Replies

Much of the worldâ€™s most cash producing natural resources are in Islamic countries. The West isn't impoverishing them - in fact - it is the wealth of the West which buys their resources. Instead of putting their earnings into infrastructure and the economy of the people, they put their money into financing violence against the very people who are buying their natural resources.

A quick quote from P.J. O'Rourke's commentary in the June 2002 Automobile (pp 56-57):

[G]asoline, some recent price hikes notwithstanding... adjusted for inflation... was the lowest gasoline price, ever... [I]n 1970, we imported 22.7 per cent of our crude oil. Now we import 59 per cent, and almost a third comes from the Middle East... U.S. oil consumption went from more than 20 million barrels a day in August 2001 to about 18.8 million a day in January 2002... But the best thing we have going for us at the gas pump is the no-account, bone-idle, useless bums sitting on 65 per cent of the world's oil... [T]he total nonpetrochemical exports of the Arab world do not equal Finland's.
[from "If We're At War, Why Is Gasoline So Cheap"]

One of those ridiculous emails is circulating now, saying that no one should buy gasoline on May 15th to send a message or whatever. The way to send a message is to nuke Saudi Arabia, plant the flag, and tell the world the price of crude is going to $100 a barrel and stay there.

If 84 million drivers burned one less gallon per week, it would save about 2 million barrels per week, or about 1/7th of what we were using per week in 2002. That could be accomplished by cutting out about 20 miles of driving per driver (better planning, carpooling, change in schedule, taking the train, using the car instead of the Hummer, etc).

The best part of that? If 84 million drivers cut their driving by 160 miles a week, we'd actually see the gas tanks overflow! See, the classics never wear out. But seriously, if 168 million drivers cut 10 miles a week it would have the same effect.