JR Manning

Americans woke up to a revolting development this morning - gasoline prices jumped up about 25¢ per gallon overnight. You can expect outrage and anger from your co-workers and neighbors today, looking for someone to blame for the overnight hikes. So just why did gasoline prices spike so high overnight?

The answer is really quite easy. I went to the local gas station about 11:00 last night to top off the tank and encountered a man with a large SUV. He was topping off his tank and filling about 4 gasoline cans.

What did we know that you didn’t? We were paying attention yesterday. Oil, on the world wide market yesterday, closed at a record price of over $130.00 per barrel. It didn’t take rocket science to figure out that prices would go up this morning as the world demand for oil skyrockets.

Demand? Comedian Don Novello, as his character Father Guido Sarducci, proposed opening a five minute university, His course in Economics consisted of, “Economics? ‘Supply and Demand.’ That’s it.” Many graduates of Father Sarducci’s Five Minute University seem to have forgotten everything they learned about economics.

For decades, the greatest demand for oil came from the United States, in fact, it still does. Starting in the early 1970’s, it became obvious that America’s thirst for oil was a problem. In 1973, the price of a gallon of gasoline doubled overnight. There were spot shortages and long lines of automobiles at gas stations, waiting to buy a rationed amount of gasoline. It was a harbinger of things to come, but the lessons were not learned.

OPEC increased the supply of oil and the price stabilized. Thank you to Father Sarducci, it was a perfect example of supply and demand.

Today, the world demand for oil is on the rise. Americans are discovering that China is a developing economy and is competing in the world market for oil. So is India, where automobile maker, Tata, is doing for India what Henry Ford did for America 100 years ago. India needs oil. Russia needs oil. The United States needs oil. China needs oil, and especially now as power plants are offline from the recent earthquake and much of China’s electricity is coming from emergency generators.

The result? Demand is higher. Supply is lower. Prices are higher. What did Father Sarducci teach in his five minute university? “Economics? ‘Supply and Demand.’ That’s it.” Thank you, Father Sarducci. The only way your gasoline prices will stabilize, or even go down, is to increase the supply.

Being an election year, of course, the bloviating about gasoline prices is shifting into high gear, but remember, the baloney coming out of Washington these days will have no effect on gasoline prices.

The oil companies are not to blame for high gasoline prices, nor are “excess profits.” While crude prices have gone up more than 25% in the last 60 days, gasoline prices have only gone up about 15% - so much for gouging.

“Excess profits” makes a handy scapegoat, but it just isn’t right. BP Petroleum was number 5 in total profits in 2006, well behind the most profitable company in the United States, Microsoft. BP made about 9% profit margin while Microsoft made 22% profit margin, so why isn’t Congress going after Microsoft? We’re all paying too much to a virtual monopoly for operating systems and word processing software.

Nationalizing the oil companies or stealing their profits, as Jimmy Carter unsuccessfully tried to do in 1980, won’t lower gasoline prices. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.

Suing OPEC won’t stabilize prices, in fact, that is one of the dumbest ideas to come out of Congress since the Volstead Act.

Dropping the federal fuel tax will provide short term price relief and will demonstrate how deeply Uncle Sam has his hand in your pocket, but long term, it won’t help. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a howitzer wound.

As Father Sarducci taught us, the only way to lower gasoline prices it to decrease demand, or increase the supply. Newsflash: Demand is not going to decrease any time soon. Electric cars aren’t going to do it - they merely shift the fuel supply from your tank to a power plant. Hybrid cars might help, but won’t lower prices anytime soon. We’ve proven that putting moonshine in our tanks won’t do it. We do need to continue exploring alternative energy sources, but let’s be realistic: demand for oil is not going to go down any time soon.

The only way to stabilize gasoline prices, or even lower gasoline prices, is to increase the supply. There are millions of barrels of oil in the United States that the oil companies are not allowed to go get. In 1994, people with vision foresaw today’s incredible demand for oil and proposed drilling in new locations in the United States - ANWR and offshore, to name two - but the President vetoed the bills. The oil remains underground where it is not doing anyone any good.

