I was feeling pretty lucky, because as I drove home yesterday, I noticed that gas price in my little town was twenty cents lower than they were in St. Cloud. I filled up my car, and as I was checking out, the manager told me that I was the last customer to get gas at $2.99 per gallon. They had just raised their price to $3.20.
w00t!
Right across the street from this station, another was still showing $2.99, so I zipped home to get Most Patient Wife's car and filled it up as well. Once again, I was the last customer to get in on that price, because that station boosted it up to $3.20 per.
At first I felt triumph, but the then I was just pissed off. I can't believe that we're paying this much for gas! And I don't blame the oil companies that much, because the US government makes more off oil than the companies do -- by a factor of at least seven times! So when people get pissed about obscene oil profits, I point out that those guys are nothing compared the government.
When Bush says that we're addicted to oil, I think we should look for the IV stuck in the arm of the US Congress.
And like every addict out there, they'll deny they're addicted. They will lie, steal, and screw everyone over for their next fix. We all see what's going on, but like every other co-dependent sucker out there, we fear change more than we want to stop the cornholing that we're taking every day.
We keep electing them and giving them power, because we're afraid gay folks might get married, or that Bush is soooooo evil that only someone as liberal as he is conservative can save us, or Social Security is going away or criminals get too many rights (or not enough) or whatever.
These guys are all pigs feeding at the same trough. And we keep filling that trough and wondering why things are the way they are. H.L. Mencken was right when he said that "we get the government we deserve."
It's the politics of fear, and it's the candidate who wins on the idea that he's the polar opposite of the incumbent and everything will be different if we just put her into office.
Folks...the system's screwed. The candidates are too, but we can't just keep plugging different people into the same mess that exists and expect stuff to get better. And it's not a liberal thing. And it's not a conservative thing.
It's fear. It's apathy. It's taking the path of least resistance and hoping that maybe it won't suck so bad this time. It's brushing your teeth when your teeth are rotting when you know damn well that you need to have some teeth pulled and a root canal done. Maybe if you brush enough, the problem will just go away, or at least the pain will lessen to a tolerable level.
That's politics in the US. Pain, rot, and stink combined with fear, denial and apathy.
Wowzers, this entry turned out a bit more angry than I thought it would.
