LIES ACROSS AMERICA

“Every single empire, in its official discourse, has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort.”Edward Said

The increasingly fragile American Empire has been built on a foundation of lies. Lies we tell ourselves and Big lies spread by our government. The shit is so deep you can stir it with a stick. As we enter another holiday season the mainstream corporate mass media will relegate you to the status of consumer. This is a disgusting term that dehumanizes all Americans. You are nothing but a blot to corporations and advertisers selling you electronic doohickeys that they convince you that you must have. Propaganda about consumer spending being essential to an economic recovery is spewed from 52 inch HDTVs across the land, 24 hours per day, by CNBC, Fox, CBS and the other corporate owned media that generate billions in profits from selling advertising to corporations schilling material goods to thoughtless American consumers.  Aldous Huxley had it figured out decades ago:

“Thanks to compulsory education and the rotary press, the propagandist has been able, for many years past, to convey his messages to virtually every adult in every civilized country.”

Americans were given the mental capacity to critically think. Sadly, a vast swath of Americans has chosen ignorance over knowledge. Make no mistake about it, ignorance is a choice. It doesn’t matter whether you are poor or rich. Books are available to everyone in this country. Sob stories about the disadvantaged poor having no access to education are nothing but liberal spin to keep the masses controlled. There are 122,500 libraries in this country. If you want to read a book, you can read a book. The internet puts knowledge at the fingertips of every citizen. Becoming educated requires hard work, sacrifice, curiosity, and a desire to learn. Aldous Huxley  describes the American choice to be ignorant:

 “Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.”

It is a choice to play Call of Duty on your PS3 rather than reading Shakespeare. It is a choice to stand on a street corner looking for trouble rather than reading Hemingway. It is a choice to spend Black Friday in malls fighting other robotic consumers for iSomethings, the latest innovative, advanced TVs, flashy Rolexes, and ostentatious Coach bags rather than spending the day reading Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, a brilliant Pulitzer Prize winning history of the outset of World War I, which would provide insight into what could happen on the Korean Peninsula. It is a choice to watch 6 hours per day of Dancing With the Stars, American Idol, Brainless Housewives of Everywhere, or CSI of Anywhere rather than reading Orwell or Huxley  and discovering that their dystopian warnings have come true.

 Conspicuous Consumption Conquistadors

Americans have chosen to lie to themselves. They have persuaded themselves that buying stuff with plastic cards while paying 19% interest for eternity, driving BMWs while locked into never ending indecipherable lease schemes, and living in permanently underwater McMansions bought with 0% down on an interest only liar loan, is the new American Dream. They think watching the boob tube will make them smart. They soak in the mass media hype, misinformation and lies like lemmings walking off a cliff. Depending on their political predisposition, they watch Fox or MSNBC and unthinkingly believe the propaganda that pours from the mouths of the multi-millionaire talking heads who read Teleprompters with words written by corporate media hacks. They tell themselves that buying stuff on credit, giving them the appearance of success as measured by the media elite, is actually success. This is a bastardized, manipulated, delusional version of accomplishment. Americans have chosen to believe the lies because the truth is too hard to accept.

Becoming educated, thinking critically, working hard, saving money to buy what you need (as opposed to what you want), developing human relationships, and questioning the motivations of government, corporate and religious leaders is hard. It is easy to coast through school and never read a book for the rest of your life. It is easy to not think about the future, your retirement, or the future of unborn generations. It is easy to coast through life at a job (until you lose it) that is unchallenging, with no desire or motivation for advancement. It is easy to make your everyday troubles disappear by whipping out your piece of plastic and acquiring everything you desire today. If your brother-in-law buys a 7,000 sq ft, 7 bedroom, 4 bath, 3 car garage, monolith to decadence for his family of 3, thirty miles from civilization, with no money down and a no doc Option ARM providing the funds, why shouldn’t you get in on the fun. It’s easy. Why sit around the kitchen table and talk with your kids, when you can easily cruise the internet downloading free porn or recording every trivial detail of your shallow life on Facebook so others can waste their time reading about your life. It is easiest to believe your elected leaders, glorified mega-corporation CEOs, and millionaire pastors preaching the word of God for a “small” contribution to their mega-churches.

