Topic: Politics

Please allow us to quote a line from last week’s East Hampton Star: “State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has asked the state attorney general to prosecute wholesale distributors of gasoline for what he called ‘discriminatory pricing practices’ that appear to violate antitrust laws.”

We’ve never met Fred Thiele, we didn’t vote for him in the last election and our entire knowledge of the man is derived from local newspaper articles, but we love the guy. Seriously. It’s high time someone came along and cried foul on the gas stations out here. They’re pirates. They rape and pillage indiscriminately and with disdain. Three miles away on the North Fork gas prices are 35 to 50 cents cheaper. Now by our calculations, the North Fork and the South Fork are pretty much equidistant from the Middle East, Venezuela, Alaska, Russia and everywhere else they produce oil. So why is it so much more expensive if you happen to get off at exit 70?

The gouging has gone on long enough. Thank you Fred Thiele for stepping up to the plate on this one. We’re ready to storm the barricades with you. Meet you at the Mobil in Amagansett and it’s on.

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