I don't know if the "folks" who call Bill O'Reilly are sincere gushers who absorb all the gems he utters and blindly obey his every edict, or if they are 15-second glory hounds who can tell the guys at the local bar who they talked to that morning.

If they are of the true believer variety, those folks are being sucker-punched by the big fat talking head right out of their hard-earned paychecks.

Hatred for the big oil companies and his loathing to hand over any of his mega-bucks to them, is what driving Bill-O's vendetta against them, and his desperate attempt to take the "folks" along on his wild ride.

In his zeal to get the oilmen and save a buck, he wants the sheep to follow his leadership over a cliff of higher costs that they can ill-afford. In spite of a lucrative radio and television contracts and book deals, maybe Bill-O is secretly in money trouble, because a quick check at amazon.com showed his books are selling for as little as a penny a piece.

Okay, I'll be honest here, where Bilge-O would not. Bill-O would put a fact like that out as the gospel of whole truth, and not tell the "folks" that a penny is what it'll cost you for a used copy, complete with someone's grubby fingerprints and beer can stains on it. You can still waste $19.95 for a new hard cover.

Because this very rich man doesn't want to fork over a nickel to the oilman, he trying to out-fox them. Oh, heavens, no pun there.

In his basakwards thinking, and without checking with his auto mechanical professional, he's (hee-hee) not giving them any money until the car is running on empty, and the fancy lights on the dashboard are blinking and a voice is telling him: Get gas, you fool.

He thinks he's fooling the oil companies and saving money to boot.

Bill-O. The big oil guys are having the last laugh; you don't know what you're talking about, and if the "folks" follow your bad advice, you're costing the "folks" you say you're "looking out for" bushel baskets of money and ruining their automobiles.

You can afford it; they can't.

Floating to work on gas fumes is hazardous to your car's health. Not only that, but the guy who fixes your car is also the guy who's selling the oilman's gas.

Forget for a moment that you're risking running out of gas, causing yourself unnecessary delays, not to mention all the unfortunate souls who are stuck behind you on the freeway, because you and your car can't move.

Don't listen, "folks," because:

Cars run more efficiently on a full tank of gas.

Good mileage decreases as the fuel gets used up.

Running a car on fumes can kill your car by gumming up the works will all the gunk that collects at the bottom of the tank.

Don't let Bill-O take you for a ride. We have to fuel our cars, and we will buy the same amount of gas if we always fill the tank when its a quarter full; we'll buy more if we wait until it fumes only, because we will have used it up more quickly.

The bottom line for your bottom line, is you can't get the better of the big oil guys unless you get a horse.