gas prices

I know in Europe gas is sold by the liter and it is even more expensive than it is here, but wowza! It's over $3.00/gallon now, and they say it will probably hit $4.00 before the end of the summer. It seems like it has gone up awfully fast in the few years. I remember it wasn't too long ago when it hit $2/gallon. My husband are fortunate that we are able to share a ride to work, but we won't be able to do it forever, and when it costs $40-$50 for a tank of gas, we do what we can to make that tank last all week.

Now the paranoid part of me is starting to kick in. George W. Bush and all his homeland security forces have made traveling by air to be a pain in the a$$. It's harder now to get a passport, and the government is keeping more tabs than ever on our movements. What we bring on the plane, where we go, who we travel with, is all kept in computers somewhere. So the paranoid part of me is thinking that maybe, just maybe, this gas price thing is part of the plan to keep us from traveling. It's a lot easier to control the masses if they don't travel far from home, right? And it is yet another way our personal freedoms are being stripped away from us. Remember when we could just "go for a ride" for the fun of it? I remember getting in a car when I was younger and deciding to "go north" or "go east" and just drive wherever I felt like it. Ended up with my tires stuck in the sand, and needing a tow truck on Cape Cod once when I did that, but now... drive to the Cape just because I have the day off from work??? I don't think so! And those jokes about driving to Detroit just to go to a diner for some midwest cooking? forget about it.

Anyway, I know the cost of food has gone up too, and I'm always in shock when I see our electric bill, or the bill for our satellite tv service, but there is just something creepy, something disturbing, about the way gas has gone up, and all these wars and everything. I can't quite put my finger on it, I just know it's wrong.