Even if we were to increase our own domestic oil production, much refining will have to be done offshore, because the same forces preventing drilling for oil have also prevented building any new refineries for the last thirty years.

We are told by the woe-is-us crowd that if we were to start drilling in ANWR today, it would take 8 years to see the results in the market. Had we started drilling there in 1994, we would be enjoying that supply today, thank you, so we should get started now, drilling for oil and building refineries to process that oil.

There is no magic bullet and no quick fix. High gasoline prices are here and they are here to stay. The best way to stabilize energy costs and minimize dependence on imported oil is to produce our own.

It’s time to stop talking and start drilling.

Have you ever heard of the college kids in La Crosse who left a bar, disappeared, and were later found floating in the Mississippi River? Their deaths have been attributed to drowning, either accidental or suicides. The families have never accepted that but all their protests have fallen on deaf ears.

On Halloween 2002, Chris Jenkins of Burlington, Wisconsin, while attending school in Minneapolis, left a party in a bar and disappeared. His body was found floating in the Mississippi River 4 months later. His death was dismissed lightly as a drunk kid who jumped off a bridge. His parents did not buy the story and hired a PI. His investigation was hampered by people covering their own asses and other roadblocks, but he was able to piece together that Chris was abducted, tortured and tossed in the river. Presented with new evidence, the police had little choice but to reclassify his death as a homicide.

This, in turn, attracted the attention of two retired homicide detectives from New York, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte. Since 1997, they have been investigating the case of Patrick McNeill, who left a bar in NYC, disappeared, and was found five months later, 11 miles downriver from where he had last been seen.

These detectives have investigated over FORTY of these mysterious “accidental drownings” including that of Matt Kruziki. Matt’s body was found floating in the Mississippi River, near East Dubuque, Illinois on March 18, 2006. The coroner’s report said there were no signs of foul play. There are three things about this case that are very interesting. One, the coroner’s report said no foul play. Two, Matt’s body was located near Sinsiniwa Avenue and at that location, a crude smiley face was also found. Matt’s father, Bill Kruziki, is a US Marshall and used to be the Waukesha County Sheriff. Bill Kruziki never accepted that his son accidentally drowned in the Mississippi River.

Well, he didn’t. All of these drowings are homicides, all performed by a serial killer or a syndicate of serial killers. All of the drownings are similar - college age men leave a bar, alone, in the wee hours. They disappear. Their bodies turn up floating days, weeks or months later. The coroner’s report always says accidental drowning, no signs of foul play. Almost all of the drownings have occurred in the corridors of I-90 and I-94.

At the scene of almost every drowning, a crude smiley face has been painted. In Michigan, the word “Sinsiniwa” was painted with the smiley face. The word is meaningless until you recall that Matt Kruziki went into the river at the foot of Sinsiniwa Avenue in East Dubuque.

This is not an urban legend. The story was broken last week by Kristi Piehl, an investigative reporter from Minneapolis on KSTP television. You can read more about the case in the blog area of Help Find The Missing which includes links to the KSTP website. That website has some fascinating reports and links to the police report of the Jenkins case, and to a map that has some of the drownings listed.

Keep an eye on this developing case. There are reports that the story is being developed for ABC News’ 20/20 and for People Magazine. If you have college age men in your family, be sure to tell them about this developing story and to be aware at all times.

I met him many years ago, when I was a just a teenager. Joe was a large man, tall, muscular and handsome with a pale complexion and jet black, curly hair. Now, I was actually rather intimidated and you can bet that I wasn’t introduced to him as Joe, nor did I have the audacity to call him that. His presence commanded the respect to call him Mister.

Out of respect for certain members of his family, I’m not using his last name here. Trust me, it was one of those names that instantly said, “I’m Irish” and not one of those Irish names that could also be English - like mine.

