Time To Play....SMELL THE BULLSHIT!

Thats right folks! It is time for another (actually the first ever) game of Smell The Bullshit!

The rules are simple. I list some "facts" and you get to guess what "facts" are really total bullshit. If you guess correctly, you win fabulous prizes and a chance to go to the bonus round where you could win first class round trip tickets on American Airlines to ANY location in the USA - including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the American Virgin Islands.

See that was bullshit. You will not win squat. Now you understand how the game works.

OK Now it is time to play! Here are a list of facts, some of which are real and at least one I will simply make up! Ready! LETS PLAY!!

1. In the last State Of The Union Speech, President Bush said Americans should try to conserve energy, including gas. He said that "America is addicted to oil".

2. Oil companies often have ads claiming that they care about the environment, and that reducing carbon emissions is a top concern for them.

3. Under inflated car tires can reduce fuel economy by as much as 6%.

4. Air at gas stations is free.

Can you smell the bullshit? Guess NOW!!!
Click HERE to hear some THINKING MUSIC.

OK time is up! The bullshit is....FACT 4! Fact 2 is ALMOST bullshit, but if you will notice how I worded that one. Oil companies CLAIM that they care. And they do make such claims. But they do not back it up.

But fact 4 is total bullshit. Gas stations, at least the ones in Miami, do not offer free air anymore. Nevermind that underinflated tires CAN blow out and cause a horrible accident. Forget the fact that underinflated tires cause your car to consume more fuel per mile. And do not even try to bring up the fact that underinflated tires wear up to 25% faster then properly inflated tires.

So clearly gas stations that do not provide free air as a service to drivers do NOT care about all of the above. Who cares that people use up more gas? That means they will have to buy more sooner. Who cares if tires wear faster? Once again, it means people will have to buy more tires sooner. This is good for profits! To hell with the little problem that tires can not be recycled, and that the world is pretty much at peak rubber production. And if a blowout causes an accident that kills a few people, and snares traffic for hours while the police mop up the mess - it means people will have to buy more gas again!

I think that gas stations that DO NOT provide air should be shut down and the owners charged with TREASON TO THE UNITED STATES. Thats right - treason.

Why treason? Lets see here. There is a little war going on right now, and lets not dance around issues here - the war is at least partly because of oil. You can believe in the WMDs if you want, and you can believe that waving a magic wand over a nation can instantly produce a
democracy - but you can not say that oil is not also a reason for this war.

So we have U.S Military, Iraqi civillians, and the "insurgents" all getting killed half way around the world in part because of oil. And OPEC nations have the USA by the short and curlies because they control the oil we need. Meanwhile, gas stations do not do all they can to help reduce this.

Sounds like treason to me! Come on - we are talking about an air pump! Air is free! So what is the big deal? This is the electronic age - check cards, pre-paid tolls, hell I can even use my check card at a parking meter! So what if I do not have the two quarters to turn on the air pump? Just burn up 5% more gas than I need to? Risk having a nasty blowout and causing a horrible accident? Wear my tires faster?

Treason I say!