Robin Williams "Plan"? No it's not, you Idiots!

The following is from an email I sent to a friend.

Please feel free to forward this response to those on your email list so they can correct the idea that Robin Williams sent that crap out! This so called 'plan' seemed way too mean spirited, thoughtless, cruel and unintelligent (did I mention knee-jerk and prejudiced yet?) to have come from someone like Robin Williams. I do not know him personally. However, he does not present himself this way at all and a friend of mine has acted with him and another has done business with him.  I have seen this passed around before so as usual I checked it out at: www.snopes.com and specifically at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/williams.asp

Here is part of the text from that site:
Origins: We don't yet know who is responsible for the piece quoted above, but it definitely wasn't actor-comedian Robin Williams (of Mork & Mindy fame). This item's debut appears to have been a 20 March 2003 posting to the USENET newsgroup alt.motorcycles.harley, and from there it was rapidly disseminated via e-mail and blogs, credited to either "author unknown" or no one at all. The Robin Williams attribution wasn't tacked on until several weeks later, apparently because along the way someone appended a genuine Robin Williams quote to the list as an eleventh item: "The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'" - Robin Williams. Obviously the Robin Williams attribution for the final item was interpreted as applying to the list as a whole, so now the entire piece is making the rounds as 'the Robin Williams plan.' Last updated: 24 May 2003

This is David again . . .
As far as the United States total reliance on our oil addiction I recommend and excellent book (I have not finished it yet!) called: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil by David Goodstein.

It is not my area of expertise but educational, readable and fascinating.  I agree with your suggestions about gas guzzlers and so forth. Gas in Northern Californa is now over $2.00 a gallon. Keep in mind that in most of the world it has been much more expensive than that for a long time.  If we tacked on the price of keeping the Gulf open and safe for shipping 'our' oil, the price would be even higher. Subsidized addiction so to speak. I love to hear Americans complain, the whiners! We simply refuse to recognize how lucky and absolutely spoiled we are.

Personally, I would expect something like that rascist and ignorant rant to come from some ignorant moke on a usenet group like alt.mororcycles.harley.  The puzzling thing is that most of the folks I know with Harley's are not knee jerk reactionaries like I am tending to be around this issue!  Obviously, I have my own prejudices to contend with in this regard.

A friend just bought one of those Toyota Hybrids. Maybe it is a start . . . I don't know. I think it is too late, the oil economy will gently slide down and eventually crash hard. Pessimism rules, at least at this writng. I don't think people give a damn or care to educate themselves.  It is easier to complain, to blame it on the outsider, easier to not think critically and just pass on thoughtful, engaged, well thought out critical thinking.

Look forward to working with you in the ER soon. Meanwhile, I better get back to burning oil in my car . . . I always remember to embrace and celebrate my guilt and the wanton destruction of our environment!