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| Riding off into the sunset... |
Ladies, Gentlemen, Boys, and Girls! Today's post is 100% 'factually-based' GREAT NEWS!!! (Not like that 'made-up' 'Great News' you see on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, Huffington Post, or find at http://www.whitehouse.gov/!)
Yes, the following post is BRIMMING with Optimism!!!
In a post found yesterday at Detroit News.com, I learned the following interesting facts:
- Americans are using 500,000 fewer barrels of oil a day
- In September, driving fell by 1.5 percent to 244.2 billion miles
- The Energy Information Agency said the four-week average demand for gasoline use is 8.58 million barrels a day. Last year at this time, the four-week average was 9.1 million barrels of oil a week
Hoo-ray!
I'm sure that you enjoy driving your New Chevrolet Volts, Nissan Leafs, and Bicycles around town, to the office, and to the unemployment office in your state!
On behalf of everyone here in the MoosRoom - thank you for NOT driving!
You have made the positive, life-affirming choice to NOT drive as much as you did previously!
Thank you for helping keep:
- Our Air Cleaner!
- Our Roads Safer!
- Our Dinosaurs resting safely deep underground (in thick puddles of trapped fossil fuels)!
- Our Childrens' Future Brighter!
Thank you, America, and God Bless President Obama's Economic and Energy policies!!!
[Somewhere in the distance, the reverb slowly fades as the sound of applause is cut off quickly...]
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| "Oh yes, I am the man..." |
DISCLAIMER(s), OBSERVATIONS, AND FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC ASSUMPTIONS:
Each of the above items is 'Factually Correct'.
Each item was found in the online post from the Detroit News Online.
No dinosaurs were killed in the generation of today's post
(They all died off Millions of years ago, and as much as I want to, I cannot take responsibility for their passing. It was, in fact, due to Global Climate Change brought about the dinosaurs' reckless use of... Fossil Fuels.)
PART II:
Now, if I were being honest with you, I would have told you the REST of the story.
The rest of the story is the actual post I began to write before I got side-tracked into the above. While I was not actually lying to you, I was mis-directing your attention to things which I wanted you to consider as the only facts applicable to this post.
In fact, the above items, discussed above, are FACTS - from a purely 'Factual perspective'...
But as with most things found online... I left a lot of the facts out.
The additional 'omitted' facts may lead you to a different conclusion than the one you found above.
Continuing from the Detroit News Online article (partially quoted) from above:
November 22, 2011, Washington -- Americans hit the brakes on driving in September. They logged 3.7 billion fewer miles as driving fell for the seventh straight month in the face of high gas prices.
The Federal Highway Administration said Americans have driven 29.8 billion fewer miles in the first nine months of 2011, which remains on pace to be the lowest yearly number of miles driven since 2003.
...
The Energy Information Agency says gas prices are still about 50 cents a gallon higher than last year. The average recent price nationwide at the pump was $3.39, compared with $2.85 a year ago.
Americans are using 500,000 fewer barrels of oil a day, a sign driving may fall even further.
...
As Americans log fewer miles, they may hold on to aging vehicles even longer as they drive less. The average age of vehicles on the roads has risen to 10.6 years, the oldest ever.
The federal report is based on continuous hourly traffic count data at 4,000 traffic counting locations nationwide.
The U.S. surpassed 2 trillion annual miles traveled in 1988, and the 3 trillion mile mark in 2006.
But with economic woes and higher gas prices in recent years, the U.S.hasn't topped the 3 trillion mile mark since 2007.
To add insult to injury, my oldest son referred to a site: http://www.gasbuddy.com/ where you can do interesting things like:
- Find least-expensive gas locally and nationally!
- Track gasoline prices long term!
- Plan your next trip (including gasoline expenses) online!
I was curious what gasoline prices looked like during President Obama's singular term-to-date.
Interestingly enough, the most curious part of the chart is what the chart looked like BEFORE the election.
You'll know it when you see it...
Yes, that's right, the mere presence of 'Candidate Obama' and 'John McCain' (I'm laughing as I type this last one) in the Presidential Race in 2008 drove the per gallon price of gasoline down from $4.12 per gallon in July, 2008 down to $1.86 per gallon when we went to the polls within a period of FOUR months.
This represents a decline of 55% in the per gallon price of gasoline at the pump. It must have been all those 'Hope and Change' forces working busily behind the scenes.
But What's Happened Since the Inauguration?
- 'Hope and change' is once again only a bumper sticker slogan (in reality, always was)
- Gasoline prices have increased steadily since January, 2009
- We are driving 'older cars' because we can't afford 'newer ones' (but, hey, don't newer cars get better gas mileage???)
- We, as a Nation, are driving less because, quite frankly, we can't afford to drive 'more'
- The economy continues to lurch forward more consistently with momentum associated with a re-animated corpse than that of a marathon runner
- And the President, so far as I can tell, would rather support the OWS folks than the people who used to drive this economy - the people who pay his family's airfare to far-away, exotic places, to see things I can only speculate about seeing
The only thing I do know for sure?
That next blow?
It's on its way...
And that does kind of 'blow', doesn't it?
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| "Why can't we just be more like Germany?" Because we don't have giant female politicians who... you know. |
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