Horses & Gas Prices

The Kentucky Derby was on Saturday. It is one of the most historical horse races in any world, let alone the US. The only Filly in the race, 3 year old Eight Belles ran an amazing race. She was supposed to have no chance of winning. Coming down the straight away she made an awkward move & then bolted past the pack. Her & the winner, Big Brown, busted away from the pack . It appeared it was going to be a photo finish, but then Eight Belles seemed to have run out of gas. After crossing the finish line, Eight Belles went crumpling down to the dirt & sent her jockey face first into the ground. The TV camera's & everyone in the arena was focused on the amazing favorite's big win. Little did anyone know that Eight Belles had broken both her front ankles/legs in a horrendous event. If you know anything about horses, they almost always develop life threatening diseases when they break a leg. Usually your left with one choice...put them down.

The picture above shows a moment when Eight Belles tried to stand back up. As you notice she was trying to stand on horribly broken legs & went stumbling back to the dirt. It was one of the most saddest moments in recent sports history. Normally you never see this & we have been subjected to it twice the past 4 years (Barbaro), with both horses being put down.

This has brought up many arguments in the horse racing world. Should they require horses to be 5 before racing as until that point they are still growing? (Eight Belles was 3 & her legs were no where near being fully developed which could have led to the injuries by being pushed so hard) Should the do away with Horse whips in open racing allowing the horses to go as fast or slow as they feel they need to? Horses are pleasing animals just as dogs are. They desire to please their masters, so is pushing horses doing more harm then good? I simply don't know, but all I know is it is extremely sad!

Gas prices are simply out of control right now. Here in McMinnville/Newberg where Sara & I spend most of our time, gas has soared to $3.63. It is slowely creeping close to $4! I remember a time when my mom would freak out about $1.49!

I own a Ford Explorer & to fill that sucker up, it's $60-$70 bucks! President Bush has spoken about this numerous times over the past few weeks....most recently today on GMA. Presidential candidates John McCain & Hillary Clinton have supported tax day breaks in recent weeks, as Barack Obama has claimed "it will do no good." Obama & Clinton have also supported drilling more in oil rich cities as well as taxing the oil companies higher.

At this point, there are many solutions that "could" work, but we need to simply DO SOMETHING! It is too late to wait for the perfect solution. The American people are starting to sell everything they own to simply afford driving to work. Craigslist ad's are up 70% this year. E-bay is up 64%. If you look closer, you see family heirlooms being auctioned off for money to survive. We don't have time to find the perfect solution. Bush spoke about becoming less reliant upon foreign oil....well I'm all for that, but that is a long term plan. How are you going to help us now??!!!??

The stimulant checks were a start, but not a solution. We need to get the economy jump started & EVERYTHING is plummeting off the oil prices. Don't believe me? Food prices are up due to the farmers having to pay higher gas prices during harvesting. Then the companies that drive it to your local store have to pay diesel prices that have skyrocketed from last year. The largest backbone behind the stock market the past decade? You guessed it...the oil companies!

Something has to be done & fast! This is a priority for the House, Senate, President, & Candidates, but yet it has gone on for months with no result. How long will we have to auction off Grandma's Tea Set to buy gas for the next week?