Let's meet a "capitalist", shall we?

Mike Church.

That name alone makes me wonder why I bother listening to Sirius Talk Radio. As inane and idiotic as it is to listen to Hillary state that "radical Christianity is as dangerous as radical Islam"... Mike Church isn't far behind.

Now, before Ryan launches into another defense of a GOP pundit, let me say that I KNOW he is far more of an entertainer than he is an objective journalist. His rants and ravings are meant to drive his ratings, not convince an ignorant audience that his views (and thus the views of "conservatives" in general) are right. Ask me... he is no better at what he does than Limbaugh or Coulter... and just as offensive as Franken or Dean.

Example: Church just got done saying that the reason OIL prices are out of control is because of the GASOLINE tax the "liberals" slapped on the pumps to pay for socialist programs like Medi-Care and WIC and national welfare.

Where do you start with THIS one? Is the man serious? The price of crude OIL is effected in ANY WAY by how much we price GASOLINE??? Last time I checked, gasoline was a BYPRODUCT of crude oil. No one that I know of is pumping GASOLINE out of derricks in the dessert, and as far as I understand... there is no GASOLINE without OIL first.

Furthermore... "liberal" gas taxes? The single biggest GASOLINE tax increase ever slapped on the consumer population of this nation was fronted by none other than NEWT GINGRICH and the rest of the "Moral Majority" that swept Congress in 1994. Want to blame a disaster on Bill Clinton? Blame him for NOT vetoing the bills that carried that little piece of revenue-building, surplus-creating legislation when he had the chance. Taxing OIL rather than GASOLINE would have meant that Newt and Company were following the text of NEW DEAL 2008 damn near verbatim! We know THAT can happen... tax the companies that IMPORT the oil and turn it into the single most important consumer commodity this nation has seen since the Whiskey Rebellion? I don't think so... better to make the CONSUMER pay the price, rather than the corporations that are redefining the word "profit" on a daily basis. Damn Bill Clinton to HELL for being a President capable of compromise!!!

Then, to top the whole segment off (and ruin my mood for the afternoon), he went on to expostulate for 8 more minutes on how the biggest oil companies in America make NO MORE PROFITS NOW than they did 20 years ago!

Are you fucking KIDDING me?

He actually dared someone to call in and tell him differently! Prove to him (he said) that "Big Oil" is gouging America with inflated gas prices... and if you can't, then SHUT UP!

Words vary similar to those used by Ryan towards me just a few days ago, if memory serves...

Well, I didn't call. But I AM going to make You listen to my rebuttal.

Motor Oil.

That's it. Nothing more.

Motor Oil.

Any label, any brand, any weight... as long as it isn't synthetic or recycled (both of which are MORE expensive than natural motor oil).

...

Okay, I'll spell it out.

Go back and Google "oil prices", and then further Google "motor oil" when the first search is done. Just about any of those sites will show you that the price of 10W-30 motor oil taht EVERY car and truck in the world needs to run HASN'T changed in price even 2% of what GASOLINE has in the last 20 years. Not even 2%!

Both gasoline and motor oil stem from the same product... LIGHT SWEET CRUDE oil. Both are products of the same process of refining oil, and a single barrel of crude will yeild about the same amount of each product by the end of the process. Yet since 1994, the price of gas (on average) has climed from $1.67 to $2.89... while the price of a quart of motor oil has only gone up (average again) by $0.09 cents. That's the difference between $1.22 a gallon increase for gas and $0.36 a gallon for motor oil.

Were PROFIT not the driving force in this equation, then I would have to guess that motor oil and gasoline would progress in price at a far more similar pace then they obviously have, right?

Okay, end of rant. I have to wrap presents with the kids now...