OMGas!!!!

People love to panic. It's just in our genes. So what better time to have a good full out panic than when Hurricane Ike is bearing down on the Gulf and all our pretty little oil refineries.

On Friday the price of gas jumped almost a dollar in a lot of areas and people freaked out thinking that we might run out of gas. There were lines at gas pumps all around the state while the price-gougers were limiting the number of gallons you could get. In a few hours, some stations were out of gas. In their glorious panic, our lovely fellow citizens assumed that it must follow that the whole area is going to run out of gas.

"Get out and buy gas now!!" "Have you gotten gas yet?"

Everyone thought it was their civil duty to warn their friends and tell them to get some gas.

"It's going to get worse and we're going to run out!!"

Alright, let's look at this logically. I know it's hard, but let's try. At most the refineries might be closed for a week, maybe a bit more. Yeah, that will affect supply, but do you really believe that we don't have enough gas stored that we couldn't push through that? If everyone just kept their gas consumption the same, there would have been no issues. But when people think gas is going to run out and start buying it up, the fears become a reality: total self-fulfilling prophecy.

So everyone relax. Gas is going to be there tomorrow, I promise. And the next day, too. Don't let the gas companies take advantage of us more than they already do.