Joe was almost a stereotype. He was a rugged individual and reserved in such a way that could be incorrectly interpreted as shyness, but he was actually far from shy. He was a proud Irish Catholic with a large family. He was a proud, but not arrogant, man. The American flag flew on a flagpole in his yard, except on St. Patrick’s Day and special occasions, when the Irish tricolor flew in it’s place.

Now, if you haven’t figured it out, Joe was more than just an Irishman that I happened to meet. He was also the father of the young woman who had stolen my heart. Because of that fact alone, we had to learn to more about one another. Joe was opinionated but would listen tolerantly to an opposing viewpoint, before he told me all the reasons I was wrong. (Many years later, much of what he told me turned out to be correct, or at least, matching my own beliefs. Joe and I had far more things in common than we realized, and we were far more alike than we realized.)

He did have the gift of the Blarney, and he was a wonderful storyteller. I felt fortunate to be in his presence when he started to regale his family with stories of his boyhood in Baltimore, his years in Uncle Sam’s service or what happened at work this week. Some of the best stories were how he met a beautiful girl from Milwaukee. The charmer made him drop everything out East so he could move to Wisconsin to be with her.

He also had a Leprechaun’s sense of humor. He wasn’t a joke teller as much as a story teller, his audience doubled over in laughter while he’d just smile softly with a twinkle in his sparkling eyes. Oh, he had a hearty laugh, too, because he relished life, loved his family, and had a keen eye for the humor in any bad situation.

He also was a man of surprises - his teenage son was struggling with a yo-yo one day, and Joe watched with quiet amusement until his frustration got the best of him. “Gimme that!” he said as he took the yo-yo away and instantly began to do some of the most impressive yo-yo tricks I had ever seen! None of his children had any idea that their father had been a youthful yo-yo champion. He received an engraved, silver yo-yo for Christmas that year.

Joe made me feel like one of the family, and it was pretty well understood that there was likely to be a wedding in my future. I looked forward to having Joe as a father in law, but it was not to be. My darling Irish love found that her destiny lay elsewhere. One of the most sympathetic supporters that I had, while I recovered from my heartbreak, was Joe. Oh, he was reserved about the situation, he had to be after all. There was more than enough heartbreak and disappointment to go around.

I last spoke to Joe on St. Patrick’s Day about fifteen years later. It had been a day of celebration and I probably had one more glass of beer than I should have. On a whim, I easily dialed the phone number that had been burned into my teenage memory. He seemed politely embarrassed at first, but we chatted pleasantly and my heart was filled with warmth, just to hear his voice again. I have no idea what he really thought of my phone call out of the blue, or out of the green as it were, but the tone in his voice sounded like he was genuinely pleased to hear from an old friend.

Joe passed away not long after that, too young for a man as vibrant and alive as he was. As many years have passed since then, I’m sure his family misses him deeply but I know the world misses him, too. Not a single St. Patrick’s Day passes without a warm memory of Joe, my favorite Irishman. He had far more of an impact on the young man who took his daughter to prom, more than I think his family ever realized. I’m pretty sure Joe knew, though. God rest ye, Merry Gentleman.

Been to a gas station lately?

It’s gotten to a point that when you go to buy gasoline, you really need plastic money. If you want to carry cash to purchase gasoline, you need a Brinks truck and an armed guard.

Buying gasoline is one of the most annoying time wasters I know. I hate stopping to buy gas, I always have. Several years ago, the gasoline companies figured out that convenience was the key to earning our business. The old fashioned filling station became a one stop convenience center. The real breakthrough was when gas pumps were equipped with credit card readers so guys like me could gas up and leave without having to take the time to walk into the store.

I liked that.

But then crude oil hit a hundred bucks a barrel and the price of a gallon of gasoline reached the level of fine jewelry. Not too long ago, I pulled up to the pump, inserted my plastic money, then started to pump. Meanwhile, I checked the oil and washed the windows. When I got back to the pump, it shut off right at $50.00 on the penny. I shut off the pump, took my receipt, and climbed into the car to record the price and mileage in my little log book. It seemed like the mileage had dropped off considerably - strange - maybe there ’s a problem with the engine?

