2 out of 5 Americans Believe Bush Controls Oil Prices
This is the 2nd in our 287 part series, “2 out of 5 Americans Are Idiots.” According to the USA Today: ” A hefty 42% of Americans polled over the weekend said they think fuel prices are being manipulated by the Bush administration to help Republicans in an election year.” Anyone want to guess if it is same 40% that believe Muslims should carry special ID?
[…] This is the 3rd in our 287 part series, “2 out of 5 Americans Are Idiots.” Sam Harris at Idea City ‘05 claimed that 44% of Americans believe that Jesus is (or probably is) going to come down out of the clouds sometime in the next 50 years. This is the transcript from his excellent talk: 22% of Americans claim to be certain, literally certain that Jesus is going to come down out of the clouds sometime in the next 50 years. Another 22% think he probably will sometime in the next 50 years. That’s 44% of the electorate. Now of course, this belief does not exist in isolation. It’s not an accident that 44% of Americans also believe that the creator of the universe literally promised the land of Israel to the Jews. This is in his capacity as an omniscient real estate broker. And these beliefs are knit together with a myriad of other beliefs, infatuations with the end of history, with apocalyptic prophecy. And these beliefs have geopolitical consequences. This is not just what people believe on Sundays. […]
Are you trying to imply that the Bush administration is NOT controlling oil prices? I don’t believe that Muslims should carry special IDs, but it is obvious that Bush is murdering thousands of Iraqis just to keep them out of the oil business and keep prices rising. Now, the oil industry, Bush’s biggest special interest, is keeping supply up temporarily, and prices down. Where do you think the price of a gallon of gas will be in April 2007? I will bet that it will be at least 20% higher than now.
Two little things:
1. When I said thousands, I meant hundreds of thousands.
2. Can we please start calling U.S. citizens U.S. citizens? Brazillians are Americans too. Anyone who speaks broken english is going to be confused, and misusing the word “American” and excluding other americans makes us look ignorant and arrogant.
“Supplies are above average, partly because summer’s high prices attracted record imports. Hurricanes haven’t knocked out Gulf of Mexico production. U.S. regulations permit a cheaper-to-make fuel blend in fall and winter.”
There is no conspiracy. This President is not capable of one. He certainly is too friendly with them (esp Enron and Halliburton), but the idea that he personally sets gasoline prices is ridiculous.
Almost everyone refers to US citizens as Americans. It’s been going on since this nation was founded and will keep going on for the foreseeable future. It may very well be arrogant, but it is not ignorant. Nor is it broken English. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=american&x=0&y=0 The first definition for American (n) is “of or pertaining to the United States of America or its inhabitants”
Im sorry, I’m a little confused as to why US Citizens shouldnt be called Americans…
I am not saying that G.W. Bush personally sets oil prices, but can you really think that this Texas oil millionaire (billionaire?) isn’t manipulating them to get richer? The Bush family is known to be friends with OPEC royalty, and he is obviously capable of a conspiracy. The war in Iraq undeniably caused prices to go up, and this is not the first time OPEC has opened supply in an election year. Bush sent troups to Iraq on the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, but by the time he admitted the weren’t there, it was too late, and he still refuses to withdraw.
I don’t agree that almost everyone refers to U.S. citizens as “Americans”. It isn’t broken English, but it confuses people who don’t speak U.S. English fluently. Even it a lot of people say it that way, it is still clearly wrong. Look at the constitution and the declaration of independence, the two documents that created this country. Nowhere to they refer to it as “America”. The founding fathers knew better. By the way, it is not ignorant, just lazy, but I said it makes us LOOK ignorant.
Iain: The reason not to do this is that other americans (Canadians etc.) will think we are talking about them when we are not. It is just a sloppy habit we should break.
James, I followed your link. Did you notice that:
1; Two thirds of the definitions they provide are in agreement with what I said, and
2; The site belongs to a company with “American” in its name ! Of course they won’t admit that they are misusing the word.
Of course gasoline prices drop in autumn because of the facts you mention, but I have never seen them drop more than ten percent except in an election year. They just tend to ratchet upward.