So, explain ethanol to me again . . .

As gas prices have shot over $4 per gallon again, I and everyone else are looking at why gas costs so much. One of the things that vexes me is ethanol.

Isn't it supposed to be cheaper than gasoline made from crude oil?

I currently get my gas at SUNOCO mostly because the other stations on my way to work are like "Jeff's gas 'n go" and places like that. You know the ones that sell gas you can't light with a match?

Anyway, SUNOCO currently advertises that it is at most, 10% ethanol. So why is it the same price as other gasolines? Shouldn't it be cheaper? I thought that, along with the whole "home grown fuel" thing was supposed to make it desireable.

That E85 stuff is cheaper, at least according the the E85 website. But only 16% less than conventional gasoline.

So let me see if I've got this right -- it takes 85% ethanol to only reduce the price at the pump by 16%? And we're paying farmers subsidies to grow this stuff, which raises our taxes and increases the debt/deficit? And ethanol doesn't burn cleaner and is actually less efficient (less energy delivered per gallon burned). So why are we using it again?

We have enough coal shale/sands here and in Canada to create enough coal-to-liquid synthetic crude to dwarf what Saudi Arabia has. That would eliminate our dependence on foreign oil, create millions of jobs here and in Canada. The coal-to-liquid synthetic produces a barrel of oil for around $30. We're currently paying the terrorist-friendlies in the Middle East over $100 per barrel.

Gee, think what that would do to gas prices. Think what we could do with a minimal tax added to that cheap gasoline. You know, fund all those fabulous programs the libs are wetting their panties over.

So why aren't we doing this again?

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And here we have Michael Bay's nose thumb to the troublesome Megan Fox -- Rosie Huntington Whiteley strolling around town in the sort of dress only a supermodel can get away with.

Actually, the whole outfit has a sort of WTF about it.

If she pulls off her role in the new Transformers movie, that plus the last couple of clunkers Megan's turned out should be about the end of Fox's movie career. Not that I'm rooting for that, but perhaps when she gets another chance, she'll be a tad less arrogant about herself and her chosen line of work.