Of course, when I turned the key, the gas guage told the story.

My tank was far from full.

That’s when I saw the sticker on the pump. “CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS ARE LIMITED TO FIFTY DOLLARS. THIS RULE IS YOUR CREDIT CARD PROVIDER AND NOT STUPID AMERICA OIL COMPANY.”

Grrrrrr. From then on, when the *&^%$#! pump stopped at fifty bucks, I’d just insert the card and do another transaction. That worked for awhile, but not anymore. When you try that now, the pump will give you the message - CARD NOT AUTHORIZED - SEE CASHIER.

Now, most gas station cashiers are slightly smarter than the gas pump. They’ll tell you the credit card company limits trasactions to fifty bucks, and will not allow multiple gasoline transactions. This is to prevent fraud, because the first thing most credit card thieves will do is fill up their tanks, along with all their buddies.

Okay, I can buy that. I asked my credit card provider, “Is there is a fifty dollar limit on transactions?”

Nope.

Somebody is lying - I’m sure it’s this sticker!

So who put this artificial fifty dollar limit on gas transactions? The oil companies. They blame your credit card company so you won’t blame them and stop buying from them. (There are two chances of me ever buying anything at a gasoline convenience store again. I’m sure that will cause the failure of the entire oil industry so I’ll get my revenge.) But stop buying gasoline from them? Where are we going to go to get fuel? It sure as hell isn’t going to be the ethanol station.

Why does everyone feel the need to lie to us about gasoline? The government lies about gasoline taxes and they lie about ethanol. The oil companies lie about the fifty dollar transactions. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if once, just once, a politician or oil company executive would tell us the truth about what’s really going on?

For the first time in 10 years, the NFC Championship game is returning to Titletown, USA - Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Green Bay Packers are playing in their 4th NFC Championship game since Brett Favre took over the quarterback duties. So far, they’ve lost in Dallas and won twice at home. This fourth attempt will be against Eli Manning and the New York Giants.

It’s not the first time the Giants have come to Wisconsin for the Championship game, and hardly the first time they’ve played Green Bay for the title. Of course, the last time these two teams met in the final game, it was for the NFL Championship, and that was in New York, a game held in Yankee Stadium in 1962. (Green Bay won the game, 16-7 in a hard fought battle.) There is a long history between the Giants and the Packers, this is simply a renewal of a long rivalry between the two organizations.

The Green Bay Packers were NFL Champions in 1929, 1930 and 1931. It was the first time a team won three consecutive NFL titles, and the last time until, well, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. In those years, there was no championship game, the champion was the team with the best record at the end of the year.

The NFL divided the league into two divisions and began playing a championship game in 1933. The Packers next played for a championship in 1936. In the fourth NFL Championship game held, the Packers defeated the Boston Redskins 21-6 in a game held in New York City. The owner of the Redskins, George Preston Marshall, claimed that Boston did not support the team, so he held the game in New York.

The Packers next played in the Championship game in 1938, against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. Although Green Bay outgained the Giants, the score came out 23-17 in favor of the New Yorkers.

Revenge came in the form of the 1939 Championship game when the Packers hosted the New York Giants at State Fair Park in West Allis. Yes, the game was held at State Fair Park, in terrible weather with wind gusts estimated up to 35 miles per hour. Green Bay had 3 passes intercepted in that game, but they also picked off 6 Giant passes that day. The score was only 7-0 at the half, but Green Bay scored 20 points in the second half while shutting out the visiting New Yorkers. Final score, 27-0 and the Green Bay Packers had their 5th NFL Title.

The Packers next played in the NFL Championship game in 1944 and won the game 14-7. The victims? The New York Giants, and the game was held in New York.

The Lambeau era was coming to an end, and the Green Bay Packers were about to enter a sixteen year dry spell.

