With a fixed supply of gas, one state's lower taxes can indeed lower prices. Nationwide, however, lower gas taxes would increase overall demand for gas, and thus the price. In fact, every low-tax gas state probabably increases the nationwide cost of gas that all of us pay.

I do think we've reached peak oil, but the speed of the rise in prices can't be blamed on it per say.

Our falling dollar (due to years of consumer and gov't borrowing, no doubt) is both increasing the price we pay on the global market and fueling "dollar hedge" speculation in the markets that distort the suppluy demand equation.

The problem is, peak oil or no, oil ain't like widgets. Both supply and demand are relatively inelastic in the short term. We have an infrastructure that makes it literally impossible for many people to get to work on the bus and more goods to get to market on a train, so we'll pay any price for gas. That takes years to change. It also takes years to open a new oil field, assuming there is one to open.

The rise in oil and commodity prices has been too fast and too steep to be accounted for by the slow arrival at peal oil, gradual increases in demand from India and China's middle class. Supply disruptions in Iraq, Nigeria, possibly Venezuela, are also not to be discounted.

Big pharma funds studies for drugs they can patent. Because there is no financial incentive to study the health effects of common supplements, it doesn't get done nearly enough. That leaves a big hole that gets filled with wackos like Amen and that creepy bearded guy PBS rolls out during fund drives.

Some of what they say is accurate, some is not, but as long as science has a knee-jerk reaction against supplements, diet, prayer, etc. and continues to treat the body as if it was just a machine with our head on top, these quacks will have a point.

The other question is, why the heck does PBS roll out this aweful dreck during fund drives? NPR interupts regular programimg to to beg. PBS replaces regular programing to air horrid people like Amen and Suze Orman, guaranteeing that the regular PBS audience that loves Antiques Roadshow or American Experience isn't even watching.

On my recent vacation, I was setting the cruise at exacly the speed limit to save gas in my Mazda (got 32 mpg with at 29 highway epa btw)and i got passed by a zillion Prius drivers going 80. I think they figure, they are getting such good mileage that they don't need to bother driving prudently.

Yet another case of Obama impressing me by going on the attack while delivering a pragmatic solution that cuts accross the usual sides. I hope it works... conventional wisdom is that nuance doesn't fly and pragmatic solutions like this please nobody on either side. But maybe we're getting past that, and I think there was a sound bite in there somewhere. I've almost forgiven him for sending out that fundraising letter for Chaka Fattah in the Philadelphia mayor's primary. Almost... it's pretty bad judgement to pick a man -any man - in a five way race in the bigest city in a swing state, and when his man lost, the winner went big for Hillary. Plus, Chaka Fattah is a bleedin' moron w/ a phony African name his mom, Queen Mother Fattah made up.

I can switch from corn flakes to wheaties, avoid buying clothes and televisions, but when it comes to oil and water, I will pay any price. Still doesn't explain "why now?" but it does mean that until the price of gas exceeds the cost of abandoning our suburban homes and businesses and rebuilding in central cities, or building electric cars and 50 new nuclear power plants, we will pay anything for oil.

I rather like Israel and I really don't care for the Muslim theocracies much. But the US needs to stop being a crutch for Israel. It makes us hated and them complacent. It's a dysfunctional relationship and we would be better off seeing other people.

Besides, the Israelis have enough nukes to turn the Middle East into a sheet of glass. What do they need us for?

Jaded as I am by this damned country, I think in the long run, the US will create jobs out of this oil crisis by leading the world developing alternative energy sources. Germany is the only country that has invested wisely in this regard, but we'll catch up. We always have, from the automobile (another German invention btw) to the Internet. Both presidential candidates are at least paying lip service to the need to invest in alternative energy but with high oil prices we may not even need their leadership (or want it - that's how we got corn ethanol).

Oil and technology have allowed the world population to increase to unsustainable levels and f-ed up the natural world beyond belief. GMO isn't ideal, but it's probably the only way to get us out of this mess. Like distributing needles to druggies, GMO is a harm reduction strategy. It's potentially bad, but not as bad as continuing to produce and use pesticides, oil-based fertilizers, precious potable water, etc, all of which can be mitigated with GMO crops

This mockery of my culture (college educated nerdly city dweller) is disturbingly on target if a little outdated (mark my words, the next thing on the list will be skeeet shooting), but we need a better word than white. i mean, most white people under this definition would be the "wrong" kind. And what about the black version? The ones who all seem to drive a Toyota Camry, listen to Jill Scott, and have elderly aunts who live in beautiful Victorian houses?