Yikes! Diesel $4.50/gallon

Excuse me? This guy Bruce came in here claiming the USA is on it's knees, on an ash heap, not a democracy and controlled by Jews. And I should sit here and just let that roll by?

As for the USA being hated by some, that's nothing new. We've done more good for more people than any other country on the face of the earth. Regardless of what we do, many people have short memories and others just like to twist, distort and turn everything into a negative, with overtones of malice and conspiracy, like certain posters here.

My retort was fully justified.

Another outrageous and disgusting statement, taking this whole thing eactly where the likes of Bruce want it to go. I'd like to see where the Republicans in any significant, sanctioned or organized way engage in religious slander, hate, or violence. It's simply untrue. I'm a Republican and found Bruce's statements equally offensive.

In message news:8cc9667e-08d0-4a37-99ef- snipped-for-privacy@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com, " snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" burned some brain cells writing:

Seen the dollar recently? The national debt? Gas prices? Food prices? The housing industry?

Seen the dollar recently? The national debt? Gas prices? Food prices? The housing industry?

How well were the non-CFR presidential candidates (Ron Paul, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich) treated by the CFR-dominated media?

What other country could do to the US what Israel has done (multiple spy scandals, 40-year occupations, violations of dozens of UN Security Council resolutions, killing dozens of US servicemen on the USS Liberty, lying about its nuclear arsenal and putting its nuclear whistleblower in solitary confinement for a decade, bulldozing American aid workers and shooting journalists in the face) and not be a parking lot by now?

Since gas at the pump in the US now costs about half of what it does in Europe, if that means the USA is on it's knees, where exactly is Europe? The rest of the chicken little nonsense makes about as much sense. Every time there is a business cycle, or a hiccup in the economy, the extreme pessimists treat it like it's never happened before and the end of the world is at hand. The national debt, which curiously seems to surface here, when viewed as a percent of GDP, is where it was in the 50's. The world didn't end then, it isn't likely to now either.

I see, in your jaundiced view, it's a big conspiracy. The rest of the sane world sees it for what it is. The media covers candidates in proportion to the interest their audience has in hearing about them. If they didn't do that, they'd be out of business. With the whackos above demonstrating very little interest as evidenced by their very low poll ratings, why would they expect to get as much coverage as major candidates? Still, Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich were included in the debates I saw, which were covered and aired. No big conspiracy. It's just that few people want to listen to a whacko rail on about eliminating the Federal Reserve, returning to a gold standard, withdrawing into isolationism and similar irrational positions.

More nonsense. You appear to have fallen off the turnip truck. Just about every country on the face of the earth has spies and many times they spy on friend and foe alike. And Israel has nukes. Big deal, old news and it's a good thing. They may very well take care of some trouble makers like Iran and do the world a favor. In short, none of this does anything to substantiate the claim that the US is controlled by Jews. I've heard it all before, that Jews control the banks, media, govt, etc, and similar antisemitism, which unfortunately is on the rise again in many parts of the world.

In message news: snipped-for-privacy@m3g2000hsc.googlegroups.com, " snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" burned some brain cells writing:

1. "Its" is the possessive and requires no apostrophe. "It's" is a contraction for "it is".
2. The US economy is far more dependent on oil than is Europe. France, for example, gets over 70% of its (note the correct use of "its") electricity from nuclear.

I take your use of sophomoric hyperbole as acknowledgement that you have no rebuttals for my points.

How many times have money center banks collapsed? Oh yeah, during the Great Depression.

1. Take a look here:
   formatting link
   and you will see that in constant dollars, the national debt is soaring.
2. A far higher percentage of today's debt is owned by foreigners (specifically China and OPEC nations).

Ron Paul's finishes ahead of Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson proves you wrong.

So you prefer a dollar that's worth 3 cents and perpetual war?

Nonsense? Which exact point is "nonsense"? Did Israel not do these things?

Who's chairman of the Fed? Who was the previous chairman of the Fed?

and similar antisemitism, which >>unfortunately is on the rise again in man= y parts of the world.

I rest my case. Another antisemite exposed.

Bye, bye bigot.

similar antisemitism, which >>unfortunately is on the rise again in many parts of the world.

He means he LOST his case :-)

And is a very sore loser :-)

In message news: snipped-for-privacy@m45g2000hsb.googlegroups.com, " snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net" burned some brain cells writing:

Typical Israel-firster. Bellows ad-hominems in the face of facts.

Yeah, I don't know that it'd work very well unless you kept your car garaged, never parked it outdoors for long, and maybe even had a block heater. Or blend it with petrodiesel, but still- my experience starting my car in the (barely) freezing weather is that it is Not Easy. If I lived in VT, I'd definitely go not only dual-tank but also route coolant through my veggie oil.

Down in SoCal, though, dual-tank is a waste of energy. :)

Yeah, that sounds like a ticket. $2/gallon seems steep for something that's already been sold once, but if they're bringing it to your house I could see it being worth it. Plus you wouldn't need to worry about running out (I'm always right on the edge; the two 50-gallon drums in my shed have less than five gallons a piece in them, although I've got about 20G to pour tomorrow and another 50 or so for the coming weeks). So I also have a garage full of vegetable oil jugs yet-to-be-filtered, and it kinda stinks.

-tom!

That's what I was wondering. Being in So Cal, where we barely get below 40 in the winter, and having a garage, I can't imagine what the benefit is.

