Oil Prices vs. Petrol Prices

Okay, I have a bit of an 'international' issue that is effecting me directly.

And it angers me.

Okay, so... Six or Seven months ago, I was paying $2.80 - $3.00 a gallon of gasoline.

The price of oil was around $80.00 a barrel.

Today I spent $2.89 per gallon of gasoline.

The price of oil is at $65.91. (source)

Huh?

I mean... What the?

Does anyone else wonder?

Gah. Working 50 miles away from where one lives, with NO form of public transportation for me to use instead... Sucks.

-- Tucker

Ho-Hum...

Well, the House and Senate have agreed, and have sent an Iraq-War funding bill to the President for his veto, not signature.

There's been a heck of a lot of info about this affair, and much writing has been written by respectable journalists, and bloggers that are much more accomplished than I.

But, as a contrary bastid, I thought I'd throw up a couple of thoughts.

First... What an asshat. Who? Well, who do you think I'm talking about? The President of the United States... Threatening a veto, and saying the congress is all about politics.

Okay.

Asshat.

Second... What asshats! Who? The congress. For passing a bill that basically slapped Georgie across the face.

Okay.

Asshats.

Third... Perhaps once all this wrangling is finished, and the posturing is done... We can all get together and do something about this war. You know... Benchmarks.

What are those?

Look, the Pres and his advisors and most of the Republican ass-lickers in Congress have stated the truth for once, (which, yes, surprises me as well) that if we set DEADLINES for troop withdrawal, then the 'bad-guys' will just wait till we're gone and then take over Iraq. Now... This is true.

I personally say that we shouldn't WAIT for them to "Wait for us." I think we should just give'em the keys to the Iraqi border, and tell 'em... "Iraq doesn't want us. They obviously want you to go in and kill all of them, have a good time." But I digress...

Obviously, MOST of the American people do not want us to just hand over Iraq to the bad-guys. MANY of us don't actually care any more... But there's still a majority of folks that do. Fine.

That brings me back to "Benchmarks."

The argument the Dems keep using, is that if we don't FORCE the Iraqi's to take over their own defense, then they never will. This is probably true. The Iraqi's are having WAY too much fun beating the hell out of each other and our troops, and then BLAMING our troops.

If we say we're going to leave starting this summer. That won't work.

If we say we're staying as long as you so X then Y then Z, okay. If they DON'T do X then Y then Z, then we leave. We tell them this: "We'll stay if you do these things. If you don't accomplish "X" by August, then we'll pull all of our troops out of the Kurdish area. If you don't then do X and Y, we'll pull all of our troops out of the surrounding countryside. If you THEN don't do X, Y AND Z by December... We'll pull out of Baghdad.

See... It's still giving 'em options... It's clear. It's easy... And then it's all in THEIR hands! If everything goes tits up... Our government can safely say... We did all we could, they just didn't care about their own country enough.

I think it would work. Hopefully... After this round of 'political infighting' in Washington... And after Bush proves his "manhood" by vetoing the bill... They'll get together, and start getting some bloody SANITY involved in this horrible war.

-- Tuckmac

Can this guy get ANY dumber?

Okay, I have to complain about my President again, and I'm sure my readers will understand.

Here's a quote from the Shrub in Today's New York Times:

President Bush said today that the Congressional testimony of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales last week, roundly panned by members of both parties, “in a way increased my confidence in his ability to do the job.”

Err...

I listened to the testimony that Mr. Gonzales gave before congress... I've never heard more, "Ums, I don't remembers or I don't knows" in my entire life! Today the Pres said something like, My friend Alberto didn't break any laws, so I don't see why I shouldn't keep 'im on the job.

Mr. Shrubbery... The reason you shouldn't keep the guy on the job, is that even if he didn't break the law... The manager of the Department of Justice for the United States of America is either lying through his teeth, under oath to Congress... Or he's simply the biggest GOOMBA in the world, and cannot manage the Department of Justice.

