Syrian President Assad is attacking citizens at random, according to eyewitness accounts.

"Women and children have got used to seeing bodies in the street and blood in the street and body parts," one anti-Assad activist said. "We are asking for help."

The U.N. cavalry isn't on its way, thanks to China and Russia's veto of a resolution to urge Assad to step aside, proving once again that the United Nations is a tool that hampers good actions and legitimizes bad ones.

Syria is of great strategic importance in the Middle East because it's the latest proxy battleground to fight spreading Iranian influence. Stratfor put it this way:

Should the al Assad regime -- or the Syrian regime without al Assad -- survive, Iran would therefore enjoy tremendous influence with Syria, as well as with Hezbollah in Lebanon. The current course in Iraq coupled with the survival of an Alawite regime in Syria would create an Iranian sphere of influence stretching from western Afghanistan to the Mediterranean. This would represent a fundamental shift in the regional balance of power and probably would redefine Iranian relations with the Arabian Peninsula. This is obviously in Iran's interest. It is not in the interests of the United States, however.

The private intelligence firm stated that preventing the spread of Iranian influence to Syria is a "primary concern" but needs to try to do so "without crossing Iran's red lines" that might lead to a disruption of oil (particularly in an election year).

Options in Syria are limited for the United States. Direct military intervention is not realistic given the overextension of our forces. The U.N. route ran into problems with Russia and China, both of which have an interest to help Iran, namely weakening the U.S. Covert action and supporting the uprising is really the only hand the United States can play, and the Syrians are responding to that with a brutal crackdown.

This country's dominance in the world introduced a sort of Pax Americana, whereby widespread peace accompanied widespread stability. Our slow retreat from the top echelon of global power will leave us  standing idly by, only able to helplessly watch more and more human catastrophes. Those internal dissidents who helped chip away at U.S. hegemony over the decades are indirectly responsible for the ensuing chaos America is increasingly finding harder to stop.

An article in the Star noted that prices posted outside gas stations are up, with the average Ventura County price at $3.336 per gallon. What could be the cause? The article quoted a government official who said that demand for oil is up as the world's economy grows.  Perhaps the Chilean earthquake, cold weather in Europe, or floods in Australia are to blame, he suggests.

Mm hmm. I don't expect someone who gets their paycheck from the government to criticize it, so allow me.

High gas prices are caused by inflation, a direct consequence of the federal government's attempt to ease the crushing burden of debt by devaluing the dollar. The Obama Administration certainly doesn't want to cut spending on social programs.

Instead, they attempt to devalue the dollar by "printing" more money, either digitally or with the printing press. More dollars in circulation mean that each dollar is worth less than if fewer dollars were in circulation.

If dollars are worth less, it takes more of them to buy something--in this case, oil. Therefore, the "price" of oil went up. That's a misleading way to put it, because it suggests to the reader that oil is driving the cost. Oil need not change for its price to go up--a devalued dollar can do that all by itself.

It's remarkable that an article on the topic of gas prices doesn't mention inflation as even a remote possibility.