Oil prices: down, down down again

The latest story on the price of oil says it fell below $113 a barrel today.
I have a little insight into the whole thing because I once did a story in which I called something like a half-dozen oil executives when the price of gasoline went from something like $1 a gallon to $1.25, which seemed atrocious. That said, it's not much insight not is it very insightful.
Every person I talked to stressed supply and demand (leading to my oft repeated joke which I have already posted here, so there's no need to rehash that).
The problem is that its really hard to see why the supply fluctuates so much. One would think that a certain amount of oil would be constantly pumped so the flow would remain steady.
Compounding this, every article I have read during the recent run up offers different opinions about why the price is soaring, how high it will go, when it will snap back and what is causing it. Is it because of an attack on a pipeline in Nigeria? Because of tensions with Iran? Because of a hurricane? Because of too much activity by speculators? Panic over supply concerns in the future? Can we blame China and India? Are all these things working in concert to drive the price up?
The you have the people predicting the price of oil in the next year. They say the price will go down, but the prediction isn't low enough, so the price of oil rises because everyone thinks it won't fall.
Wasn't $50 a barrel some kind of threshold? The only commentator I could really trust (if I could remember who said it) said at the time that once the price of oil breached $50 a barrel, it indicated a fundamental shift in the market and the tendency would be to see how far up it could go. That guy knew what he was talking about.
I also heard a small oil company executive say that when gasoline cost more than $2 a gallon, they saw a sharp drop off in sales. That, I think, was in 2005. Nationwide, the number turned out to be more like $4 a gallon. I haven't checked, but I think the new station he built in 2005 is still in business and going strong.
People used to say that gasoline was a leader item, and that gas stations sometimes took a small loss on sales to get people to come into the store and buy high profit items like candy bars and pop and other convenience store fare. (Has anyone ever bought one of those nas-tay hot dogs on the rotary heaters?)
If this is so, then why did they install pay at the pump credit card readers in such abundance? I never go into convenience stores any more, unless I am on a long trip or I absolutely have to. If gas is a "loss leader," those poor guys must be losing money hand over fist.
I have no idea why oil, and thus gasoline, price go up and down. That's why I get so frustrated. I think other people feel the same way. There's no apparent reason, there's nothing you can do about it, and as a consumer you just feel helpless.

Who's watching the Watchmen movie?

Someone, and I don't remember who, asked me about the Watchmen movie. Here's a column that tells us a little bit about it.
And, here's the movie's Web site and a trailer for the 2009 release.

Boy, there are a lot of gullible people out there

So, apparently, there's some e-mails going around saying that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ. Maybe there are a bunch of people in Findlay, Ohio, who believe that, too.
If you Google this silly notion, you get a long list of people actually discussing it. Here's what Internet de-bunking site Snopes.com has to say about that. In case you don't wanna look, and really are that gullible, the site tells us that notion is "false."
Apparently, if spreading false rumors that a candidate is a Muslim doesn't work, then up the ante to anti (Christ, that is).
I don't care who you are going to vote for, anyone who perpetuates this kind of crap deserves to have their keys to the Internet taken away.

Serial cereal blogging

I just finished a box of "Fruity Pebbles" and started a box of "Golden Grahams," for anyone who's interested. I have, in my inventory, boxes of "Honeycomb," "Trix," and "Fruity Pebbles." to go.

By the way, there's three of those thirty little boxes of cereal left. Two "Corn Flakes," because I don't really like them, and one "Rice Krispies," just because.

Real life headlines

Here's a story that I offer without comment.
Man banned from fiancée's flat after noisy sex sessions

On a slightly related note:
Cops: 'Porn inspector' demands free videos
Of course, he wasn't a porn inspector. But, even the police gave him credit for being clever.

Dark Knight plays second fiddle in his own movie

I left “The Dark Knight” wishing Heath Ledger had spent more time on screen, and he was on screen a lot.
Before the movie came out, reviewers said his performance as The Joker was something special, maybe even Oscar worthy. It only added to the movie’s mystique that he died shortly after filming was completed.
I am not an Oscar judge but if I was I’d certainly have to consider Ledger’s performance as worthy of the award. He didn’t dominate every scene in the movie in the same way that Jack Nicholson did in 1988’s “Batman.” But, his psychotic, homicidal take on the character is the sort of thing that can cause nightmares even in adults.
Take, for example, the scene in which he describes why he likes killing his victims with knives: it’s because he can find out what their true personality is just before they die.
Context is also helpful: The Joker is calmly discussing this topic with a police officer in a jail cell. Further, he offers to tell his guard which of his fellow officers proved to be cowards when he killed them.
Ledger’s Joker also has horrible scars on his cheeks, perhaps an outward sign of the horrible scars on his psyche. The scars help to form his permanent, sinister smile. He always offers to tell his victims how he got them. Each time, the story is different, but still hideous and we can do nothing but watch, knowing what’s coming next.
There’s another gruesome touch Ledger adds to the character’s cheeks: Throughout the movie, he licks the inside of his mouth, making a wet saliva sound that constantly reminds us the scars go clear through the skin.
Even without Ledger, the movie would have been successful. The plot, of course, has the Joker holding Gotham City in peril and Batman must figure out a way to stop him.
Christian Bale as Batman is as good as he was in the first installment of this series.
As Bruce Wayne, he remains the debonair millionaire playboy. When he dons the cowl, however, his voice leaves his mouth with a snarl and a rasp helping him strike fear into the hearts of Gotham’s criminals.
Batman’s love interest remains the same character as in the first movie, attorney Rachel Dawes. This time around, she is played by Maggie Gyllenhaal instead of Katie Holmes.
I liked Gyllenhaal in the role better. She portrays a more mature, assertive Rachel than Holmes did.
The romantic triangle spins as we learn Rachel has left Bruce is dating District Attorney Harvey Dent, played by Aaron Eckhart.
"The Dark Knight's" unique but frightening characters drive the plot, which grabs the audience in the beginning and never lets go.
The film opens with a classic Joker bank robbery that almost an amalgam of many, many Joker heists in the Batman comics over the years.
After that, it only gains momentum and, even though the following is a little cliché, tosses and turns the viewer through a roller coaster ride. What makes it so powerful is that it's not only an action movie but also a psychological thriller because of Bale's driven, frightful hero and Ledger's maniacal villain.
This movie definitely is not for kids and not even for some grownups. The frightening psychology the movie depicts that makes it deeply troubling.
It’s sad that Ledger died, not only for the obvious reasons, but also because he’ll never be able to reprise the role. Maybe it’s better this way.
If The Joker is to return, another actor will have re-invent the character just like The Joker may have to do the same thing himself for another duel with the Dark Knight.
The folks who made these movies have done such a good job of re-inventing the characters from the comics, I know I’ll be watching.

(Just a thought: Mark Hamill provided the voice of The Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series.” I wonder if he’d accept a shot at playing the character in a sequel?)

Another great new issue of DHP online

Here's the link! Great stuff by Dean Motter and Keith Knight.