That's why he should be removed Mr. Shrubbery... If he's SO stupid and worthless that he didn't know what his staff was DOING in the Department, he's obviously not cut out for the job!

Duh!

I mean... If the support of his "good buddy" Alberto doesn't prove that the government is run by a bunch of useless buggers... I don't know what else WOULD be proof enough.

Jaysus-Cluny-Frog!

Gah.

Okay... I'm off... I have to deal with the ramifications of the moronic leadership.

-- Tucker

Well... Lot's o' excitement!

My Lady and I have been VERY busy... It's the Saint Paul Art Crawl this weekend. And My Lady and I are participating in this event.

That's right... If you live in the Twin Cities Metro Area, you should stop by. I'm not about to give the "internet" my address, so... If you want to come you could e-mail me at:

expat.squared "at" gmail.com (replacing the space quote at unquote space with a @ symbol)

I'll 'vet' you, make sure you're not crazy, then tell you where I live. We'd love to have folks come through during the "Crawl."

Our flat's been turned into a mini gallery. It's funny... Friday night (last night) was the first night of the crawl, and we kept having people walk in, and say... "Okay, where's the art?"

My Lady and I began rolling our eyes, after we had heard that twice. I also started counting... We had 22 people come through... Five of 'em asked where the art was.

Five.

Gah.

What do they MEAN where's the art??? The art is everywhere. My Lady and I are having to climb over furniture to get to bed, however, as we've put most of the flat's contents into the bedroom.

It's a bit tight.

But the REST of the flat actually DOES look a bit like a gallery. I'll be posting pictures tomorow... Well... Maybe later today. We'll see.

As to what we've got happening, artwise...

Video is being projected onto a big screen in the living room - My Lady's performance from last October.

Drawings on the hallway wall - Drawings of the "Women of Mass Distraction" a collection of ladies that MY Lady is basing her NEWEST performance upon. It's going to be good! Chapter one, (or the first performance of many) is occuring TONIGHT at our flat around 6:30pm! Whoo-hoo... We'll be videotaping it, for posterity.

And there's the representation of "The Iraqi Quagmire" on the floor, concept: My Lady and created by: US. It's pretty freaking cool. It's the one piece of art that really gets people to respond, and it's been in a good way! Wow.

Finally, there's MY big piece. How big? Four by Four by Eight FEET big - That's right... 128 CUBIC Feet of artwork by YOURS truly! I made a rather large installation for my photography.

(We're not sure what we're going to DO with the damn thing, once the crawl's over... Hmm... Anyone got a truck?)

But that's what's been happening.

Besides that... I've FINALLY been forced to switch to the "New Blogger." I actually TRIED to do so before, but it wouldn't let me. It's strange... I had given up on it entirely, and then it decides to 'force' me to change. What the? Och weeel... I'm on it now. I'm still not sure about it. It's hurt a whole bunch of my CSS and html that I had... It says that certain "tags aren't allowed" or some such bollocks. WELL... HOW AM I MEANT TO KEEP MY BLOG LOOKING GOOD????

Piss.

Anyhoo... I'm off... Tonnes to do, before the crawl starts again today at 2pm.

Smiles,
T

Thanks Megan...

I admit that I've (due to circumstances beyond my control) become a bit of a "MySpace Whore." Why is this? Well, frankly, it's because I have many friends that do not know a tonne about web-publishing in the form of blogs/journals/websites, and thus... They use MySpace.

That's fine. I'm on there, I don't spend too much time, but I check my "messages" and my "bulletins" and what have you...

Anyhoo, I heard about a funny "Google Maps" thing before, but my friend Megan actually put the directions up on a MySpace bulletin, and so I tried it.

Basically... Go to Google Maps and hit the "Get Directions" tab in the menu-bar.

Type New York, New York to Paris, France. And scroll down to number #23 of the directions:

Here's the pics:



Sorry, but that's just great!

Have a great weekend, My Lady and I are fairly nuts, due to the upcomming St. Paul Art Crawl that's happening next weekend.

