Little People
I had no idea crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico was processed and sent to gas pumps in Washington state in less than 24 hours. Judging by the gas price jumps occurring it seems the crude oil flows straight from the Gulf into our gas pumps as gasoline without any passage of time or distance.
Meanwhile we are flabbergasted at the looting. I even saw one article try to paint walmart as a trod upon charity, because they were allowing emergency service folks to get supplies right out of the stores. I was quite surprised the fawning article mentioned the emergency response folks were tasked with keeping inventories so walmart could bill them later. This tells me walmart isn't even willing to provide them with a cashier, they just want to make sales during the tragedy without even having to pay an employee. Kind of puts the walmart looters in a less despicable light.
As Richard mentioned, it is hard to condemn people searching for clean food and water who are trying to survive. The people stealing valuable things like TV's are mostly idiots. The ones shooting at rescue crews, I'd call them scum, but I'm curious if those reports are somewhat exaggerated.
It saddens and amazes me to hear people bemoaning the fact we have looters. There seems to be no realization that today's American character is displayed and strengthened in reality shows. I can't stomach the things, but I could not help but hear how the most dishonest, sneaky, manipulative contestant in the first episode of 'survivor' took home the prize and fawning admiration of the American public. I know nothing of Richard Hatch besides second hand talk, and whether I like it or not he is a cultural icon because of the very worst in human behavior. Is it any surprise people in a real life and death situation would act in the same way as their TV heroes? But Hatch wannabe's are not the vilest looters...
Gas prices jumping long, long before the supply is actually impacted. Now there is true looting on a monumental scale, but about which nothing is likely to be done. The conservatives dare not bite the hand which buys them.
Meanwhile we are flabbergasted at the looting. I even saw one article try to paint walmart as a trod upon charity, because they were allowing emergency service folks to get supplies right out of the stores. I was quite surprised the fawning article mentioned the emergency response folks were tasked with keeping inventories so walmart could bill them later. This tells me walmart isn't even willing to provide them with a cashier, they just want to make sales during the tragedy without even having to pay an employee. Kind of puts the walmart looters in a less despicable light.
As Richard mentioned, it is hard to condemn people searching for clean food and water who are trying to survive. The people stealing valuable things like TV's are mostly idiots. The ones shooting at rescue crews, I'd call them scum, but I'm curious if those reports are somewhat exaggerated.
It saddens and amazes me to hear people bemoaning the fact we have looters. There seems to be no realization that today's American character is displayed and strengthened in reality shows. I can't stomach the things, but I could not help but hear how the most dishonest, sneaky, manipulative contestant in the first episode of 'survivor' took home the prize and fawning admiration of the American public. I know nothing of Richard Hatch besides second hand talk, and whether I like it or not he is a cultural icon because of the very worst in human behavior. Is it any surprise people in a real life and death situation would act in the same way as their TV heroes? But Hatch wannabe's are not the vilest looters...
Gas prices jumping long, long before the supply is actually impacted. Now there is true looting on a monumental scale, but about which nothing is likely to be done. The conservatives dare not bite the hand which buys them.
3 Comments:
I don't disagree about the gas prices. There may be some small reason for a hike, however. Gas prices today reflect what the stations think they will pay for gas tomorrow. If the price rises, then the station pays more for the gas and the cost is passed onto consumers. Still, the oil refineries are surely cashing in on this. In that vein I would note that our area of the country receives most of it's gasoline from local refineries who, presumably, were not hit by Katrina.
As to the people shooting in New Orleans, I've seen the news reports and have been reading a blog (link below) and both seem to indicate that this is indeed a big problem.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/
I thought only the tiny number of independents could set prices. I talked to an owner of a station last summer (BP at the time), griping about how the distributors who were owned by the big boys set their prices, in effect restricting the profit level. Maybe that is an isolated case. I really don't know. I'm kind of acclimated to assuming the worst of the oil companies.
You may be right (resisting Billy Joel reference). This morning's paper confirmed that our oil comes from Alaska and Canada and is refined here. We shouldn't be seeing these increases.
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