I just read an article in this morning's paper about local pawn shops. Their business has taken a significant upturn as people pawn personal possessions like power tools, TVs and jewelry to get money for gasoline. According to the article, the two highest-ranking purchases that take people to the pawn shops are gasoline and cigarettes.

 

The hottest-selling items at the pawn shops are bicycles. They used to have several of them outside all the time, but now they're out of them. I think that trend will probably bring an uptick in the number of accidents involving bicycles and cars; I've noticed a sharp increase in the number of bicycle riders who obviously aren't commuting or riding for fitness or recreation; they ride on dangerous busy thoroughfares when there are bike paths and lightly-traveled, safer streets nearby and they ride on the left facing into traffic. Often they ride against traffic on one-way streets, and downtown they ride on the sidewalks. They wobble and weave and ride erratically. They were stupid drivers when they could afford gasoline, and now they're stupid cyclists and it's likely to get them killed.

 

 

Rising gasoline prices may have silver lining

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Denise Trowbridge and Paul Wilson

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

High gasoline prices are awesome.

 

OK, you might not agree, but a surprising number of Columbus residents do. At least, they see another side to the story.

 

To them, higher prices could bring investment in fuel-efficient vehicles and alternative fuels, increased interest in public transit and carpooling, and a decreased dependence on oil from politically unstable regions. 

 

 

[email protected]

 

[email protected]

 

http://dispatch.com/business-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/04/23/20060423-A1-03.html

 

I was at an art gallery yesterday and picked up this flyer from a Cincinnati arts space (I think?) called The Mockbee (2260 Central Parkwayin Cincinnati)

 

They are having something called S.O.S Art06 "an art event of socio-political expression for peace and justice"....

 

....and apparently they are addressing "Peak Oil"

 

On this coming Sunday, 30 April:

 

3:00 PM  Presentation/Panel Discussion: "Peak Oil & After: Creating a Sustainable Society While Entering the Post Carbon Work", w Mike Murphy, Janet Kalven, Sharon Whitehead-Jones, Jeanette Raychyck, Bob Craig.

 

4:30 PM: Documentary Movie: "The End of Suburbia".

 

 

I saw on 19 News tonight that one country waws paying like $6.00 for a gallon of gas. Another was paying just $0.12 a gallon.... Now that's amazing.

Most nations in Europe are paying upwards of $5 per gallon. A large portion of that is tax to pay for things like national health care, transit and so on.

 

Nations in the Middle East and other major oil-exporting nations pay the least amounts (including that 12 cents you mentioned). Of course, one thing left unsaid is that the U.S. is the third-largest oil producing nation in the world -- not only do we use all of that, we import 60 percent of the oil we consume. That factoid right there should tell every American they need to cut back on the "Black Crack."

Apr 25, 6:03 PM EDT

 

Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline

 

By NEDRA PICKLER

Associated Press Writer

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline, making it easier for refiners to meet demand and possibly dampen prices at the pump. He also halted for the summer the purchase of crude oil for the government's emergency reserve.

 

The moves came as political pressure intensified on Bush to do something about gasoline prices that are expected to stay high throughout the summer.

 

Bush said the nation's strategic petroleum reserve had enough fuel to guard against any major supply disruption over the next few months.

On the Net:

 

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

 

Energy Department: http://www.doe.gov

 

Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH?SITE=OHCOL&SECTION=HOME

The Democrats should be wary of trying to capitalize on problems that they can't fix if they get elected. That practice will surely come around to bite them in the butt.

It's the epitome of what's wrong in American politics (and, for that matter, American business). Make decisions or ask others to make decisions based on short-term, unsubstantive goals that aren't necessarily best for the nation, but are for the best of a select few individuals who have the most to gain from those short-sighted decisions. These people are selling political drugs to make people feel good now, without consequence for how they'll feel after the drug wears off. The dealers will have the money in their bank accounts while we're stuck with hangovers and empty pockets.

