If you don't read this post you are helping the terrorists

OK, not really, but I really could not think of a different title. However, I have a few interesting tidbits to cover today before the scheduled blogger outage at 4:00.

Pennies are worthless...or are they? With the rising price of metals, it turns out that a penny costs more than a penny to make. I heard this on a podcast (or maybe NPR) the other day, but I can't find a better source in "print". If I remember correctly, it costs 0.7 cents for the metal to make the penny and 0.6 cents to carry out the process (per penny). That means it costs us 1.3 cents to make a 1-cent penny. Talk about government efficiency. I wonder how we can just get rid of pennies. Would businesses have to round up or round down? What really pisses me off is that pennies are still used, but the Sacagawea dollar didn't catch. Bullshit!

The man doesn't want to let you use the internet. Well, sort of. There is a bill in progress that is looking to protect access to the internet. There are a few links in this article at TheCarpetBagger Report that give more details. The issue is that some companies that run high-speed internet service want to maintain control of the access to their wiring. Steve at TCB gives a good analogy. If Amazon agrees on a deal with Verizon, Verizon could realistically make Amazon's website load and run faster than other bookstores, especially independent stores that could not afford this same deal. The bill looks to make this type of deal illegal. I don't think these deals exist right now, but it would not surprise me.

Gas gives me gas. Well, not as much as beans, but this whole situation with gas prices does make me sick. First, however, let me say that although I would prefer lower prices for gas, I am OK with high prices. Maybe this will force us to use other options. What drives me up the wall is oil companies playing it off like they have no control. A new bi-partisan movement in Congress looks to tax these windfall profits that gas companies have been getting. Normally, I don't like this type of government involvement in business, but clearly gas plays a special role in our economy. So I say screw these oil execs. We pay at the pump for their $400,000,000 retirements. Do you think I am exaggerating? Lee Raymond retired from Exxon got that deal. Yeah, those oil prices are really costing you guys. What happens when the price of oil goes up? Within 48 hours we see a rise in gas prices. What happens when oil prices go down? It takes a week for gas stations to drop their prices. Congress needs to grow some balls and really investigate these companies. Why don't they? Because oil companies give $25,000,000 annually to their campaigns (86% of that to Republicans). Sorry, I guess the average American gets the shaft again.