Friday, May 30, 2008

End of May Roundup

In the past, I used this as a collection point for things I had not gotten to in the month, but that isn't quite right. In the future, I will use it to rehash some recent (maybe more than a month) discussions, and maybe to add something to them. This hasn't been a real productive month, and I will blame it on the weather. (There has been a bumper crop of twisters in the Midwest, but what has really slowed me down is the heat and humidity here in Central Texas.) In addition, my old printer died and I had to get a new one. Kind of a daunting task. There are many models to choose from, and they all expect you to print a lot more than I do.

Blaming the weather is
kind of a cop-out,
but it beats blaming
the real problem - me.

At the end of April, I linked to a couple essays: one on Moral Bankruptcy (mostly in the system that corporations exist under) and another on The Insanity of Black Liberation Theology. Both are links to blog called Crunchy Conservatives. He gets right to the point in both essays, and shows the hypocrisy of one group and the beliefs of the other group that has them squarely at odds with real Christians.

Late last fall, I did an update on gas prices from my last summer's forecast. Even with the update (compensating for the ever weakening dollar), I came in a little low. In addition, gas prices don't seem to be slacking off any. I can say with confidence we will not see $3 a gallon gasoline again, and I expect right now to see $5 a gallon gas next May. (see update at bottom)

I finally got around to putting together a copyright and license page for this blog, but haven't put the finishing touches on it. (It is pretty good as is) Any time copyright is brought up, there seems to be some discussions of those who abuse it. And make no mistake, the government is right in the pocket of those who abuse the copyright system of law. What can we do. Not much. And if we do much, we had best keep our mouth shut about it. In the mean time, we can each make a promise to ourselves to not be one of the abusers. Like Google used to say "don't be evil" (I don't know what they say nowadays). For those of you who haven't gotten around to dealing with the copyrights on your own works, you might have a look at the Creative Commons license. (See links at right hand side of page)

UPDATE (7 June): Oil and gas prices have continued to climb almost daily. I am not sure what is happening here, but it means either consumption is still way up, or speculators are pumping money into the market. Who is consuming more fuel and/or where the speculators are getting the money to pump into the market is the question. Currently, oil is above $135 a barrel, and using my formula for finding gas prices, that would mean gas will go to $5.80 a gallon in a few months if the price of oil does not fall soon.

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