Something just doesn't seem very right here

In light of recent loss of American jobs, a crumbling mortgage market, and increasing costs passed onto consumers, i.e. United's $25 luggage fee there's just something unsettling about a company that posts record annual and quarterly profits for a product that's tied to global warming and our war on terror.

Exxon made $40.6 billion in profit by providing petroleum products in 2007. Annual revenue was at $404.5 billion. This isn't the company's first record-breaking honor, either. They posted $10.49 billion in the third quarter of 2006, the second largest quarterly profit ever posted by a publicly traded American company.

I know we need to continue to suckle from the gas teat a bit more, but when we're facing economic concerns and a country-wide identity crisis, having Exxon stand out as the most profitable entity ever just doesn't seem right. It seems...evil. Our spending on maintaining offense, or rather, defense, is egregiously high, and our penal system is a cash cow.

Why aren't we spending less on prisons and 'defense', and allocating more on beefing up our horribly arcane education systems that consistently fails to produce enough graduates needed for 21st Century jobs...that is unless you're the fortunate handful who come from money (or score a scholarship) and get to enroll at Andover and fast-track your ass to Harvard.

I don't buy the notion that folks who sell dimebags are going to ruin the country. Folks like Skilling and Lay will, though.

I get the laissez-faire capitalist mantra that the market will provide, but there needs to be a measure of equality introduced because the market players aren't concerned about making just enough money...it's about maximizing profits, an approach that places value on products and services that see a faster turnaround. This explains why educators and social workers make pennies compared to a code monkey: efforts spent on people don't always equate to a dollar value unless studied under under a longitudinal lens, while software elicits a *relatively* immediate return of investment.

Why anyone these days gets their Masters or Ph.D in education or social work should be canonized, because it's HIGHLY unlikely they're ever going to make it back. I digress into bitterness...excuse me.

Well...at least Romney's out of the race. Sorry, but his spooky Mormon ass spooked me. Any politician from a religion that's an 'American' brand of Christianity (i.e. Joseph Smith finding lost Golden Plates containing ancient script only decipherable by him and that can't be viewed by anyone) is spooky.

Yep. I'm rooting for the Creationist because, heck, I think the separation of Church and State is downright heretical. You disagree? You must be a minion of Lucifer...
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Not really.

Casting call for White House documentary

OK, so I'm not the biggest personal fan of Woody Allen. Had the whole adopted daughter turned spouse thing occurred with yours truly, there would have been court cases, Homeland Security investigations and the Moral Police aka Christian Coalition backed by Dubya's stumbling rhetoric condemning me for my debase nature.

That being said, I think that if there was ever a comedic take on what a documentary of Dubya's life might be, there should be a scene reminiscent of Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors". Never saw it? Well, this is the scene. Let your imagination run loose and replace Alan Alda character's take on his brilliant sense of humor with Dubya's "War on Terror" blathering.

Or you can just follow the "news" about Paris' DUI or Lindsey's bout with grab-assin' and partying, and not pay any attention to the fact that Exxon is consistently making RECORD quarterly earnings during a time when prices at the pumps are the highest they've been since...ever...and I remember the oil embargo of the 70s when my pops and I would have to wait in line to buy gas at the station, assuming the green flag was up...or you and I can start becoming more conscious about the issues impacting our town, state, nation, and world.

Trust me, I support our troops and our country. I just don't support their Commander-in-Chief. The 1 to 10-year-olds of today will be paying for our actions in the Middle East, and I'm betting that most of them don't have robust holdings in energy or defense shares. If we want to focus on a legacy for our nation's children, then let's not burden them with the aftermath resulting from the stagnant, fetid mindset of a hawkish minority who cling to a dusty model with their bloodless hands, crimped in hate, fear, and intolerance.

The soldiers in-country are fighting to win hearts and minds, but the current administration's directive that sent them there isn't focused on liberation of oppressed people, rather it's the appropriation of a nascent petroleum resource and the desire to keep a sustained American presence in a region where untapped oil fields will fatten the coffers of majority shareholders...and keep GM afloat. Don't get me wrong, I've got a 401k just like anyone else fortunate enough to have such an opportunity, but for me there's a disconnect between a 5 year vesting period and Exxon's $39.5 billion dollars in profits while worker bees in blue and white collar shirts pay upwards of $3.50 for a tank of gas. If you have a Hummer, I hope you love that gas sucking turd more than your mortgage or monthly rent.

We're a global community. The sooner America leverages its position in this new arena, the sooner we can reestablish ourselves as innovators and healers: real power brokers.

You want to make a short term impact? Here are my sophomoric thoughts...

1. Take public transportation (you're not a communist if you do)
2. Drive less (you don't need to floss every night on the strip to parley your spinner dubs)
3. Patronize local merchants who sell goods from nearby growers (there's less fuel consumed in shipping)
4. Read more (this includes books, magazines, and other offline source of information), as a smart populace is better positioned to have elected officials serve us, and not vice versa.

Exxon to Offer Special Xmas Tree Flocking

A federal appeals court cut the $5 billion punitive charge by about 50% for Exxon's role in the Valdez oil spill in Alaska some 17 years ago.

That would have been 5,000,000,000 Washingtons. That would buy my house approximately 7,680 times over. It would also approximately pay for $200,000,000 of my winter heating bills. As I don't drive much, and fill up about twice a month, Exxon could pay for my gas for 62,500,000 years with gas at its current cost. Of course, don't expect to see gas remain at a constant price after this.

Exxon will most likely need to "pass the savings" to the end user (read, you and me) in order to recoup their loss. Never mind that Exxon earned $10.49 billion in the third quarter of 2006: the second-largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company. The perfect mental image that comes to mind here is the Texan from The Simpsons - YEEEEEHAAAAWWWWW!!!!

If this penalty does anything to measure the damage upon the environment (there were about 11 million gallons dumped as a result of Capt. Hazelwood's glug-glug, honk-honk, crash-crash) just know that this wasn't even the largest oil spill.

HAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAA!! That's awesome. Awesome like all the completed human genome work getting shredded by Pat Robertson.