the bill is now due and payable.

What our parents taught us about The Great Depression will come home to roost. What was old will be new again. The sun will rise in the East and a new mindset will emerge that mirrors what was there before. The lessons of the deep past, the stories of the grasshopper and the ant and others will seem strangely familiar to us now, in their applicability to our time. Thus is the way of economics. It generally takes at least one or two generations to arrive at the crisis point, where the pendulum stops and begins its swing back to the center, because the collective memory has been gradually erased by the Zeitgeist of the present. It will get worse and then it will get better. Learn from history, by reading, as you cannot live long enough to actually experience the two sides of the pendulum's swing.

The problem now is how to get someone to spend their cash when all around them is telling them not to spend. The spender of last resort will be the government, either through programs familiar to the people who lived through the '30 or, in the final act of desperation, war. Get ready for a great war, that will mobilize the country, spark us all to enlist and fight the enemy, who ever that is to be, and then all of that cash pumped into the economy will get us going again, as we actually look forward to spending our money in peace instead of working at war. The same old folks who are never seen will profit from all of this either way. We, the little guys in the soup of discord with no idea what is really going on, will celebrate our patriotic duty and fight the war for those who pull the strings. So sad. So true. So here.

One can only hope that another type of war can be substituted for a shooting war, a war on excessive consumption, resulting in new energy management and new and better, cheaper, ways of achieving power and locomotion. A gigantic “Put a Man on the Moon” program that will enlist us all and give us the same feeling of being needed that a real war does. We can then all save again for “The WAR” and straighten out this maddening course we seem to be on. We could then feel as many of us did in the aftermath of 9/11, a sense of pride in our country and what we stand for. Let’s fly the flag for this cause, and not for killing anyone who disagrees with us. Surely that is a wiser, more just cause that the alternative. We will be safer, more independent and have a stronger economy that will set the standard again for the rest of the world. I pray that our new government will move in this direction.

There is a great satirical piece done by George Carlin about "voting." I refrain from offering a youtube address here because of his use of some of "the words you can't say being said!" He is quite accurate, however, on how a lot of people come to see things and to think about our governing bodies.

Good old common sense seems to have been left back in the good old days. Sad really. I am planting a bigger garden in the spring and have already put in enough wood for the year yet to come.

I have some of Montag in me, I guess, and hope I can make a difference...

The big criminals in this financial mess is, amongst many others, is Barney Frank and Bill Clinton, who started the whole "give loans to everybody" thinking. Whatta a way to win votes for the Democrats.

There are currently about 70 wars in the world today, and 35 major wars in the world, according to President Carter's, Carter Center.
http://www.cartercenter.org/homepage.html

Smattering of ideas for next 50-100 years:

• They will figure out a way to 'bend' gravity, and thus cars will think they are going downhill and no need for gasoline.

• Hadron Collider will penetrate into the edges of the ethereal world of the so-called dead. Scientists today proclaim they think there is a dimension that Hadron will discover that will reveal the true alter-realities of the world we live in. The world we live in each day, they claim, is but a reflection of the actual world. This world to be found in the extra dimensions they hope Hadron will locate.

• Internet will eventually connect the world in such a way that an entirely new understanding of human relationships will take hold in later generations that will fully divide the entire human race into good and evil without the grey areas.

• The ultimate understanding the human being, how he works, will nearly be achieved except... the question of what initially activates life will be divided into distinct two groups: those who believe in God and those who don't.

Smattering is a good word.

DS ~
Smattering will likely mean something different in the future.

In 50 to 100 years: new media, if it even be called that.

Years back I figured there had to be something on the horizon that was in addition to TV, radio and the movies. Few years later came the internet, and I bought my first computer, an embarassingly fast 25 MHz Macintosh Performa, around 1993. I was on the cutting edge of that revolution and didn't have a clue.

So what's out there besides books, tv, radio, movies, the internet, and telephone, for revolutionary communication par excellent? But moreso. Something absolutely new that will literally dim the lights on all the other venues.

Whatever it is, it may even be protected from all the rowdies of whatever persuasion you wish to categorize them, from far left to far out. How would that happen?

It may be protected bv a single inventor who keeps the formula for such a massive and ingenious contraption to his very self. If so, hope that the guy has his head on straight in matters other than inventing. Or that he doesn't have multiple personalities.

Obama Team Considers NASA use of Modified Military Rockets.

Perhaps a rocket-filled sky as envisioned by Ray is... back on track!

Next 50-100 years?

I see the arts becoming incredibly deceptive, as media merchants go after lucrative creations by relating to the debasing ideas and concepts of a generation brought up on internet porn and drugs and a current media slowly going mad. The next generation or two will, in a large part, be the lost seeking truth but overcome with the very nature of strong delusion. Amidst all this, there will be a core of passionate humane artists. All this on a scale never before seen at any time ever.