Crude reality of crude oil

Only several weeks past the world stuttered when a prankster of sorts sold his lot of oil barrels for roughly ninety-nine dollars. He wanted to be the first. Well now the $100 tag is looking like the good 'ol days in lieu of the current $120 price tag for crude oil which pushed the national retail average to a record $3.50.

Welcome to the oil olympics! Get on your good running shoes because you'll probably not be able to afford to drive to the stadium.

As gas prices reach record highs our USD$ is crumbling to new lows against the euro, both of which keep me using public transportation and living abroad. Yeah!

American mainstream media touched on several possible reasons for rising gas prices but none of which concerned global warming or the Iraq War. That's hellaqueer. Surely waging war in an oil rich land plays some large role in the cost you see at the filling stations. Granted, I chose to study Intro to Constitutional Gov over Econ 101 but one needn't be an economist to deduce a legitimate case of cause and effect. In fact, one only need be a consumer---an informed consumer---to relate the escalating catastrophe of the war (still no capture of WMDs or Bin Laden...) with the dwindling economy and rising cost of living. Our interest rates are continually cut yet few voices besides Al Gore and Ralph Nader are stressing citizens to consume less and conserve more; consequently, those cut rates are only giving pause to the inevitable.

To get out of bed with the Saudi Emirates now would be to find ourselves kicked to the curb like a midnight cowboy as the Saudis' kindness in trading oil in dollars versus euros is largely keeping our oil dependent appetites from growling.