Americans love authority figures who act as if they have all the answers. It matters not that these egotistical monuments to folly and hubris (Bush, Obama, Paulson, Geithner, Greenspan, Bernanke) have committed the worst atrocities in the history of our Republic, leaving economic carnage and the slaughter of thousands in their wake. The most dangerous man on this earth is an Ivy League educated, arrogant ideologue who believes they are smarter than everyone else. When these men achieve power, they are capable of producing catastrophic consequences. Once they seize the reigns of authority these amoral psychopaths have no problem lying to the American public in order to achieve their objectives. They know that Americans love to be lied to, so the bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be believed.

The current lie proliferating across the land of the free financing and home of the debtor is that austerity has broken out across the land. The mainstream media and the government, aided by various “think tanks” and Federal Reserve propagandists insist that Americans have buckled down, reduced spending, increased savings, and have embraced austerity.

Austerity – Circa 1932

Austerity – Circa 2010

They now proclaim that it is time to spend again. It is the patriotic thing to do, just like defeating terrorists by buying an SUV with 0% down from GM was the patriotic thing to do after 9/11. Defeating terrorists by going further into debt was the brilliant idea of those Ivy League geniuses Bush & Greenspan. Let’s critically examine the facts to determine how austere Americans have become:

  • Consumer credit outstanding is $2.41 trillion, the same level reached in early 2007, and up from $1.5 trillion in 2000. This is a 60% increase in ten years. Personal income has risen from $8.4 trillion to $12.6 trillion over this same time frame, a 50% increase. Americans have substituted debt for income in order to keep up with the Joneses. The mass delusion lives.
  • The MSM declares that the reduction in overall consumer debt from its peak of $2.56 trillion in 2008 to $2.41 trillion today proves that consumers have been cutting back and paying off debt. This is another media lie. Non-revolving debt, which includes car loans, education loans, mobile home loans and boat loans sits at $1.6 trillion, an all-time high matched in 2008. Credit card debt has “plunged” from $957 billion to $814 billion, not because consumers paid down their balances. The mega Wall Street banks have written off $20 billion per quarter since early 2009, accounting for ALL of the reduction in credit card debt. Clueless consumers continue to charge at the same rate as the peak in 2008.
  • Average credit card debt per household with credit card debt: $15,788
  • There are 609.8 million bank credit cards held by U.S. consumers.
  • The U.S. credit card default rate is 13.01%
  • In 2006, the United States Census Bureau determined that there were nearly 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the U.S. A stack of all those credit cards would reach more than 70 miles into space — and be almost as tall as 13 Mount Everests.
  • Penalty fees from credit cards added up to about $20.5 billion in 2009.
  • The national average default rate as January 2010 stood at 27.88% and the mean default rate is 28.99%.
  • Total bankruptcy filings in 2009 reached 1.4 million, up from 1.09 million in 2008. Bankruptcies in 2010 are on pace to exceed 1.6 million.  
  • 26% of Americans, or more than 58 million adults, admit to not paying all of their bills on time. Among African-Americans, this number is at 51%.

           Does This Look Like Austerity? Really?

This data clearly proves that austerity has not broken out across the land of delusion. The billions in consumer loan write-offs by the Wall Street banks that run this country have masked the fact that Americans have not cut back on their spending habits at all. GMAC (taxpayer owned) and Ford Credit continue to dish out car loans to anyone with a pulse and a 600 credit score. The Federal Reserve and the FASB have encouraged, if not insisted, that banks fraudulently value the commercial real estate loans on their books. The Federal Reserve has bought $1.5 trillion of toxic mortgage loans from the criminal Wall Street banks at 100 cents on the dollar. The government’s corporate fascist public relations firms then spread the big lie that the economy is recovering and consumers should join the party and spend, spend, spend.

If Americans were capable or willing to do some critical thinking, they would realize that those in power have created the illusion of a recovery by handing $700 billion of your money to the banks that created the financial meltdown, spending $800 billion on worthless pork barrel projects borrowed from future generations, dropping interest rates to 0% so that the mega-Wall Street banks can earn billions risk free while your grandmother who depended on interest income from her CDs edges closer to eating cat food to get by, and lastly Ben Bernanke’s blatant attempt to enrich Wall Street by buying US Treasury bonds in an effort to make the stock market go up, while the middle and lower classes are crushed under the weight of soaring fuel and food price increases that exceed 30% on an annual basis. The illusion of recovery is not a recovery. With a true unemployment rate of 22%, a true inflation rate of 8% and a real GDP of -1.5% (Shadowstats), we are in the midst of the Greater Depression. You are being lied to, but most of you prefer it.

