Daniel Patrick Moynihan is credited with saying that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but no one to their own facts.

Moynihan was alluding to the most common form of rhetorical tactic--simply changing the facts and allowing people to build their very own cloud castles. Greg's recent posting of a nominal conservative's concern over the Bush administration's invasion of our privacy is a case in point. If you can get people to believe the lie that Bush as actually invaded the privacy of Americans, then the rest is easy. I've been trying to innoculate my own children against this most common of tactics for years--always asking them how they know what they know so they really think about the provenance of their facts.

In any event, Amy Ridenour points to an editorial by her husband that lays out some facts on gas prices

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in U.S. cities was $1.41 in April 1981. Excluding federal and state gas taxes, this meant the price was around $1.26.

In today's dollars, that would be about $2.83 per gallon. But in May, the before-tax cost of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was just $2.29 - about 19 percent lower than that.

Given that we're living under much stricter air quality standards today than we were 25 years ago, that figure probably understates the real price reduction in gasoline prices. In some areas of the country, motorists must use specialty fuels - the so-called "boutique" fuels - to meet pollution standards. This adds to refining costs. As the Federal Trade Commission has noted, "boutique fuels and differentiated access to gasoline supplies... contributes to variability of gas prices."

1981 isn't the only year gasoline prices have been comparable to, or higher than, the prices today. Between July 1979 and October 1983, gasoline was fairly consistently over $2 a gallon. During much of the 1920s and 1930s, gasoline prices were higher than $2, too. In 1922, for example, the pre-tax cost per gallon was just shy of 25 cents - equal to about $3 today.

One part of our fuel bill has increased dramatically in real terms over the years: Taxes. Adjusted for inflation, state and federal taxes on gasoline have increased by 868 percent since 1922 (they were only 0.4 cents per gallon back then) and by 50 percent since 1981 (when they were just 14.5 cents).

Clearly we are not living with "record" prices for gasoline--a distinctly political deception by the Democrats and the lapdog media.

So much political rhetoric exploits our lack of relative experience--a bad hurricane season portends the end of the world, until the fact that this kind of activity is cyclic and has considerable historical precedent is thrown into the mix. Suddenly everything is placed in context.

Checking your premise is a good habit whose benefits extend far past navigating the political maelstrom. Its like a soldier cleaning his weapon before going into battle--when you are absolutely sure, you can have far greater confidence than merely "assuming" things are 'OK'.