The Worldwide "Hostage" Situation

The world is being held hostage. Not by some Islamic or bible-thumping, evangelical fundamentalists or by rogue military generals planning a coup d'etat to overthrow our current leaders. The entire world is being held captive by a small amount of fortunate people who control the flow of petroleum to the world's population.

In America, the price of gasoline has more than doubled in the past year to more than $4 a gallon. I read than in Europe, the price is now the equivalent of $7 or so due to higher taxes imposed on gas. Truckers on both continents are protesting that their livelihoods are at risk if the government doesn't intervene. Meanwhile, OPEC is laughing all the way to their Swiss banks.

Let's look at a few facts:

1. FACT - Venezuela isn't going to help us out with more petroleum unless we kiss up and probably even stop embargoes on their buddy Cuba
2. FACT - I don't think the Iranians are going to help any Western country
3. FACT - I think the jig is up on stealing Iraq's oil. Everyone is on to us.
4. FACT - The US won't release any significant amount of our reserves. This is probably a good idea considering the fact that we've pissed off the entire world and may need this fuel for future military use to protect ourselves.

I don't get it. For decades, the general world population has been aware that the world's oil flow is controlled by a few oil countries and several oil barons clever enough to get in bed with them. When I was in school and first learned about the existence of OPEC, I could not comprehend how the entire world could just accept that a small number of people control the world's petroleum supply. I get the idea of supply and demand but what if...

What if the product wasn't oil? What if it was water? Or air? What then? Would we simply accept the minority controlling the water or air intake of the majority? Would we just sit there and pay $7 for the equivalent of a gallon of air and stand by as the price continued rising? Would we drink water a drop at a time because our weekly paycheck couldn't afford a proper week's supply?

Maybe I've seen too many science fiction movies in my youth, but I still don't understand how we simply accept being controlled by the greedy oil mongers. This can't be fixed in a day as it isn't a situation that happened overnight. This is decades of control that has simply been accepted like some petroleum version of Stockholm Syndrome. For too long we have just accepted the status quo when it came to gas. You know that quote that says "the greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing man that he didn't exist?" This is OPEC's greatest trick. Convincing us for decades that there is tons of oil and they will keep us in good supply for years to come. Then setting prices higher and higher while limiting the amount released to the world market.

Is it just that we, as a population, are mindless automatons and accept whatever is put in front of us? If we couldn't buy a pizza, would we simply accept bread and not complain?

Maybe acceptance isn't always such a good thing...

Prince Charming Is Dead

I finally watched Knocked Up last night and thought it was a good movie. My reasons are probably different than you think. I liked the movie because no one was perfect. The main character is an overgrown kid who is just living a simple life. The chick that gets pregnant is frequently a judgmental character and the married couple that is related to her is all messed up.

Basically, sorry kids - THERE IS NO HERO!

More and more we watch movies and read books with imperfect heroes. Remakes of classic goody-goody heroes like Superman give him flaws and the older Batman gets, the more we see of his darker side. I thought Tim Burton had shown us a dark side of Bruce Wayne until I saw Christian Bale take on the part. We are constantly reminded in every aspect of the media that priests molest, fathers rape, teachers screw their students & children beat other children to a pulp. Everything in society points out the frail, imperfect nature of humanity and the duality of the human persona. There seems to be nothing uncommon about little Johnny "popping a cap in your ass" and running home to feed his aging grandma.

If this is the case, then why is everyday Jane always looking for Prince Charming?

There is a fairy tale that's been told longer than any fable by Aesop. It's called the story of the "perfect man." Regardless of all the media coverage and movies and documentation on the subject, women still search for perfection. Sorry ladies, keep looking.

I think it's time to accept that every human being is flawed and in life you just need to decide how much crap you can take. There is nothing wrong with a guy being chivalrous, or opening doors and pulling out chairs for you at the dinner table. However, accept that the person you're dating is not a "fix me upper." They are simply who they are and that is that. There are days when you'll have the door opened for you, and other days when we may be preoccupied and forget. Being single, I gave up looking for "Ms. Perfect" a long time ago. I realized (and was constantly reminded by my hitched friends) that life and relationships are about compromise. While I accept this premise, I refuse to accept compromising on who you are as a person. I've seen lots of ads for single "independent women" only to continue reading and find that independent means nothing more than having a job. These women are still looking for Prince Charming and will marry the closest person as a "compromise" in spite of the fact that the relationship will end in divorce in less than five years.

Ladies- the Prince Charming of the new millennium works long hours at a job he sometimes loves but otherwise hates. If he's not spending time with you today, it's because this fast paced life we all lead has him in need of some simple, silly male activity (like poker or fantasy baseball) that reinforces camaraderie and gives him a few hours to escape from life. You need to not take it so personally because life simply "gets in the way."

A friend of mine said something to me a few weeks ago that stuck in my head. He had re-joined the dating world and found it disappointing. He remarked how easy it world be if everyone just "put all their relationship shit on the table" and let the cards fall where they may. At least then there wouldn't be any awkward issues coming up later in the relationship.