The Little Lies We Tell Ourselves

“Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know.” – M King Hubbert

When Jimmy Carter gave his malaise speech in 1979, Americans were in no mood to listen. Carter’s solutions were too painful, required sacrifice, and sought to benefit future generations. The leading edge of the Baby Boom generation had reached their 30s by 1979, and the most spoiled, pampered, egocentric generation in history could care less about future generations, long term thinking, or sacrifice for the greater good. They were the ME GENERATION. The 1970s had proven to be tumultuous episode in US history. M King Hubbert’s calculation in 1956 that U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s proved to be 100% correct.

File:US Oil Production and Imports 1920 to 2005.png

 

The Arab oil embargo resulted in gas shortages and economic chaos in the U.S. Hubbert used the same method to determine that worldwide oil production would peak in the early 2000s. If long term planning had been initiated in the early 1980s, combining exploration of untapped reserves, greater utilization of natural gas, development of nuclear plants, more stringent fuel efficiency standards, increased taxes on gasoline, and more thoughtful development of housing communities, we would not now face a looming oil crisis within the next few years. Instead of dealing with reality, adapting our behavior and preparing for a more localized society, we put our blinders on, chose ignorance over reason and pushed the pedal to the medal by moving farther away from our jobs, building bigger energy intensive mansions, and insisting on driving tank-like SUVs, Hummers, and good ole boy pickups. Kevin Phillips in American Theocracy explained that hyper-consumerism, fear, and inability to use logic have left our suburban oasis lives in danger of implosion when the reality of peak cheap oil strikes:

Besides the innate thirst of SUVs, some of the last quarter century’s surge in U.S. oil consumption has come from Americans driving more – some twelve thousand miles per motorist per year, up almost one – third from 1980 – because they as a whole live farther from work. In consumption terms, exurbia is the physical result of the latest population redistribution enabled by car culture and the electorate that upholds it.

Family values are central – if by this we mean having families and accepting lengthy commutes to install them in reasonably safe and well churched places. In the 1970’s such households might have been fleeing school busing or central city crime; in the post – September 11 era, many sought distance from “godless” school systems or the random violence and terrorist attacks expected to occur in metropolitan areas.

We willingly believe the lies espoused by the badly informed pundits on CNBC and Fox   that if we just drill in Alaska and off our coasts, we’ll be fine. The ignorant peak cheap oil deniers insist there are billions of barrels of oil to be harvested from the Bakken Shale, even though there is absolutely no method of accessing this supply without expending more energy than we can access. Environmentalists lie about the dangers of nuclear power, while shamelessly promoting the ridiculous notion that solar, wind and ethanol can make a visible impact on our future energy needs. Ideologues on the right and left conveniently ignore the facts and the truth is lost in a blizzard of their lies. Here is an explanation so clear, even a CNBC “drill baby drill” dimwit could understand:

When oil production first began in the mid-nineteenth century, the largest oil fields recovered fifty barrels of oil for every barrel used in the extraction, transportation and refining. This ratio is often referred to as the Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROEI). Currently, between one and five barrels of oil are recovered for each barrel-equivalent of energy used in the recovery process. As the EROEI drops to one, or equivalently the Net Energy Gain falls to zero, the oil production is no longer a net energy source. This happens long before the resource is physically exhausted.

File:Hubbert peak oil plot.svg

 

After the briefest of lulls when oil reached $145 per barrel, Americans have resumed buying SUVs, pickup trucks, and gas guzzling muscle cars. They have chosen to ignore the imminence of peak cheap oil because driving a leased BMW makes your neighbors think you are a success, while driving a hybrid would make your neighbors think you are a liberal tree hugger. It boggles my mind that so many Americans are so shallow and shortsighted. According to Automotive News, at the start of 2008 leasing comprised 31.2% of luxury vehicle sales and 18.7% of non-luxury sales. This proves that hundreds of thousands of wannabes are driving leased BMWs and Mercedes to fill some void in their superficial lives.

I bought a Honda Insight Hybrid six months ago. It gets 44 mpg and will save me $1,500 per year in gasoline costs. I put 20% down and financed the remainder at 0.9% for three years. My payment is $450 per month. I will own it outright in 2 ½ years. I could have leased a 2010 BMW 328i with moonroof, bluetooth, power seats with driver seat memory, lumbar support, leather interior, iPod adapter, 17″ alloy wheels, heated seats, wood trim, 3.0 Liter 6 Cylinder engine with 230 horsepower for 3 years at $389 per month. At the end of 3 years I’d own nothing. In 2 ½ years I’ll be able to put $450 per month away for my kids’ college education and I’ll be saving more on fuel as gasoline approaches $5 per gallon. The self important egotistical BMW leaser pretending to be successful will need to hand over their sweet ride and move on to the next lease, never saving a dime for the future. I’m sure they’ll make a killing in the market or their McMansion will surely double in price, providing a fantastic retirement.

