With each passing day I become more happy with my very recent trade of my former transportation (used 2000 Ford Explorer, approx. 16 mpg given my driving) for newer, more fuel efficient wheels (used 2005 Pontiac Vibe that would be getting near 32 - 36 MPG if I didn't love to stay cool by running the AC and didn't have a tendency to drive it a bit faster than I should -- peppy little thing, hard to tell just how fast you are going in it really).
As much as I hate having someone else dictate what type of vehicle I'm driving, I even more so hate having some radical from an oil producing country profiteering on my back, collecting more money for fueling their policies because of the petroleum products I'm consuming.
Iran's sabre rattling led to spikes towards or over the $73 a barrel mark for oil today (June 5, 2006) as they continue to thumb their nose at the world powers and pursue their dangerous path towards becoming a Nuclear state.
As they continue down that path, I become more resolute that we should really help them become a Nuclear state, or at least make part of their country a Nuclear state -- light 'em up and let 'em glow.
I'm not saying that we don't need to use diplomacy, but I am saying I have little or no patience for the games that the clowns that control that country want to play. If they wish to be a part of the global world community, then behave that way. They are being offered a precious opportunity currently, but they seemed destined to not just ignore it, but to tell us all to kiss their collective hind parts while they do. Well, give them an opportunity, give them a deadline, and then make good on any and all possible punishments we can use against them -- including, if necessary, making their relatively uninhabitable country even more uninhabitable. If we (the U.S.A.) don't do it, then it's highly likely that Israel will, and the consequences in the region would probably be far worse.
On the other hand, if we do make good on any threats we make, we will be sending a clear message to people that seem only to understand messages dealt from positions of extreme power that we say what we mean, mean what we say, and don't have patience to deal with their idiotic demands.
