OSU benefactor Boone Pickens sees the future of oil, and he sees what most of us have felt coming.

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2005/06/21/business/doc42b741218c65c876953692.txt

In the above cited story, Pickens see oil going beyond $60 a barrel and gasoline going over $3 a gallon.

The national misery over gas prices will never end. We as consumers have been too greedy for too long, and now we're reaping what we've sown.

I say "we." When I say "we," I of course mean the drivers of automobiles that get terrible gas mileage, the SUV set. Foreign oil producers are witnessing right now that our lust for gasoline knows no end, so they are testing the market like they haven't in some time, seeing just how far we'll go to drive big, gas-guzzling cars.

I've never been a car guy. I drive a '98 Grand Am, and when this one dies, I'll probably buy another one. Even if I had the money, I'd still avoid SUVs because of the gas issue. I'd buy a German sedan instead of an American one. It's one the few ways that I'm actually a practical person.

They got a lot of flap, but I liked the commercials relating driving gas-guzzling cars to aiding terrorists. I think it's true, but I think our political leaders are also at fault for not tightening the screws on Saudi Arabia, that great friend of ours that not only supplies a nice chunk of our fuel, but also supplied 17 of the 19 9/11 hijackers.

What is surprising to doomsdayers like me is that the rising cost of fuel has not overtly affected the economy. The story points out the economy grew at 3.5 percent, slightly off last year's rate of 4.5 percent. The summer travel season hasn't seemed to suffer, and people appear to have absorbed the higher cost of travel, be it on land or in the air.

Maybe America is ready for $3 gas. Maybe we deserve it.

Ciao.