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You can’t get away from the talk about gas prices, try as you might.
Expensive? Yes. Exxon’s (et al) fault? I don’t think so. Some politicians
would like you to believe that the price at the pump is a direct result of the
oil companies price gouging. Chuck Schumer believes this and has called for an
investigation. In fact, many are upset that an oil company has the gall to make
a profit! (See my post of Folk Marxism as this directly relates.)

However, did you know that New York ranks highest in state taxes on gasoline?
A report by the American Petroleum Institute shows that as of August 2005, 62.9
cents per gallon goes to taxes. Federal tax is 18.4 cents leaving 44.5 per
gallon in taxes. What are these taxes? 8 cents is the state excise tax the rest
is listed as “Other”. They include sales taxes, gross receipts taxes, oil
inspection fees, underground storage tank fees and other miscellaneous
environmental fees. Below is an excerpt from the report showing the top and
bottom 5 states for gas taxes.

Nationwide and
State-by-State Gasoline Taxes, August 2005 (Gasoline-taxes.pdf)

Maybe we should be calling for an investigation of these taxes and where that
money is going. Or, perhaps since times are tough, New York should be willing to
ease up on these taxes.

The Islamic Thinker’s Society held a rally in New York on April 17. Despite
their seemingly innocuous name, this group sends a clear message of violence and
hatred.

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006/04/islamists_message_to_israel_at_1.php

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/530

Al-Jazeera released a (unconfirmed) Bin Laden audio tape in which,
among other things, urged his followers to take up the fight in Sudan
against the "crusader plunderers" aka: UN Peacekeepers. 
Apparently Bin Laden would prefer uninterrupted genocide.  

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192729,00.html

Bin Laden also criticized the West’s decision to cut off funds to Hamas
led Palestinians.  have an in-depth look at the types of bombs used
by Palestinian suicide bombers.

http://brain-terminal.com/posts/2006/04/20/inside-the-suicide-bomb

Looks like McDonald’s did pull the ad due to complaints.  

Once again, pushing the envelope is the excuse used for churlishness.

http://www.nypost.com/business/64718.htm

Leading up to and during the New
York City transit strike, I noticed a common theme the media carried when
reporting: oppressed vs. oppressors.

 For the union the strike wasn’t just about wages and benefits, it was
also about the belief that the MTA should share its surplus with the workers.

 This worldview of ‘wealth = oppressor’ is brilliantly defined by
Arnold Kling in his essay on Folk
Marxism.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=012206D

To see Folk Marxism in action, check out NewsBusters piece on Good Morning
America’s class warfare against Dr. William McGuire, head of UnitedHealth Group.

http://newsbusters.org/node/4989

Crime is unavoidable, that’s a fact. It’s going to happen, sometimes more
often than not, but no matter what we do to prevent it, we can only reduce the
frequency, not eliminate it all together. One way of reducing the frequency is
to remove ourselves from situations where the likelihood of crime is high. Avoid
dark alleys, don’t talk to strangers, and never hitchhike are common pieces of
advice our mothers told us.

Common sense will keep us out of trouble in a lot of cases. Ann Coulter, in
her recent article, discusses some of the behavior involved in the Duke lacrosse
rape case, Natalee Holloway vanishing in Aruba, and Imette St. Guillen’s murder.
I agree with her when she writes, "Everyone makes mistakes, especially
young people, but the outpouring of support for the victims and their families
is obscuring what ought to be a flashing neon warning for potential future
victims."

Nobody deserves the crime committed on them, but we’re obligated as a
society to speak up and warn others of actions which may put the odds in the
criminal’s favor.

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=14178&o=ANN001

I am continually amazed at the hypocrisy of the left, though I know I
shouldn’t be. We’re bombarded daily with images of people likening our
government to Nazis, constant reminders of our shrinking civil liberties, and
the insipid chanting of how the right will lead us to our doom. Yet, time after
time, it is these fist shakers that want to keep you from speaking, reading and
thinking.

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/blog-detail.php?id=14083

Have you seen the McDonald’s commercial where two men are discussing the
economic benefits of meals at the fast food establishment? The shtick is that
when the characters say they got something for "free" it is bleeped
out as if it was another four letter word. After this exchange of maybe ten
bleeps the punch line is "so good a deal, it’s obscene". I actually
first heard this commercial before seeing it, being in another room while the TV
aired it. My first reaction was that they were actually censoring out some
questionable language, but after seeing it a second time I got the joke.
However, I was kind of put off by it; tasteless at best. I’ve never been a fan
of pandering to the lowest common denominator. Recently, I’ve seen the same
commercial with the faux censoring removed and the tagline changed. Did
McDonald’s change this due to complaints? I haven’t heard a peep out of the
media on this. I suspect they did and wanted to keep it low key. Drop a line if
you know anything more about this.

The controversial episode of South Park, in which a depiction of
Mohammed was to appear, in the end was edited for broadcasting on Wednesday
night. At the critical moment a black screen appeared with text that read, “Comedy
Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/…

Lesson learned: Violence, rioting, death threats, burning buildings, and
terrorism are the way to go when you don’t want something on TV.

Links for more info:

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004982.htm

http://newsbusters.org/node/4893