             Delusional                                   Practical

 

The delusion that cheap oil is a God given right of all Americans can be seen in the YTD data on vehicle sales. Pickups and SUVs account for 48.5% of all sales, while small fuel efficient cars account for only 16.5% of all sales. Americans will continue to lie to themselves until it is too late, again.

  Oct 2010 % Chg from
Oct’09
YTD 2010 % Chg from
YTD 2009
Cars 448,127 3.9 4,840,525 5.3
   Midsize 220,998 -0.2 2,407,457 9.9
   Small 142,983 9.7 1,616,840 -1.5
   Luxury 78,487 9.7 742,278 7.2
   Large 5,659 -31.9 73,950 -0.8
Light-duty trucks 502,038 23.5 4,730,196 16.7
   Pickup 147,207 16.9 1,334,133 13.9
   Cross-over 195,274 20.0 1,928,191 16.8
   Minivan 55,596 21.0 561,736 15.1
   Midsize SUV 51,494 86.6 443,922 37.9
   Large SUV 23,946 1.5 202,806 12.1
   Small SUV 14,861 53.6 146,000 -3.8
   Luxury SUV 13,660 22.1 113,408 26.2
Total SUV/Cross-over 299,235 27.4 2,834,327 18.3
Total SUV 103,961 44.3 906,136 21.7
Total Cross-over 195,274 20.0 1,928,191 16.8

Americans are so committed to their automobiles, hyper-consumerism, oversized McMansions, and suburban sprawl existence that they will never willingly prepare in advance for a future by scaling back, downsizing, or thinking. Our culture is built upon consumption, debt, cheap oil and illusion. Kevin Phillips in American Theocracy concludes that there are so many Americans tied to our unsustainable economic model that they will choose to lie to themselves and be lied to by their leaders rather than think and adapt:

A large number of voters work in or depend on the energy and automobile industries, and still more are invested in them, not just financially but emotionally and culturally. These secondary cadres included racing fans, hobbyists, collectors, and dedicated readers of automotive magazines, as well as the tens of millions of automobile commuters from suburbs and distant exurbs, plus the high number of drivers whose strong self-identification with vehicle types and models serve as thinly disguised political statements. In the United States more than elsewhere, a preference for conspicuous consumption over energy efficiency and conservation is a signal of a much deeper, central divide.

M King Hubbert was a geophysicist and a practical man. He observed data, made realistic assumptions, and came to logical conclusions. He didn’t deal in unrealistic hope and unwarranted optimism. He knew that our culture had become so dependent upon lies and an unsustainable growth model based on depleting oil and debt based “prosperity”. He knew decades ago that we were incapable of dealing with the truth:

“Our principal constraints are cultural. During the last two centuries we have known nothing but exponential growth and in parallel we have evolved what amounts to an exponential-growth culture, a culture so heavily dependent upon the continuance of exponential growth for its stability that it is incapable of reckoning with problems of non-growth.” M King Hubbert

Our country is at a crucial juncture. It is time for thinkers. It is time for realists. It is time to deal with facts. It is time to drive the ideologues off the stage. Are you tired of lying to yourselves? Are you tired of being lied to by the corporate fascists that run this country? It is time to wake up. Right wing and left wing ideologues will continue to spew lies and misinformation as they are power hungry and care not for the long-term survival of our nation or the unborn generations that depend upon the decisions we make today. It is time to see how we really are.

 “Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself from thinking. People intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they really are.” –   Aldous Huxley

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llpoh
llpoh

I spotted this photo of Titanic:

comment image

llpoh
llpoh

When this guy applies for the job, that is it, applications must close, as we will be able to do no better:

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Smokey
Smokey

Administrator—-Of the thousands of comments that I have read by you in the past year or so, your 7:22 PM response to Titanic on this thread (monkey line) made me laugh the hardest. It should go into TBP Hall of Fame along with LLPOH’s Apostle of RE commentary last week.

Punk in Drublic

LLPOH
I’m touched that you didn’t include me in your list.

Ti-Taint-ic
Many do not have the emotional fortitude to return after the major ass scorching you received the last time you showed up. You must be really tuff. If you manage to post something that isn’t complete drivel you will fit in well here.

