Red pill or blue pill?

I know the whole Why-are-gas-prices-so-high question is a very complicated amalgam of economics, politics, culture, and perception. I've tried to explain it in as simple terms as I can but I fear some of you may still be buying the MSM's and democrats' version of eeeeevil oil companies swindling the American consumer. So, you can choose to believe the comfortable lies that you hear in the agenda-driven media and from craven politicians, or you can educate yourself, open your eyes and see the truth, even though it might be discomforting. So here are some quotes from today about oil prices, from other people way smarter than me....

...But it’s a sign of how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone that an American business is having to justify success. I don’t care if the oil companies’ profits are 6000%. It’s a free market. If you don’t like big corporate profits, stop buying their *$@#*%$@ products. ---Hal @ rightthinking

The political hacks made a big deal about the huge profits these oil companies made over the past few years. All of this posturing was a sham .. and the politicians knew it. They also knew that most of the people who would watch them deliver their big oil smack down on TV wouldn't know a profit from a profit margin if their next six-pack and their big screen TVs depended on it. ---Neal Boortz

There are several factors that explain today's high prices. There has been a huge surge in demand for oil as a result of rapid economic growth in China and India, as well as in the United States. Another factor is the under-exploration. ---Walter E. Williams

Why, it's almost as if I know what I'm talking about.

p.s. A virtual cookie to anybody who gets the reference in the title of this post.

More reader mail

Circumspect reader David wrote in with this to say about the border fence issue...

Ed, you may or may not agree on my zeal for border control but this is insanity. The Federal Government has to seek waivers to go around Federal regulations and laws. Am I crazy?

David understandably expressed a few other choice sentiments about his frustrations, but since this is a PG blog, I'll spare you.

No, you're not crazy, and I'm glad Bush is finally taking some action toward the matter of border control. What David's upset about is that the federal government has to navigate lots of onerous legal issues, both privacy and environmental, in each border state, in order to erect the fence. One might reasonably think that since the primary role of government is to among other things...establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, [and] provide for the common defence, it shouldn't need anybody's permission to build a border fence? Apparantly, one would be wrong.

Surely there's an easement like where all private land lies adjacent to state-owned land, like for power-line access, sewer and drain maintenance, service vehicle access, sidewalks, etc. And I thought that the land owners on the border were the first victims of looting, theft, and vandalism at the hands of illegals....you'd think they'd welcome the fence.

You can guess my attitude toward the nutty environmentalists who oppose the fence because it might affect the mating habits of wild cats....."Hey smelly hippie, go take another toke and stop impeding progress." The only part in which I agree with the land owners is that if there is no assumed easement, then the government should have to compensate the owners for the land they are taking, under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment which states clearly that...Private property shall not be taken for a public use, without just compensation.. Other than that, there should be no obsticles to erecting the fence.

Good call on that David. We haven't talked about the fence much lately.

The article to which he is referring is found here.

It's Ann Coulter Thursday!

Ann hits the nail on the head today with a blistering article exposing Barack Obama as the white-hating, racist most thinking people suspect that he is. The media won't tell you what's in his autobiographical book, Dreams From My Father, but Ann will. Go over to HumanEvents and read it. If you were experiencing a momentary lapse of reason and considering voting for him, you won't after reading this.

Reader Mail

With the heads of all the major oil companies on the hot seat this week in Washington being forced to explain their "obscene" profits, alert reader freedom2learn wrote in with this question:

"What about corporate greed? Oil companies get billions in tax breaks while making record profits. That doesn't sound right."

Record profits, yes, but profit margin is the real measure of corporate money making. Let me explain:

Point1: Profit margin is best explained this way; Let's say that you're selling a gallon of gas for $5 and you're making a 10% profit. Your profit is $.50. Your profit margin is 10%. Now let's say that your costs go up by $1 a gallon. What do you do in order to keep making money? You increase the price at the gas station. Now you are selling for $6. Your costs are $5/gallon, so you're making $1.00 on every sale. Your profit has doubled to $1 per gallon, but your profit margin is still 10%. You're still making the same profit on every dollar that you invest in your business, but your profits have doubled! This is the term craven politicians love to demagogue....profit. They know they're lying to you but they also know that after years of "educating" Americans in dreadfully hideous government schools, we won't know the difference between profit and profit margin, and want badly for somebody to blame for prices of everything rising.

