Side Effects of Gasoline Prices

Greetings and Salutations to All my Kith and Kin and All the Ships in Outer Space:

Yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, I saw a news headline indicating the price of gasoline may increase to twelve dollars a gallon.

How will that affect our security down on the Mexican Border?

Most of the volunteers protecting our border are retirees, living on a fixed income.

If those elderly or disabled unpaid volunteers can no longer afford gasoline or groceries, it'll leave our border unguarded and wide open for massively catastrophic invasion and infiltration.

What about my Scottish clan and the planned international gathering of clans next year in Scotland?

I wonder how many of us clansmen can continue to attend local Celtic festivals or Highland gatherings?

I'm guessing a lot fewer clansmen will be at the international gathering in Scotland than had previously planned on it.

Likewise, I'm wondering how it will affect members of my own chosen faith, the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints?

Many members will no longer have the financial means to be able to travel distances to attend services.

Surely, there are some planning on serving full time Church missions who will not be able to do so.

The increasing cost of gasoline and diesel doesn't only affect personal vehicles.

It also will cause the cost of everything else to increase, including groceries, utilities, and medical care.

As people get more desperate, congested urban areas will become more dangerous.

Racial and ethnic groups will become more polarized and prone to violent confrontation.

People who are known to be unarmed will be the first victims, and thus, the most severely impacted.

In some locations, laws must be changed so citizens can be legally armed and free of prosecution when forced to defend life or property.

On the other hand, that might not matter, if the increasing costs and shortages result in the inability of conventional government bureaucracy to function effectively.

On the local news, there has been suggestions and discussion of possible Congressional legislation to control the price and availability of gasoline.

That would be disastrous, for in case nobody has thought about it, that is the very definition of National Socialism, i.e., the Nazi Party and the Third Reich.

Also, using the oil stored in our National Petroleum Reserve is a VERY bad idea, as that should be kept for a genuine emergency, and indeed, the current situation actually warrants increasing the amount of stockpiled oil, due to our uncertain future.

We were warned that this problem was coming, not because of lack of oil production, but because natural disasters had shut down some of our vital refineries.

So, we immediately need new refineries, as quick as possible.

There's a couple of reasons why the price of a gallon of gasoline is so high.

First, the majority of the price, probably around eighty per cent, is taxation.

Second, although no one ever mentions it, gasoline is only a miniscule portion of what crude oil is used for.

Just about everything we have, use, or see, is made of plastic, and plastic is made from petroleum.

So, those are my thoughts and observations on the subject.

My proposed solutions are:

First, build more refineries, as quickly as possible.

Second, enact legislation that will protect citizen's inalienable rights to be armed and to protect life and property.

Third, continue to build up the emergency stockpile in our National Petroleum Reserve, and leave it untouched.

Thank you.

John Robert "SAIGON" Mallernee, KB3KWS
Official Bard of Clan Henderson
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Washington, D.C. 20011-8400

NOTE: "My unpopular and controversial personal opinions are independent of my Scottish clan."