LLPOH
LLPOH

I believe that the Apostle may be resurrected shortly, as traffic has improved. I think Admin missed it, as well as Stuck, for whom it was really dedicated. What an honor, honestly, to have the Apostle mentioned along side Admin’s “Your intelligence level is on par with a monkey that eats his own shit”.

If nothing else, we are a classy bunch.

LLPOH
LLPOH

Punk – the photo of you in Pink on HO-HO-HO is humiliation enough for one day, don’t you think?

SaulRosenberg
SaulRosenberg

Dear Mr. Quinn,
FUCK YOU. I WANT MINE AND I WANT IT YESTERDAY.
Love always,
America

Nudge-a-lot
Nudge-a-lot

While I certainly believe in Peak Oil (what sane human wouldn’t?) I’m not so sure the ‘exurbian’ transportation problems will have such huge an impact as that which is being spouted on here. There will, no doubt, be alternatives.

Hundreds of vehicle manufacturers around the world aren’t going to wake up one morning, decide to call a meeting, and suddenly explain to their shareholders that because oil has run dry they’re now going to shut the assembly plant doors. That’s not how (Successful) business works.

Most vehicle manufacturers are thinking much longer term than Peak Oil. BMW, Toyota, Mercedes, Honda, GM, etc… all have Hybrid/Fully Electric/Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars either in production or under evaluation. I’d be happy to wager $1000, with anyone, that we’ll all be driving around in something similar in less than 20 years.

I’ll agree, it’s going to take time for the charging station infrastructure and electricty generating facilites to catch up, but it WILL happen. You can’t change an oil thirsty nation over night.

In any case, all you’re really doing is swapping Oil for Coal, You crazy Americans can still go about your merry day poluting the planet. So cheer up. 🙂

SSS

Topper Hidrow Carban

Ok, we get it. Your initials are THC. If that’s some sort of clever signal that you’re a pro-drug, medical marijuana hippie, I’ll give you fair warning.

Nearly 100% of the visitors to this site are violently against any sort of legalization of marijuana or other banned substances, and I’m their leader. My posts here on that subject have received nothing but praise and global acclaim. The Pope has personally written to me and asked if I would consider converting to Roman Catholicism.

So you’d do well to stay away from any favorable comments on legalizing banned substances. Don’t make me beat on you like a rented mule and embarrass you in front of the whole world.

Again, welcome to the site.

Topper Hidrow Carban
Topper Hidrow Carban

SSS

Now that is funny, THC. It is actually a lousy play on Peak Hydro Carbon. But whats even funnier is that I am pro medical marijuana. Try living with hip arthritis for a while. I haven’t smoked in years, but am willing to give it a try as soon as it is legal where I live (just voted in). You say you are violently against any such legalization. Thats pretty strong. No comment.

Titanic
Titanic

Punk In Drublic – “Many do not have the emotional fortitude to return after the major ass scorching you received the last time you showed up.”

I know. I know. I didn’t think I would come back, but it is somewhat rewarding when you know someone (Jimmy) is totally full of crap, and is spewing out lie after lie, after lie. You can only refute such lies with truth. However, Jimmy did have some good points in this article! Many Americans live beyond their means. I agree with this wholeheartedly, but the underlying concept in every article of his is that America is bad, Americans are bad, Americans are destroying the planet, and the WORLD IS GOING TO END BECAUSE OF PEAK OIL. EVERY ARTICLE I HAVE SEEN HAS THIS UNDERLYING MESSAGE. And Jimmy is a AGENT OF MISTRUTH, attacking anyone who does not believe in HIS FAIRY TALE OF PEAK OIL.

I took a nap earlier, woke up, and thought about Peak Oil. I THOUGHT ABOUT HOW ABSOLUTELY ABSURD IT IS. America has more people than it ever has (as does the world). PLANES FLY EVERYWHERE. CARS ARE EVERYWHERE. SHIPS CARRY GOODS OVER THE OCEANS EVERY DAY. America is BURNING OIL LIKE WATER in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. THE CHINESE JUST PASSED THE U.S. AS THE WORLD’S NUMBER ONE CAR MARKET! OIL IS FRIKING EVERYWHERE (hear that, Jimmy?). OIL IS FRIKING EVERYWHERE! And it keeps coming to market EVERY SINGLE DAY. PEAK OIL, MY ASS! THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF OIL! If there is anyone who has his HEAD UP HIS ASS, IT’S JIMMY (aka Jim Q) ! Jim is either an agent of misinformation, or he has read the propaganda all his life and truly believes it. Peak Oil is an absolute, evil, stupid, asinine lie!