Let's take a look at oil company profit margins:

Exxon Mobile: 11.65%
Chevron: 9.49%
BP: 8.09%

BP makes only 8.09cents for every dollar of sales. The federal government makes 19cents on the dollar in my state and more in others. Who is screwing the people, BP or our own government?

By contrast, here are some companies with high profit margins:

Diana Shipping (dry bulk): 54.28%
US Bank (banking): 36.26%

Why then, do the democrats go after "big oil"? Shouldn't they go after "big banking" or "big shipping" instead? Because oil companies are easy targets to demonize, that's why.

Point 2: Oil company tax-breaks are a myth for the most part. The total taxes paid to the US government by Exxon/Mobile in Q3 of 2007 equalled $26.24 billion. Guess how much they made, net, in the third quarter? $10.49 billion. Which means they paid about 2.5 times more in taxes than they made in profit. So who benefits the most from the high price of gasoline or in other words, who's robbing the average American blind at the pump? The federal government is. And they have the balls to drag oil execs to congressional hearings to explain themselves.....unbelievable! Imagine how cheap gas would be if the federal government suspended the taxes it seizes for one year.

Point 3: Exxon/Mobile paid more in taxes to the federal government last year than the entire bottom 50% of wage earners in the US. That's right. And I can't figure out which is more egregiously unfair, that the bottom 50% pay so little in taxes, or that the federal government seized that much from a single private company.

Point 4: Oil companies have such high revenue because they have such high volume in sales, not high profit margin. If you sold a trillion gumballs each at 1cent profit, you'd have more profit than somebody who sold 1000staplers at 10cents profit.

Finally, not a single company, ever, anywhere on Earth was begun for any reason other than to make as much money as possible for it's stock-holders. Companies don't exist, as democrats want you to believe, to provide jobs, healthcare, or retirement funds for lazy, handout union members. Nor do oil companies exist to provide Americans with cheap fuel any more than Dunkin-Doughnuts exists to provide Americans with hot coffee and delicious frosted pastries. They exist to make money. It is their only responsibility.
If it wasn't for "corporate greed", where would your 401K be? Your mutual fund? The college funds for your kids? Your retirement fund? All these things depend on companies making as much money as they can.

TRR poll question

The TRR poll question is a new feature I'll be including a couple of times a week or whenever an interesting question strikes my fancy. You may answer as many times as it will let you. Also, if you have a question that you would like polled, leave it as always, in the comments thread and I'll put it up asap. We'll discuss the results in a day or two.

Which of Hillary's lies is the most outrageous?
	Named for Sir Edmond Hillary
	Chelsea jogging at WTC on 9/11
	Snipers in Tusla, Bosnia
	Didn't know Bill cheated until the Monica story broke
	Just got lucky and made 100K on cattle futures
	She was always a Yankee's fan
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Reader Mail

Alert reader freedom2learn wrote in with this question: I have an OT[off topic] question.....
What does the price of gas have to do with the presidency? Will prices be lower if a democrat is elected in November?

Excellent question for an election year, especially when gas prices are the highest they've ever been.

Answer: In the short term, the president has absolutely nothing to do with gas prices. Politicians will use high gas prices to fuel dissatisfaction toward and resentment of the party that currently holds the office, but that works only because democrat voters, as always, want somebody to blame for their problems, and then fix them.

The President can, however, do something to exacerbate the situation. Look no further than the disastrous presidency of Jimmy Carter. When gas prices went up, he defeated the entire supply/demand/price structure by instituting price controls which any private or home-schooled child will tell you, creates shortages.

Gas prices are set by the world crude oil market. China and India, enjoying economies that are roaring along at 10%-20% growth, are demanding more and more oil. The world's oil exporters will sell their oil to who ever will pay the highest price....as they should. And that in turn, creates a tightening of the oil supply in the US, which causes prices to go up.

