Okay, I'm already in a very bad mood. I have put up with inept *insert four letter word adjective* today beyond the point where I can handle it. So I check my RSS feeds here with nothing to do and I see this headline: "Exxon's $8B 1Q Profit Is 5th Highest Ever." What is wrong with that? It cost me $60 to fill up my '94 Buick yesterday. And you know how long that will last me? It'll last me one week of driving, if that. I'm averaging around $250 a month for gas. Last year at this time, I was paying around $120. I drive 60 miles total a day for work. So I pay higher than normal for gas, but I wouldn't be paying near as much if it wasn't for high gas prices. Now all you conservative Republicans, save me your insolent remarks about how higher prices are due to Iran enriching Uranium. Don't bug me with excuses like Nigeria having political strife and India and China using more gas. And here's the most insulting answer I've heard: the government is changing to a cleaner burning fuel. China and India have been growing for years. There is no reason their demand would drive the prices up $.60-1.00/gal. The market is very shaky, it always is. If somebody says there is going to be a shortage, prices will go up. But honestly...there has been a war waging for three years. China and India have been industrial countries for years now. Iran has been giving us grief for years. Why oh why did prices just skyrocket all of a sudden? It's not like this was building over time. Gas here is now $3/gal. In March, it was $2.39/gal. That's a $.61 jump in about a month. We've been fighting back and forth with Iran since last year. And then I stumble onto this story and a lightbulb went off in my head. I was completly inept and felt ashamed that I never thought of it sooner. My grandfather drove a truck for 40 years. The last ten years, he hauled gas from the refineries to the stations. He's retired now, has been for ten years. But he would tell me that there is a very small and minute difference in the three different types of gas. And he would tell me that he knew that the oil companies were all together and could raise and lower the gas prices as they saw fit. that was back when gas was around $.90/gal. So here we are...Exxon is making a killing off these high prices. And then one of their main executives just happens to retire with a $400 million retirement plan. You know how many of us on here will ever see $400 million in our life? 0...unless somebody happens to win the largest lottery in human history. I'm never going to see $400 million and I work my ass off every day. This guy gets $400 million for sitting in an air conditioned office all day long screwing every single red blooded American. I bet he feels real proud of himself. He just dicked the entire populace and got away with it. I'm sure Exxon is proud of itself. Everybody talks about how corrupt the tobacco industry is...take a look at the oil industry. Exxon posted a $36 BILLION profit last year. That's more money than Bill Gates himself has. Why did they get so much money? Hell, when the consumers are filling their tanks up weekly for $50-75, these places will make a killing. This is the honest truth, so don't call me a liar. I knew a woman who bought a new car about ten to twelve years ago. She was getting exceptional gas mileage out of it. And by exceptional, I mean around 100 miles/gal easily. She had executives from Ford and Exxon call her and schedule a meeting with her. They promised to give her a new car every year if she would give them back the car and never say anything about it. Of course, she broke that "vow" and told her friends. And they're still giving her new cars, last I talked to her. The car makers and oil companies know how to make exceptional gas mileage engines. You hear all this talk about how hybrids are something new? Hybrids have been around for years, it's just now the car makers are starting to slowly release them because demand is so high. This is all one big game of Chess. The American public is stuck in the middle as the pawns. We have no control over our own destiny anymore. Our lives are in the hands of the oil industry and companies like Exxon. People need to speak up and actually do something. Every night, I see people complaining on the television about how high they are. But they don't do anything about it. I've written three letters to my congressmen and Senators. Still haven't heard anything back, and I probably never will. I'll just go on the record right now saying that government failures and ignorance is why we had one revolution 250 years ago.