Restating the obvious...

Let's get it straight, once and for all:

ANY oil company, big or small, has every right to make as much money as they can as long as they do it legally and ethically. Increasing the price of any product to the maximum that a market will pay for it is exactly how profit is made... and I am not anti-profit. Keeping the cost of producing any product as low as possible to increase profits is also perfectly acceptable, in my eyes.

That is the phrase that Ryan so wants me to say... and I will, if he will say the following equally as loud and with just as much gusto:

If the Federal government cannot legally (meaning "constitutionally") or ethically "regulate" the manner in which crude oil prices are determined even within our free-market system because it is the single most important factor in our society's very existence... then neither can it regulate such commodities as ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

Uranium. Tobacco. Alcohol. Marijuana. Hemp. Opium.

Nor can it regulate the products of such commodities, like:

Cigarettes. Cigars. Beer. Wine. Liquor. Joints. Heroine. LSD. Methamphetamine.

I'm not advocating profit fixing or price regulating... that has been settled once and for all and I admit readily that it is a BAD IDEA.

I'm still waiting for you to tell me the name of ANY commodity that is more vital to the US (and all of western civilization) than crude oil specifically, and petroleum products in general (coal, natural gas, shale, etc). Any single one.

If you cannot, then I'm asking you why the Federal regulation of such commodities as uranium, opium, alcohol, or tobacco is any more "ethical" than the regulation of crude oil? Why am I (an independent American businessman looking to make a fast buck in a new niche market, for example) denied the opportunity to market products I make/grow/produce such as opium, whiskey, cigars or marijuana brownies for pure profit... but it is okay to do so without regard to "society" in general by the likes of Exxon, Standard, BP or any one of a hundred other oil companies?

I'm not picking fights here... please, answer my questions.