Better keep those bike tires pumped up

NY Times: The main government conference hall in Tripoli, Libya, continued to burn Monday following major riots in Tripoli on Sunday night.

When I saw that picture, I wasn't sure it was from Tripoli, Libya or from Madison, Wisconsin.

At any rate, we better fire up the Traffic Skills-101 classes, etc.  Gasoline prices may be about to go through the roof again.

The trouble with watching world events unfold in real time is you don't know where they are going to end up. We've been through two oil crises due to Middle East political instability and our own gluttony. Is this third time to be the charm? Not to mention that food prices are rising because of Federal requirements that ethanol be blended into gasoline as a motor fuel, an absurdly inefficient process that at best encourages a "what, me worry?" driving and energy policy, at worst burns about as much oil as simply drilling more holes in the ground--at the cost of starvation in the Third World. After all, how does one raise and process corn into hooch? With horse-drawn plows and Snuffy Smith's wood-fired 'still?

The latest from the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/world/africa/22libya.html
CAIRO — The faltering government of the Libyan strongman Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi struck back at mounting protests against his 40-year rule, as helicopters and warplanes besieged parts of the capital Monday, according to witnesses and news reports from Tripoli.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/world/africa/22oil.html
LONDON — Global oil companies said Monday that they were making plans to evacuate employees in Libya after some operations there were disrupted by political unrest. Libya holds the largest crude oil reserves in Africa, and the moves drove some stock prices down and a crucial oil benchmark to a three-year high.

U.S. Energy Policy, 2011

May we live in interesting times, eh?