I hate to burst everyone's bubble but gas prices in the U.S. are artificially low and do not reflect the real cost of providing oil and gas to America. To start to figure the real cost of oil, figure in the cost of our military over the past 50 years and in particular the last 5.

9/11 has nothing to do with Iraq but oil does: both Iraq's and Iran's and Saudi Arabia's. Iraq was originally intended as the beach-head to project U.S. power into Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Any one nation that can dominate those reserves controls the energy to Europe, Japan, and to some degree China.

How many lives is $1.50 a gallon worth? How about the education of our children and the healthcare of our elderly? How many barrels of oils is that worth?

If you are interested in a clean environment low gas prices are the last thing you want - in a capitalist society the market place determines what people drive and cheap as equals Hummers and SUVs.

Marxist said that religion was the opiate of the masses. He only had it half right: Religion and Cheap Energy are the opiates of the American Masses.

If you want to change things, quit playing the gas price game, get rid of the two oilmen running this country, cut the military budget at least by 1/2 (you know that they can not account for 1 trillion dollars in their budget already - so says the OMB), stop business welfare and restore taxes to the under 2% of the population who are less productive and have far less risk than the other 98%.

What would we do with this restructured economy? Business wouldn't need to provide health care or retirement plans because the government would have the resources to provide top quality health care and secure retirement plans. American business would be on an equal footing with other business around the world and could compete more effectively. (Although, if management continues to have their heads stuck up their butts American business will continue to fail: auto industry.)

Americans would have access to education from cradle to grave, making them the best educated and most flexible workforce on the planet. Jobs might come and go but the American worker would be in constant demand. Also, with healthcare, education, and retirements assured maybe we could develop a more equitable pay scale from bottom to top: that would make us more competitive in the global market and redistribute some of the wealth to everyone else who works hard and takes risks.

Cheap Gas? Hell, that's only a symptom.