 

Just for once, I'd love to hear a Congressperson speak out and tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear. I'm sure some political wonk will tell me "you say that now, but would you really vote for someone who's going to ask you to sacrifice?" Um, yes I would. Strange, but every major crisis we've faced as a nation and overcome as a nation was due to Americans as a nation making sacrifices. For reference, see the Civil War, Great Depression, WWII and others. But when selfishness prevailed, we usually failed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/comments/display?contentID=AR2006042501327

Automakers, Analysts Mixed on Gas Prices

 

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Auto WriterTue Apr 25, 5:32 PM ET

 

Alan Helfman, the manager of River Oaks Chrysler Jeep in suburban Houston, says he recently talked up diesel options to a customer who was worried about fuel prices, but he's also seeing plenty of customers who are snapping up gas-guzzling SUVs.

 

Helfman's experience is mirrored in the entire auto industry, where some analysts and automakers are sounding the alarm about gas prices and others are downplaying their significance.

 

On Tuesday, Chrysler Group President and Chief Executive Tom LaSorda said higher gas prices haven't had much effect on the company so far. LaSorda said gas prices would need to stay above $3 or $4 a gallon for six months to a year before the company would see any real change in buyers' preferences.

Light rail's looking pretty good now, ain't it?  Too bad it was voted down in Cincy.

 

Easing off the gas

Drivers looking for alternatives

BY JAMES MCNAIR | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

When gasoline prices grew too high, different people took different steps.

 

Rachael Belz of Northside started carpooling to and from work and riding the city bus.

 

Ed McKendry, owner of Cincinnati Cartridge in Blue Ash, bought a motor scooter for his delivery runs.

 

E-mail [email protected]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060426/NEWS01/604260347/1077

Light rail's looking pretty good now, ain't it?  Too bad it was voted down in Cincy.

 

Unfortunately, by the time the average citizen decides we do need mass transit the financial damage will be well underway. Plus, it will take 5 to 10 years to fully plan and build a mass transit system. That is a lot of time under financial distress.

Q&A: What's Behind High Gas Prices?

by Scott Horsley / National Public Radio

 

NPR.org, April 26, 2006 · With average prices at the pump approaching $3 a gallon, filling up is causing American consumers increasing pain in the pocketbook. A look at the issues surrounding high gas prices:

 

What factors are causing gas prices to rise so quickly?

 

The biggest factor in rising costs is the price of crude oil, followed by the cost of refining.

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5365439

 

Please read this and, just as importantly, please share this with others....

 

 

http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/4/26/121441/891

 

Published on 27 Apr 2006 by The Oil Drum.

 

The politics of oil: the discourse must change

by Editors

 

Leaders of both political parties are expressing concern about the high price of gasoline. President George Bush announced yesterday that he was suspending deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to make more oil available to consumers as well as putting on hold the traditional regulations requiring additives to make fuel burn cleaner during the summer driving season.

 

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders have had their own response to rising gas prices. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has announced his support for the Menendez Amendment, which would "provide more than $6 billion in relief directly to the American people by eliminating the federal tax for both gas and diesel for 60 days." Senator Charles Schumer recently called for a federal investigation to determine whether oil companies are withholding gasoline production, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has blamed high gas prices on the administration's cozy relationship with the oil companies, price gouging, and royalty relief.

That's plain-spoken, concise and comprehensive. It's the best commentary I've seen on fuel markets and prices.

NEWS ANALYSIS

DRIVE LESS? POLITICIANS WON'T ASK

Republicans and Democrats rail against oil companies for the high price of gasoline -- but they don't dare suggest we change our ways

- Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief

Friday, April 28, 2006

 

Washington -- The remedies prescribed by the nation's political leaders this week in response to $3-a-gallon gasoline might hold political value. But they largely ignore the nation's addiction to oil, raising doubts among economists that they will accomplish their goal.

 

Though everyone agrees that the nation's economic well-being, its environmental health and perhaps its national security depend on reducing its reliance on foreign oil, the election-year rhetoric from Washington carefully avoids any suggestion that Americans -- who hold about 2 percent of the world's known oil reserves and consume about 25 percent -- take any steps to cut back their use.

 

 

E-mail Marc Sandalow at [email protected].

 

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/04/28/MNGDLIH5BB1.DTL

 

©2006 San Francisco Chronicle

 

Good story; illustrating how rising fuel prices are not just an urban/suburban concern.  There are far fewer options for people if they live in rural areas and work elsewhere.

