I hear that alot, from alot of people. Of course, there’re the old people who remember when it was a quarter or some shit, but I’ll concern myself only with what I’ve lived through while actually owning a vehicle I needed to gas up. So, call it about 16 years.

Now we’re looking at $3 a gallon and rising, and the American consumer is looking for someone to blame for it.

The average American consumer, however, is a dolt. We know this.

Here’s some bottom line, fact-type shit that people should know before they open their ill-informed pieholes (and yeah, I’m looking at you, Mr./Mrs. Congressperson):

1. There is a finite amount of global crude production per day.
2. As China and India continue to emerge as industrial economic powers, they have put hugely increased demand on that aforementioned finite supply.
3. As demand rises in ratio against available supply, prices rise. Imagine that!

Additionally, there are other factors at play. Five come to mind immediately:

1. The instability of regimes where crude is being produced (Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, etc).
2. The lack of domestic refining capability (we’re flooded in crude, but without the ability to refine it into gasoline, we’re screwed at the pump).
3. Various state laws regarding gasoline mixture and additives.
4. The lack of domestic crude production.
5. National cessation of development of nuclear power facilities.

If you want to find the culprits behind 2, 3, 4 and 5 in that list, look no further than your friendly neighborhood Environmentalists and the Democratic politicians they have in their pockets. That said, that lobby has dome some wonderful things for the country, on national and local levels. However, they’ve just taken it way, way overboard (think, “Global Warming Alarmism”).

People are crying about the Exxon executive who just received a 400m retirement package. My question to you: Who was crying for the oil industry 20 - 25 years ago when it was losing money hand-over-fist?

Guess what? YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING CAPITALIST, FREE-MARKET ECONOMY. Criticize how they spend that profit if you like, but if you’re going to critize them for making it, do us all a favor and move to some socialist shithole and leave us Americans alone. Remember, little mister pinko, that for every 9 cents profit “Big Oil” is making on that gallon of gas your ass just burned driving to Blockbuster to rent “Farenheit 9-11″ for the seventh time, the Feds are soaking you for 18 cents in taxes. Your local government? Up to 40 cents. Where’s it going? Services to illegal aliens, for one. One among many, many wasteful, poorly-managed government cash sinkholes we commonly refer to as “social services”.

You live in a world with a commodities market. Oil is a commodity. It is in increasing demand, driving the price up. There is nothing anybody can reasonably do to abate this quickly, no matter what your superheroes in Washington try to tell you. They’re a bunch of slackjawed, vote-pandering faggots. Congress isn’t worth a pisshole in the snow.

You want to pay less at the pump? Here’s what we need to do:

1. Revitalize the nuclear sector.
2. Build some refineries, for the love of Christ (Al Gore, I’m looking at you, here. Asshole).
3. Decide on one gasoline formula for the country. If you change that formula, change it nationally.
4. Develop our own crude, like the Colorado Oil Shales and, yes, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Fucking Dems, man, lemme tell you. Caribou? Fuck the Caribou. They can get in line with the French.
5. Promote the evolution of stable democracies where the oil comes from, in the meantime.
6. Drive less. It won’t kill you to get your fat American ass on a bike. As demand drops, surprise! SO DOES THE PRICE.
7. Politicians need to learn to shut their fucking gobs. Every time they go public with their saber-rattling and/or whining about gouging, the market jitters spike the price some more.

Whew. I think I just used up my whole profanity quota for the month.

Edit 04/28 5:46pm EST: Hey Al, the only Inconvenient Truth is that Ted Kennedy is a useless, drunken twat.

Edit 05/02 10:35am EST: Idiotard douches like Tim Russert are a large part of the “Problem in America”. It’s no wonder people remain ignorant.