blog.grahamallen.net

I wrote a post about a week or two ago regarding the ever-escalating price of gas that, in retrospect, was a bit unfounded based on things that I’ve read and come to understand recently. Being who I am and in trying to keep up with my own sense of social responsibility, I feel it is necessary to make my own retort. I will leave the original post online and untouched in the name of demonstrating intellectual growth and progress.

I’m frustrated. Like everyone else, I see a four dollar price figure on the display at the pump and it is almost enough to make me want to vomit. As with all things, there are market forces in effect and each and every one of us has to be responsible and informed when making judgments and passing along word of mouth information.

I hear rumblings everywhere of how horrible the gas companies are and how they are reaping the benefits of this market trend towards escalated gas prices. And there can certainly be a case made for that argument, given that their profit margins are based on a percentage of the overall price we pay at the pump. However, if you break it down, our first and PRIMARY culprit in all of this is OPEC and the Oil Producing companies in the Middle East. These prices are set and regulated by the per gallon prices that have been dictated by the OPEC market for oil. When the overall cost of a barrel of oil increases, so too does the overall price for a gallon of gas that comes from our domestic refineries. A side effect of that is an equilateral increase in profit margins for our gas companies here, however, that overall profit margin is significantly overshadowed by the profits our own government generates in taxation on this alleged “luxury good”.

By the percentages, to my understanding, 81 percent of the overall price of a gallon of gas goes to the oil producers in the Middle East. Obviously, this being the root source of the basic elements, in market terms, this would make sense. Another four percent of that overall price goes to the gas company (Exxon, Mobil, et al). Keep in mind, this is not their pure profit margin……operating costs have to be taken into account. That leaves 15 percent of the overall cost of a gallon of gas. Where does that fifteen percent go? The US Government. In taxation dollars. So if the current rate is a flat four dollars per gallon of gasoline, that means the US Government is taking in 60 cents for every gallon of gasoline that we put into our cars, as opposed to the 30 cents per gallon they were taking in just a year or two ago (and even less, previous to the start of this trend).

So while we can maintain our criticisms of the gas companies for their role in all of this, we also need to look at EVERYONE who is accountable. This leads me to MY biggest question (being a firm believer in minimalistic government): where is that significant increase in revenue that our own government is taking in going? While that money is being sucked out of our economy like water from a cactus, it would be nice to know what grand endeavors our care-taking government is planning…..it really would.

But there’s more. We have solutions to this problem. Why can we not drill our own deposits in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska? Oh, that’s right…..because it would thoroughly destroy our environment. Wait, Cuba is already drilling the Gulf of Mexico just 75 miles off the coast of Miami. In effect, what we have done, in economic terms, by being idealistic and (as I like to call it) PseudoGovernmentEMO, is taken ourselves out of a strong revenue generating market and put this into the hands of third-world countries that we have had a less than stellar history with- many of which tend to employ political systems that center around fascism and tyranny.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not in support of just arbitrarily destroying the very ground we walk on. Nothing could be farther from the truth. However, in times of economic crisis, it’s important to seek out, through standard market initiatives and practices, solutions to a greater overall problem that is having a more immediate impact. This is most certainly one of those times. Already, with talk of opening drilling operations here, Saudi Arabia has announced plans to increase production in response. The last thing OPEC wants to see is a new market for oil open up here, in a place where we tend to do things more methodically and efficiently.

I’m a firm believer in allowing the market to function as an independent entity. What we tend to do when we force the hand of a market is put a band-aid on a short-term problem while creating bigger, more wide-spread problems in the long term. One could make an argument that I am sitting here supporting grand government action in the name of fixing a short-term problem. What I’m actually seeking is for our government to reverse an action it had taken prior and allow a new and lucrative economic market to open up on our own soil and share some of the wealth that we have basically spoon-fed to the Middle East through years of inactivity.