 

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/04/30/20060430-A1-04.html

Cost of gas makes life in slow lane less idyllic

Rural commuters’ finances stretched

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Randy Ludlow

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

BLUE ROCK, Ohio — Amid the wooded ridges of rural Morgan County, there’s no such thing as a short trip to work or the grocery store.

 

Jeff and Lynn Mercer live down 4 narrow miles of hilly, rutted asphalt and bare gravel known as Gaysport Hill Road and Pisgah Ridge Road.

 

Once that shock absorberstraining stretch has been navigated, it’s 16 miles north along the Muskingum River on scenic Rt. 60 to Zanesville, the nearest city of any size.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060430/1025330.asp

 

Car lovers beginning to flirt with trains, buses and car pools

$3-a-gallon gas prices get area motorists thinking about ways to save on fuel costs

 

By STEPHEN WATSON,

MARK SOMMER and STEPHEN WATSON

News Staff Reporters

4/30/2006

 

When it comes to high gas prices, consumer anger is rising right along with the scrolling numbers at the gas pump.

 

But beyond anger, motorists seem to fall into two main camps - those who are thinking about making lifestyle trade-offs to save money and those who already have.

 

Ridership on Metro Bus and Metro Rail is up. Fewer people are buying truck-based sport utility vehicles and pickups. Some people are car pooling. And more people say they are bicycling and even walking.

http://www.forbes.com/home/businessinthebeltway/2006/05/01/oil-energy-production-cx_jh_0501energy.html

 

Oil Companies Won't Fish

Jessical Holzer 05.01.06, 6:46 AM ET

 

 

With the price of crude well above $70 a barrel, the oil companies have all the incentive they need to scour the world for new reserves and ramp up more costly production of unconventional oil. The notion that Big Oil is constraining supply in order to reap outsized profits is the stuff of conspiracy theory: Private oil companies have no more control over the world price of oil than motorists.

 

So it is puzzling to many industry analysts that instead of using these profits to develop new sources of supply, they prefer to lavish them on their shareholders in the form of higher dividends and buy back stock. The industry protests that it has poured $106 billion into new production already this year. But though that may sound like a lot, it isn't even enough to replace the depletion of current oil fields as well as cover the wear and tear on equipment and machinery.

 

    "Peak oil theorists have ignored the impact of these technological advances when they have predicted for years that world oil production was nearing its peak. And that is the reason they keep getting it wrong..."

 

    I disagree. Peak oil includes the effect of technological advances.

 

 

 

   

And a number of predicted major projects haven't panned out as expected -- Caspian Sea is the most notable. And where technology was used to increase production from aging reserves, such as in the United Arab Emirates, it ended up having the opposite effect by damaging the wells.

So oil companies are price-gouging? Think again. Here is an excellent analysis by Pittsburgh Tribune-Review editorial page editor...

 

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/mcnickle/s_448525.html

 

The price of oil, gas & ignorance

 

By Colin McNickle

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Sunday, April 30, 2006

 

"Ignorance is the mother of devotion," wrote Henry Cole in 1599's "Disputations at Westminster." And never have so many been so devoted to ignorance than in the escalating debate over gasoline prices.

 

Let's start with the prices themselves. The current per-gallon pump price for regular gasoline and a barrel of crude oil are not "record" prices. If you calculate the prices in inflation-adjusted dollars, both cost more 25 years ago. If you paid for a gallon of gas in March 1981 in 2006 dollars, it would have cost just under $3.11.

This one is pretty wild.

 

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A17738

 

Here's just a sampling....

 

Great read...

 

These two paragraphs were so good that I wanted to post them again...

 

Both proposals, now thankfully dead, constituted the most wrongheaded kind of political pandering, the kind that supports the notion that American consumers have a God-given right to cheap gasoline in a world where hundreds of millions of people already are paying considerably more for that fuel.

 

That starts with political leaders telling the American people the truth, as Bush did in his "addicted to oil" comments. It means mandated increased vehicle fuel economy accompanied by increased taxes on gasoline, engine displacement and vehicle size. It means getting over our social and racial biases, which still keep certain people out of certain neighborhoods, and coming up with a truly efficient, democratic mass transportation system.