Have any of you been to a big city before – to a place where there are hundreds of pigeons flying around? Imagine such a place – pigeons flying everywhere, crapping all over the place. And you go from city to city and find the same scenario in each city. Would anyone dare say pigeons are becoming extinct? That’s exactly what the Peak Oil Morons are saying! OIL IS FRIKING EVERYWHERE, AND THE PEAK OIL IDIOTS SAY THAT OIL IS BECOMING EXTINCT. HOW ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ABSURD. (YES JIMMY, I USED AN OBSCENITY).

Jimmy – it’s ok – there’s still time to see the light, if you choose to do so. If you truly do believe in the fairy tale of Peak Oil Jimmy, there is still time to find the truth, and to amend your ways.

Titanic
Titanic

Jimmy – I do want to emphasize that you have some very good concepts in this article (I’m not trying to kiss ass). Americans should consume less. The fools (consumers) who went on a rampage on Black Friday are a disgrace to this nation. We Americans should eductate ourselves more and should work at becoming a more cultured nation. And yes, the “culture of credit’ in this country is a crying shame. Sadly, the biggest example of this is the millions of people who bought way-overpriced homes during the housing bubble. Many of these same people have lost, or will lose their homes. So yeah, Jimmy – you’re not all bad.

Theos
Theos

The Fool can never be satisfied always having to have more.

Sounds like foreign policy too me and besides who will admit that if you are not at war with yourself you are always be at war with everyone and everything else.

Let’s go to Mars and see who is not happy there will you be standing alone?

Robmu1
Robmu1

Titanic – If I interpret your thesis correctly, since there is oil everywhere, there is no peak oil…? Hula Hoops and America Online used to be everywhere, too. Jim has presented data and you have presented the dreaded, infantile CAPS and exclamation points. You got fucked up, dawg.

You are indeed the Village Idiot.

Robmu1
Robmu1

I saw Titanic in a dead heat with the bag of hammers. However, after he noted that “We Americans should eductate ourselves”, I awarded him the TBP Village Idiot award, at least for this week.

Topper Hidrow Carban
Topper Hidrow Carban

I think you were a bit hard on the baby boomers. I would argue that the leading edge of the boomers were more aware than any generation since. All generations are sleep walking through life thinking that the american dream just happens. Try to shake and convince them that the substrate of everything in their life is cheap easy oil, and they resist. They don’t see the huge complex interconnectedness of everything in our society all tied back to huge amounts of cheap easy oil. Lets hope the new american dream is anything but a chaotic catastrophic nightmare so many predict. All generations are responsible for this mess and all generations will be involved with our immediate and more distant future as we learn to live with less energy.

Robmu1
Robmu1

DP cannot be underestimated. He is like the Muhammad Ali of Village Idiots. He will come back to claim his crown and defeat Titanic.

Robmu1
Robmu1

DP looks better than he used to. He must be working out at the Cockroach Gym.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

R.C.

Yes we have tyranical laws and tyranical people that enforce them. Be grateful that you recognise this and are still sane because it is an aslyum out there with so many walking dead. You make good points that I will not dispute, however, the truth is time marches on and conditions & people change; even for america. The good book says there will be a great falling away before the second coming. I believe we are in midst of the great falling away. When spiritual thought is abandoned it is replaced by insanity. Doesn’t it seem that every decision that comes out of Washington D.C. lacks any sane component? D.C. exists in a bubble that is out of touch with the people. Their agents that administer and enforce their administrative laws are automations that do not question the insanity of the rules and regulations they are required to enforce; TSA being a good real time example. We live under a secular government that no longer recognises it’s christian foundation. In fact it no longer has any foundation and that is why it’s new laws and statutes have no conceptual moral foundation; they are born in insanity; sense perception.

Another observation you must have is, all the immigrants that are now in our country from all over the world and every society. These immigrants do not have the sense of the history of the early american individualism that existed in this country when the people took their freedom and liberty seriously. These people living here now are experiencing a sense of cultural freedom that they did not have in their own countries. These people have also become voters. It is ironic that these newcomer people are experiencing cultural freedom while we are losing our traditional american freedoms. The bounds of our tradition in this country have been broken by all these new immigrants, so we can never renew what was; we are moving into something new.