This is one bright shiny possibility in what, to some, seems like the most grim times we have ever faced (commentary on the doomsday culture we currently live in withheld). The other bright and shiny spot (for all those nature lovers out there) is that this untimely and temporarily straining wrinkle in the market has opened our eyes to the fact that we have the power at our fingertips to seek out alternative energy resources. Already, some of the major manufacturers of Sport-Utility Vehicles have announced plans to pull some of their most gas-hungry products off of the market in direct response. Consumers are seeking out alternatives in the way of hybrid vehicles and alternative methods of transportation. Just the other day I spoke with a co-worker who has taken to riding his bicycle to work. The amount of money he is saving himself, when you think about (and, let me tell you, I have) is unreal.

To put the cost in perspective……driving to and from work five days a week, in addition to my own personal travel, generally takes up about three tanks of gas every two weeks (granted, this is the evil SUV-driver in me talking). My tank can hold 17 gallons of gas at four dollars a tank, which equates to 68 dollars per tank. Multiply this by the three tanks that I fill up with in  a given two week period and that sum total comes to 204 dollars. For those of us in that middle class demographic, this equates to anywhere between 10 and 20 percent of our total take home. It’s a drain to be sure.

But my overall point is, while it sucks right now, there are lights at the end of this long and winding tunnel and a stabilizing wind might just be blowing us in a direction of future progress.

hey, kobe, i have some questions for you:

1) Did you think you could win a championship without Shaq if you aren’t able to lift the entire team up to your level?

2) Do you know the difference between being a gifted athlete and a refined baller?

3) Do you think you might play better if you spent less time crying about no-call fouls that likely should have been called against you?

4) Do you miss Shaq yet….now that you ran him out of Los Angeles…..has that part sunk in yet?

5) Have you done the math on the talent (or lack thereof) that Mike had around him through SIX championships?

6) Will you ever deflate your own ego enough to do what’s best for your TEAM?

Seriously, Kobe. I’m enjoying the show. Even sweeter would be the day Boston puts you away on your own court. That could happen Saturday. That SHOULD happen Saturday. Boston did something tonight they should have done in the last two games……they finished. Let me rephrase that…..they spotted you a 24 point lead and then commenced to rolling up on you. And your boy Vujacic is really turning out to be quite the crybaby. I’m wondering if he’s like that girl from the drug commercials…..he learned it by watching YOU.

I’d say I feel your pain, but I don’t. I don’t respect or appreciate what you stand for. More so, I absolutely detest the red carpet you walk on with the media. These people who annointed you the next MJ before you even left the hallowed halls of your high school.

Wanna know why you’ll never be like Mike? Yeah, if YOU could be like Mike…….Mike played for Dean Smith. Mike became a professional by learning from a professional. Mike was the underdog…..not expected to even continue playing beyond high school at a time when you were being raised upon shoulders and built to God status before you even donned an NBA uniform.

I do not like what the Association has become and you are the ultimate representation of everything that I, as a would-be fan, don’t like about the NBA game. Players like you think you’re bigger than the game. Players like you expect the game to come to you. You take the game to them. Whether you’re grinding out playing street ball or playing at your elite level. If you want to win, you make it happen…..you work for it……you earn it.

Lesson One is coming late for you Kobe and Boston’s about to give it to you………I dare you to prove me wrong, because right now, you’re an elite athlete but you’re not a baller. Dig out film from the Bulls archive and you’ll see what a baller is and what a baller does. I don’t think you will……

It seems the value of oil has far surpassed that of gold and it becomes increasingly more difficult not to join the doomsday generation as I see gas prices soaring to levels that are exponentially greater than they were just a couple of years ago. And if only it were gas prices that change…….wages decrease, job availability decreases, the price of milk increases and the economy as a whole stalls.

If only I had hope that any of these fine specimens of Presendential Candidates were going to be anything other than a waste of our time, I might be less concerned. But, no….I’m concerned. We’re entering a crisis unlike any we’ve ever experienced before. And with a continual escalation in prices, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is nowhere in sight. I can see the effects in the nightly news. Acts of violence committed out of pure desperation where before, our violence hungry news media thrived on stories of violence that was grounded in pure greed, alpha male showmanship or general disregard for order.

