Return the favor
I was going through an e-mail address of mine that’s been lying abandoned for a while, just out of curiosity to see what’s accumulated since I abandoned it — there are inevitably people who didn’t update their address books.
I found this little chain-mail gem, offering some tips on filling up on gas, and then some uber-useful tips on how to help reduce the high cost per barrel that our wallets are all painfully aware of:
WHERE TO BUY USA GAS, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW. READ ON.
Gas rationing in the 80’s worked even though we grumbled about it. It might even be good for us! The Saudis are boycotting American goods. We should return the favor.An interesting thought is to boycott their GAS.
Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia. Just buy from gas companies that don’t import their oil from the Saudis.
Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people who are trying to kill me, my family, and my friends.
But wait. If we only buy gas from companies that don’t import, eventually… they’ll run out. And guess who they’ll have to buy from?
Conundrum.
Oh, yes, and the Saudis who are pumping oil are the ones who are trying to kill us. Yep. Those oil drillers and the company execs go American-hunting on their days off. They strap on an AK-47 and head off on the nearest Boeing 747 (which they all no doubt own personally — we Americans buy Corollas, those dirty Ay-rabs buy airliners, right?) like we go deer huntin’.
This how-to-boycott-gas thing has been making the rounds for years, and no one has figured out that these stupid schemes don’t work. People are too apathetic (and too busy) to bother with hunting down these mythical gas stations that apparently don’t deal with “those Arabs.”
Grr. I’m just fed up with the excuses used to justify this blatant racism.
Okay, rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Barbara (Xerraire) said,
July 15, 2008, 9:00 pm
I don’t have a problem with people having a product and making money on it, be it Arab or whoever. They have that right.
What bothers me is so do we, and we don’t.
Gee, that gives them all the more reason to charge as much as they wish, and I can’t blame them.
Tigerblade said,
July 15, 2008, 9:05 pm
Exactly. While I do think there’s some price gouging in the system, I think a lot of it is still just driven purely by supply and demand - there’s a lot of demand and a limited supply, and people don’t always understand that.
But my bigger problem is the blatant racism that’s used to make these arguments. “I can’t justify giving my money to people who are trying to kill me.” The oil companies are not trying to kill you, people. Terrorists may be, somewhere, but oil execs are not the ones strapping bombs to their chests and walking into open-air markets.
It’s like not buying from the elderly German man running his fresh fruit stand on the side of the road because “those damn krauts killed all them jews!!” It’s absurd.