I’m sure this will only cause Hollywood liberals a brief moment of distress as they roar off in their Hummers to the next no-blood-for-oil rally: Fidel Castro is going to be drilling for oil:
Local (Hollywood) “progressives” who had to ignore their hero Fidel Castro’s jailing gays as some kind of “minor cultural flaw” will now have to do some “green” rationalizing. The Caudillo is apparently going to be drilling for oil someplace even George Bush is forbidden to go - forty-five miles off the Florida coast.
But the real enemy is Big Oil.
Incidentally, if you haven’t read the comments the “why are gas prices so high?” thread, you should. Sydney provides a good explanation of who really sets oil prices: commodities brokers and OPEC. Oh, but we aren’t supposed to use our foreign policy apparatus to lower oil prices. Remember: No blood for oil. And Mike explains what a “profit margin” is. Of course, some people refuse to be educated. They’d rather complain about conspiracies by our own government and greedy oil executives. It’s simpler that way.
Technorati Tags: Communism, Cuba, gas prices, oil
Dom, stop demagoging those who don’t just view the high oil prices as merely free market machinations. I don’t think that oil executives are too greedy…they are businessmen. They aren’t in business to help out the consumer. But we have to recognize that oil is a much different commodity than pork bellies. I think it is too simple to say this is merely a supply/demand problem. Oil production and refining is already highly regulated and it should be for a variety of reasons. To argue that Exxon, et al could do absolutely nothing to help ease the price of fuel long term is just silly. It isn’t because they are bad, but because they have no incentive to drive down the costs.
Tom,
Don’t be so defensive. I wasn’t talking about you.
Fidel’s off-shore drilling plan is great. I live in California and one of our senators, a few years back, commented that Californians are against off-shore drilling.
Errrr…well maybe against drilling off the California coast but judging by all the vehicles on the road I say we Californians (and other Americans too) don’t care if drilling takes place elsewhere. Out of sight/out of mind.
The neighboring elementary school is just a few blocks from my house and it is interesting to observe the morning and afternoon traffic jam there, with moms and dads lining up in their vehicles to pick up or drop off their kids. There’s a large number of SUV type vehicles and, from my observation, many of the folks sitting in the jam live, at most, 15 minutes away by walking.
yeah, big oil is responsible for high gas prices. Go for it Fidel!
[snark]
Don’t worry, Dom. I’m sure the UN will help us hold Cuba responsible for any environmental problems.
[/snark]
But seriously, except for environmental concerns, I don’t mind if Cuba starts producing oil: oil is fungible, so an increase in supply in the Caribbean is an increase in supply.
Incidentally, “Dr.” Castro is now 80.
About a year ago our 1992 Dodge Caravan with 170,000 miles on it seemed like it was giving up the ghost. I also realized that my brood was much more independent and one had already moved on to college now. I was doing a lot of driving with just myself or just one or two kids in the car at a time. So we replaced my mini-van with a Toyota Prius. Many of my soccer mom buddies turned their nose up at my new car, insisting they needed their SUV’s. Of course very rarely do I see them driving with more than 2-3 seats filled. Now that gas has reached $3.00 per gallon, I broke $20.00 for the first time in the last year when I filled up at the 375 miles on a tank of gas mark. Yes, I did pay a premium up front when I bought the car, but my monthly cash flow is so much better without the high fuel expense. Yes, it is a foreign car. However, I would rather support the Japanese economy than the OPEC countries who support terrorism. If we want to conserve, the capability is there. It is just a matter of national will.
I am glad to learn that Castro will begin drilling. If not for any other reason than to see and hear what the democrats will say.
Dorothy- the Democrats and the liberals will blame the US and Bush…“because of the US embargo, Cuban is forced to exploit its natural resources…blah blah blah.”
Castro : unenvironmental oil exploration and drilling = Pagels : Sad-ass mainstream “scholarship”?
Catholic Mom – b/c of the hybrid engine, the Prius is manufactured in Japan, but most of the rest of the line it sells in North America is actually manufactured in North America by North Americans (as is Honda’s line), sooooooo . . . I drove a lovely little Geo Prizm for years, it was basically the same car as the Toyota Corolla (only slightly cheaper – ‘cause it wasn’t “a Toyota” – and sold by GM dealers, so you could haggle) and built in California – is that a “foriegn car”? And with “DaimlerChrysler”, Ford owning some of the great European marques and letting Mazda do a lot of its heavy-lifting engineering work for it from time to time, and GM – well, GM’s just kind of a mess right now, it depends – and a good number of the Big 3’s autos sold in the U.S. actually being made here in CANADA, how do you differentiate a “foreign” and a “domestic” auto in the U.S. market anymore? I just thought that was an interesting question back in the early ‘90’s and it hasn’t gotten any less interesting. Short version: Don’t apologize for that “furrien” car.
My question about the Prius and other hybrids: How long do the batteries last and how much do they cost to replace?