Simplistic? Maybe. The idea that the minutia of relationships can be ironed out by being perfectly honest sounds naive, I know. But I think it depends on where you are in your life. If you can't be honest with yourself and what angers, bothers or pleases you, how can you be honest with anyone else? There is no point in me staying in a relationship when you are more concerned with how I make you feel and what I do for you than with just getting to really know me.

But hey, what do I know. I'm single. All I know is there is no Prince Charming. There is no perfect woman. There is no hero. And by the way, there is no Santa Claus either.

:)

If It Ain't Broke...

So I was watching Survivor last night and there was a commercial for one of those drugs for women which advertise birth control PLUS fewer periods. This particular drug promised only 4 periods a year and only listed the following few side effects:

While you get 4 periods a year, you’re also more likely to have bleeding or spotting between periods. This can be slight to a flow like a regular period and should decrease over time. Like other birth control pills, SEASONIQUE^® has serious risks, which can be life threatening. They include blood clots, stroke, and heart attack. Smoking increases these risks, especially if you are over 35, so Pill users should not smoke.

Maybe...no...I AM biased because I don't have the discomfort of having a monthly visitor. However, is this the type of thing you really want to mess with? I don't know. Maybe it's different for women. Every guy I know would love an improvement to current birth control for men. But if you told me I might have spotting, increase my risk of heart or stroke or may have issues with blot clots I don't think I know many men who would take it. First, there's the fear in the back of your head that "what if?" What if after taking the drug I can't reverse it when I stop taking it? What if after taking if I can never have children? Hell, we aren't even the child bearers and these thoughts go through our heads. How do you, as a woman, get past this fear? What if something goes wrong? Is it worth the risk of being left barren?

I just know that from a guy's perspective, we love it when you take birth control into your hands because if we had to take a pill that made us only "flow" four times a year we would go nuts. That being said, things happen for a reason and nature has showed us time and time again that when we try to outsmart the body, nature outsmarts us. A perfect example would be the growing tolerance to antibiotics since doctors now prescribe antibiotics to patients for the common sniffle in order to receive their hefty check from the pharmaceutical companies.

Hey, if you're never going to have kids, hate people in general or just think the world is too populated, then good luck. Get back to me in 10 years and let me know if this worked out for you. For everyone else, well...maybe you should think about how your body will try to adapt after you suppress a natural bodily function for months and years on end. The body has an uncanny ability to evolve when it believes it needs to. What if your bodily "core" (for lack of a better word) thinks that something is wrong and tries to adapt - to evolve. Maybe you start growing eggs in your ears or something? Hey, you never know how the body will adapt when if feels threatened and one lifetime is certainly not enough to provide accurate info on any drug.

If you're on one of these drugs and it's working for you, good. But I know most men wouldn't try it because we don't want anyone messing with our "junk."

That's what I was thinking today.

*WARNING: The Following Is Cynical

I don't know, but I feel like the older I get, the more I'm disappointed by humanity. This should come as no surprise to those of you that know me. For example, I've often stated that the best way to resolve the centuries of fighting over the Holy Land is to nuke the area and take away the point of contention. That being stated, during my life I instinctively have tried to find the good in things and people -mostly to my disappointment.

At work I'm constantly trying to build a better team that gels together. Time and time again, however, I am disappointed by employees that lie to me, rip me off or break the rules. Not only do I feel as if a significant amount of my time was wasted when they end up getting fired, but I take personal offense to waste of the rapport that had to be built between me and the employee to run a smooth team. I was thinking of this today and I was trying to put things in perspective. If I'm disappointed about an employee, I can't even imaging the disappointment of a parent finding out that their flesh and blood child has been arrested, raped another person or even killed. I would imagine the disappointment would be heart wrenching.

It makes you wonder why. Why bring another body into this world just to be disappointed later? Yeah, I know, theres a chance that if you did the right thing during it's formative years, you'll be rewarded with a gem in your bloodline. In actuality, though, since they are their own person, it's more likely that they will eventually disappoint you. A lot more likely. Expecting anything different is like betting on the three legged horse at the derby and expecting to come in first.

I'm sure there are a lot of redeeming human qualities, but today my mood is probably closest to that of Mark Twain while writing The Mysterious Stranger.

Well, tomorrow's another day.

Child Abuse or Good Parenting?

I just watched a video on You Tube that got under my skin. It's a CNN news clip of a 7 year old boy in Florida who decided to take his grandmother's car out for a spin because he was pissed at his mother. If you watch the story, there's a part where the kid is asked by a cop if he should be punished and he says not seriously, "...like no video games for a whole weekend..."

{grumble}

I won't fault the grandmother. In today's society, it seems grandparents are often foster parents for children whose parents want to party into the wee hours of the night or act as if they don't have kids. The grandparents pick up the parenting slack. I want to make it clear that I don't know anything about this family or what their situation is. What I DO know is that the child obvious knows the punishment will be lax. There is a point in the video where the grandmother (who is now responsible for the mailboxes (federal offense) and cars that the little brat hit as well as the repairs to her own SUV) rightfully says "...if I thought they wouldn't take me to jail, I'd whip his behind right now!"

Bravo grandma!