I'm about halfway through American Dynasty, by Kevin Phillips. I'm a little late in reading it (published in 2004), and the depth of detail in it makes it slow going for me. Still, it reveals a Bush family history and involvement in the evolution of the current situation that goes far beyond anything I've seen in the popular media.

 

It explores the Cheney-Halliburton/KBR relationship and history, too, and makes some frightening projections regarding the possible future of U.S. involvement in middle eastern oil-producing countries. I thought I was fairly well-informed regarding the politics of petroleum until I started reading this book, and I'm beginning to realize that I had barely a clue.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if the real axis of evil isn't centered in the White House and built upon the legacy that the self-proclaimed imperial presidency carries with it.

I'll have to check out that book. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Here's something you can check out on-line...

 

http://www.100bucks.org/

 

This is from the fine folks at the Environmental Working Group, which has done some excellent research including how much our gas should be priced at the pump to cover the external costs of driving.

It took them until item (5) to even mention anything that touches on the problem that exacerbates all the others, irresponsible land use patterns. Even then, they stepped lightly.

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again and again...

 

It all starts with land use. Better transit and bicycle routes have very limited impacts when we're building more sprawl where huge stores are built behind massive parking lots off six-lane roads that connect to the nearest housing -- subdivisions of mcmansions five miles away.

 

That land use either has to be redesigned or it will soon become obsolete as gas prices surpass $5, $7, $10 per gallon. When those prices hit, I suspect that most suburbanites may start demanding transit service to their area. That's when they will recognize how hard it is for transit/bike paths to serve, and for people use transit and biking in such wastefully designed areas. Their responses will likely be -- A. give us some kind of tax relief to offset higher driving costs; B. redesign the land uses in which we live to offer a better mix in denser, walkable, bikable, transit-friendly settings; C. we're moving to places where B already exists.

 

I suspect "A" or something like it will be the first reaction. Note Congress' lame proposals of late.

 

I'm in the middle of Matthew Simmons' book, "Twilight in the Desert", and this falls eerily in line with his theory.  The Saudi Oil Minister is predicting that world demand will decrease and prices will come plummetting down.  He just doesn't want this spike to spur investment in alternative forms of energy, etc...

 

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060514/jordan_arabs_oil.html?.v=2

 

AP

Oil Minister: Don't Bank on High Growth

Sunday May 14, 2:58 pm ET

By Jamal Halaby, Associated Press Writer 

Saudi Oil Minister Warns Arab Oil Producers Not to Expect Continued Growth in Demand or High Prices

 

 

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Saudi Arabia's oil minister warned Arab producers Sunday not to expect continued growth in prices and demand for oil.

Ali al-Naimi said prices could plummet if an economic crisis drives industrialized nations to find other sources of energy, citing the 1980s -- when oil prices dropped by 80 percent after such nations reduced their dependency on oil and turned to alternative energy sources.

 

"Global economic growth may not continue at the same good momentum for years to come," al-Naimi said at the opening of a four-day conference of Arab energy ministers in Amman. "We should be careful and not take expectations as indisputable, especially the continuation of big demand for oil and its prices remaining at the same level or increasing," he said.

 

  Kunstler and others are calling for the end of suburbia; While I can't say how the oil economy is going to play out, I'm not convinced that it's going to end that way.

 

  "Considering peak oil, we can still drive SUV's, but we won't be able to drive as many of them."

 

Here's a peak-oil related article that is NOT all gloom and doom.

 

 

http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-05-14/opinion/17295280_1_gasoline-prices-energy-costs-higher-energy

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

 

Suburbia will survive a gas crunch

It thrived in the 1970s, will adapt to latest spike

 

Joel Kotkin

 

Sunday, May 14, 2006

 

Predictions of the demise of suburbia, choked to death by high gasoline prices, may be greatly exaggerated.

 

Conventional wisdom suggests that high prices at the pump mean less driving and, hence, the withering of far-flung suburbs, whose residents must drive to jobs, shopping and recreation.

