[emersonbiggins]

This subject of Kunstler's war hawk stance came up on another website, and it was intriguing to learn that Jim has been a hawk for the Iraq war apparently since 9/12/01, well before the invasion was publicly conceived and commenced in 2003.

Link to Kunstler's blog, 9/2001

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')eptember 12, 2001
...Second, the people of Iraq should be warned to depart their capital city, Baghdad, which should then be completely destroyed. The nation of Israel should begin immediately the deportation of Palestinians from the West Bank to the Kingdom of Jordan. The people of Gaza Strip should be transported to Egypt, and the Gaza incorporated into the state of Israel.

[eastbay]

I believe he's simply looking after the interests of his people; Israel. It's an entirely natural thing for someone to do.

I'm sure many here would feel the same if their (people's) nation was threatened.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Well said, and I admire the restraint and sagacity. Let's face it though, reason can't win out on this one. It's a taste of the future. Nothing is going to get better, it's all going to get worse.

[Liamj]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '.').Maybe some of you knew this, maybe all, I don't know. It's just...interesting...

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '
')
Maybe some of you knew this, maybe all, I don't know. It's just...interesting...

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '
')
Maybe some of you knew this, maybe all, I don't know. It's just...interesting...

[PrairieMule]

I think you really picked up on something my friend. I think he does show his frustration in Chapter 3 with the amount of time and treasure invested in the Middle East. On the flip side, which is the bigger eyesore: a bomb crater in Baghdad created by a F-16 or the vinyl sided TacoBell/KFC that is later built on top of it? Doesn't matter what side of the war you are on, everyone understands that both are by-products of the spread of democracy.

That alone violates what I perceive as Kunstler's first law:Thou shalt not piss away any more resources because we are living on borrowed time..

[PenultimateManStanding]

The War is on and will continue right into the post peak era. It will get much hotter before it ever cools off. Kunstler is a realist. There are lots of propaganda games going on, but The War is here and just getting started. I can't say that I know what is really going on about resources and religious wars and democracy and permanent military bases in Iraq and all that. It's pretty obvious that the War is on, though. Watch for political rough waters ahead. The country is fractious and the mood is brittle.

[eastbay]

To be more accurate, after the word, 'Israel', I should have added:

'... regardless of the financial and political cost to the US and the needless waste of American and Iraqi lives.'

[MacG]

Kunstler is a propellerhead. An entertaining propellerhead but nevertheless. Use the WayBack Machine to see what he wrote in anticipation of Y2K, and then ask yourself how far you would trust his prophetic powers on other issues.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', 'K')unstler is a propellerhead. An entertaining propellerhead but nevertheless. Use the WayBack Machine to see what he wrote in anticipation of Y2K, and then ask yourself how far you would trust his prophetic powers on other issues.

[MacG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', 'K')unstler is a propellerhead. An entertaining propellerhead but nevertheless. Use the WayBack Machine to see what he wrote in anticipation of Y2K, and then ask yourself how far you would trust his prophetic powers on other issues.

[Liamj]

I agree MacG. HK is colourful, entertaining, and absent of real content. His constant blaming of xyz just regresses his audience to teenagers with too-poor parents. Thanks, but 'democracy' does that for me already.

More war might be inevitable, but that doesn't make it smart. HK pushing it demonstrates the guy can't add up or learn a new trick (he already knew how to jump on a bandwagon), and both are suicidal failings at this point in history.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MacG', '
')Kunstlers constant nagging about the discomforts of modern life is horrible. The latest blog entry where he complain over delayed flights make him look like a spoiled brat with severe PMS. Dont like the airplane? Well, get walking for heavens sake!

[greenworm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ure mac, it really is nice to know that there is nothing to fear. I found a new supermarket called "Pancho Villa's" with lower prices. Gas prices are coming down too. Everything is going to be fine.

[furrydog]

Here's another piece by Kunstler linking cheap oil and NASCAR.

Cheap Oil Is Over: Kiss the Gas Guzzling NASCAR Era Goodbye

By James Howard Kunstler, Chelsea Green Publishing. Posted March 11, 2008.

A suburban nation of snowmobilers, dirtbikers and NASCAR races -- all of it was made possible by the one-time blessing of cheap oil.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/79282/

[killJOY]

After reading this, I'm now convinced Kunstler is the worst asshole possible to cite as an advocate for peak oil awareness.

Take time to read the comments section. Amid the "abiogenic" oil comments and other crap are some very, very pointed criticisms of Kunstler's elitism, false claims, lack of compassion, idiotic correlations, and art-fag chauvinism.

He is the only "critic" whose repetitious blab is mindlessly reproduced without a single fact-check or verifying link.

That I can agree with about 50% of what he says only makes his crackpot vision of America all the more galling.

I hope, when the shit hits the fan, some bubba knocks on Kunstler's door and eats his fat ass.

By the way:

The liberal antidote for Kunstler-itis is Joe Bageant.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('killJOY', 'T')hat I can agree with about 50% of what he says only makes his crackpot vision of America all the more galling.

I hope, when the shit hits the fan, some bubba knocks on Kunstler's door and eats his fat ass.

[killJOY]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ehe, yeah his vision of the walkable new urbanism stuff leaves me cold as it doesn't really fit at all with the issues in the west. His experience seems to be all east coast elitist.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')harles Bensinger, co-founder of Renewable Energy Partners of New Mexico, describes Kunstler's views as "fashionably fear-mongering" and uninformed regarding the potential of renewable energy, biofuels, energy efficiency and smart-growth policies to eliminate the need for fossil fuels. Contrarily, Paul Salopek of The Chicago Tribune finds that, "Kunstler has plotted energy starvation to its logical extremes" and points to the US Department of Energy Hirsch report as drawing similar conclusions while David Ehrenfeld writing for American Scientist sees Kunstler delivering a "powerful integration of science, technology, economics, finance, international politics and social change" with a "lengthy discussion of the alternatives to cheap oil."

Kunstler, who majored in Theater at college and has no formal training in the fields in which he prognosticates, made similar predictions for Y2K as he makes for peak oil. Kunstler responds to this criticism by saying that a Y2K catastrophe was averted by the hundreds of billions of dollars that were spent fixing the problem, a lot of it in secret, he claims.

In June 2005 and again in early 2006, Kunstler predicted that the Dow would crash to 4,000 by the end of the year. The Dow in fact reached a new peak by 2007. In his predictions for 2007, however, Kunstler admitted his mistake stating "Let's get this out of the way up front: the worst call I made last year was for the Dow to crumble down to 4000 when, in fact, it melted up to a new all-time record high of about 12,500. The reason we saw this, in my opinion, was that inertia combined with sheer luck to keep the finance sector decoupled from reality…". He also predicted, however, that in 2006 the United States housing bubble would start to deflate, which appears to be borne out by latest data. However, unlike Kunstler's Dow predictions, which were uniquely his, the bursting of the United States housing bubble was widely forecast before Kunstler began discussing it.