I want to make it clear that I in no way support beating your child. I was probably only hit once or twice in my life and one of them I was old enough to stop the incoming slap and anger my mom even more. My mom believed more in depriving me of fun, TV, games etc. to get her point across and this method seems to have worked with me. I also want to state that I am not a parent. For all of you nodding your head and getting ready to type "that's why I don't understand" keep your comments private. Simply put, I don't think this discredits my opinion in any way. Besides, you need a license to fish, but any two morons can have a child. I have to wonder where the parenting was when this kid was younger. I would never think to do anything like this because I was taught at an early age that there are consequences for actions. The kid even says he wanted to do it because "...it's fun, it's fun to do bad things."

Exactly where do you draw the line between child abuse and parenting? If this kid had been taught the right lessons in life, OK. I see where the "time out" might be the right solution. But this little brat totaled grandma's car just to do something bad.

Insert grandma's slap here.

The state shouldn't punish her, they should commend her. I would just hope it wasn't too little, too late. Instead, they are choosing to file grand theft auto charges against the kid in the hopes of getting him "help."

Times are rough. Gas costs are high and many people are losing their houses. Bush's economic stimulus checks are instead being used to keep food on the table.

I think the tax payers would prefer grandma to take care of it...

(Click the article title to see the original video on You Tube)

Road Rage On A Page

I have friends that have been driving since before they were legally allowed to. In our society, it's a right of passage to adulthood - especially for teenage males. My dad always owned a license and renewed it regularly even though we never owned a car. When driver's ed became available to me in high school, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to learn this skill that my friends already knew. Instructors teach you the skills needed to drive the car and the rules of the road. So why are there so many people out there who don't know the basics to driving? I know there will always be bad drivers, but there are certain rules which I believe all drivers should comply with to be civil to each other and decrease the amount of road rage on the roads.

First, you need to use your turning signals. My ESP doesn't always work and I can't decipher that by pulling all the way to the right, you are actually planning a left turn or a U-turn. Even worse is the driver who slows down the driver behind him, makes him miss the light and then speeds through a red to make a turn.

If you can't pass a parked car you shouldn't be driving. I understand that sometimes morons stop in the center of the street, but if you pull as close to the car next to you on your side, you should have tons of space on the other side. Most roads are made to squeeze in one to two more cars side by side if need be (in case emergency vehicles and such need to get through). Use the space. Let's take it a step further. Yes, there are garbage trucks that stop in the middle of the road, but when you see the truck pull to the side and the driver tries to wave you past - GO! You have at least two feet on each side of your car and the twenty vehicles you've backed up behind you can ALL see this.

A yield sign only turns into a stop if another car is approaching and you cannot go. THEN you yield to the incoming traffic. Otherwise, DO NOT STOP. Slow down and go if no one is coming. There is a reason I am honking behind you. It's because I'm about to yield right past you since there is absolutely no traffic on the road.

Finally, save the drama and the stupid faces when everyone looks at you like you're a moron. You are. Accept that you're a substandard driver and move on. If it were up to me, there would be a follow up test a year after you get your license and if you can't pass a garbage truck or double parked car, or don't know how to yield, then we're taking the license back. The world is overpopulated and the roads are crowded. Getting you off the road is the best bet to keep traffic moving and decrease road rage by stopping someone from killing you.

I won't justify my comments with reasons or any sort of explanation. By definition, rage is visceral - so why bother. Besides, at least I'm not starting an argument on the road...

Is This The One On Sale?

I'm a bit of a famous quote collector. If you've ever received an email from me, you'll find some quote that usually describes my state of mind at the bottom. One of my favorite quotes is:

"The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"

I have it registered as anonymous, so I don't know who actually said it. I want to relate this to something that is an increasing problem in America. Consumer ignorance. This is a huge issue considering that according to Wikipedia, "...72% of the economic activity in the United States came from consumers." The problem lies in the unfamiliarity of the consumer.

A friend of mine always used to tell me that "common sense isn't common." Since then, I've adopted it like my mantre when I encounter some of these consumers. If i go shopping and see 20 different items on a fixture with a sale sign that looks too good to be true, my first instinct is to read the sign and compare it to the item. In supermarkets, I check the description of the item and match the ounces of the container with the item on sale. The labels on the fixture aren't for the associates! They could care less what the item costs and usually know anyway. The labels and signs are for the customer to know the price and what a value it is. Same with a box. You may find this hard to believe, but that box with the pretty picture and words usually tells you 90% of what the store associate is going to tell you when you ask them. So WHY doesn't anyone read the box or sign first?

I know. I sound bitter. Maybe it's because of my retail background. I understand business and get that the customer is always right as much as I understand that these customers keep you in business. But why doesn't anyone read the sign? I'd like to do a psychological experiment and see what results are revealed. Maybe it's because we (as a society) are always in a rush or maybe it's because we're part of the "ADD generation" and can't be bothered with anything that captures our attention for more than 10 seconds. I think maybe we're just easily distracted. I was always taught to think out what you're going to say before you say it. Maybe that's the problem.

I like what I do. On any given day I enjoy my job. I meet a lot of great people and personalities. I just always wonder about people when I get someone yelling "that's false advertising" at me.

No, it's not...