I think this is that slow news week I’ve been looking for. First, I want to spin off something Chamba was reading yesterday. It had to do with the recent inflation of the price of gasoline at the pump, and my take on it isn’t that different, but I have a question that I haven’t heard addressed. All of us who drive know that gas now is priced higher than it ever has been in this country, and even the mainstream media tells us whenever the price goes up that the companies which sell this gas are enjoying huge increases in profits. But we’re also constantly reminded that people in other parts of the world pay much more for gas. So do the purveyors of petroleum products make even greater profits in other parts of the world, and if not, why not? I’ll speculate two things. First, the same companies probably are selling the gas in other parts of the world, and second, those companies probably receive corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks which enable them to sell for less in the U.S. If that’s true, then a low price at the pump simply means we’re paying part of our fuel bill in our taxes. There are many discrepancies in the world economy. Some countries are affluent; some are poor, but businesses which operate on a worldwide scale equalize their economic picture no matter where they might be doing business. They’re not likely to work on a smaller profit margin in Europe than they run in the U.S.

So the next time you gas up your SUV at $3.25 a gallon, you can figure that people in other parts of the world are being gouged to approximately the same degree, even though the price may be higher. Despite the inclination of some political figures, even the Bushwhacker, to talk about alternative fuels and reducing dependence on barrels of crude from the middle east, it doesn’t happen because American based companies which sell gas and manufacture vehicles don’t want it to happen. But it’s inevitable. The story that Chamba read implied that increased gas prices would threaten the well being of the middle class in the U.S. Right now, it puts a bigger bite on them, but it doesn’t put them into poverty. Big corporations make their dough from the middle class. It’s not in their interest to impoverish anyone, but in my estimation, it’s not possible to influence the price of gas politically. Those guys in the middle east will charge whatever they can get for a barrel of crude, the refiners and the wholesalers will sell it for whatever they can get from the retailers, and the retailers will charge us whatever they need to make a living. When it gets high enough, somebody will start throwing money at developing alternatives. It’s not that high yet.

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This story about immigration from Mexico has reached the point of being ridiculous, and I’m a little weary of talking about it. We’ve discussed the merits at length, but the political posturing and the media posturing are what deserve comment now. The people who call themselves conservatives and write letters to the editors of their local papers obviously believe that immigration from Mexico is a threat to them. Well, okay, maybe if they pick crops or do yard maintenance for a living, but for most of them, Mexican immigrants are an advantage, not a threat. Anyway, politicians who also like to call themselves conservative are pandering to this fear, and some mainstream media are jumping on that bandwagon. This is, of course, a hopeless cause, but it’s amusing to observe these people who are terrified of Mexicans coming across the border, but they don’t mind hiring them to clean their houses and take care of their yards. I think it parallels the racism aimed at African Americans, but that’s a discussion for another day. Anyway, repeating myself, these people are tilting at windmills. That border will end up open, even if some politicians try to build a thousand mile fence.

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One local item: The Nevada City Planning Commission approved a proposal for three houses on Redbud Way. That’s hardly stunning news, but I mention it because it’s adjacent, and supposedly compatible with the much larger co-housing project recently completed in the same area near West Broad Street and Highway 49. I have no idea how these houses will look, and forgive me for being an unqualified architectural critic, and I completely approve of the co-housing concept, but I think the project looks like a bunch of doll houses, and the view you get from the street is the garage doors and the electric meters. Not an especially good image.

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Okay, I’ve been threatening to repeat a few a items from the police blotter, and this actually deserves a more thorough presentation, because it’s remarkable. All this stuff is from calls to the Grass Valley Police. For some reason, people in Grass Valley seem to call the cops for strange reasons. No dates, no addresses.: A suspicious object in the bushes, a large green pizza box with a radio inside. Construction workers urinating in public. The manager advised them against this practice. A squirrel trapped in a chimney. Someone dumped a television in someone’s driveway. Loose cattle on the road. A neighbor vandalizing a vehicle with mustard. Two weird people hanging out in front of the house, and police told them to move on. A neighbor posted an anti-gay poster in the caller’s front yard. A woman reported that someone had sprayed Silly String on her car. Two reports of boys carrying baseball bats. That looks really suspicious. A woman reported that she had mistakenly called 911 because she wasn’t wearing her glasses. And my favorite, a caller reported a goose was obstructing traffic and continued to sit in the street. And people say they want police protection.