First off

Don't be ashamed to say what you believe man, don't follow the current and conform to popular belief for fear of being singled out and attacked.

People are too narrow-minded, they cannot grasp that multiple issues affect our situation in the economy. We did not go to war for the economy nor oil. We went because Saddam was refusing to adhere to the treaties he agreed to from the Gulf War and he was refusing U.N. inspectors to private facilities.

Also, gas is high because of speculators. When Congress passed that law allowing speculation of the oil market, the price of the barrel skyrocketed over night. Same thing happened with the housing market, speculators got in the midst of that as well.

Also, now that China is putting 5 million cars in their population a year, they are now a contender on the global market for oil, that means that much more piece of the pie is being cut away and being bid upon. On top of that, the liberals won't let us get away from foreign oil dependency by not letting us drill off our own coasts. I am an advocate of alternate fuel however its just not being pursued diligently as it should be.

This in turn directly influences the economy. That means besides me buying extra luxuries I have to conserve because I have to fill up the gas tank, that hurts businesses. Also, it is costing much more to transport goods, that margin must be compensated by raising the prices of the product you are transporting. Bananas go from 69cents to 89cents, and it will go beyond.

And you are correct, if this wasn't such a pussy ass politically correct era we now dwell in, we would have simply taken what we needed from another country. We are the most powerful force this world has ever seen and we have a phenomenal amount of restraint that we and the rest of the world takes for granted. I am overwhelmed by the irony.

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Am I supposed to have some sort of disclaimer here?