UFB Local 001.

So I'm going to buy my daily 64 ounce fountain Diet Mountain Dew over the weekend. When I pull into the parking lot of the convenience store, I see that overnight the price of regular unleaded gas has risen two cents per gallon, from $2.359 to $2.379. I go in and buy my soda.

When I come out, I see that the price has risen again in those five minutes, another seven cents a gallon to $2.449.

This has long ago passed the point of getting out of hand. I decided to do something. I am going on strike, both as a producer and as a consumer, until the price of gas falls below two dollars a gallon.

That means no blogging. While it's true that taking my $1.42 per week I spend on driving to the library to blog (I figured up the cost last night) out of the economy won't make a difference, it is part of a bigger strategy -- don't buy anything that is not truly necessary. I'm even going to quit shaving during the strike so I don't have to buy shaving cream and razor blades.

It also means no email, so if you need to get ahold of me, you'll have to do it the old ways-- snail mail or phone.

But why isn't a good Libertarian just letting the free market run it's course, you ask? Simple. The petroleum processing and delivery system is far from a free market. In a free market, petrol processing plants could go up anywhere the company owned land, as long as they kept their pollution from affecting the neighbors. But as it is now, zoning laws and the like codify NIMBY into law and a new oil distillery hasn't been built in this country in thirty years.

So, I guess I am the United Federation of Bloggers Local 001. The local numbers are first come, first claimed, so if you want to join the UFB, you're welcome to do so. Just keep in mind that blogging while the union is on strike is the equivalent of crossing the picket line, or hiring yourself as scab labor.

During the strike, I will be keeping The Strike Diaries at home. I will publish them here when (if) the strike ends.

With all that said, I guess there's only one thing to do.