The Lombardi era began in 1959, when Vince Lombardi came to Green Bay as the head coach. He had formerly been an assistant coach for the New York Giants.

The first appearance for Lombardi’s Packers in the NFL Championship game was in 1960, against the Philadelphia Eagles. Norm van Brocklin and Tommy McDonald were the stars of the game as the Eagles defeated the Packers 17-13. (The Eagles would also win one of the only games the Packers lost in the 1996 Championship year, and we won’t even mention 4th and 26.)

Green Bay returned to the Championship game in 1961, when City Stadium hosted the game in Green Bay on December 31, 1961. The Packers won 27-0. Oh, they beat the New York Giants.

The Lombardi Packers returned to the NFL Championship game on December 30, 1962, to Yankee Stadium to play the New York Giants, again. Green Bay won that game, too, 16-7.

That was the last time the Packers played the Giants for the NFL Championship, although Lombardi’s Packers played in 3 more NFL Championship games in 1965, 1966 and 1967 beating the Browns, the Cowboys and Cowboys in those games. The Packers went on to play in the first two AFL-NFL World Championship games. 2 years later, those games would be renamed Superbowl I and Superbowl II. It is worth noting that the 1967 Championship game was held on December 31, 1967 when the temperature was -13° with wind chills in the neighborhood of -48° and the game became known popularly as “The Ice Bowl.”

The Packers then went into a 29 year drought and did not return to Championship status until 1995 when the Cowboys beat the Packers for the NFC Championship in 1995. The Packers came back to win the NFC Championship in 1996 and Superbowl XXXI in 1997.

The Packers also won the NFC Championship in 1997 but lost Superbowl XXXII in 1998.

So this Sunday, the Packers return to the Championship game against one of their old Championship rivals, the New York Giants. It’s going to be cold, some are saying the second coming of The Ice Bowl, with the predicted temperature at kickoff to be 1°.

We are not going out on a limb and making any predictions, because there are far too many things that can go wrong in a game like this one. That said, if history means anything at all, well, the Giants won one of those games, too.

Rivalries

Everyone wants to believe that their team has the greatest rivalry with some other team, and there are some good ones out there in the NFL. The rivalries between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins are of legend, as is the rivalry between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. Often they are based on proximity, like the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers or the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers or even the intense rivalry between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos.

There is no doubt, however, that the fiercest, most nasty and oldest rivalry in the NFL is between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. Today’s players don’t seem to recognize the rivalry as much as the fans do. The outright nastiness between fans of these two teams is the stuff of legend, but the history of the two franchises is the real evidence that these two teams don’t like one another very much.

The Packers own the most NFL Championships with 9 outright NFL Titles and 3 Superbowl Titles making a total of 12 NFL Titles. The Chicago Bears have 8 outright NFL Titles and one Superbowl Title for a total of 9.

Legend has it that prior to a regular season face-off between the rivals, there was a knock on the Packer locker room door as Vince Lombardi was giving his final pregame talk. An aide interrupted him to say, “Coach Halas is at the door!” White as a ghost, Lombardi went to the door, figuring that some tragedy must be interrupting the kick-off. Sure enough, there was George Halas at the door. “What is it, George? What’s wrong?” Lombardi asked with concern in his voice. “Vince,” the legendary owner-coach of the Bears said, “I just wanted to let you know that we’re gonna kick your ass!”

Such is the stuff rivalries are made of. (Green Bay did win that game.)

The Green Bay Packers, incidentally, are the only team to win three consecutive NFL titles. They did it twice, 1929-1931 and 1965-1967. Given today’s rules and free agency, it is a feat that will likely never be matched again.

Will the NFL Title return to Titletown for the 13th time? We’ll know pretty soon, but it won’t even be a possibility if Green Bay does not defeat the New York Giants on Sunday. If history is any indicator at all, well, the Packers have defeated the New York Giants 4 of 5 opportunities to do so in a championship game. This is the 6th opportunity. Will Green Bay make it 5 of 6?

