Car and Driver Radio - Alan Taylor's Fuel Price Rant
Alan Taylor at Car and Driver Radio expresses loud and vociferous objection to his $800 Oregon to Calif commute fuel bill @$4.00+ per gallon. Car and Driver Radio originates from a studio in the Petersen Auto Museum, Los Angeles CA.
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Alan Taylor and C&D crew;
I think we would be better served to seriously consider the facts in the oil-fuel-refinery flub-a-dub, as opposed to loud and ineffective rants. For one thing a substantial segment of your local audience and many of your I-net audience don't speak or understand English with any confidence. Secondly, about 30-40% of English speaking citizens (semi-literate nincompoops mostly un-educated in public schools) will most often vote Liberal-Socialist. Lib-socialists depend on continued unsolved crisis for gaining greater and greater political power over individuals. They are idealizing "international environmental" solutions - pie-in-sky idiocy that is calculated to cost 45 trillion dollars (and not produce a single additional drop of fuel).
Calif and many other areas are inundated with sub-literate aliens from nations which are either socialist or police states (the next stage beyond initial socialism). They think Gov't is the be-all end-all arbiter of quality of life and manager of material goods. Allowing in a flood of alien welfare dependents and wrecking the school system so that even American kids in public schools don't learn history and self reliance is the root of the problem you are dealing with. This is a worsening problem that will sustain itself for at least two more generations even if we made emergency corrections in the education system today. We could easily protect the borders but neither of the remaining presidential candidates have any serious interest in doing so. Stupidity Votes.
You're sitting in a studio populated by the Movie Car Guy and the Piloti Shoe guy, and Mr. Dick Messer (Museum Director). These people, nice and conversational as they may be, don't give a hoot in any serious way about a self sustaining, strong and traditional America. They are steeped in in internationalist politics and think we need to suck-up to the Europeans to legitimize our existence. They are infected with Hollywood new-age politically correct (superiority complex) celebrity disease. Adopting pop-culture twaddle such as the Global Warming hoax, the cap-and-trade carbon credit hoax, makes them think they are "good people" when they are actually working with socialist termites who are deliberately wrecking the system. You can measure intelligence by watching a man sublimate common sense, patriotism and long term well being to quick profiteering and association with "celebrities".
Influential voting citizens like these have control of the economics and enviro-regulation in USA. They are living in a fantasy and will cause a lot of hardship and destruction (and probably a world Nuc war) before reality bites them and wakes them from their myopic aloof attitudes. A strong well educated America would marginalize and ignore such people, and opt to use our own resources to sustain us through a transition of about 50yrs. We have plenty of oil and nat'l gas for that eventuality. During the transition we can develop an infrastructure for something like hydrogen electrolysis production from water and remain self-sustaining and militarily strong through the whole process. We have to see this as a military and national security imperative.
With a population made up of semi-educated, shouting, boob-tube perpetual adolescents (sound familiar - look in mirror), we are not going to sober up and attack the problem and build a better future as our grandparents did through the depression and two world wars. With state and Fed institutions and political parties controlled by immature, systematically destructive pro-gov't liberals, we are going to remain stalled in a deeper and deeper delay in correcting this problem and continued gov't regulatory interference in a market place that could (if allowed), rapidly R&D an alternative fuel system. The oil companies have absolutely no interest in reducing the oil cartel manipulation of prices. Nor do they have any direct responsibility for production shortfalls - the politicians and enviro-cranks have caused the current impasse which may eventually be catalyst to a catastrophic inflation. The oil companies have come to the conclusion they can stop resisting, just go limp and submit to the Feds and profit from Liberal leftist stupidity, greed-head lobbyist, and speculative distortion of the market. Nor do they have any intention of participating in this quest for hydrogen. THEY ARE IN THE OIL BUSINESS -DUMMY.
The depression our grandparents survived was NOT solved by Gov't (as the Libs like to propagandize), but CAUSED BY GOV'T INTERFERENCE in a normal market correction of excess speculation. WW2 production got us out of depression NOT Roosevelt incompetence. We can produce ourselves out of a recession or depression or a fuel supply transition, IF the population is dedicated to a national effort. Our population is fragmented into ethnic and poltical factions, most of which are unable to understand the problem or too greedy and self serving to pay attention. Most want the Gov't to fix it but the gov't is made up of incompetent corrupt self-serving beetles who only want to assure job security and dept growth. A house divided and tax bankrupted will fall.
Taylor, You drive nearly a 1000 mile round trip commute? I hope you only do this once a week. How does this work out to be $800 in gasoline? 10mpg x 1000 miles = 100gal x$4 = $400. Do you do this twice a week? I have to join with the rich oil company execs in laughing at you for doing this. I moved to a small town and drive approx 10-20 miles a week, and sometimes take a trip of about 100miles round trip two or three times a year. I ride an old Honda 900MC @45MPG for long trips. A few years ago I took two yrs off and did an RV tour of USA and spend about $6-$7K on gasoline (5-8MPG Ford 460) @$1.80-$2.25 per gal. RV travel is another form of idiocy - I'll admit that. Rip-off RV parks and Rip-off mechanics convinced me to stay at home or drive a car or MC to motels in future. I drive a Cadillac coupe (25MPG) and run rings around 5000lb "sports trucks" and especially like to leave them far behind going up mountain passes like the Truckee pass, the Battle Mountain Pass (GA) and the Vail Rockies Passes (Colo) and always had a good laugh at the notion of trying to go fast and corner fast with a huge over weight top-heavy monstrosity. Where do these kinds of ideas come from?