 

For today's warriors in the fight against sprawl, there's a silver lining in this: The soaring price of gas evokes images of a nation retreating back to its urban past, with chastened suburbanites abandoning their SUVs and shopping malls for the comfort of dense cities and mass transit.

Given our need to cut energy consumption, we need to think less about dragooning Americans back into the cities and more about finding ways to make all communities more self-reliant and less energy consuming.

 

How is defending a failed land use form that is sustained only with massive government involvement a way to accomplish this? It also sounds like his assumption is that this is as high as oil prices will go. In the 1970s, both oil price spikes were just that -- a geopolitically induced, short-term spike. It wasn't structural as it is now, with prices on a curving upswing that cannot be stopped absent a massive redirection of government policies (given the $100 gas rebate and other pandering that Congress has offered, I don't see that massive redirection happening for a while). While I don't think suburbs will whither and blow away, I do think that the resurgence that cities have been enjoying in recent years will accelerate as gas prices continue to rise.

 

Articles like this are what's called the "bargaining" component of our oil addicition as we try to hang on to little bits of our destructive lifestyle. It follows anger and precedes acceptance. I suspect we may be bargaining for a good many years -- which is what we did in the 1970s until that short-lived crisis passed.

As KJP points out, the oil crises of the '70's were an aberration, not an ongoing situation. Also, Contrary to the author's assertion, more people did ride public transportation, just as they are doing now. Howver, it is important to note that these ridership increases we only temporary. As the energy crisis faded, people went back to their old ways and then there were Reagan cuts to energy-conservation programs added to the mix.

 

No, this situation is different. It won't go away. The 'burbs may not blow away, but there will surely be readjustment as oil prices continue to escalate.

People seem to think alternative energy sources like ethanol, bio-diesel and hydrogen will restore prices to what they perceive as normal (1980s - 90s), so that they can continue their solo 50-mile, 80mph expressway commutes in their 12-mpg urban assault vehicles. They're seriously misguided and delusional in that thinking.

 

The most optimistic outcome of alternative energy development is that it may reduce U.S. trade deficits and moderate the rate of escalation of energy costs, with a possible side benefit of reduced direct environmental impact from vehicle emissions. If motor fuels could be produced from corn and soybeans at lower cost and higher profit than from petroleum, the Exxons and Mobils would be pumping their profits into constructing ethanol and bio-diesel plants to ensure continued market dominance. The same goes for hydrogen.

 

Of the biofuel facilities being planned or built in my area, all that I know about are being built by established agribusiness merchants (ADM, etc.) or by farmers' cooperatives or newly-formed entrepreneurial groups. That's not to say they can't succeed; the investment money wouldn't be there without prospect of a reasonable return. Just don't expect to be paying $1.69 for E-85 or soy diesel in a couple of years.

 

Biofuels won't buy immunity from supply disruption caused by weather or other natural phenomena, either. There have been years when whole regions of the country experienced near-total crop failure because of drought. The spread of crop diseases like soybean rust jeopardizes the reliability of yields and increases production costs. Refineries and offshore rigs had to be shut down for months because of Katrina. The impact of a major crop failure lasts for a year, minimum, until completion of the next crop cycle; a multi-year failure isn't an impossibility.

The spread of crop diseases like soybean rust jeopardizes the reliability of yields and increases production costs. Refineries and offshore rigs had to be shut down for months because of Katrina. The impact of a major crop failure lasts for a year, minimum, until completion of the next crop cycle; a multi-year failure isn't an impossibility.

 

Excellent point! I hadn't considered that before.

 

One point that is often made is that for ethanol to replace a significant amount of oil on the market, much of the corn we grow for food would have to be reallocated to ethanol production. I saw a stat that, if we replaced all of the U.S.'s oil consumption with ethanol, we'd have to devote the entire U.S. land mass to growing corn. Of course, ethanol has a very poor energy returned on energy invested of like 1:1 to 1:2 whereas conventional oil averages 1:50. That ethanol figure includes all farming and distribution costs, since ethanol can't be pumped through a pipeline and has to be transported by more expensive and energy-intensive truck or train. Ethanol proponents frequently leave that little tidbit out of their EROI stat sheets.

