If you have email you no doubt have some friends who bombard your inbox with forwarded drivel promising to include you in a class action suit against Microsoft or threatening you with seven years of plague and pestilence if you do not forward, to at least ten people, their story which assures good fortune.  Today I received “one of those” forwards from a friend who is not normally prone to the bad habit of sending me crap.  I was intrigued enough to read it.  It quite possibly could have enough impact on gas prices that I have decided to share it with you.  I love the idea of targeting Exxon in light of their announcement yesterday that their CEO, who earned over $55,000,000 last year, received a retirement package worth over $400,000,000.  A little adaptation is required because Exxon/Mobile is does not hold a large portion of the market for retail gasoline where I live.  I would suggest that in your community you select the largest retailer of gasoline and target them to most effectively have an impact on the pump prices you pay.  In my hometown the major gasoline outlet is Handi-mart and I have chosen them as the target of a campaign on the home front.  Here is the original e-mail:

 

GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work.

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It’s worth your consideration.

Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.  This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap.  Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..... Not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers.  It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out at this point.... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)  How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!

I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you?

Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.

THIS CAN REALLY WORK

Currently: 84°	Cedar Rapids Weather Thursday 4/13/2006 Fair	High: 85°
		Low: 56°

 

 

 

 

 

Weather like this in the early days of April makes me giggle.  Try as I might to project the image of a tough and weathered Harley guy I couldn’t help myself from grinning as I made my way to and from work today.  The Harley is so much more nimble and agile than my boatalina, the Yukon, as I navigate downton traffic and the main north-south artery that handles daily west side commuters.  I truly can not describe what it does for me to straddle my Harley and run it through the gears, twisting the throttle, working the clutch and feeling its responsiveness to my subconscious desires.  After over thirty years of motorcycling my bike just goes where I will it; whether that be a high speed turn through a country sweeper or racing perilously close to quarter panels as I seek the open real estate of a lane in front of slower moving traffic.  The resonating rumble and cackle of the big V-twin power plant accompanies my ride like discordant music that matches the drama of my travels.  Ahhh, it is so. 

            I suppose it has something to do with growing up Catholic but a day like today makes me feel guilty.  After a long winter of bitter weather, survived only through the ardent hope inherent with the renewing bounty of spring, we are finally able to emerge from the darkness and despair of our seasonal plight.  Okay, I’m laughing my ass off now.  I really tried to get poetic on you there and it all came out as so much horse do-do.  Hey give me credit for not saying the “the winter of our discontent!”  Back to the guilt.  Guilt I am good at.  An eighty-five degree day in April in Iowa is like stealing.  Those of us who you might describe as older than dirt know that a warm streak in April does not mean we won’t see snow in early May.  When we get a day like today we are prone to really resent not being independently wealthy.  One day, when mourning the fact that I had not achieved anything resembling independent wealth, a friend of mine suggested that independent wealth was over rated.  He went on to explain that he would be perfectly content being dependently wealthy.  He had a point.

          It is hard to be thankful for the little things on a day like today.  Little things like being gainfully employed in a career that affords challenges and excitement are resented when you have to return to your desk from the midday sun.  Things like having a wonderful family and friends who care about you seem less significant when the weather is perfect and your Harley has a full tank of gas.  Having earned a degree that you can apply in meeting the obligations of being a contributing member of society just doesn’t seem all that important when there are lonely stretches of country road rising to meet a pristine blue sky under a bright spring sun.  Such thoughts entered my mind today and that is the nature of my guilt.  I’m gonna get over it though.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a day just like today.

Okay, I’m back.  I’m still feeling some of the ramifications of my angst from yesterday.  A very good friend had a very bad day and it affected me.  Things are what they are and you have to take refuge in the idea that everything that happens ends up for the best.  Sometimes it is just damn hard to see what good can come from difficult situations.  Would that you could you would do that Clark Kent suit peeling thing and start speeding around the planet so rapidly you would cause the rotation of the earth and thus time to reverse in the attempt to alter the course of action which led to the problem in the first place.  Actually, we all know that merely reversing the rotation of the earth would not reverse time.  Up until that time reversal scene Superman The Movie was pretty damn believable in my mind.

