I'm doubling my content tonight!

First, an apology...that first post was pretty meaty, and I made the newbie mistake of not ensuring that commenting was allowed! Nice, eh? After I'd just pompously noted on More With Les that I think the best blogs care more about the commenters than the position the author takes on an issue. Well, comment function is enabled and resolved, and I've learned.

Sharing Time
Recent tunes on my iPod..."Papa Dukie and the Mud People" and "I Got All The Time In The World" by the subdudes, the latter is particularly infectious.

Cooking tip...Beau Monde seasoning by Spice Islands rubbed liberally on a roast chicken or turkey and used in the gravy....mmmm, groovy.

Recent movie..."Fracture" with Sir Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. Great flick. Even though you know he did it - he said he did it - you're wondering how he's getting away with it. Just not sure what the point of the love interest was.

Three questions...

• I learned that baby carrots aren't really baby carrots but full-sized irregularly shaped carrots, cut into bite sized pieces in an industrial green bean cutter, then run through an industrial potato peeler to smooth out the rough edges. They're not as fresh and they're more expensive than just buying...carrots.
• I'm proud that I took that leap of faith (thanks Rev).
• And my happy moment today was seeing the scale drop another couple pounds...guess that eating right and exercise is working.

Something about communications...
Shel Holtz has a video post on his blog, "Blogging in a regulated environment" addressing concerns some have about starting a blog in a company operating in a regulated industry. Shel has a fine answer -- "Don't violate the regulations." Something about blogging and social media seems to make communicators and others think they have to be more cavalier than they would otherwise be, and I'm not sure why we lose our sense of professional responsibility in this arena.

I commented there that anyone considering a blog for the company should have a very specific initiative in mind, tied clearly to business goals, with at least some credible plan for measurement of success, have an editorial calendar and commitments for content in place, and show how you plan to enforce keeping the blog focused on the intended topic. It should be justified in the same way you would justify an ad campaign, direct mail campaign, newsletter, or any other communications vehicle. I'd love to hear what others think.

Something stuck in my craw (what the hell does that mean anyway?)
Okay, now to that gas thing I mentioned last time...
The price of a gallon of gas here has been back and forth over the $3.00/gallon line several times, but it's pretty well agreed we're headed for $4.00+ for good. I noted that $5.00+/gallon was seen at stations in California recently.

The first time we crossed that $3.00 threshhold was right after Katrina took out refineries in the Gulf Coast region of the U.S. Consumers and politicians rightly got up in arms about oil and gas companies gouging consumers. Oil companies claimed they weren't responsible for the price of the gas, but rather those refineries. Congress flirted with the idea of paying us all $100 each to help out.

I wrote an e-mail to my Congressional representatives and the White House stating that I didn't buy the oil companies' arguments that they weren't responsible for the price of their product -- their name on the drill, their name on the pipeline, their name on the refinery, their name on the truck that delivers the gas to the store, their name on the store, and their name on the card I used to purchase. I'm sorry I missed the part where they weren't involved. I told them if they really wanted the government to spend $15B on the problem, to put that toward making alternative fuels viable options to gas. You'd accomplish a few things with that...1) quit sending troops to die trying to build and defend democracies that won't work in the Middle East and defending oil interests we no longer have, 2) start paying farmers to grow instead of not grow, 3) penalize greedy oil companies, 4) create industries American companies (including the oil companies if they're smart) can lead and 5) employ American people.

I got one response three months later from Senator John Warner's office that, in my opinion, took a long, dry route to saying nothing and obscuring the obvious. No price gouging was found, prices controlled by all kinds of variables. I wasn't wowed.

And it's back on my mind because last week Exxon went to the Supreme Court battling a $2.5B punitive fine (cut in half already from an original $5B decision by federal court) that resulted from the Exxon Valdez accident that is supposed to go to the affected people of Alaska. This is an accident that occurred almost 19 years ago, and Exxon still hasn't paid the people of Alaska. . Roughly 20 percent of the original plaintiffs have died since the lawsuit began. Exxon is arguing that even halved, the fine is too large and it shouldn't have to pay a penny of it.

Exxon set a record for corporate annual profits in 2005 making $36.13B, then beat that record in 2006 with $39.5B, and again in 2007 with $40.6B. Exxon's former CEO Lee Raymond set a record with a retirement package of $400M in 2006.

But those poor folks at Exxon aren't reaping the benefits of the gas prices at all...they're not responsible for those prices...they're just trying to make a living...in fact, according to a recent radio ad, we should be very happy they're taking more money from us per gallon because if we have investments in any kind of funds, chances are we're stockholders.

Am I wrong to be angry about this and to call on Exxon to own up, pay up to the folks in Alaska and price down for America before we all revolt? Someone help me understand...or help me to get the government to get their heads out of the trees to see the forest. Who knows more about what drives the price of gas? Someone educate me.

Damn, ran long again! Well, love to hear from you, whoever you are.