Finally, a decent article on the importance of land use in directly affecting our transportation choices and, thus, our nation's gluttonous oil use.....

_________

 

http://www.planetizen.com/node/19750

Connecting The Dots On High Gas Prices

planetizen.com

15 May, 2006

Author: Anthony Flint

 

Pundits may not be facing up to the ultimate answer to rising energy costs -- our physical environment -- but the American consumer is already deep into the calculus, says Anthony Flint, author of This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America.

 

Connecting The Dots On High Gas Prices

 

A friend of mine switched jobs recently, from a big employer in an office park off Boston's second beltway, to offices downtown. Before, he had a two-hour roundtrip commute driving alone in his car; now he walks to the train station in Boston's Roslindale section and rides 10 minutes, just enough time to read the Wall Street Journal, he says. With the shorter commute he's had more time to be active in the neighborhood, where the storefronts on Washington Street are getting makeovers one after the other, and new restaurants seem to open every few months. He marvels at the prices at the local gas station just like everybody else in Boston – but joyfully, he’s not filling the tank once a week anymore. More like once a month, if that.

Has anyone noticed an increase in people using the RTA bike racks or bike riders using public transit with the rising fuel prices as spring is now here and summer is just around the corner? And to enlighten me-are their similar bike and ride programs around the state? I'm a little Clevo-centric in this regard.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051600980.html

 

May 16, 3:28 PM EDT

 

AP Centerpiece: More Take 2-Wheel Commute

 

By TERENCE CHEA

Associated Press Writer

 

 

AP Photo/NOAH BERGER

U.S. Video

Advertisement

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Fed up with sitting in traffic and paying more than $50 to fill his tank, Scott Morrison ditched his gas-guzzling pickup and started biking to work.

Has anyone noticed an increase in people using the RTA bike racks or bike riders using public transit with the rising fuel prices as spring is now here and summer is just around the corner? And to enlighten me-are their similar bike and ride programs around the state? I'm a little Clevo-centric in this regard.

 

Bike racks are showing up on a lot of systems. Fort Wayne has had them for several years, and they seem to be well-utilized. Various suburban areas are somewhat navigable by bike, but the roads that interconnect them are bicycle suicide. With the bike racks, a person living in an inner city neighborhood may be able to get to a job in an outlying area, even though the job site may be a couple of miles from the nearest bus stop.

Seems this columnist's editor didn't read the whole column before writing the headling and sub-head. It's more about the suburbs/exurbs and how gas prices threaten to erode their viability...

_________________

 

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,,1776877,00.html

 

I like driving in my car

 

Americans' obsession with their cars did not come about by accident. Paul Harris charts the rise of General Motors

 

Thursday May 18, 2006

 

I could not tell if the look on the woman's face was disdain or pity. But either way she did not understand that I wanted to rent a small car, not a big one. 'Are you sure you don't want an upgrade, honey?' she said, eyeing me suspiciously 'The car you've booked is really small.'

She offered a bigger car at the same price, perhaps thinking I was angling for a deal. No, I told her, I genuinely don't like driving big cars. I can't see the point and they are hell to park. Give me something small and boxy, please. In the end she let me have my way but I think she was genuinely offended.

 

That was in Texas. But it's happened at rental car counters all over America. The concept that you actually prefer a little car to a tank-like SUV seems difficult to grasp. Invariably I get offered a bigger vehicle for the same price. When I turn down the deal I am usually spoken to in a tone of voice that suggests I must be an escaped village idiot. Or very poor.

A thought-provoking piece...

_______________

 

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2006/05/after-prosthetic-society.html

 

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

After the Prosthetic Society

 

 

It's often said that generals prepare to fight the last war rather than the next one, and the same thing deserves to be said at least as much of societies in general. In every age, most people believe that the current state of affairs can be counted on to keep on going forever, and they plan for the future on the assumption that it'll be just like the present, only more so. Political, economic, and cultural institutions do the same thing, and too often spiritual traditions -- which exist to point out inconvenient realities -- get swept up in the consensus. Then the future comes along and does something different, and everyone who thought they knew what was coming ends up sitting in the wreckage wondering what happened.