Actually, there is not so much of a shortage of crude oil in this country as there is a shortage of refineries. The nutty environmentalists have protested and maligned the petroleum industry to the point that politicians haven't allowed a new refinery to be built in this country in 20 years. There's enough crude oil, but our refining capacity cannot meet the demand with adequate supplies of gasoline. High demand + low supply = high prices. It's really that simple, and the President has absolutely nothing to do with it. I wouldn't let gas prices affect my choice of president, unless that person has promised to "do something" about gas prices. Then vote against that person because whatever they do will be a disaster.

Islamic Rage Boy says, "If you watch movie, I kill you!"

Liveleak pulled the Fitna video because of death threats to their personnel. Let me guess, from enraged Muslims? I respect their decision but, we here at TRR will not be intimidated into self-censorship. Alert reader freedom2learn found the 15 minute movie here. Be sure to watch it and then forward this link to all your friends.
This is the world's most famous, and hilarious, jihadist...Islamic Rage Boy. He's a professional protestor who shows up enraged at Muslim protest marches, always in defense of some imagined insult to Islam. Evidently by the look on his face, he heard TheRightRant was linking to Fitna.

Mmmmeeeooowwww...........lunch!

It's been a while, but I thought it was about time we had another story regarding people stupidly believing that wild animals see them as friends and not as a meal.....and then are proved comically wrong...

WELLINGTON, Fla. - The owner of a wildlife sanctuary was attacked by two cheetahs and hospitalized with about 40 puncture wounds to her extremities and back, authorities said.

Judy Berens was airlifted Saturday to Delray Medical Center, but it appears her injuries are not life-threatening, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said.

She was conducting an exhibition with two male cheetahs in an enclosure on Saturday when one became distracted by a ball being bounced outside, the sheriff's office said. The cheetah moved toward the ball quickly and knocked her to the ground.

The cheetah then pounced on her and began biting and clawing her, said Gabriella Ferraro, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman. At some point the other cheetah attacked her as well, Ferraro said.


I realize you're probably thinking that I'm a callous jerk for mocking somebody who's dedicated to preserving wildlife and caring for animals. Well, you'd be right. But you also have to ask yourself, who in their right mind handles top predatory carnivors believing that the animals are doing anything but biding their time until they can eat you for lunch? Top predators exist for only one reason, to kill and eat. It's what they do. People never learn, and as long as they, through their own stupidity, keep getting attacked by wild animals, I'll keep making fun of them for it.

Does this cheetah look docile and friendly to you?

Earth Hour exposes idiots

This is easily one of the stupidest things I've seen in months...

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

If you want to use fewer lights in order to reduce your power bill, that's great...I do that at my house. But if you stupidly believe that you are somehow slowing global warming by living in the dark, then you need to be medicated and institutionalized. THERE IS NO MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING!!! It is a hoax conjured up by flim-flam artists like Al Gore to swindle the stupid out of their money.

That said, Saturday(tomorrow) at 8:00PM(your local time), turn ALL your lights on. Make your property an island of light in a sea of darkness and show that you appreciate living in the 21st century in which we enjoy the comfort of electricity. Make your property so bright, people come from near and far to see what shopping mall is staging it's grand opening. Create such a glare that the local astronomy club complains that they can't see the night sky. Emit so much light that if a pilot of a passing jet glances down, his night vision will be ruined. Show the dumb environmentalists who long for 17th century lifestyles that you think they are idiots.

Required viewing

We all know what happened to Theo van Gogh in Holland when he made a movie critical of the Religion of Peace....he was stabbed to death by a Muslim. Geert Wilders, another Dutch film-maker, made a short movie called Fitna which warns of the Islamization of western democracies and of radical Muslims' willingness to commit unspeakable crimes as commanded by the Qaran, in order to realize their destiny of world domination. With shocking imagery and straightforward commentary, he exposes Islam, as it's practiced today, as the radical cult it's practitioners have turned it into. Predictably, the government in Holland is terrified of the hundreds of thousands of practicing Muslims who will surely burn the country down if this movie is shown on Dutch TV. So it may be available for a limited time as the US government may ban it also so as not to offend our Muslim community.

This is the movie in it's entirety. It's only 15 minutes long but worth the time investment. I warn you, there are some very disturbing images and video clips so clear the kids out of the room and be prepared.



UPDATE: Freedom2learn found this link since Liveleak removed their copy of the movie.