And it sends me into fits of intellectual thought and introspection. I mean, we are supposed to be an advanced race of people……intelligent enough to overcome our physical inferiorities and to create a world of technological and philosophical advancement. Yet we seem to continually chase ideals that have ramifications that we tend to ignore. Lost is the concept that a healthy economy is driven by the small business……localized economies that feed each other and are focused in direction by individualism and a complete lack of the collective mentality that dilutes and stifles corporate America. Yet we still seem to cling to the idea that government can rule and regulate a healthy economy, regardless of how archaic and false this notion is. Seriously……we regulate business with the mindset that said regulation will tear down the fabric of a Corporate economy, when in reality, the Corporate entities are the only ones who can afford to keep pace with regulated business practices.

I am reluctant to call myself a Republican, because I do not want to be classified amongst the neo-Republican dirt that has scarred the surface of what Republicanism ever was or ever meant. Yet in all reality, I am a classical Republican. A Madisonian Republican. A true believer in “Laissez Faire” Capitalism and a free and open market economy. Where did this economy go?

And yet I sit here hopeful that our government will intervene into our current gas crisis. My greatest fear has become my only hope and I think that bothers me more than anything. I do not want, nor do I condone, government interference. Yet, it seems that government interference, in the short term, at the very least, is the only way to stop the bleeding.

I’ve even lent credibility to the argument that gas prices remained well below the rate of inflation for quite some time. I fielded that argument and accepted it as reality until we surpassed the two and a half dollar mark. We are so far removed from that point that my sixty-seven dollar tank of gas makes my ass pucker a bit. Seriously. I cringe at the pump.

I’m at a point where I’m almost ready to take action. Problem is, each of us as individuals within this crisis economy are fairly helpless to change much of anything. And yet the pumps in Texas keep churning up oil for us to store away or, better yet, send to Iraq to save our military the expense of paying Middle East prices for oil.

If anyone at all has a viable and realistic action plan on this, I’m all ears, because I really can’t stand the thought that we might be facing a crisis that will have lasting effects for the remainder of our lives. Again, I’m trying not to join the doomsday generation, but my spoiled American ass has some concerns……..

i am merely an avatar on the internet. a ghost in the machine. my song is sung in binary. my voice is merely an electronic reproduction from sometime seconds, minutes or even days before. the face you see is not really my own.

i don’t even know if i’m at all organic anymore. do i feel myself breathing? do i feel alive? not sure. it’s all lost in a haze of pixels and sounds. am i being critical of a world that i enjoy? hard to say. i’m not sure that i even know the answer to that question. it almost seems a recurrent theme here. i am questioning my own existence while trying to identify what that existence means. it’s almost a dichotomy.

i wonder what it would be like…..walk the streets of new york or los angeles….and instead of bricks, mortar, flesh and steel…..a collage of pixelated graphics creating the entire landscape of the world. would it be any less real than the world i live in now? it would almost be more genuinely false. or should i say it would be more genuinely {null variable}? again, not sure. this almost reeks of kantian bs, but i can’t stop myself.

i could make up any name for myself. be anything i want to be. say anything i want to say. and find an audience, no matter how small. but what gets lost in human interaction? when we create an alternate reality in a place that can’t be defined, have we lost something? even the music that makes me move. it used to be an analog reproduction. now it’s binary. small streaming bits of 1 and 0, interpreted by a machine, remodulated into an audio signal. do you know how much i love the music? do we remember when music was created with breath, with voice, with wind, with a strum across a string? do we remember when our greatest musicians were talented? when our greatest musicians actually wrote the songs and believed in the words they were singing?

yeah. i’m criticizing a world i love. i’m criticizing a world i’ve helped to create in my own small way.

i could carry on dialog with women from around the world. i don’t, but i could. but i couldn’t touch them. couldn’t smell them. wouldn’t know what it’s like to be there next to them.

i can make myself a dangerous pirate from the seediest island in the carribean. who would know better? i’m almost certain i could find images to support this reality. or i could be a botanist from canadia or norwegia. i could be a porn star or a church-going, god-loving christian family man. would you know any different?

yeah. i’m criticizing technology. call it a strange mood. a weird place. i’m sick today. that could have something to do with it. it could also be that i miss a world that went away some time ago and, maybe, i’m just trying to re-invent myself within the current world. or maybe i’m simply having a nostalgic moment. i do have a tendency to be nostalgic. i think it accompanies loyalty.

these are simply thoughts i felt the need to share in that digital world i’m being so critical of.