Gas prices are something I could complain about and I would except that I am trying to end this two day funk I have been in.  I’m not even going to complain about the fact that a barrel of oil holds forty-two gallons and the rising cost of a barrel of gas is significantly less than the rise in the price per gallon we have seen at the pumps.  During the last four months the price of ethanol per gallon has dropped while the price of gasoline has risen.  The Kansas City Star reported “Oil companies are keeping gas supplies tight and prices high even though ethanol is plentiful and available at prices that have dropped forty cents a gallon or more since the beginning of the year.”  Yet with all this favorable economic news from the ethanol industry, not to mention the fact that ethanol reduces toxic emissions from tail pipes, major oil refineries have said they will stop using MTBE on May 5 when the federal requirement for a clean-air oxygenate is lifted as part of an energy law enacted last summer.  This is where I have to stop or I will go off on a rant about the freekin oil industry lobby, political contributions and beholding unethical, immoral and crooked politicians we seem to have elected.  Really, I won’t say any more.  …Except, when gas prices hit three bucks a gallon this summer and there is a smog alert in your city think whether or not you think seeing the Ten Commandments displayed in your local post office is more important that a comprehensive strategic energy policy.

My home town newspaper reported of a couple who has been arrested for filing a fake obituary of their son in an attempt to get a few days off work.  It seems that the whole plan went afoul after family friends saw the seventeen year old son at a downtown restaurant.  I wonder what the boy thought when his friends reported seeing his obituary in the newspaper.  Never mind.  Somehow I just can’t imagine this type of parent being capable of raising a child who would actually have friends that read.   They have been charged with tampering records.  Hey, I couldn’t make this crap up. http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2006/04/10/news/metro/3b0cedc85d77b5868625714c004e562e.txt

The USA Today reported that an 82 year old cane wielding woman was charged with obstructing traffic in the San Fernando Valley this week.  She was shuffling across the street as fast as she could but failed to make it to the other side before the light turned red.  Her fine for the incorrigible offense?  $114.00.  It’s good to know that the streets are safe in the San Fernando Valley.  http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-04-11-woman-walking_x.htm

It’s an absurd world out there.  Anyone feel like starting a commune?

That darn old liberal media.  Okay, lets take a look at this . . . . . Ok, sorry, let’s take a look at something else for awhile.  Guest blog from the Red Hog’s spousal unit because the Red Hog is busy having a bad day.  Not a mind crushing bad day, but a bad day.  And since he’s still working, and I (said spousal unit) am not working, I decided to help him out.  If you’re actually reading this, I guess that means he accepted the offer of help.  If you’re not reading this, well, I guess you’ll never know I tried to help.  If a blong (that would be a blog entry written by a blonde) never gets published, is it kind of like that tree falling in the forest when there’s no one around to hear it?  Talk amongst yourselves.

You know when you have a bad day?  Ever notice how it colors everything else which might otherwise have been good about your day?  He’s having a day like that, but, like I said, he’s working, and I am not, so it’s probably a little easier for me to see the good stuff about his day.  So, here’s the good stuff.

Good thing number one: His whole family is temporarily back under one roof for the week.  And as chaotic as that can be, it’s good to have everyone back home.  The kids are all getting along at the moment.  They are quietly watching a movie together right now.  It is very good to watch them appreciate each other more, mostly because they are sometimes apart.  I think that appreciation thing is working for all of us.  I know it’s working for me.  And I know you shouldn’t wait to appreciate what you’ve got until it’s not there.  I will try to keep that in mind.  That’s good.  (I had originally written ‘that’s a good thing’, but because Martha Stewart is one of the number one people I do not like – anyone who makes working mom’s feel more guilty than they already do is one my bad list, I just had to not quote her).

Good thing number two:  It was seventy degrees here today.  And for those of you who know my husband, you know what that means.  He got to ride his motorcycle to work today without freezing those parts of his anatomy which he normally conceals behind the leopard print Speedos.  And that’s good.  Both the riding and the non-freezing.

