A moment of observation…

…in which I think the gas station is now advertising fuel at a rate of 41.9 cents per gallon, instead of the actual $4.19 per gallon.  For a virtual nanosecond I feel excitement.  But then I wonder, much as I used to about phone charges, if, in a country so in love with gambling, getting away with something/screwing the system, and not being affected by the realities of supply and demand that the rest of the world experiences, that a real opportunity exists here for the gas stations with the balls to try it out:

Gas is, in fact, now only 1/10th of what it should be, i.e., 41.9 cents per gallon.  But, for five minutes every day, chosen at “random”, gas suddenly becomes 10x what it normally is, i.e., 41.99 per gallon, for all customers unlucky enough to purchase anything in that small window.  Obviously some of these numbers would have to be tweaked in order to make the whole venture profitable, but you don’t think customers would be lining up around the block for their 41.9 cent gas?  Shiiiiiiiit.  Of course, the problem here is that it’s only a matter of time before someone with a hot temper and plenty of firearms gets screwed in the five-minute window and returns to destroy any and all with extreme prejudice, then grabs a “free” 48 oz. Mountain Dew and waits for the cops to arrive.  This is perhaps an idea whose time has yet to come.

And the fuel shortage/cost rise thing, seriously, stop bitching.  Americans have had it too good for too long anyway.  I’m not suggesting that there aren’t reasonable middle class people who have purchased their lifestyle in a mature and informed manner who are now feeling the pinch hard.  But what I am suggesting is that for every one of them there are about 100 who bought all their unnecessary shit on credit thinking a huge truck or Hummer to boost their ego was more important than getting double-digit gas mileage.  I still see people in oversized vehicles driving with no eye to fuel economy and honk at me angrily because I’m going 55 or not speeding up to red lights.  These are the same people who think that more offshore drilling is the answer to our energy problems and would vote for anyone who can promise $1.19 gas again.  Listen, Greenspan, we hit peak oil production in this country over 30 years ago, and the world is peaking now.  Add to that the demand of places like India and China matching ours with populations several times greater than ours, and prices aren’t ever coming down again.  Time to accept it, writing’s only been on the wall since the 70’s.  The only way to bring oil prices down is to reduce our demand, y’know, by doing that really inconvenient thing like planning, or buying human-sized vehicles that you can drive more than two blocks without having to fill up again.

And nuclear energy?  C’mon, even if it didn’t come with all kinds of wonderful possible Chernobyl-like side effects, do you really think uranium is a renewable resource?  Could we possibly find another form of energy to base our entire infrastructure on that is rarer, more dangerous, and leaves more horrible by-products to dispose of for the next several thousand years?  Like maybe petrified Dodo poop mixed with lead and mercury?

We are in the hunter-gatherer stage of energy consumption, it’s time to start growing our own now.  It’s been a fun ride, but really, I’m done listening to Exxon the Neanderthal’s constant pleadings that more berries and meat are just around the corner if we keep looking, and that there are no dangers to continuing the hunt.

On a completely unrelated note:

Why is that some hardcore Christian types have a problem with swearing, supposedly because the Bible doesn’t use those words?  You know why the Bible doesn’t use shit, piss, fuck, cunt, etc.?  Because they didn’t exist.  English didn’t exist.  I’m sure they had equivalent words, I mean, people didn’t herd animals in the desert without knowning what “shit” was…but just because someone translated it as “manure” doesn’t make it a cleaner word.  It’s the same damn thing.  Just because it says that so-and-so “knew a woman” instead of “he fucked her”, doesn’t change the meaning of the action the words try to describe in the abstract.  This is the biggest concern troll amongst a group with little else to do but fake outrage.

No attempted humor today, some days are rant days.