Gas Prices

Maybe I don't understand the inner workings of politics and petroleum, but I do understand that the it is going to be tough for the average American to fill his or hers gas tank over the next few months.

Today it costs me around $3.44 per gallon to fill my car. Typically, living in New Jersey affords me some of the lowest gas prices (See where you state falls out by visiting Gas Buddy) in the country.

The hot button topic today with our Presidential "hopefuls" is the gas tax. McCain would like to see the gas tax suspended over the summer, while Obama is opposed.

I can go either way on this. While I would like to see gas prices go down, I don't think suspending the tax is the way to do it.

Why?

Because if you suspend the gas tax, or any tax for that matter, the government is going to make it up somewhere else.

The only way to lower gas prices is to some how regulate it at the source, the gas companies and stop giving the oil companies tax breaks. Click here for news from Politico.com this past February that shows what the House and Senate are trying to do knowing that President Bush and Vice President Haliburton, I mean Chaney will undoubtedly veto.

Here are some earnings from Gas companies in 2007. They are listed in order as they appear on the 2007 Fortune 500 List:

1. Exxon/Mobile - $40.6 Billion

2. Chevron - $18.7 Billion

3. ConocoPhillips - $15 Billion

4. Valero Energy - $5.4 Billion

5. Marathon Oil - $5.2 Billion

6. Sunoco - $979 Million

7. Hess Corp. $1.9 Billion

8. Tesoro $800 Million

9. Murphy Oil $683 Million

10. Frontier Oil $379 Million

Sickening!!

So you think the answer is to go out and buy a hybrid or alternative fuel vehicle, such as Ethanol? Think again.

If we all go hybrid, the oil companies will just raise prices to cover overhead and profit. Sure you will be able to get 50 miles to the gallon, but the gallon is going to cost you $15.

Ethanol? Maybe, but I heard a rumor a few weeks ago that some of the big oil companies are buying up corn crops faster than you can make popcorn.

One thing to remember is that oil not only affects our gas prices, it can practically be found in almost every non food item we use today.

The way I see it: The only way for this situation to get better is if, and only if, the government gets involved, puts aside its special interests, and starts regulating oil.

Baseball Field Quest

There is just something about watching a live Baseball game.

Although its great to visit Major League ball parks and watch two MLB teams play, I really prefer to watch AA and AAA ball.

The prices are right, all seats are great and up close, and the entire experience is really fan friendly.

Over the course of my life I have been able to visit Major & Minor League Ball Parks to watch games.

The parks that I have visited include:

Dodgers Stadium
Fenway Park
Yankee Stadium
Shea Stadium
Wrigley Field
Rogers Centre aka Sky Dome
McAfee Stadium
Rangers Ballpark
McCoy Stadium (Redsox Minor League)
1st Energy Ballpark (Lakewood Blueclaws)

This season I am going to try my hardest to hit ten (10) new stadiums to watch a ball game and the season started tonight for me tonight when I got to see the Charlotte Knights in action at Knight's Castle against the Scranton-Wilkesboro Yankees.

The Yanks won 6-2 in front of a crowd of no more than 300 people.

Up next: In the middle of May I am planning on seeing the Durham Bulls at 7:00pm followed by the Carolina Mud Cats the next day at 2:00pm.

Kansas drivers

An open letter to all drivers in Kansas:

Dear Kansas drivers,

If ever there was a group of people that need to be kicked in the collective nuts, its you drivers of Kansas.

First and foremost let me say that I like Kansas. I have made the trip from Kansas City to Abilene & Salina quite a few times over the last 15 years.

I enjoy I-70 a lot. There are not many roads that you can get on and for 3 hours or more probably just drive straight as an arrow.

I probably could make the drive without ever moving the steering wheel a degree or two over the course of 3 hours.

The reason why I say probably is because at any given time a few of you cow tipping, tabacy chewing, farm raised, county music listening, chicken coup driving dumb asses feel the need to 60 MPH on I-70 when there is nothing around for miles.

Now I'm not condoning speeding but when you see a car coming at you from behind at a high rate of speed, either speed up or move the fuck over.

I mean come on people, you don't even use you rear view mirrors. You just drive straight ahead without a care in the world.

At one point a herd of cows where moving faster then some of you.

I-70 is basically the straightest road you will ever be on. Sure there are hills you go over but trust me when I tell you there is no scenery.

When I make the drive I try and wonder what this trip must have been like using horses and chuck wagons. Do you think they had assholes back then that didn't know how to drive?

The way I see it: Kansas needs to adopt a 3 lane highway system. One lane for going really fast (I hit 112MPH as my top speed), one for trucks, who can also use the fast lane as long as they keep moving, and one for the rest of you Kansas dumbass drivers. We'll call it the Dumbass lane.

Eye's playing tricks on me??

Today I saw something that was really weird. The only thing I can call it is an Unidentified Flying Object or a UFO. I am sure it is nothing, but I cannot stop thinking about what I saw. I decided to do a quick Google search tonight to see if anyone posted something along the lines of "lights over Eastern Seaboard" or "Lights over Atlantic Ocean", but i didn't find anything.

I found nothing except a link to the National UFO Reporting Center so I decided to file a report to see if anyone else saw what I saw.

Here is what I posted on the NUFORC site.

Today I was standing outside at around 5:30pm and a bright star over the Atlantic ocean caught my eye. At first I thought it was just an early bright star, kind of like when you see the moon early in the afternoon. The sky was very clear.

I figured it might be a "star" because the sun was now in the west, behind me. It was very high in the sky. It had height similar to a star or even a satellite moving in low orbit, but was stationary.

We live in an area that does not have high light pollution, so at night (especially in the summers) we are able to see satellites at night when they fly over. Our views are so good that one evening last year we were able to see a NOSS satellite group fly over. The Thinker, Lead Singer, and others can back me up on the satellites and NOSS sightings.

I was able to gauge the height when an aircraft was flying at what appeared to be it's maximum altitude to the left of the "star" and the "star" was much higher than the aircraft. I knew the aircraft was high due to its jet stream. There were also two birds flying at a height that dismissed the chance of the "star" being a balloon.

Suddenly a second light appeared and was aligned in a way similar to Orion's belt. The second "star" seemed to have started to move slowly below the first "star".

In order to make sure the second "star" was moving I closed one eye and used my finger as marker and sure enough the lower "star" was moving in a southern direction.

Literally, in a blink of an eye the moving star was gone. It just disappeared. No flash or high acceleration, just gone.

I was looking back to the first star when it too disappeared. I waited for a few more minutes for the "stars" to reappear but they did not.

This has been bothering me all day so I decided to post it here to see if anyone else has seen it.

For those of you, Zed, who are going to bust my balls about this, I know what I saw and have no issue with it so bring it on.