Can We Please Stop the Sniveling !

I'm sorry, I really am sorry, but I can't take the hysteria over gasoline prices anymore.

We've got politicians in headless-chicken mode all over Capitol Hill. Tax the oil companies ! (A good idea, but where have you been ?) Give everybody $100 ! (Please. I know people who spend $100 to fill up.) Spend a few billion on a technology that will pay off in a decade or so ! (Double please.) Drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ! (Triple please!)

Does everybody know what the rest of the world, particularly the industrial world, pays for gasoline ? How about $5.64 a gallon in Tony Blair's U.K ? Or $5.29 in Germany ? Or $5.08 in Denmark ? No panic. No anger. That's what it costs. Thanks to CNN for the data.

Let's drop the spoiled child act, shall we ? We, that's the United States, not just Zooheads, represent 5% of the world's population and we consume 26% of the world's energy. Got that ? That's five times our per capita share. And now we want to insist that it also be cheap ?! Is there no shame left ?

Oh, yes, I almost forgot about inflation. Inflation makes the price of everything go up, so of course gas is more expensive than it was. You need to adjust for inflation to find out if something, oh, say, gasoline, is relatively more expensive. And what do we find ?

The inflation adjusted record price was in 1981, about $3 a gallon. Just like now, you cry ! Shut up ! Today's inflation adjusted price is about $2.25. Less than half of the present price in much of the world.

Let's suck it up, stop sniveling and take a long look at the gas guzzling behemoths, capable of speeds we can never attain, of which we are so fond.

Zooheads, unite ! Stay calm, stay "conservative" and

Stay Naked.
jd