Gary H wrote:

Mxsmanic wrote:

Those of us who were there are not deceived by revisionist histories.
In those days, it was big bad IBM versus tiny helpless Microsoft, not
the other way around. Microsoft didn't (and couldn't) twist IBM's
arm.



Ya know, all this really isn't about Bill Gates or Microsoft Per Se.
It's about the greed factor and the power factor and the control
factor. The desire for absolute power and to corrupt absolutely . The
sort of thing that rears its ugly head virtually every single day of our
lives. Like Enron, Hollinger international and on and on.

With Microsoft, like many others it *is* about greed and power.

With the oil industry, it *is* about greed and power.
For example, I live in the north-eastern part of this north American
continent. In the summertime, the price of gas goes sky-high because of
the demand and heating oil drops and in the wintertime the price of
heating fuel goes sky-high because of demand and gas drops. The
immediate response or belief drilled into the general public is that
there is a shortage of oil. There is NOT.
There is plenty of oil. I know, because where I live, we are net
exporters of oil.

Super. But unless you can demonstrate your area's exports are enough to
power the planet that little factiod means nothing about the state of the
world's oil supply.

The problem is that with the increased demand, nobody
is building extra refining capacity. Especially those who *control* the
industry. You know, the Exxons, Shell, and so on.

They haven't built new refineries in a coon's age because they can't get
permits as environmentalists have essentially blocked every technologically
feasible source of new energy production.

It's gotten to the
point where these *******s are driving the crap out of a barrel of oil
because (get this) they're expecting a friggin' snow storm in the
north-east of the continent.

Wouldn't be so bad if you folks up there would ever let them build a bloody
pipeline too but, nooooooo. So when it's socked in every other means of
transport is cut off and you're stuck with whatever local supplies have
been pre stocked. That costs money, pal, and creates shortages.

Since you've got all that excess oil, why don't you lobby the legislature
for a refinery permit? hmm?

snip of paranoia