This writer didn't coin the term "prosthetic culture", it's been floating around now for more than a decade amongst post-post-structural theory buffs, aka art professors, cultural theory professors, women's studies professors.  Type those words into Amazon's search window and you'll get a number of hits. 

 

>Similarly, people used to entertain themselves by singing and playing musical instruments, but we have CDs and iPods for that now. They used to exercise by taking walks in the park, but we have treadmill machines for that. In place of memories, we have Palm Pilots; in place of imagination, we have TVs, and so on.

 

It's just this cynical mindset that allows certain ideas to become fashionable among the gang I identified above.  To look back on previous eras fondly is almost always a big mistake, and to convince onesself(spelling? I guess I've never written this word [or words] before) that there isn't anyone doing anything of value anymore is simply symptomatic of the believer being a shut-in. 

 

Oil at $100? It's No Longer a Pipe Dream

 

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/16154

 

Last May, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - News) raised eyebrows on Wall Street by releasing a report warning that crude oil could see a "super spike," with prices reaching as high as $105 per barrel. And now? Well, the price of the front-month crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange is averaging above $65 per barrel for the year to date, after hitting an all-time high on Apr. 21 of $75.35. While crude prices have pulled back somewhat since then, it seems the Goldman warning may not be so far from reality after all.

 

Earlier projections assumed that a serious supply disruption would be necessary to move prices to their current lofty levels. And yet the market price has reached nearly $75 through a combination of factors that have had little effect on overall world supply: geopolitical wrangling about

Iran's nuclear program, continued volatility in Iraqi security and output, and a particularly bad spate of militia violence in Nigeria.

^Could someone distill all that economic mumbo-jumbo and explain, in Cajun English, why oil could hit $100 a barrel this year again?

Well, them thar production of Texas Tea (or the gooey toxic gunk them's pumping in the rest of the world) ain't keeping up with our thirst for it. Heck, even them A-rabs can't pump more to lower prices at the local choke, pump and puke. But some places where they does got the black gold in heaping helpings are some pretty scary places, like where them I-Rainyans, or that chump in Venezoo-wayla, or them crazy Ni-jeer-yans all live. So if things keep going like real bad in those places, I mean bad-to-the-blazes, we're in fer a world of hurt. All them shrimping boats are gonna cost a whole lot more to fetch new catches. Ditto for the crawdads and the runs to the store down the road a piece for more brews and chew.

Dang! Never misunderestimate KJP's ability to make the uppity mumbo-jumbo clear. :lol:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12934470/

 

Ethanol as gas replacement: Hope or hype?

Despite increased production, skeptics say corn-based fuel won't replace oil

 

By Dylan Ratigan

Anchor, 'On The Money'

CNBC

Updated: 2 hours, 20 minutes ago

As the price of oil and gas has continued to spike, consumers have been left wondering — who’s coming to the rescue?

 

The PR campaign du jour would have Americans believe that ethanol is the Great Green Hope.

 

“We've got to go from a hydrocarbon economy to an economy that’s no longer dependent upon oil, and that’s where we're headed,” President Bush told NBC’s Brian Williams in a recent interview. “The ultimate solution is to promote ethanol"

 

As the president pushes ethanol as a solution to the energy shortage, corporate America is embracing ethanol to pitch its products.

How about a little help over here...

 

http://www.columbusgasprices.com/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=1&category=1087&topic=89926&page_no=1&FAV=N

 

I've been posting under the name "Urbanite" and could use some like minded people to attempt to educate others about the nature of gasoline, but have been met with loads of denial.  Admittingly, I could've been more tactful, but the people posting on these boards really ruffle my feathers.

 

If anyone wants to share more information about the topic, feel free to post :)

Just posted one.  Thanks for the tip Brewmaster & Urbanite.  Right on!

Thanks Noozer...great post!

I read some of that stuff on columbusgasprices.com, along with the entries by noozer and brewmaster/urbanite, and remembered something an older, wiser person told me years ago:

 

"Never try to teach pigs to sing. It wastes your time, and only annoys the pigs."

But I hate watching pigs drown in their own slop. Call me a softy.

It's pretty clear after my visit to the columbusgasprices.com, a good number of these folks are certified morons.