Gas Pains

So gasoline prices in my area are now averaging over $4 per gallon.  Folks all over the country are hurting when they fill up, and it's natural to get angry about it.  But who to blame?

If you listen to the nightmare team trying desperately to trample each other on their way to the Republican Presidential nomination, it's of course Barack Obama's fault.  More offshore drilling!  Build the Keystone Pipeline!  Drill, baby, drill!

Heaven forbid we should look at the facts!  Oh, well, let's try:

• Even the most optomistic estimates from the George W. Bush admininstration stated that offshore drilling would have no significant effect on US oil production for at least twenty years, and even then would only lower prices by about 3 cents per gallon.
• Domestic drilling has actually quadrupled during the Obama administration, and prices are still on the rise.
• Wall Street speculation in oil futures has increased dramatically within the last decade, from about 30% of the market 10 years ago to nearly 80% today.

Coincidence?  I think not!  The Commodities market was designed to help stabilize costs for businesses that need to purchase raw materials that are subject to wild fluctuations.  But in recent years, Wall Street has been playing casino games with futures in petroleum that they have no intention of ever using.  In response to the economic crisis of the last decade, the Democratic Congress passed the Dodd-Frank bill in July of 2010.  This bill established a mechanism for reigning in this type of speculation, but enforcement has been dragging for nearly two years now.  There's actually a whole battle going on behind the scenes, and you probably never heard it reported on any news source.  Did you know that the Wall Street interests have hired Supreme Court Justice Scalia's son to represent them in limiting enforcement of Dodd-Frank?  Did you know that this battle is going on in court as I write this?

Don't get me wrong - I'm not opposed to people making money by investing.  In fact, I'm delighted that the Dow is back over 13,000 again.  My IRA is worth something again!  But by not enforcing what Dodd-Frank was designed for, the money is going right from my pocket (and yours) into a few already-well-stuffed pockets, and that's not right.  The oil companies are basically acting as a complicit middle-man, and the commodities market is being used for a purpose for which it was not intended.

Can anything be done?  Probably, but it will likely take further action by Congress.  Now let's see, who's in charge there?

Who's the Real Snob?

Well, Ranger Rick has done it again!  Yesterday, he called Barack Obama a "snob" for wanting all Americans to get a college education.

First of all, let's get the facts straight.  Obama never advocated everyone going to college.  He has clearly enunciated, since the beginning of his Presidency, that he believes our goal should be for every American to commit to at least one year beyond high school.  He stated explicitly that this does not imply that everyone should attend a four-year college; it could include a two-year program in community college, vocational training, apprenticeship, or even service to the country.  As usual, the "facts" at the foundation of his argument are made up.

Santorum got himself into even deeper doo-doo by claiming that kids in college are part of some "indoctrination" program promoted by liberal college professors.  If college is really a liberal indoctrination program, then Rick must have been a really bad student - he has three college degrees, and look what he stands for now!

So what's the real reason behind his disdain for higher education?  I can only assume that he would love to see the upcoming generation kept in the dark, and deprived of the opportunity to be exposed to other cultures and ideas.  Let's face it - if you're part of the economic elite, it's in your personal interest to keep the uneducated class right where it is.  I've always been really suspicious that those who cry "class warfare" the loudest are the ones who really wage it.  So I guess the true snobs are those who want to keep their education and wealth, but try their damndest to convince everyone else that education isn't for them.

Sanctum Santorum

I heard Rick Santorum on "This Week" state that John F. Kennedy's speech in September of 1960 made him want to throw up.  Santorum's conclusion from Kennedy's words, 'I Believe in an America Where the Separation of Church and State is Absolute' was that JFK did not want 'people of faith' to be involved in the American political process.

I lived through the all-too-brief Kennedy era.  I was in high school when he was elected, and I remember clearly the discussions we had about the real fears many Americans harbored that the Pope would be calling the shots in the US government if a Catholic were to be elected President.  Kennedy's speech was clearly intended to allay those fears.

I can only think of two possible explanations for Santorum's comments:  either he is just plain stupid, or he is using one of the oldest political tricks in the book by putting out an intentional untruth that will get repeated often enough to lead people to believe that it's true.  Either way, that makes him unfit for the office of President in my view.

JFK's speech did not intend to imply that he would keep people of faith out of 'the public square,' as Santorum put it.  He was simply reaffirming the founding fathers' belief that there should be no state-sponsored religion, and that the decisions of government should be made by all citizens, whether they have a particular religious belief or not.  I believe that Kennedy was right on the money - the Church has no place in American politics, but its members, acting as citizens, absolutely do.

Shame on you, Rick Santorum, for playing on people's fears!