So the real problems we are facing is the tyranical laws and the tyranical automations that enforce these insane laws. Sane people have to speak out. Christianity did not spread from people not taking up the intellectual fight. People need to be told they are embracing insanity. Speaking about freedom to a person embracing insane thoughts is like talking to a post. These people have to be told they are embracing insanity first.

Topper Hidrow Carban
Topper Hidrow Carban

Might be your motto, but using SSS’s logic of percentage, nearly 100% of the boomers are not at the levers. I would agree however that the people with the levers in their hands are statistically likely to be from the boomer generation.

Topper Hidrow Carban
Topper Hidrow Carban

Nice breakdown, that validates my last sentence last comment. Not the first sentence though. I just don’t like being thrown in the same bucket as a bunch of clowns.

R.C.
R.C.

Thunderbird

You make excellent points and I agree with you, but I’m a believer in simplicity. Complication is what we presently enjoy in our political scenario. Our Congress, State Legislatures, County Boards and City Councils are perfect examples. Keep in mind that every time these bodies enact a law some part of our supposed freedoms are diminished or wiped out entirely.
What ever happened to “personal responsibility?” Are We The People so stupid that we need laws on top of laws to keep us civil. I don’t think so, but apparently our elected “lawmakers” do. As I see it in todays society we don’t need to be responsible because we have “laws” to tell us what and what not we can do. This is NOT freedom as I understand it; this is enslavement at its finest. Freedom, my dear friend in the USA is nothing more then an illusion and BS.
Thanks for your e-mails. I enjoy them. If you live in the Houston area I’d love to enjoy a cup of coffee with you. Take care and God Bless.

SSS

THC

Your comment on marijuana was noted. I may have just “slightly” exaggerated the support I receive from visitors whenever I post one of my anti-drug diatribes.

After I posted an anti-drug article a few months ago, I quickly began to realize how Custer must have felt at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Geez, the fucking Indians just kept coming at me from every direction. As Admin likes to say, “Blood everywhere.” Yeah, mostly mine.

Anyway, welcome to the fray, Crazy Horse.

WhatAmIMissingHere.com

Jim,

What an excellent and insightful article. Here’s what I posted regarding your article on my site:

EDITOR’S COMMENT: This is an excellent and timely article that precisely exemplifies what our site, What Am I Missing Here, is all about; namely “unmasking the half-truths, non-truths and distortions of information being provided by our mainstream media and our government.” If you can only read just one article this week, MAKE IT THIS ONE!

Jack Kneafsey

Nudge-a-lot
Nudge-a-lot

@Administrator

Appreciate your feedback. However, allow me the honour of pointing out a few things about your reply……

“It seems you are Americancentric like most delusional Americans.” – I’m not American & certainly don’t think the US is ‘Centric to anything anymore.

“India and China are each selling more cars per year than the US.” – I live in Asia, so I’m more than aware of local car buying habits. Thank you.

“You make the usual assumption that we’ll adapt and rebuild our infrastructure. Has it begun? Will it begin before 2015?” – I’m assuming nothing. Please visit the following website (And many others like it). You do have ‘Google’ on the planet you live on? –

http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/us/i/3540/

“Can the electric grid handle electric cars? No it can’t” – Here, I do assume that your actually an Electrical engineer, with expansive knowledge of power generation and supply lines? No? Well actually, Yes it can, most charging stations will be ‘off-grid’ & powered locally. Do some research. Ever heard of Solar Power or Wind Generation?

“Most Americans are so smug about this issue. They will have that smug expression on their faces wiped off by 2015.” – Smug????? 2015? Is that the new date that’s taken over from 2012 and all the other nut-job doomsday cult end of world years? WTF are you talking about?

“You underestimate the importance of cheap plentiful oil to our existing societal structure. Three days without oil and this country comes to a grinding halt. Think.” – Having lived through fuel rationing during protests in European countries earlier this decade (I was in the UK at the time) I absolutely do not ‘underestimate’ the importance of cheap energy, in the form of oil. I’m more than aware of the reliance of industrialized nations on the ‘black stuff’.

“Think” – This little pice of advice from you is pure gold! Maybe though, you should take yourself to a mirror and take a good long look.

The fact is, I’m a realist. Whereas you my friend, are a 100%, 24Carat, Sensationalist ‘Tin Foil wearing’ Doomsayer. How the fuck did you earn the title ‘Administrator’? You couldn’t Administrate a Booze up in a Brewery.