Good thing number three:  He ran into a friend today that he hadn’t seen for about twenty years.  More about that later, because he wants a picture to accompany the blog entry about it or some other publisher eccentricity thing so I can’t give it away.  But that was good too.

Good thing number four: He’s home now.  And while his day is not over, he is really going to enjoy editing this, I’m sure.  He’s having a glass of port.  Go figure.   I’m having a beer, which is a shocker.  Not.  So, have a good day.  And I mean it.   Bye for now.        

 

Red Hog Comment: Sheesh the old lady can write!  Who knew?  Okay, I knew.  Getting her to do it has been a problem.  I greatly appreciate her stepping up to write today’s post because I have had a truly shitty day.  Actually if was fine until about four PM.  I read in another blog one time where a bloggerist referred to his spouse as “she who must be obeyed”  I liked that.  It fits my household. 

The family is back for their Easter break.  Suddenly my once quiet and organized house has exploded with activity and the accompanying clutter that comes from living out of suitcases and back-packs.  The resultant warmth and laughter that makes our house a home more than compensates for the disruption of my routine but I have had moments where I teetered on the brink of freaking out.  The sipping Port, smokin’ cigarettes and listening to the smooth jazz as I write my blog has gone by the wayside for the coming week.  I will have to find an alternate routine for which to perform my magic.  So it goes.

Today has been a whirlwind of family-type activities that one takes for granted normally but has proven sentimental and meaningful because I just don’t get to experience that on a daily basis anymore.  A weekend a month is about all the time we typically get together.  While I loathe presenting a “what I did today” post I hope you will bear with me.  After over sleeping to the point church was not possible we opted to head for the grocery store.  It seems the cupboards and refrigerator collection of bachelor food stuff was not adequate to appease a more traditional family unit.  I don’t know what their problem was.  The milk’s expiration date had only expired last week and we had a half full jar of bacon bits and some American cheese in the event someone wanted a sandwich.  Other than that some frozen Schwann’s Italian meatballs and a can of green chili’s about rounded out the options.

While at the grocery store an impatient and disgruntled man interrupted our cashier while demanding that someone help him find plastic forks.  He was being an ass and he was keeping the cashier, whom I had waited in line for patiently, from continuing to help get me done and on my way.  I told him he was being an ass and that he should wait until the cashier finished with what she was doing before continuing his tirade.  My wife turned a pale shade of white and apologetically told the guy that she knew where they were and would be happy to show him while I waited for our groceries to be scanned.  I don’t know where that check-out lane aggressiveness came from but sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do.  I apologized to the teen-aged cashier and explained that grouchy people just tend to make me grouchy in return.  She laughed and I can only hope she appreciated my intervention. 

Once home I played king bar-b-que and displayed my man-cooking prowess for the ladies in the house.  When it comes to the culinary arts I can’t do much but I do know how to work the grill to perfection.  Since my wife and two of my children moved to Virginia a change has come over me that I truly don’t want to think about in great detail.  I had mentioned to one of my best friends some of the changes that have been occurring in my life and she said, “Oh, that’s sweet.  You are nesting.” or something to that effect.  In the past I would have been fully content to retire to the living room or outside to the deck for a smoke after a dinner such as we had but today.  I found myself clearing the table, washing the dishes and putting them away before I turned around to see what else I could do to return the house to something resembling it’s recent condition. 

Off to the park!  It was a beautiful spring day with a sunny sky and mid-sixties temperatures.  The first weekend day as such since those many months ago when the Iowa winter made its return is always a day where you will find the streets and parks alive with those who longed for some time in the sun.  We took a ball and played some four-square and then played a game of H.O.R.S.E.  It was a freekin’ marathon.  The most athletic person in our family is my 17 year old wrestler son.  We sucked.  We opted, after I lost, to do something we are sure that we are good at!  Dairy Queen!  As we exited the truck to go in for our well deserved treats my six year old son inquired if we could play another game of H.O.R.S.E. when we got home.  Still a little sore from losing I said, “I’ll horse ya one!” to which my six year old replied in a condescending and superior tone, “Um, Dad.  Horse is not a verb”  I couldn’t beat him in H.O.R.S.E. and I can’t beat him in a battle of wits.  Sheesh.