It is one of the businesses springing up. AFAIK, there are less restaurants wanting to supply people with WVO.

That's what I want to avoid. If I can pay $2/gal for someone filtering and collecting, then I'll be happy.

Socialism implies that it helps the people, whereas this is just giving additional profits to the corporations. Yay America, the land where people confuse socialism with corporatism.

-tom!

That makes the assumption that the US's involvement in "world affairs" benefits some group other than US corporations. People of other countries don't turn to us for help (because they know better!), we assert that others need our help and then go in and destroy their societies. We call it "fighting for democracy," but it's pretty clear we're fighting only for profits.

-tom!

In message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Tom Plunket burned some brain cells writing:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH

What the f*ck are YOU smoking?

I am old enough to remember gasoline at $0.18, yes, eighteen cents a gallon, when I was going to college in Kalamazoo, MI in the early

1970s. A few years later we heard rumors that gas was going to be $1.00 a gallon, and we couldn't believe it! It sounded like the end of the world!

But when the Arab oil embargo happened and there were lines for gas it became evident that there were limits to the amount of oil in the ground.

I never forgot that, and so for the last 35 years or so, as I have seen the enormous urban sprawl spreading out with no intelligent urban planning in ugly big box seas of asphalt it has made me sad to see our national treasure and the construction of my lifetime being wasted on a mess that was utterly dependent upon the automobile, because it has been apparent to anyone who paid attention that oil supplies were finite and when they ran down to the point of making gasoline and diesel too expensive for the average guy to afford unlimited amounts of them a large portion of the structure of our country would become obsolete and would end up having to be largely abandoned.

So when I have seen all these big box monsters of ignorance under construction farther and farther out into the desert I have always seen them as the next set of ghost towns that are destined to stand crumbling as monuments to short sightedness and idiocy. I hope I am wrong, but it sure is starting to look that way.

Electrically powered mass transit is going to have to replace the car at some point and retail and housing will have to be redesigned with walking in mind. If we get serious in changing the mind set from the one that we were given by GM and Big Oil after WW II when GM bought many of the streetcar systems around the country and junked them and focus on mass transit and renewable production of electricity and livable high density urban design we can have a much more pleasant setting in which to live.

Not only is this car centered model doomed because of Peak Oil, it has also turned out to be pretty much a drag. Driving the freeways of LA in my opinion is a horrible experience and I wouldn't miss it if I never have to again. Nobody talks about it, but 40,000+ people die on the roads annually in the U.S. and half a million are maimed. It's kind of a lonely society too. You can't mingle with the other passengers on the freeway like you can on the TGV fast trains in France.

I only bought one new car in my life, a 1985 Toyota Corolla, which I still drive. I like to say to myself that I am voting no with my non dollars to the untenable societal model of the car centered society.

Strange posts these are for a car listserve . . .

I still love my Mercedes and two Toyotas, of course, and I enjoy working on them.

I suggest you check your memories, because what you remember once again ain't so. You'd have to go back many decades before the 70's to have gasoline at 18 cents.

A few years later we heard rumors that gas was going to be

You sure have a very negative way at looking at things. I'm sure a small minority of guys that pondered the fate of things like the cave, sailing ships, horse and buggy, steam engine etc had similar dire thoughts.

More pleasant according to you. As for me, just leave the rest of us free to choose, instead of having some govt bureaucrats decide what's right for us.

Been there done that. It's not like some utopian social engagement party. People get on these trains, read their newspapers, or stare out the window, just like they do on trains or buses here.

That's cool if it makes you feel good.

In message news:effa967b-338f-4ae7-afbd- snipped-for-privacy@m45g2000hsb.googlegroups.com, heav burned some brain cells writing:

Who let the winner of the Bad Hemingway contest into the room?

"Stand crumbling" - nice touch. Ugggh.

I can tell you long to run with the bulls and fight the mighty marlin and to make love to a woman with a mustache. Your comment brought a tear to my myopic and sometimes watery and bloodshot hazel eye. It is with great abandon and the pain of one who knows well the Great White Marlin that I refer you to the one of the best bad Hemmingway sites. In bad Hemmingway, there are no winners, only the dark and terrible waters of the Marlin and bullfights.

bottle of Tortuga slid across the tilting table and came to rest in a large calloused hand. It was a worn and bitter hand, and it belonged to a worn and bitter man who had not treated it well. There were scrapes along the palm from many miles of rope and scars on the knuckles from many dozens of broken noses. There was a poorly stitched cut running from the thumb to halfway up the massive forearm, a cut made by the teeth of a barracuda. Despite its state, the hand served this man well. He had fought many storms and many enemies, and had won every time. While others were swept off the deck he stood his ground, laughing at the winds and waving the sabre he had taken from a dead carrabinero.

Interesting, this is why people from the US are such an enigma. By and large many don't appear to be capable of putting two and two together and deduce the obvious. See, for example, the US's (ie the present administrations) claim re Iraq and the nigh on unamious acceptance of their claim by the people .... regardless what other countries, the UN etc had to say. Then Tom comes along and has his finger on the pulse ..... there is hope

cheers, guenter

It is quite amusing. I have a look at this forum after quite some time and what do I find?

A North American moan about high fuel prices....

Just as well that I don't need to do a high mileage in my car (< 5000 miles p.a.) but I do feel the pinch via (still untaxed) kerosene used in products manufactured by Boeing and Airbus Industrie.

:-) DAS (London England, not Ontario)

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