Oil

7 years ago the average price for a barrel of crude oil was $11.91. Today it is around $68/barrel. Can someone please demonstrate to me that the strain on the supply today is 6 times the strain in 1998? I know it's a naive question. I don't give a damn.

Here's where I got my data


By the way, the conflict in Iraq has nothing to do with oil. I don't know if you had heard.

Interesting site

Someone had an interesting idea. From the website: "Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator...

...provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe..."

Sign the petition - Very Important

It's your duty

Google Maps - bonney lake, wa

The neighborhood

Somewhere in there is where I live. I like Google Maps.

Ugh...

On the subject of racial profiling...Even if I grant you that pulling every "Muslim" looking person aside and searching them for bombs will act as some sort of deterrent to terrorism, what do you do about the Timothy McVeighs of the world? Do we start detaining all 27 year-old white guys? Dis-gruntled military vets? Are they on the watch list? Do we stop and search all rental moving vans? Where does it stop? And does it really do anything to stop people who are devoted to committing acts of terror?

My Brilliant Three-point Plan...

I am going to solve the terrorism crisis and the health crisis with this inspirational three-point plan.

1. Eliminate all motor vehicles from our roads. Motor vehicles run on petroleum products. This means each car, bus, truck and motorcycle on the road is a rolling potential bomb. Get these menaces off the road right away.

2. Replace each motor vehicle with a bicycle. This will eliminate our dependence on foreign oil and spur a fitness boom. The chronically out-of-shape ( a group I'm in danger of joining) would either get in shape or become a mortality statistic. Either way, they become less a burden on the overall health care system. I also toyed with the idea of regional moving sidewalks. This might be a more compassionate mode of transport for those with health issues.

3. I would not get rid of air travel, so in the interest of security all travelers will enter the airport without clothes and without luggage. Think of the speed with which travelers will be able to get to their departure gates. Security checks will be a breeze. This will also spur financial growth in the apparel industry as all travelers would get off the airplane and head right for the nearest clothing outlet.

So, there it is. Many benefits. Foolproof. Let's face it...genius.

So here's what I was thinking...

I got caught in not one, but two, traffic jams on the way to work. These traffic jams were caused by accidents. They also delayed my arrival at work by a half hour. On a 90 degree day. Thank goodness for air condtioning. Anyhow, what I was thinking is that if stupidity can be proved enough to write a ticket to one or more of the involved parties in an accident, those people ticketed should be open to lawsuits filed by all those folks delayed by proven stupidity. There would be a cap of $500 per claim and any appeals filed on behalf of the offenders would be settled against the class. Only one appeal would be necessary. And financial difficulty would not be a defense. You want to drive three feet off the bumper of the car in front of you in 60 mph traffic, you pay the consequences for any accident you are found at fault for. Standard fines are apparently not enough of a deterrent to those who insist on driving recklessly. You multiply $500 by the hundreds or thousands of commuters you delayed....that might be more of a deterrent.

I know it's not very well thought through but there it is anyhow.