>>> I am all in favor of high prices. Lets sell it by the quart. As oil rises the cost of alternatives becomes competitive and we can move on into the post petroleum era. Bring it on. No pain, no gain. Sorry, but this is all very necessary. The Dems should be congratulated for what the Repulicoilcans refused to do.<<< Sparkamarker

I see.

And when the local freezers, processors, Varian, Gortons, and Gloucester Engineering are gone away to locales offering cheaper energy, will you still be congratulating the Dems?!?

I'll at least give you credit for being honest about the Dems being responsible for these skyrocketing energy prices, Spark. The Dems have been trying to destroy American manufacturing for decades, and this is how they intend to do it.

>>>Willard, you've actually hit on the answer here, but as usual your partisan bias prevents you from seeing the full picture.

You're right; the real problem with the oil market is the OPEC cartel. If we can break the OPEC cartel, then oil prices will be determined by traditional market forces.

Unfortunately, you're wrong about blaming it on "Democrat obstruction." I'm sure you're aware of the long history between the Bush family and the "royal" family in Saudi Arabia. I'm sure you recall the first president Bush begging Saudi Arabia to limit oil production even further in the 1990s when the bottom truly fell out of the oil market. I'm sure you recall the second president Bush saying that OPEC is good for the world because it helps "stabilize" oil prices. And I'm sure you recently read that Hillary Clinton proposed using the US Justice Department and World Trade Organization to actually break the illegal cartel. ...<<< Martin

Unfortunately, you are wrong. The Saudis will piss themselves laughing at any Hillary Clinton, US Justice Department, and/or World Trade Organization attemts to interfere with their soverign affairs. The cartel is legal and any notion that your're going to "break" it with any of the above worthless efforts is silly. The only way to break the cartels influence on us would be to develop our own domestic alternative supply. Tough to do when the DemocRATs have blocked our access to new refineries, nuclear power, new oilfields, shale oil fields, new natural gas fields, our super compliant coal fields, hydroelectric power, and even wind turbines.

>>>...And your economics lesson is correct; supply and demand determine price. But you are only interested in the supply side of the equation; drill anywhere we can find oil. The demand side is what has actually driven the oil market for the last 20 years. When the US government finally passed the CAFE law in the 1980s, car makers were forced to produce vehicles with better fuel efficiency. Demand dropped, and the price of oil dropped dramatically. ...<<< Martin

You are incorrect. I was monitoring the markets at that time. Saudi oil minister Sheik Yamani was constraining production with hopes of driving the price up and was a little too successful in his efforts. The high prices slowed the world economy and led to a decline in demand and a collapse in prices, and resulted in Sheik Yamani being fired from his position as oil minister.

>>>Willard, I can tell that you are a smart person, ... <<< Martin

And I can tell that you are a person of exceptionally astute perception in recognizing intelligence!

>>>... and I can tell that you are an extremely conservative person. <<< Martin

I am quite liberal in many ways, Martin, but in the classical sense - not the bastardized sense of the word in which Marxists have hijacked it in an effort to make themselves sound less malevolent and duplicitous than they really are.

>>>...But I can't believe that you really believe that all Republicans are right about everything, ... <<< Martin

Another astute perception, because they're not.

>>>...and that all the ills of our country are the faults of every Democrat.<<< Martin

A less astute observation, because it is the fault of the Marxist leadership that has hijacked the party, not "every" Democrat, and not "all" the ills - just most of them.

>>> .... That's just too simplistic a view of the world for a smart person to have. <<< Martin

Indeed it is.

You talk of "partisanship" earlier as if that is a bad thing, Martin. It isn't. "Partisans" from all over the world stopped Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Napoleon, etc. The meme spouted and repeated by leftists that "partisanship is bad" is an absurdity, because the spouters themselves are the most "partisan" ideologues around. Their bastardization of the word partisan itself reeks of hypocrisy considering what they really mean is that anyone who disagrees with their idiotarianism is "partisan" - and anyone stupid enough to swallow it "isn't."

Your concern about me ridiculing leftists (DemocRATs) is a little curious considering you seem to be a bit more open minded than the flock of knee-jerk, cookie cutter, mind-knumbingly leftist orthodox mooonbats roosting in these parts. Are you really content listening to the same simplistic leftist meme being bleated at the same time by the same simplistic leftist moonbats in the same simplistic leftist echo-chamber, or can you agree that an occasional stick of TNT thrown in with them may not make them any smarter - but it sure makes them a hell of a lot more entertaining!!!

BTW, political parties are a tool to do a job - a means to an end. Right now, the DemocRAT party is the tool that Marxists are using to try and replace the good system we have now with the rotten system that they've ruined every country that's been foolish enough to let them try it with. The Republican Party is a means to prevent that from happening. This ex-Democrat (a real Democrat, not a Marxist masquerading as Democrat) and all other citizens who care about this country are lucky to have this means at their disposal, considering how rotten and treasonous the leadership of my old party has become.

Terribly partisan, isn't it?!?

Let's hope Americans wise up and throw out the leftists (Dems) before they do too much more damage as well.

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Eurocrats Go After Car Ads

While their chauffeurs sit out front in oversized limos with the engines running so they can keep the heat going in the winter and the AC in the summer, Brussels Eurocrats have been dreaming up ways to prevent commoners from soiling Gaia by driving the wrong automobiles.

Soon all car ads in Europe will have to highlight gas mileage and allegedly harmful CO2 emission in large type. References to sportiness are to be "frowned up." With typical grandiose arrogance, Euroweenies announce they will be "rebuilding society" and "changing habits in consumption and production" by dictating the content of car ads.

As usual when it comes to bureaucratic moonbattery, the French come out on top, as they tend to make wobbly little death traps with high mileage and low sportiness. German manufacturers, which produce cars that people actually want to drive, are getting the short end.

Even the libs at Der Spiegel are fed up:

From breakfast cereal to Coca-Cola, everything is being classified as being either good or bad for citizens, who apparently have lost the ability to make that judgment on their own. Brussels, says advertising executive [Volker] Nickel, is staging "a gigantic reeducation program for consumers and producers."

Last summer, for example, complex rules were introduced to regulate the way food producers advertise their products. A central register with officially-sanctioned phrases is even in development for language that includes health claims, such as "Builds Immunity" or "Keeps you in Good Shape." Once the register is complete, alternative expressions will no longer be allowed.

Wernhard Möschel, a law professor at the University of Tübingen in southwest Germany, is incensed over the way the EU's producers of rules and regulations treat the consumer "as a pathological idiot in need of supervision, as someone who can't tell the difference between red and white wine."

Get used to it, Herr Möschel. The forced infantilization of Europe is well underway.

On a tip from Oiao.

www.moonbattery.com

High Gas Prices and the Marxist tactic of Crisis revolution

Karl Marx, (1818-1883), believed capitalism was the next to last stage in the evolution to an earthly utopia, which would be ushered in through revolution; a revolution resulting from the tensions that existed between workers and the owners of production. According to Marx, the final stage of this evolution toward utopia would result when workers rose up in revolution to overthrow the business owners who were exploiting them through a capitalistic economy. We know Marx's "utopia" and other aspects of his philosophy by their more prominent name: communism.