And, beer is now cheaper than gas!

 

You are right. Gas has also caught up with bottled water. One of these days it will be as much as Starbucks @@@@@@

 

Don't say it too loud. Washington will raise the taxes on it!


roadster with a stick

 

Well Kurts, your "gas margins suck" was right on. Convenience Store operators make little or nothing off the fuel. For those who don't yet believe it check this out.
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366287,00.html


For years the big guys starved the mom and pops store out of business.

Now their own bean counters have told them to get out. There is no money there.

So they don't make the margins at the pump. So they want out
They don't make it at the refineries. Can't justify building more.
Oil profits must come from getting it out of the ground 'cause the oil companies are still reporting record profits.

So why don't we let them get it out of the ground here so more Americans can get the related, well paying jobs.

Congress won't let them.

roadster with a stick

 

Might be interested to know that Exxon/Mobile is selling every last one of their company owned gas stations. The reason is "there is no profit in retail gas sales".

Kind of blows Nancy Pelosi out of her panties doesn't it!

Nancy by the way is two heart beats away from being your president.

 

Sounds like sour grapes...

 

PLEASE!!!
Not a picture I wanted in my mind....


Where is that post of Uma Thurman?

roadster with a stick

 

It's righteous anger. Where's yours?

 

Well, it's been a couple of days since I looked at this post, let's see what's become of it!
Nancy Pelosi - flaky when she was in CA, no different now BUT she does have a nice chest, that might not be too bad of a visual!
Dems vs. Rep. - what's new, neither party has the answers because they're so locked up in partisan politics they can't see the forest for the trees. An endless & useless argument.
Beer - great subject! Support your local mini-brewery!
Bottled water - like the SUV, what a marketing ploy! "Let's see just how much we can sell plastic (made from oil, doesn't ever go away) bottles filled with essentially tap water for!" Better: find a plastic bottle lying around your home, fill it with water you drink everyday from the tap & PRESTO: bottled water! Add a couple of drops of lemon juice or whatever if you're feeling like a change.
Hmmm, a nice personal attack by one member on another. I guess when all else fails it's OK to blast someone about their gender. Good move .
Curly light bulbs: I have a curly light bulb in darn near every fixture in the house because it saves me money! If it conserves a little bit, well then OK. Will they solve the energy crisis? Not by a long shot!

 

Couple of more '2 cents worth' stuff that I thought about while out mowing the lawn:
Offshore drilling - I don't think much about it simply because it doesn't affect me (other than for oil supplies!!). I live well away from the coasts & since L. Michigan & Superior don't have oil underneath them it doesn't stick in my mind like it would someone who lives there. Drill offshore? Sure, like Franc mentions above, the Norwegians do it quite well. No problem there unless, of course, there's a spill.
Drilling in the Alaskan wilderness - yup. let's do it today! As long as the enviroment isn't completely trashed I could care less about whether herds of elk MIGHT have their seasonal migrations affected. They build fish ladders & under highway culverts & bypasses for wildlife today, right? So what's the problem? An oil well in the middle of someplace you can only fly in to see? Get real.

 

The EnviroManiacs have waaaay to much power...maybe unconstitutional ? Check out this video on YouTube...you will be
amazed at what they can required American citizens to do...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=e-LOtKIIKcg

 

Ah yea,..... I remember the fuss in the media. We had ODD/EVEN days. I was a young tike back then and what I remember most was Dad took me along to the filling station, we waited in line (not too long actually) to fill our family car from 3/4's full to a FULL tank. Dad always wanted to be prepared.

BTW, both my Mom & Dad walked to work so in reality back then the only time we really needed the family car was on weekly shopping trips to the Grocery store and farmers market back in Quakertown PA. Heck we could have stretched 3/4's of a tank into a couple months if need be.....

Now that I live in Atlanta, I do the daily commute of about 17 miles! UGGGGHH, thanks for pointing out I've regressed........should have listened to Dad and PLANNED to LIVE within walking distance of work like he did.

Cheers!

 

This story examplifies what has happened over the last 50 years in America. It is something that the Politicians and the Ecomaniacs don't get.
It ends up being far more complicated than the term urban sprawl implies.

For the last fifty years we, as a society, have separated our work areas from our living areas in the community. City planners have Zoned real estate such that homes, retail and factories occupy different areas so that residents must travel. They then place burdensome taxes and regulations on the businesses ('cause they are all making tons of windfall profits) promising to spend it on the poor and the working class, and oh yes, education. Only they don't.

I worked at a 100 year old Pasta plant in St Louis, down on the "Hill" a famous Italian neighborhood. Most of the employees were from the area and walked the 2 to 4 blocks to work. I was an outsider commuting 40 miles in from the countryside. Everyone kidded me about how much time and money I spent commuting.
The City found every way it could to tax and regulate the facility to the point that is closed. The pasta is now made in Wisconsin, under the same label, and many of the workers now drive accross town the the "other " pasta plant owned by a competitor.

No...wait.. That plant moved out also.

So now, everybody has had to find jobs well away from their neighborhoods. Most drive out here to the county where all the industrial parks were built. The City lost it's revenue sources and we all complain that Americans use too much gas. The story is the same accross the land.

Attempts to reintegrate working businesses, residential and retail in close proximity are few and far between. Completely designed communities never quite get the flavor of old organically evolved neighborhoods. But we should keep trying. Cities need to rethink their policies and their codes both building and taxation.

There is only so much real estate. They aren't making any more.


roadster with a stick

 

Hawaii is.

 

wise guy.

roadster

 

double post sorry.

How do you delete a post?

 

I heard ya the 1st. time.

 

Actually, Franc, that's an interesting point!
Some of us have been around long enough to remember 'company towns'; little towns/villages conceived & built by manufacturing concerns to house workers. I remember a glue factory (honestly, made glue from animal carcasses) that I used to service when I was still a field engineer out of Milwaukee. Can't remember the name of the place but I think the town was Carrolltown somewhere kinda east of Racine on the lake. The factory was right on the shore of L. Michigan & the town was built right across the street from the plant, kinda in the middle of nowhere (considering what they manufactured I wouldn't be surprised!).
The UP of Michigan has tons of little towns built around the copper mines for the same reason.
You know, if this gas thing gets any more out of hand this may be a future our kids might see. I know Milwaukee was on a kick years ago to try to get more people to live around the downtown area. Makes sense.
All I know is that if a Network Administrator job would open up here in the town I live in I'd jump at the chance to be able to walk to work.

 

Good one!
So is Louisiana!

 

Maybe we should all just start thinking about alternative means of transportation.

http://www.oldcarandtruckpictures.com/Crosley/