We won’t know until about 9:00 PM on Sunday.

Governor Dreyfus died in his Waukesha home yesterday at the age of 81.

He was one of the most colorful players in Wisconsin politics, including his signature red vest. He was the Republican governor of Wisconsin from 1979 to 1983, presiding over a budget surplus where he actually issued refunds to Wisconsin citizens. He reduced the size of Wisconsin government and also signed a gay rights bill into law in 1982, the first in the nation, prohibiting discrimination against gays in hiring and housing.

His rather refreshing way of blurting out his opinions will be missed.

Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends out there.

It’s a bittersweet Christmas for the family and friends of Paige Birgfeld. As we reported to you some months ago, Paige is a friend of ours from the direct selling industry. She left her home at 10:30 PM on June 28 and has not been seen, or heard from, since. She has been profiled on ABC News. Her case aired on America’s Most Wanted. Hundreds have searched, unsuccessfully, for her. She remains missing.

Her parents are distraught, left behind in Colorado. Paige’s three children were ripped from their grandparents by a magistrate and custody was taken away from Paige’s parents and granted to their father, Paige’s ex-husband. The children are living with him, in Pennsylvania, and have no contact with their grandparents, we cannot tell you why that is. You can speculate why that is and probably be correct.

Paige Birgfeld
Paige’s story is, sadly, not an unusual one today. Hundreds of people are missing around the country. You hear about the high-profile cases, like Stacy Peterson or Natalee Holloway, which is a good thing, but for every Stacy and every Natalee, there are hundreds more cases that you never hear about.

You can read about Paige at a new site called Help Find the Missing. Log on (follow the link to the left) and look at the list of Missing people to navigate to Paige’s page. One thread lists all of the relevant media stories about her and her case. While you’re there, look over the other missing people. Who knows, you may have the one missing piece of information that is needed to bring someone home.

It’s up to us. Merry Christmas to you all, and please, remember Paige and her family today as you are surrounded by your own loved ones.

Ludwig von Beethoven would be 237 years old today, or Monday, no one is really sure. Of course, that’s if he were alive.

But instead, he’s decomposing.

The tradition of a Christmas Tree goes back many centuries, in fact, probably before Christianity. It is said that ancient peoples placed evergreen boughs inside their doors at the peak of Winter, to remind them that Spring would come again. Martin Luther is said to have been the first to decorate a tree in the house, using candles to represent the birth of the Christ child. Legend has it that the Germanic Christmas traditions came to the colonies with the Hessians during the Revolution, although it could just as easily been with the Pennsylvania Dutch, who were actually Germans - the Pennsylvania Deutsch.

Whatever the source, the tradition of having a brightly decorated tree in the living room at Christmastime is a reminder to us all of the most joyous event in Christianity.

Unless you’re a kitten, in which case, a Christmas tree is the world’s largest cat toy.

With two kittens in the house this year, Puck and Pyewacket, the placement of a Christmas tree is mostly an exercise in futility. The first mistake was to put a tree up at all. The second mistake was to decorate it with ornaments, unbreakable of course, that tend to jump off the tree to attack passing kittens. The ill-behaved ornaments also roll around on the floor, usually with a cats’ paws attached to them.

Have you ever entered a room with the feeling that you’re being watched? How about the feeling of being watched by a Christmas tree? Last night, I didn’t remember placing yellow-green lights on the tree, but there they were, right about the middle of the tree, looking out at me. In the darkness, I did not see the shadowy outline of a black cat, but those yellow-green eyes were those of Pyewacket, who was instantly sprayed with a squirt bottle, one of several strategically placed around the house, used to remind kittens of certain places they should not be.

Like that’s going to stop those two natural clowns from climbing our Christmas tree. Dangling, shiny ornaments are just too tempting for curious kitties.

Maybe we’ll just scrub the mission for this year and try to launch a Christmas tree next season.

Yule just have to stop back here then to see how it goes.