All in Favor of Lowering Gas Prices

[SHELLY]

I remember the last big gas crisis in the early 70's. We had the odd-even system of getting gas (using the last number of one's license plates--that was during the "pre-vanity plate era"). We turned off every-other-overhead-light in our offices. We turned off the hot water heaters in the office sinks to save energy. We turned our thermostats down/up depending on the location (and added sweaters or stripped down to compensate). Folks rushed out to buy fuel efficient Japanese cars. Americans working together busted the butts of the oil producers and made them cry "Uncle."

Now everyone is whining the government should do this, the oil producers should do that--what a crock!! Then they jump in their huge SUV, motor down to the school house to pick up lil' Wesley or Mitsy; sit in a line of SUVs with the A/C running for 20 minutes; then sit in the line at drive-thru burning up more gas to buy a $2 happy meal; get home to their 4,500sf McMansion (which houses 3 people) with pool, koi pond, and hot tub; plunk themselves down in front of their 42' plasma; flip on the news and get the shock of their lives to find oil is up another $1 and gas has gone up another 10-cents--due to....DEMAND...and they are in a state of shock and awe!

These people who complain couldn't buy a clue. It's all about "them." :roll:

 

[Smiling JOe]

I remember those days, though I was only a young lad at the time. My granpa traded in the Chevy Impala for a 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit Deisel. It still gets about 45 mpg. Still looks new -- not. I cannot believe my Dad still owns it. (He never sells anything.) Top speed was a mere 65 mph if you had it floored without the a/c running and were going down a long steep hill. Maybe on occasion, I got it to reach 68mph, but I have also pedalled a bicycle downhill at over half of that speed and still had a nice breeze for an a/c . You really have to wind up that inline 4 to get it moving.

(not actual car referenced above.)

 

[Jdarg]

I remember those days, though I was only a young lad at the time. My granpa traded in the Chevy Impala for a 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit Deisel. It still gets about 45 mpg. Still looks new -- not. I cannot believe my Dad still owns it. (He never sells anything.) Top speed was a mere 65 mph if you had it floored without the a/c running and were going down a long steep hill. Maybe on occasion, I got it to reach 68mph, but I have also pedalled a bicycle downhill at over half of that speed and still had a nice breeze for an a/c . You really have to wind up that inline 4 to get it moving.

(not actual car referenced above.)

OMG- that's what I drove in high school. I had the white diesel Wabbit. It used to have to sleep in the garage with heat lamps and a blanket during very cold weather. The lack of speed was probably the reason my parents had me driving it.

In college I moved up to the fuel injection model, which seemed like quite the crazy speed machine after the diesel!

 

[Smiling JOe]

OMG- that's what I drove in high school. I had the white diesel Wabbit. It used to have to sleep in the garage with heat lamps and a blanket during very cold weather. The lack of speed was probably the reason my parents had me driving it.

In college I moved up to the fuel injection model, which seemed like quite the crazy speed machine after the diesel!

I, too, drove it to school in high school. I kind of liked it, even though I am big and it is small. That Rabbit is probably almost as unsafe as the Ford Pinto. I did run it off the road into a 15' ravine while doing emergency brake pulls in the rain one night on my way home. Fortunately, I laid on the gas and continued to climb almost straight up that hill. I don't know how -- maybe momentum from going 45 mph. I wouldn't attempt that sober today in my 4x4. The rabbit came out without injury. I think my sister crashed in the lower part of the front in when she was driving it. She never quite grasped the idea of a 4-speed.

Thanks for allowing me to recall some funn times with the rabbit.

Speaking of diesel engines, my brother has a big @ss truck with a diesel and he gets around 30mpg, much more than gasoline engines.

 

[DBOldford]

Did anyone see the CNN story on and interview with Howard Lee, former CEO and Chairman of the Board for Exon, he of the obscene retirement package? Talk about a dinosaur. It was just pathetic.