Off to the mall we went.  I was somewhat relieved and understanding of the reaction of the technician at the optical store when she looked up and saw us enter. We had gone to pick up my son’s new eye glasses.  She stage whispered to a co-worker, “Here comes trouble.”  Normally I might take exception to someone audibly expressing their opinion regarding the rambunctious nature of my youngest child but I was still stinging from his sharp grammatical correction and appreciated the help in knocking him down a peg.

From the optical store we went to one of those fancy department stores that have the pianist serenading shoppers as they peruse the racks.  I had no interest in any of their offerings and my wife wanted to look at some shoes.  Fine with me.  The shoe area had some very inviting couches for patrons to sit on while they tried on shoes or waited for their significant other to handle every shoe in the expansive department.  Before long I noticed that many women did as my wife did, going from rack to rack picking up shoes and examining as they turned them around.  They would look at the tops, look at the bottoms, look at the left side and then examine the right side before setting them back down and moving to the next pair.  I’m not sure what this phenomenon is all about but I am glad that it appeared to be a gender specific trait and one that is inherent to a gender other than mine.   After a considerable amount of time my wife returned and sat beside me with no shoes in her possession.  After inquiring as to why my wife had not selected any shoes she explained to me that “It is just fun to look.”  Uh-huh.  Looked like a riot to me. 

The evening looks to be filled with family togetherness, a movie, some popcorn and just plain old fashioned family stuff.  I think I can handle it. 

"Knowledge is the key to freedom; transparency is the enemy of corruption and tyranny, and an informed public will make intelligent decisions."

Editorial, The State Port Pilot, North Carolina, 2005

 

Paul K. McMasters is First Amendment ombudsman at the First Amendment Center.  His commentary on 26 February 2006 addressed the idea that one of the greatest dangers of some information policies employed in the war on terror are modeled on the tactics used by those terrorists we oppose.  Government employees have specific examples of reference for being reluctant to share information with Congress.  Mr. McMasters explains that this reluctance is more significant as those Government employees diminish information they are able to share with the American public, their real employer.  A culture of silence is emerging throughout the federal government.

Examples of situations propagating this culture of silence include political appointee interference with agency scientists at NASA.  A leading authority on global warming at NASA has been presented with guidelines of what he can say in all manner of public communications regarding the issue.  Officials at EPA screen all contacts with the press by their scientists.  A Veteran’s Administration nurse is being investigated for an act of sedition for a letter she sent to a local weekly newspaper which was critical of the administration.

Meanwhile, Donald Rumsfeld criticized the U.S. press for reporting on Pentagon initiatives to engage in disinformation operations.  And at home, “The Government Accountability Office reported in mid-February that in two and a half years, seven agencies spent $1.6 billion on media and advertising, including government-produced video news releases that both the GAO and Congress labeled “covert propaganda.”**  $1.6 billion for covert propaganda by our government to be used against American citizens?  Where the hell are the fiscal conservatives when you need them?

We were deceived about the weapons of mass destruction, the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame, the funding of Bush tax cuts out on the back of social security (remember the lock box thingy), and yadda, yadda, yadda.  It seems pathological.  During the 2004 campaign, Bush claimed “Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so.” Uh-huh.  During his Veteran’s Day 2005 address, Bush charged that, “… more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate -- who had access to the same intelligence -- voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power. "  Wrong, everybody now knows that Congress had substantially edited information on which to make their decision.  “I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”  President Bush (09/01/05) Whoops.  Should I go on?  No, you get the point.     

This pattern of dishonesty, half truths and lies by omission not only undermine the confidence of the American people and our allies with regards to our credibility but it renders us hypocritical as we seek to plant the seeds of democracy in the lands of our enemies.  The very attributes this administration seek to diminish, criticism and dissention, are borne of the policies they employ.  When you combine these patterns of deception with a punitive environment for people exercising their First Amendment rights you have to wonder where this country is going.  How far will things go before we critically tune into what is going on in our capital and demand reformation?  The freedoms you lose could be your own!

**http://www.firstamendmentcenter.com/commentary.aspx?id=16534