Some musings from today's crop of stories on CNN.com...

A new justification for our "stimulus checks" is to "offset the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump and at the grocery store," so says W. Funny, but I teach my class that when consumers have more income they buy more, increasing demand, which pushes prices up. I'd be curious to see how increasing demand will offset or solve high prices.

This link to a story on high gas prices and their effect on college student provides some head-scratchers. 1) Count of how many trucks you see in the video. Count how many hybrids you see in the video. Compare. 2) At 0:22 of the story, check out the guy studying in his car. Who studies in their car? I'm sure there is a library nearby or, I don't know, an air-conditioned building with a chair inside. 3) The students complain that they are on "limited budgets" and can't afford gas. I'm betting 95% of them have cell phones. 4) Students can now use the "expensive gas" excuse to cut class. At least that sounds somewhat legitimate compared to other excuses I've heard ("Didn't your aunt already die, on the day of the previous test? Oh, this is ANOTHER aunt").