Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Informing Us NOT
I was listening to the Rush Replay like any good American, and at the top of the hour the station put out one of those news-bumpers by Reuters or AP or something…think it was AP. Not sure. Can’t find a link for this.
The big news event that inspired the news bumper was that crude oil hit $67 a barrel. That’s just a simple fact, but one of the tangents that the news-bite-writer thought was really important was that “Regular Unleaded” was now demanding as much as “three dollars a gallon in some cities.”
I live in Sack-O-Tomatoes. Capital of California. Home of spoiled-brat yuppies with hummers that get three miles a gallon, pretending they’re living in Mayberry USA when they’re really living in the middle of a rocky desert. We never saw a regulation we didn’t like, so with the difficulties of trucking any product around this state, whatever gas costs anywhere, it probably costs that much here. I’m forking out $2.60 to $2.70 for premium…I’m thinking if I had to fill up this morning, it would probably run me about $2.75 or so. That is 92 octane. The anchor babe gave me the impression she was talking about 87.
Last night, the spike in crude oil inspired the posting of an apparently-unsourced “Chart of the Day” on one of my favorite stomping grounds, FARK. It’s hard to glean much useful information out of the chart, although it appears the left side of it squares with my memory: Carter messed up the market big time, Reagan fixed it again. (Hey as an aside, why is that?) Adjust for inflation, and the curve of the graph by the late-seventies-early-eighties leaps upward toward three 2003 dollars per gallon.
The thread underneath this graph is pretty informative. Some guy in Houston, TX says he paid .90 back in ’95. A young lady in Virginia says she was paying .55 to .60 in ’97. Probably the best piece of information was the inclusion of this link to all kinds of gas-price graphs, up to the beginning of August, all kinds of regions and all kinds of grades.
But the point of my complaint, is this:
How exactly am I supposed to use, in my everday life, this news tidbit of “three dollars in some cities.” If I hop in my car and drive a couple hours, I can reach the ocean. There are gas pumps out there, some of them with miles and miles and miles of empty road ahead of them, with no other gas pumps out there, anywhere. Perhaps if I take the time to head out that way today, I will find a pump that demands three dollars a gallon. I’m not willing to bet much that it would fall short of that.
So top-of-hour News Lady, is this your “some cities”? Yes? It is? Well then report THAT. Not so much because it would be truth-in-advertising — although it would, because it would disclose that the problem isn’t as bad as you’re trying to make it sound. But maybe I am heading that way today, and if that’s the case, this would be news I could use.
This kind of irritates me, because the news agencies are supposed to be servicing US. I base that on the fact that without people listening to them, they have nothing to do. But they don’t exist to provide services to “real people”, they provide services to power-brokers and movers-and-shakers who want us panicked at certain times and all-calmed-down at certain times.
Meanwhile, since “some cities” sounds like where I live…since it’s a big city, with lots of people who have reason to be here, but charges up the yin-yang for gas…I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a local signpost that says three dollars a gallon. I’ll bet the zenith is going to be $2.789 premium.
Update: I was off by a dime. Premium unleaded is $2.899, Plus is $2.799 and Regular is $2.699.
Top-Of-News-Hour-Lady says it is $3.00 “in some cities” which is thirty cents a gallon higher. So the question remains…where is this? And…why, assuming I care, is it up to me ask the question to find out when I’m supposed to have been informed?
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