>Hi Terry,
>
I heard that congress passed a bill that gives full tax write offs to businesses for trucks over a certain tonage.
I read about that is a weird loop hole. Oil is becoming passe' and the old alpha males are trying to wrench all they can out of it. US foreign policy is doing everything it can to keep prices high - but not as high as the UK or Japan. NYC took some of their post 9-11 funds and put a gazillion lights on the George Washington Bridge. There used to be a phrase for this, I think it was "Conspicuous Consumption". My granny calls it a "little man complex":-). In Houston, we have the large marges in big shinney black trucks - I guess it makes them look petite - or offers them a means of hiding those 4 double cheese big macks they're eating on the way home from spectating an aerobics class.

"For desert I'd like the double layered cheese cake and a diet coke."

As I mentioned to Yuri, there's still hope. I find more and more people who think like us. I believe we are the silent majority.
There is more truth to your understanding than many would care to believe. We bide our time. The pigs at the trough today, will be bacon tomorrow:-).

Don't be silent - word your arguments so that they offend the fewest, or at least are gentle enough to open the door - then, slowly esculate your position to a full barrage. Our friends that initially supported the current patch of policy makers are straddleing a line. We have to seperate their last decision from their pride. In some cases, some individuals, will continue to support a bad idea. Rather than deal with the "shame" of a "troubling" decision, they continue to deny the problem and label those on the otherside as agitators, or unpatriotic. They continue to support a bad policy and never admit to that "moment of shame". Some frame their legacy decisions objectively: They felt they were making the best decision at the time, but, now is the time to must exorcise buyer's remorse.

There are a lot of good people that do not understand the responsibilities of their franchise. They do not recognize thier value to the future. A lot of people choose, not on what is right and humane, but rather on who will win. Might makes right types.

Others, don't make decisions. They rely on their "betters": the boss, Chris Mathews, O'Riely, Arnold, the Dubya diety or the preacher man. My righteous betters make right types.

Maybe a re-read of the fable, "The Emperor has no Clothes" could go a long way in helping us. All I see now is invisible thread. Does the Patriot Act make it a felony to see "invisible thread"?:-)