We’ve all been feeling the pinch at the pump, as gas prices have steadily and rapidly increased in recent years due to higher worldwide demand and a decrease in supply. The drilling moratorium in the Gulf, the U.N.’s decision to no longer purchase from Iran, and developing nations discovering a thirst for industry and oil have translated to $4 a gallon gasoline.

A Gallup poll in March found that 85 percent of the public believes that the president and Congress “should take immediate actions to try to control the rising price of gas.” I am among that 85 percent. I would love for President Obama to green light the Keystone Pipeline, sell off federal lands to oil companies that want to drill, and generally get the heck out of the way of stopping progress and production.

Too dark ... passIf you’re a black man, you can be in an Acura ad. Only you can’t be too black. Just kind of black. Like black enough to be recognizably black -- gooooo diversity! --but not black enough to be like one of those creepy, criminal-looking dudes whose dark skin makes them seem all sinister and stuff. So proceed with caution, oh ye thespians of African descent.

In one more shimmy down the damage control conga line, another company is backpeddling about a cultural faux pas. Acura released an apology today for a circulating casting document for a Super Bowl ad that called for a black actor who was "not too dark." The search, conducted by Cathi Carlton Casting, who was hired by Acura, was called afoul by an actor who was dismissed from the running because he didn’t fit the desired profile of "nice looking, friendly, not too dark."

Let’s talk about numbers. People love to make numbers say whatever they want. For example, number trickery has perpetuated the myth that the middle class pays the majority of the taxes in America. Famed fat cat billionaire Warren Buffett has made issue of the effective tax rate of his secretary, and how so totally unfair it is that she is taxed at a higher percentage rate than him.

It recently came to light that President Obama also paid ‘fewer’ taxes than his secretary. That must be what they’re calling new math.

Tuesday was the second annual “One Day Without Shoes,” an event designed by Toms Shoes to raise awareness of the importance of shoes. Thousands participated by going barefoot, something that children in third-world countries do every day. 

Toms Shoes' claim to fame is the buy-one-give-one model. When you buy a pair of the earth-friendly loafers, the company donates a pair of shoes to a child in a developing nation. Wearing shoes can prevent diseases transmitted through soil, helps prevent cuts and sores on the feet, and may even be a ticket to an education, since many schools require shoes as part of their dress code. No shoes means no school.

Earlier this month, a new law went into effect in Los Angeles mandating condom usage for adult film stars. Yup, California is now 'policing the porn business.' The law is intended to protect the actors and actresses from contracting any sexually transmitted diseases. In 2004, five people in the California porn industry contracted HIV, prompting a voluntary 60-day shutdown by the studios. 

What happened to ‘my body, my choice’? Porn star Kayden Kross told Fox Business Network’s John Stossel, “... a third party stepped in and created, essentially, a crisis that wasn’t there.” She also pointed out that the studios require all their actors to test every 28-30 days, and they do so without any law requiring it.

Greg Smith quit his job at the investment firm Goldman Sachs on Wednesday in a spectacularly public op-ed in The New York Times. Few among us can even imagine doing such a thing, but few among us can even imagine the kind of money he made in his job, the official title of which was executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

For those of us fed up with Wall Street and people like Mitt Romney and their ilk trading money to get more money and falling dangerously close to Mr. Burns territory from The Simpsons, Smith is a bit of a folk hero. But is he really?

Smith said he was quitting his job because the firm had come so far away from the core values he saw when he joined as a summer intern out of Stanford in 2000. That's a long time, but it isn't SO long that he can really make such claims. Smith says:

Rand PaulKentucky Senator Rand Paul has introduced a federal budget for the 2013 fiscal year. “A Platform To Revitalize America,” introduced with co-sponsors Senators Jim DeMint and Mike Lee, would eliminate the deficit within five years and is supported by all 47 Senate Republicans.

Reminder: It’s been over a thousand days since the Senate Democrats have passed a budget, and President Obama’s proposed budget would add almost a trillion dollars to our debt next year alone. And it doesn’t even make an attempt at reforming Social Security or Medicare, which are horribly broken and riddled with riddled with fraud. 

Media Matters for America (MMFA) has quite a bit of drama going on for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Earlier this month, The Daily Caller exposed erratic behavior by the conservative media watchdog group, as well as their close coordination with Barack Obama’s White House. So much for nonprofits remaining nonpartisan.

The latest drama involves CEO David Brock, his ex-domestic partner William Grey, and the $850,000 in blackmail money that Brock paid Grey to keep him from blabbing to the media about MMFA’s supposedly shady practices.