I wait breathlessly for the inevitable ‘ramblings of a mad-man’ reply….

Topper Hidrow Carban
Topper Hidrow Carban

Nudge, if your still around after that thrashing, you have to get rid of the idea that we can continue on the same road as our supply of the cheap oil is getting smaller by the day. Nothing can replace the utility and amount of energy in oil, nothing. By utility I mean the ability to transport it, and have small and large combustion engines that consume and translate it into useful work. Your energy utopian view that we will have solar and wind powered charging stations looks good on paper with pictures. As an engineer, I know that most of the work and design goes into the boundary conditions, the aspects and conditions that are dynamic in nature. When you design a car, you design it for all the environmental and road conditions it will encounter. Anyone can put four wheels on a platform. How do you queue cars up to charging stations, how do you store all the energy, how do you deal with no wind and clouds, how do you deal with 50 miles per charge versus 300 miles for liquid hydrocarbon cars, how do you deal with battery technologies that rely on resources that are already peaked out, and the list goes on and on. And get that hydrogen fuel cell out of that mind of yours, its not a fuel, its a storage mechanism. It took energy to create the hydrogen. Let me think like you. I can imagine these really big heavy equipment dump trucks carrying 50 tons of harder to get every day ore packing a six pack of nano-tube lithium ultra gigawatt batteries, each one 4x4x6 feet. Those big coal trains use the same technology, but they have to stop every twelve inches to recharge. No problem, we’re adapting. Lets hope that we do deal with powering down off of oil gracefully, but until the government acknowledges that it is a problem, the odds that a graceful power-down will occur get smaller and smaller. Oh, and a smart power down means you don’t get your own personal transport vehicle. I’m spoiled, I’m going to hate the future.

Smokey
Smokey

Nudge—-You are on the wrong side of the issue. This thing is turning into a bloodbath. It is embarrassing. Concede now, before the last shred of your dignity is obliterated. —–A word to the wise, and I mean nothing unkind here: It helps to know what the fuck you are talking about when you comment on this site.

Smokey
Smokey

Administrator—Sorry for the redundancy. I was typing my comment while you were posting yours.

Smokey
Smokey

Administrator—Check out the “Buy The Dip” article video on ZH. LMAO

Punk in Drublic

Titanic
Judging from your bird brained example, you don’t really understand peak oil. I will try to explain it in a context that you can comprehend. Imagine that you must eat a booger every ten seconds to survive. (Not a lot of calories in boogers)
“No problem, Punk” You say. “I have a big nose”

comment image

At first, the boogers are practically falling out, maybe it only takes a second to pull one out. pretty soon all those easy to pick boogers are gone. So you go a little deeper.
Now maybe it takes you three seconds to pull one out. Still, a pretty good return on the energy invested. Sooner or later, though, those run out too.
You are getting pretty far up there, using two fingers, rooting around your sinus cavity. Taking five seconds to find and dig out a nice juicy schnozberry. Think about that. You are using half the energy you got from the last booger just to get to the next one. Even this cannot be sustained, however, and very soon you find yourself up to your wrist, spending eight seconds on each booger.
Eventually you are up to your elbow in your own nasal cavity, digging around your empty skull, barely able to feed yourself off your own snot. Boogers come out just in time to fend off starvation.

“But Punk, boogers are abiotic” You might say. “My nose can regenerate them”. Irrelevant. Why? Because I have not included your body’s ever increasing demand for boogers, which FAR exceeds the regeneration rate of boogers.

This concludes Punk in Drublic’s lesson in peak boogers. Please, Titanic, educate yourself on the nature of the things of which you speak.

Smokey
Smokey

Punk—–How dare you post that lesson at suppertime. You’re making Titanic hungry.

SSS

Punk

While quite creative, that’s in contention for the grossest comment ever to appear on TBP. Admin will make the call.

Punk in Drublic

SSS
Thank you very much. Worked on it all day in my head.

Topper Hidrow Carban
Topper Hidrow Carban

We might be able to smooth that peak booger period into a plateau. I think you totally forgot there were two nostrils. And I believe by squirting some salt water in there you’ll be able to get a few more out. Though they won’t be as high quality as the first few.

Topper Hidrow Carban
Topper Hidrow Carban

I was just thinking about those peak boogers again. Maybe we could start digging from the other end, ultra deep water boogers.

Punk in Drublic

THC
Deep water boogers? Ahh. Lugies. You may be right. They might get us by for a little while, but they are a lot more work.

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