Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Hump day of what's been a pretty slow week. Business has that summer feel that starts happening about now. Summer always seems to hit the messenger business particularly hard. Makes for good nap time in the office though.
I'm sorry but I just don't see what all the hoopla is with Reagan's death. He was old. His time had come. He wasn't that great a president. I understand the emotion to a certain degree because he was, after all, a US President and he's the first one to croak in quite awhile. But the extended viewing, the memorials, the people waiting in line to walk past his casket, it's all too much. He wasn't a national hero. At least not in my eyes. I remember being pissed at him most of the time and getting into lots of arguements with my very conservative college friends about his policies. However, I suppose the man was a saint compared to President Doofus.
The price of gas is killing my drivers. I suppose this kind of external pricing pressure is good from my generally liberal point of view in that it forces Americans to think seriously about alternate fuels. Hydrogen fuel cells, hybrids, etc have always been met with such skepticism. But there's nothing like a good whack in the wallet to make people rethink the wisdom of their SUVs, V8's and gas guzzlers. I imagine that oil producing nations are enjoying good profits right now, but the wiser ones (like Saudi Arabia) I'm sure realize that the long term negatives associated with higher gas prices eventually hurts them. If high prices force countries to wean themselves of foreign oil, make conservation a practical matter (thereby lowering demand), and force money into neglected R&D projects in alternative fuels, then oil producers become the long term losers. I think that despite popular perception oil producers want to the price of gas to come down to more reasonable level. What's forcing the price up is the volatile oil futures market. The instability in Iraq, the recent killings in Saudi Arabia produce an unstable environment and lessened risk tolerance by the markets which pushing the price up. I guess my original issue was that high gas prices are really hurting my drivers bottom line, but I'm unwilling to pull the trigger on some kind of fuel surcharge because I'm not sure my customers will tolerate it.
I'm going down to LA this weekend for a friends engagement party. I have negative views of LA (as any Northern California resident should). I have this vision of a bunch of shallow people competing in a big fashion contest. It's unfair but I'm prone to irrational conclusions until I find out different. But I hear they like to party down there.
I'm sorry but I just don't see what all the hoopla is with Reagan's death. He was old. His time had come. He wasn't that great a president. I understand the emotion to a certain degree because he was, after all, a US President and he's the first one to croak in quite awhile. But the extended viewing, the memorials, the people waiting in line to walk past his casket, it's all too much. He wasn't a national hero. At least not in my eyes. I remember being pissed at him most of the time and getting into lots of arguements with my very conservative college friends about his policies. However, I suppose the man was a saint compared to President Doofus.
The price of gas is killing my drivers. I suppose this kind of external pricing pressure is good from my generally liberal point of view in that it forces Americans to think seriously about alternate fuels. Hydrogen fuel cells, hybrids, etc have always been met with such skepticism. But there's nothing like a good whack in the wallet to make people rethink the wisdom of their SUVs, V8's and gas guzzlers. I imagine that oil producing nations are enjoying good profits right now, but the wiser ones (like Saudi Arabia) I'm sure realize that the long term negatives associated with higher gas prices eventually hurts them. If high prices force countries to wean themselves of foreign oil, make conservation a practical matter (thereby lowering demand), and force money into neglected R&D projects in alternative fuels, then oil producers become the long term losers. I think that despite popular perception oil producers want to the price of gas to come down to more reasonable level. What's forcing the price up is the volatile oil futures market. The instability in Iraq, the recent killings in Saudi Arabia produce an unstable environment and lessened risk tolerance by the markets which pushing the price up. I guess my original issue was that high gas prices are really hurting my drivers bottom line, but I'm unwilling to pull the trigger on some kind of fuel surcharge because I'm not sure my customers will tolerate it.
I'm going down to LA this weekend for a friends engagement party. I have negative views of LA (as any Northern California resident should). I have this vision of a bunch of shallow people competing in a big fashion contest. It's unfair but I'm prone to irrational conclusions until I find out different. But I hear they like to party down there.
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