"For his efforts, Mr. Raymond, who retired in December, was compensated more than $686 million from 1993 to 2005, according to an analysis done for The New York Times by Brian Foley, an independent compensation consultant. That is $144,573 for each day he spent leading Exxon's "God pod," as the executive suite at the company's headquarters in Irving, Tex., is known."

And that's obscene, no matter what way you wish to cut it. Think about that: $144,573 per day, while millions more are attempting to survive on less than $5000 per year!

If you read the rest of the piece, you'll see where Exxon praised the man's, well, whatever it took to make Exxon such a huge success. Not mentioned, of course, is the alleged gouging that Exxon and the others "pulled" to get to those record-breaking profits.

Now, you'd think that, with gas prices soon to climb past $3 a gallon, global warming, and the idiotic politics associated with dealing with producers of oil, well, why not a public outcry? Heading, as we currently are, into Hubbert's 2nd Oil Peak, let's face it: Exxon is a pimp or better, a connection...industrialized Earth is hooked on a controlled substance called oil, we cannot seem to break ourselves free of this nasty monkey, so, being the connection they are, why, but, of course...they're going to screw us sideways with profits, profits and did I mention profits?

We could, if we wanted to, develop other sources of fuels, of energy, many of which are available at this moment. Gee, why not? Why don't we develop something else, and thus, tell Exxon-Mobil to go have sex with a wall outlet?

Why? Because that runs against the grain of our holy dogma these days, and let's cut out the silly: America's real religion is materialism. We bow and scrape to the great, omnipotent deity Moolah. Our precious government says so, so, why are we bitching? Just because some CEO departs with enough cash to run out and purchase his own aircraft carrier???

Don't kid yourself: Our genuine religion is money, money and more money. We worship wealth. We spend what free dollars we have to buy lottery tickets, all of us wishing so hard, "Gee, if only I was wealthy!". We work our asses off, and to what end? Oh, to, as George Carlin so put it, "To go out and get more stuff."

So, one can see why Raymond's success is so celebrated. This makes him a true "cardinal" among the ranks of the many cardinals who keep our wonderful Church Of Cashflow operating, so we can continue our decline into fascism, and, one day, disappear as other greed-driven civilizations did long ago, another historic footnote that may well read "This is what happens when you let money become your god."

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