So another draft is in the books. I’m not one of those who likes to rate the draft, especially at this early stage, but I have to say this was an odd draft all the way around. A big part of that was an apparent lack of “top-tier” talent. But more, it seems the new format, the shorter times and moving round three to Sunday, really had a definitive impact.

I’m not sure what to make of the Bucs draft just yet. My inital reaction to the Aqib Talib pick was “Well, that was retarded”. I think I’ve made my opinions on this matter known previously. Donnie Abraham (Round Three), Ronde Barber (Round Three) and Brian Kelly (Round Two) were all had below the first round. These guys were system guys and fit the system well. To pick a shut-down man corner seems asinine in the Tampa Two system. But there’s speculation that we’re moving more and more to Cover Three and Man schemes to account for multiple-receiver sets. I suppose there’s SOME merit to this, but I really don’t want to see first-round money go to a player that doesn’t fit. I dunno. It almost seems like sacrelige here. I mean, moving away from a system that has become known as the “Tampa Two” seems akin to the Montana/Young era 49ers moving away from the “West Coast Offense”. We’ll see how this pans out, but I do have lingering doubts.

Still, barring any “personality issues” this kid seems like a ringer. Long arms and a taller stature than most cornerbacks with the kind of speed that will keep up with the speediest wide receivers in the league makes for an intriguing combination of player attributes.

My initial feel on Dexter Jackson (our second round pick) was absolute drool after watching him at the combine. The guy is fast. What I didn’t notice….and maybe the combine broadcast was deceiving…..was the guy is only 5′9″ tall. Of course, height and size isn’t the be all end all in football…..just ask Steve Smith or Warrick Dunn….but there is a concern there. Even greater is the concern over him being listed as a Kick Returner. Granted, he showed great skill as a returner in college, but in no way do I want a second-round pick to be a one-dimensional special teams contributor. As a second-round pick, this guy is going to need to lend a hand on offense, taking some pressure off of Joey Galloway in the passing game. If he can’t contribute that to the team, we’re going to be in a rough spot.

I have little opinion on the remainder of the draft, other than finding a bit of joy in drafting a Linebacker out of Florida State in the sixth round. This guy should become quick friends with DBrooks. The Quarterback out of San Diego is intriguing, though I had my heart set on Matt Flynn out of  LSU in Round 4 or Round 5. We definitely need a developmental quarterback for the future. One thing I would love to see from the Bucs is a drive towards patience and grooming of a Franchise Quarterback, something we have yet to find here. Disappointing performances and short-lived careers have spotted the landscape of Buccaneer Quarterbacks and it’s time for that to change, especially with an alleged offensive guru running the team. Whether he can develop that talent remains to be seen.

A couple of things I found interesting to note from other teams…..the Tackle drafted by the Bears in the First Round looks like a beast. 6′6″? The film on that guy shows a towering menace that could be huge for those guys. Almost wish he had fallen to us. Of course, having Carolina sneak in one pick ahead of us to nab the next one kinda made me cringe a bit. And I have to wonder what Aaron Rogers must be thinking up there in Green Bay after his team drafted TWO Quarterbacks in the same draft. He can’t be feeling terribly comfortable. Seems the NFC North netted some of the more eye-catching results, as Rex Grossman must have breathed a sigh of relief up there in Chicago. Are they really leaning on Grossman and Orton up there? Seems that Dungy offensive mindset is carrying over into Lovie’s Chicago team. Note to Lovie: not thinking that’s a shrewd move, but I guess I’m not the coach.

Other than a Jason Taylor rumor that turned out to be little more than smoke and mirrors, it was a pretty uneventful day. It will be interesting to see what the next wave of Free Agency brings. This draft also lends curiosity as to the fate of Darrell Jackson. Local guy who was released by San Francisco last month. I haven’t seen any news on him since. Would love to get him down here in Pewter. But, again, I’m not the coach.