[Jack]

You didn't hurt my feelings - but your posts are generally a lot better than the earlier example. I'm glad to see the real Pretorian is back.

As for my past, and whether I've ever stepped on a cockroach or not...that will remain my business.

88

[holmes]

ok ok it is going downhill NOW! I know I know I am trying to keep it positive a wee bit that all...

[Denny]

Its like a depression has America in its grip. Sometimes, the harder you think, the worse it seems. Sometimes you just have to take each day as it comes, work hard and trust in God's providence.

Let's take stock of things. Even with a future of lowered energy consumption, there are so many opportunities open to America, far more than exist in the rest of the world. Let's just look at a few of the key elements of energy usage - food, transport and space heating.

In transport, there are so many off the shelf potentials to maintain the ability to get from point A to point B, such as the train and the bus. Less convenient, but that is not really so bad. Materials can be hauled be rail instead of by truck the entire distance, and even by water. If your new Dell computer took two weeks to get to you instead of five days, is that a disaster? If your next trip from New York to Chicago was by train, taking 16 hours, vs. a 3 hour plane trip, what is the real consequence? Even pro sports players used to do that and play a game on the day of arrival. Ther are so many alternative energy potentials to fuel a train vs. a motor car or an airlane. In essence, France powers most of its inter city railway fleet indirectly by nuclear power.

Now, look at food. America remains a bread basket to the world, exporting more crops than it imports by far. Let's say with increasing energy costs, beef and pork become much more expensive as the grain consumed to make meat in the amounts we consume today will mke it too pricey for two or three meals a day. Well, its not a big deal to cut down on meat. And, healthier for most of us. I can foresee McDonald's sizzling eggplant salsa in the offing. Mayye be won't be able to afford fresh oranges in winter or lettuce either. Well, there is still orange juice, shipped by train, or cabbage which can be grown and stored locally in most of the midwest or northern parts of America.

Lets look at space heating. We take it for granted that our homes should be warm enough in winter to wear a shirt and to sleep in cotton pajamas. But, historically we are offbase. Fleece underwear with a sweater over it was common, along with nightcaps at bedtime. Folks did not wear those things in our grandparents time to look funky. And, just how much more energy goes into space cooling? But there are novel ways to accomplish this at a small fraction of energy use, such as Toronto's lakewater heat exchange system. Or, we can live with higher temperatures, again, just as our grandparents did. I don't think they were depressed due to the heat, as they knew nothing better.

So, there are all kinds of "elastic" ways to really cut the energy and carbon footprint. None of these things precludes great advances in the arts, science and medicine. America's universities still have the largest reserve of tomorrow's solution providers of any place in the world.

As for our kids, will their futures really be compromised becuase they may never know the thrill of a hot-rodded Chev 427, with positrac?

Last of all, some (but not extreme) adversity may well bring about a new social cohesiveness. It was the Great Depression which fostered some sense of national sharing in the form of unions, major public works and social security. Americans are among the most generous people anywhere.

[Heineken]

Public transportation by its very design cannot possibly serve America as it has been built. Kunstler, who knows a lot about this particular subject, has made that convincingly and painfully clear. Americans simply cannot afford to strip their country to the ground and rebuild it around public transportation. Yes, there will be much more reliance on public transport in the future, but vast developed areas of the country will have to be abandoned and that means depression and ruin.

Food production in the US is showing clear signs of peaking and declining. There are many threats, esp. from global warming but also from soaring oil and NG costs, loss of irreplaceable topsoil, and aquifer depletion. I'd say the food future looks especially bleak. Yes, more people will take up gardening, but mass mechanized agriculture is a doomed dinosaur and that means lots of people are going to die.

I don't think the American people are endowed with any particular grit that's going to save them. Maybe long ago, but no longer. The vast majority of Americans are soft, fat, docile, and half asleep. Sitting ducks.

Denny, I appreciate your optimism but I suspect there is very little realistic basis for it.

[the_red_pill]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Byron100', '$')85 oil. Collapsing USD. War and rumors of war in the Middle East. Housing prices falling like a rock, nationwide. The greatest drought ever recorded in the Southeast. Food stocks rapidly dwindling towards zero.

And for most of us in this vast nation called the USA just go on our merry way, with not a clue in the world. Perhaps that's for the best. I do want to enjoy what little "quality time" I have left, after all. Hitting the highways, visiting family. Going for a walk in the woods while it's still safe. Being able to go out for a good meal. Talking a trip to the mountains with friends. Ahh, to be able to take a nice, refreshing shower and putting clean clothes on each day...what luxury!

I know to enjoy these things to the fullest, as they won't be around much longer. For these are the last days of a dying nation and a dying era, and time is running short. Once an abstract concept, Doom is now beating down the front door, the jamb already splintering. Yes, I know it won't be much longer now.

So the time comes to say the Long Goodbye. To remember the good times, idyllic days gone by. Soon, it will be time to close the book on the greatest nation / empire / civilization / era the world has ever known, and probably will ever know for all time. What will come next, no one knows, but one thing I do know, that this time, this era, this nation called the United States of America and all the things we've become will soon be no more.

I shed a tear for the rains that never come, I weep for the failing economy which will never recover in all the years to come, I mourn for all those who are sacrificing their lives for a war that knows no end. I cry for the proud flag, 13 stripes, 50 stars, red white and blue, that will someday be no more.

And yet each day that goes by is one less day to enjoy. I know I must savor what little time is left, for once it's gone, it's gone forever.

I leave you with this, a quote from a tombstone that I photographed this past weekend:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')emember friends as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I,
As I am now, you too shall be,
Prepare for death and follow me.

[kadoomsoon]

So long, and thanks for all the fish!
get going.
Dolphins, one and all, it's time to get ready,
head 'em up
move em out.