Tonight some of Geo. W's final security detail and decoy aircraft flew in. His secret service guys were hogging the workout equipment at my club. Interesting group...young, buff, clean-cut looking Arab Americans with pronounced Middle Eastern accents. There are helicopters everywhere, we won't get a wink of sleep tonight. And these big SUVs doing U-turns in the middle of our intersections. And I learned something new, that the Pres. travels not just in AF1 but with two other decoy Gulfstream jets and a humongous cargo plane equipped with all kinds of radar and missile deflection devices. Duhhh...how much jet fuel for the aircraft alone, let alone all the security SUVs? The security guy's SUV of choice would appear to be the Cadillac Escalante. George W's conservation measure could be just staying home more.

Oh, and....the United States is the only one of the industrialized nations in the world that does not have a national health plan. We also have the highest per capita income by far and pay the lowest tax rate of any of the industrialized countries. I think we probably gripe more than any of them do about paying taxes, too. We are #39 and falling in terms of "standard of living" ratings. Another tip...private health insurance is available in Canada and virtually any of these countries, if you want it. And it's no more expensive than it is here, far less in many countries.

How is it that so many countries do so much better with so much less? Do they hate us for our freedoms? No, they hate us for our excesses.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Donna, those Cadillac Escalade SUVs are not your normal gas guzzling 14 mpg vehicles. They are bullet proof and wiegh at least double that of a normal Escalade, thereby probably getting closer to 6 mpg.

Somewhere in the charts, disquised as costs of oil, is the profit of the oil companies. In 2005, Exxon Mobil had the biggest profit of any company ever -- 36 Billion Dollars ($36,000,000,000)!!!

From ABC News:
Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.

Last November, when he was still chairman of Exxon, Raymond told Congress that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand.

"We're all in this together, everywhere in the world," he testified. (Smiling JOe says, "If that is the case, I want my share of the $36 Billion")


Raymond, however, was confronted with caustic complaints about his compensation.

"In 2004, Mr. Raymond, your bonus was over $3.6 million," Sen. Barbara Boxer said.

That was before new corporate documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that revealed Raymond's retirement deal and his $51.1 million paycheck in 2005. That's equivalent to $141,000 a day, nearly $6,000 an hour. It's almost more than five times what the CEO of Chevron made.

***********************************
$6,000 per hour for his paycheck in 2005. Oil shortage? I don't get it. This doesn't include his $400 million retirement package.

 

[Jdarg]

When we took the kids to DC, we ate in a really neat restaurant in a hotel across the street from the side of the White House. The restaurant was on the top and we sat out on the terrace and looked out over the White House and grounds- a bird's eye view. All of a sudden, 2 helicopters showed up- one was the AF1 helicopter with GW, the other was the AF1 decoy. One landed in the side yard just like on TV, then the other swooped off. The kids thought it was pretty wild.

 

[SlowMovin]

We also have the highest per capita income by far and pay the lowest tax rate of any of the industrialized countries.

Perhaps there is a correlation there.

 

[DBOldford]

Members of Meadowood Club here are very upset about the Pres. visit. Our facilities are closed to all members. Members were advised that anyone protesting or wearing a tee-shirt with objectionable language would be arrested. There are two huge protests planned for the entry to the club. Helicopters fill our skies, buzzing residences closest to the club. The offensive SUVs are speeding down our little 150-year old Main Street, making U-turns at four-way stop intersections. My health club was so packed with Kevin Costner lookalikes and Israelis this a.m. that I just turned around and walked out. What I wanted to say is that I am paying club dues, but also paying for their expensive hotel rooms and day club privileges. Geez...stay at home, George W....it's not like you're going to have much more time there or get any invitations from the incoming posse.

 

[Cil]

Socialized medicine has its drawbacks--but also its benefits.
QUOTE]

Tell that to my mother who lives in England and had to wait over 16-months for a hip replacement and ended up breaking both wrists during that period due to a bad fall and her inability to get around.

I've seen both sides and God only help us if the US ends up going down that path.

OTOH
France gave my kid excellent walk-in emergency health care.
And my friend in London who had melanoma received first class treatment.
I dunno, I really support the free market, but the way healthcare is headed now, I am kind of dreading being a little old lady here in the States.