If you're in the Cities, stop by.

Smiles,
Tuckmac

Open letter to Normie Coleman.

Okay, the world knows I'm a bleeding-heart Liberal. Well, I admit to getting all sorts of e-mail's from various and sundry left-leaning places.

Anyhoo... I received an e-mail from the Minnesota Dem/Farm/Labor party, and it was one of those "Click here to send a petition" things.

Okay, fine... If you're really that silly, click here, and YOU can also sign the petition. Anyhoo...

You know how they always give you a 'pre-written' letter that's obviously been written by a strange lawyer guy/gal that works for the organisation in question? Then, occasionally, they give you space to "add your own comment" thing?

Well... I enjoy those. I add stuff. Here, below, is what I wrote for this particular petition being sent to my Senator:

Mr. Coleman,

I can honestly say that I rarely agree with anything you do in Washington. However, I do not believe that you truly wish to go against your constituents back here at home.

We, sir, do not wish to continue the war in Iraq. It is a losing battle, we have our soldiers dying for nothing, and it's time to admit that we were wrong, the war in Iraq was a mistake, and that we should leave.

Yes, Iraq will spiral into a horrific quagmire of death when we leave.

Yes, we will have to admit that we lost the war in Iraq.

Yes, Mr. Bush will look like the idiot that he is.

Yes, you will have to admit that YOU were wrong.

But, Senator... That's okay. We don't mind if people are wrong, here in Minnesota. I realize that you're not from here, you're actually from New York... And ya, they aren't very forgiving over there. But in Minnesota? Heck... We'll forgive anyone, but you know what? You have to admit that you did something wrong. THEN you're forgiven, we're strange that way.

It's something that the people of the United States should be doing soon. Apologizing to the world, admitting we were wrong, and then moving onward to better things, to more peace, to a friendlier world.

You know... After Mr. Bush leaves.

If you wish to stay where you are, being a Senator, having the political-dream sort of life that you have? You may want to re-think your blocking of the spending bill.

Just some advice, Mr. Senator. I actually think you're a pretty good guy, for a Republican. Of course, you used to be a Democrat, so... That's probably why you're not so bad.

Sincerely,

Tuck

Well... I'm off for the evening. Ta!

-- Tuckmac

Blog Against Theocracy #2 - Tuckmac

It's the hypocrisy of it...

Honestly, I am just sort of annoyed by the whole thing.

I realise that our country has always been "Christian," like most of Europe, due to our founders. However... I just can't get over this issue.

Certain "Right-wing Bloggers" have taken the piss out of us "Liberal-godless-heathens" over the blogswarm against theocracy. Saying that this is all about 'stopping god-fearing Christians from showing their faith in public' or some such crap. (I'm not actually 'linking' to the guy, as I don't want his stats to raise any further than they probably are due to his equally annoying readership.)

Their argument is that all we're interested in doing is 'removing their right' of professing their faith in a public context.

The 'hypocrisy' of which I began my post today, is that I live in the Twin Cities, where we've recently been faced with the "Six Imams" that were kicked off an American Airline's flight for praying at the airline gate, and acting a bit strange on the plane. (They were also detained, and are now suing the airline and passengers responsible for their treatment).

Now... The "blogger" that I 'did not link to" above, kvetched about the right of "True Christian's to be themselves in public" and frankly... He probably would have been the FIRST person to raise "hell" about Muslims praying in an airport.

See... It's the 'unfairness' of it all.

If "Christians" are allowed to be "Christian" in public... Shouldn't Muslim's ALSO be able to be "Muslim" in public?

Is it fair that America's "Wall Street" closes down on 'Good Friday' when it doesn't close down during Ramadan?

See... That's the deal.

If we TRULY want to have religious freedom in the United States... Then, frankly, we must STOP having "Christian" holidays, if we do NOT have Muslim holidays, or Jewish holidays, or Hindu holidays OFF the same as we do for the Christians.

