Back in June of 2001, OPEC decided that even though the US was paying the highest ever for a gallon of gasoline that they would cut production. I realize we pay nothing for gasoline compared to other nations, but it really bugged me that here we are buying millions of barrels of gasoline from the largest monopoly in the world and we're stuck with whatever decisions they make. If OPEC was a company in the US, it would have been broken up decades ago under anti-trust laws. The eleven member nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meet several times a year and decide whether they will collectively screw us or cut us a break. This kind of behavior is called "collusion" and it's illegal in the US.
So when I heard that they agreed to screw us again in June of 2001, I went to the Toyota dealer to buy a Prius. I was fed up. The Prius gets 45 miles per gallon on the highway and 52 miles per gallon in the city. I was staging my own one man protest. Unfortunately, you have to order a Prius. I put in my order and waited and waited and waited. And then, on September 11th, 19 hijackers of mostly Saudi Arabian descent hijacked 4 planes and carried out the most horrific act of terrorism ever commited. Saudi Arabia is a horrible place where people are beheaded or have their arms amputated for robbery. Women are treated like second class citizens. Saudi Arabia is the largest member, in terms of numbers of barrels, of OPEC. Why do we keep giving these guys money? When the tape of Osama Bin Laden talking about how pleased he was with the success of the attack, who was sitting there with him? Another Saudi. These guys hate us, yet we continue to make them billionaires. Then, I was really glad I ordered Prius.
The Saudi's have some nice company in OPEC. Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela also belong to OPEC. Half of these countries sponsor terrorism. Fuck them. Fuck OPEC. The only way to show them that they can't push us around is to stop giving them money. What would Saudi Arabia do if there was no longer a reliance on oil. They'd be fucked. I finally got my Prius on December 31, 2001 and its a great car. I sold my gas guzzling 4Runner a few weeks later. When they come out with a Hydrogen powered car or something else that fucks OPEC even more than the Prius, I'm getting it.
I wanted to express my anger towards these countries more clearly with my Prius. I decided to apply for a personalized license plate, "F OPEC". I submitted the application and about a month later I received this:
I'm not sure why they didn't just reject it off the bat, so I decided to give it another shot. I set up a web site: www.fopec.com and I mailed them this letter:
On April 15th, 2002, I received a gift from the government:
May 16th, 2002 - The plates arrive! - HA HA HA
