May 31, 2008

What was that line from "Network"?

While I was in New York there was talk of raising the price of gas and everyone was pretty worked up about it. Well yeah, who wouldn't be? They expect it to go up to $4 bucks a gallon soon. Here in Transistor land they are raising the prices too. Starting tomorrow we will be paying 170 yen for a liter. At 3.8 litres to a gallon that is a whole lot of money to jam that goddamn tiger in yer tank.

I Just don't know who to blame or even complain about anymore.I am so darned frustrated and tired of tryin to make sense of all the hairy bullshit that my head hurts all the time.

I'll let someone else rant for me.
Take it away Mr. Beale

Howard Beale: "I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,

I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'

I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

That sounds like a good idea, "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

11 comments:

moi said...

Either we all severely curtail our driving and take mass transit, bicycle, etc., and as a result the prices go down, or we continue on our merry way and absorb the costs into our lives, cutting back on other areas. OR we actually do something completely radical and act like the crafty human beings that we are. Forgo the bitching and moaning and finger pointing and instead roll up our sleeves and come up with an alternative. This isn't a problem. This is a challenge.

NYD said...

I do ride my bycycle, yet there are times when I absolutely need my van.

I agree with your statement and support your ideals, but the incredible rise in gas prices over the last two years is unbelievable. And nobody can give me a decent explination.

Jenny said...

I can answer it for you: greed.

I do agree with Ms. Moi... this is challenging America's to get out of their SUV's and look at what we've been taking for granted for decades - other countries have been paying more for years and I think we've been in a false bubble in the United States... reality is a bitch sometimes.

I remember the gas crisis in 70's.... apparently we learned very little from that.

(loved NETWORK, BTW.)

Enemy of the Republic said...

I walk a lot and take public transportation. The gas prices are hard on my husband as he is a contractor and has to drive to carry tools. One of the airlines now is charging 15 bucks for checking in luggage. I understand that fuel prices hurt them too, but that is carrying the for profit margin a bit too far. I think on my next vacation, I will get a horse.

h said...

1) The newest refinery in the USA is thirty-years old. Those old refineries waste between 4% and 7% of all oil. Assuming we can't do BETTER than the Brits, a new refinery would waste only 1% of the raw material.

1b) Why haven't we built modern refineries? DEMOCRATS!

2) About 25% of imported oil in the USA isn't used for transportation. It's used for heating and power-generation. That 25% could have been eliminated from the mix DECADES ago by using safe clean nuclear power.

2b) Why haven't we built any Nuke Plants in the last 30 years? DEMOCRATS. Led by renowned Scientists Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas.

3)If oil from Anwar was in the stream today, that alone would drop the price of Gas 6%.

3b) Why isn't Anwar online? DEMOCRATS (and a few rinos)

4) We currently subsidize the planting of a high-maintenance food crop (CORN) and a 1970s technology (Ethanol from Corn). This prevents the usage of plants far less expensive than corn using technologies far more advanced than the out-dated Ethanol plants. Freaking BRAZIL (still a third-world country) is ahead of us in this regard.

4b) Why do taxpayers subsidize millionaire Corn farmers and the Ethanol-From-Corn Monopoly? DEMOCRATS (and mid-western rinos).

There is a lot of blame to be assigned equally to the two main political parties in the USA. And a few problems where Republicans are more to blame.

Regarding our insane Energy Policies, lay 99% of the blame on Democrats.

NYD said...

I have always been amazed by the return of huge gas guzzling automobiles to the American highways.
It wasnt really a very long time ago that folks were lining up on even and odd days for gasoline.

Enemy~ Glad to see you here. Your opinions are always welcome (they are so often resonant with mine) Here the airlines add on a fuel surcharch which can often increase the price of a ticket anywhere from ten to fifteen percent.

Troll~ Vert Erudite and well informed, but that doesen't account for the astounding rise in prices in japan. We rely heavily on nuclear energy (that is paradoxica in itself) and have been exploring the possibilities of converting cooking oils and seaweed into alternative fuels. There has been great progress, but the programs are not economically viable. I'm figuring that the increase of crude oil will change that.

ThursdayNext said...

I am sick and tired of the blame game (directed to Troll) - we need to own up to our responsibility as citizens and start making better choices as to who we elect, how we run programs in our community, what cars we buy, etc. You have a hand and a brain - use them!

puerileuwaite said...

I agree with Moi and Thursdaynext. We need to CONSERVE, and also find creative ways to turn this challenge into an opportunity.

Unfortunately, as Enemy alludes, this is RIGHT NOW severely impacting those who don't make a lot and are extremely vulnerable to price increases.

Just my personal opinion, but the partisan political bullshit is getting old. Thanks for speaking up first on that front, Thursdaynext.

What has gotten into me? Way too serious today ... sorry.

Corn Dog said...

It's $4.50/gallon for the middle of the road gas. I think premium is $4.60. I'm trying to work up some sympathy about the gas prices, but I have to walk everywhere or take the freakin' hoodlum infested bus because I got "the epilepsy" from the bad brain surgery. I want to act like I am concerned about the gas prices but at this point, the truth of the matter is I don't give a rat's ass. Yeah, I'm turning into a mean crotchy old lady, the kind you see on the buses and think - gee that's a mean crotchy old lady.

NYD said...

Yeah tha's righ, mix it up. Me loves a nice knock down drag out fight. lol.

There are many good points being made by all.
I for one, do believe that assigning blame; as much as I'd like to do it, is pointless in this situation. If we plame the politicos thean we are only pointing the finger at ourselves. If we go after big business and manufactures a similar rule applies.

What I fear beyond the obvious rise in petroleum is the inevitable rise in price in everything else.
That includes bus fares, Corn Dog.

Here's another memorable line from the comic strip POGO "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

NYD said...

Oh, yeah. It was worse than I originally reported. The bastards raised prices up to 188 yen. That's about $6.50 for a freakin gallon of gas!!!!!!