Wouldn't it be SO much better to just "chuck the whole thing" entirely, and STOP with the whole "religious" holiday entirely?

Again... Religion in the home... NO overt religion in public... And our country would be SO MUCH better...

-- Tuckmac

Blog Against Theocracy #1 - Tuckmac

To start off the weekend, I tried to find an apporpriate quotation, or something that would encompass my writings this weekend. I was unable to find one to sum up the entire weekend, however, I found one that does have some resonance to today.

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." -- Steven Weinberg, Scientist found at:The Quotations Page

It seems as though the United States has been going through a rather frightening period lately. I'm sure it's normal, as the current occupant of the Whitehouse is a bit of a conservative, and a definite Christian.

This weekend, bloggers from all over America are going to be writing about religion. And already, there's been a few right-wingers that are trying desperately to twist what this blogswarm is about, and make all of us seem to be godless-communist Pinkos, or something. And I do want to, in the interest of full disclosure, come right out and say that I'm not particularly religious. I'm one of those annoying Liberals, raised a good little Catholic boy, in Catholic schools. I was baptised, confirmed and actually thought of myself as a pretty good Catholic.

I fell away from the church. And you know what's really funny about it. It's not 'cause I felt that God was not real. On the contrary... I was a very DEVOUT Catholic. I left my particular church, because they stopped CALLING it a church, and began calling it a "Community." You see... The marvellous fathers there, thought that they were scaring away too many Yuppies by calling it a church, and decided that a "community" would draw all the "Easter Catholics" (and their wallets) to the church more often. They ended the practice of kneeling. They took away the bell that symbolised the magic and mystery of the Eucharist... Basically, my priests (and most of their friends) made my "Catholic Church" and others in our country... Well... "Catholic Lite" or something.

God to me is too much of a mystery... Is TOO powerful to not approach with a certain sense of awe and mysticism.

The one place that used to "house" the mysticism was a building specifically made for worship, a church/mosque/synagogue/temple. And people from all over our country, regardless of their particular persuasion, spent an inordinent amount of 'weekend' time in their worship-building.

Then they'd go home, have dinner with their families, go to sleep... And then wake up and go to work on Monday.

Religion and 'normal' life were intertwined only so far as to give us something to do on a sabaath, or what-have-you. Now-a-days... Religion seems to be creeping more and more into our "regular" work/live weekdays, and I'm fairly certain that this is causing more problems than it's helping. In my Last Blog I linked to an article about the push to change religious rights in the workplace. And instead of doing something intelligent, like... I don't know... BANNING overt religious expression, they're trying to not only allow it, but PUSH it further.

What I think, and what MOST people SHOULD think, is that your religious belief is your right. Your 'cramming' your belief's down my throat is NOT your right. As more and more Muslim-people immigrate to America, there's more and more overt Islamic thought seeping into our daily lives... (In Minneapolis at the moment, there's issues with Somali cab-drivers not driving passengers from the airport 'cause they're carrying alcoholic beverages with them).

Instead of firing the cab drivers, they're attempting to change the law to ALLOW this behavior. Christians are getting more up in arms every day, and shouting their beliefs from the rooftops because of this crap happening... And what does our government do? They try to push MORE religious craps through the legislature.

Folks... It's time that we stopped allowing ANYONE'S religion to effect others.
What you do in the privacy of your own home/worship building is your own business.

Don't tell me that I can't get drunk on a Sunday, or that I can't buy pork-products at a Target, 'cause you can't "touch them" or something.

If all of us, Muslim/Christian/Jewish/Hindu/Buddhist or whatEVER you are pull back a bit, agree to disagree, and quiet the heck down... Perhaps our country will again return to a bucolic state of calm.

-- Tuckmac

I know it's a bit early but...

I'm awaiting the upcoming weekend's "Blogswarm" with bated breath.


Tengrain of Mock, Paper, Scissors - logo design

However, something came to light today on Public Radio, and... I have a really quick comment.

Congress considers changes to religion in the workplace.

ARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

--T