[Dvanharn]

I don't have much hope for rational and logical reactions to peak oil.

It seems that a dreadfully large percentage of my fellow Americans are woefully ignorant about who attacked the towers on 9/11 (it was mostly Arabs, and no Iraqis), why we invaded Iraq, the basis for international fiat money,the danger of a dollar crash, etc., etc. There is an insane amount of national attention devoted to the "drama" of the entire U.S. Government becoming involved in a desperate effort to keep alive a single vegetative woman alive, while same bunch of politicians attempt to lower the quality of life for millions of others. America is obsessed with Michael Jackson's trial, Scott Peterson's sentencing, who's screwing who in Hollywood, and a thousand other things that aren't important to society as a whole, while that very society is heading towards a cliff. These factors are part of a collective insanity at this point human history scares the crap out of me.

I am desperately trying to cash out and free myself from debt in the next few months. I want to put my entire portfolio into gold and other recession/depression resistant investments. I don't want to buy property at today;s prices and watch the value plummet. I hope to buy property for cash AFTER the prices tumble. I hope to provide the opportunity for a younger family to live on and farm my property (with what help my gimpy old knees and back will provide) in return for their earning of equity in it.

I feel that these are important times to prepare for the worst. If I am wrong, little is lost. If I am right, I may be my family's only hope for a decent, but hard life. I would rather take a chance on becoming a laughingstock rather than face likely misery because of false optimism.

So as America becomes aware of the reality of peakoil and the ramifications of expensive energy - and begins to react, I fear that little will be done in any direction that can truly help us as a society deal with the situation. There are imbeciles, even here at this forum, who accuse people like me of "wanting" catatastrophe to occur. I pray to God that disaster will not occur, and I certainly do not "want it to happen." I just see little hope of avoiding it. I hope that I can find comunity support and cooperation that will help some of us survive so our children and grandchildren wil have even a remote chance at a decent life.

Dave

[Mercani]

What will the panicking crowd do in America?

Is there going to be a sudden increase in crime?

Is there gonna be riots?

[Possum]

I am definitely feeling panicked with oil prices spiking and OPEC beginning to look like frightened deer in the headlights....

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')I feel that these are important times to prepare for the worst. If I am wrong, little is lost. If I am right, I may be my family's only hope for a decent, but hard life. I would rather take a chance on becoming a laughingstock rather than face likely misery because of false optimism.

[Aaron]

Folks,

The little button above the posting window that says URL can be used to add links without giant URL's forcing sideways scrolling.

[rerere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Dvanharn', 'I')t seems that a dreadfully large percentage of my fellow Americans are woefully ignorant about who attacked the towers on 9/11

[stu]

Gas prices pass $2.07, another high

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/21/news/ec ... /index.htm

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')asoline prices continued to charge into uncharted territory, hitting another record high Monday despite crude falling from all-time peaks, according to an AAA survey.

The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas rose to $2.072, according to AAA, the largest U.S. motorist organization formerly known as the American Automobile Association.

[rerere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Mercani', 'W')hat will the panicking crowd do in America?
Is there going to be a sudden increase in crime?
Is there gonna be riots?

[mindfarkk]

i dunno. to judge from online activity, i would have thought the election in 2004 would have been a massive blowout against bush. i would be wary of taking the temperature of american citizenry from bulletin board activity. not that the increasing frequency of oil-related topics isn't interesting in itself.

[FarmCat]

rerere wrote,

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ut 'they' won't see it as "PeakOil", they will 'see' it as high prices and won't be able to trackbackwards.

[rerere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mindfarkk', 'i') dunno. to judge from online activity, i would have thought the election in 2004 would have been a massive blowout against bush.

[shortonoil]

The real stuff will not hit the fan until the pseudo-Christian right wing discover that their direct connection to God, via der-shrub, is a sham.

[Olaf]

Giant freaking quote from NV

I've known about it for 8 months or so, have been mentally preparing and have even started making some physical preparations, but I must say, some of the recent developments have me a little nervous and unhinged. Perhaps not quite as mentally prepared as I thought, mostly because I figured there would be more time. Not even close to as prepared as I would like to be.

Olaf

[Leanan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')We may be blind to politics in America, but we understand money. We understand supply and demand, at least to the extent that we know tight supply causes prices to go up.

[FoxV]

I too was hoping for a bit more time for such things as Electric car developement starting back up, Insulating/Sealing my house, Paying off my debt and taking a chunk off my mortgage before my 5 year fixed rate expires (and intrest rates reach double digits).

Now that we stand inches away from hitting the fan (public sentiment can cause as much a crash as shortages). I think most of us are woefully unprepared. I don't even have savings to move into gold (or at least bonds).

In the end our Titanic economy is sinking and whether we go down screeming or calmly walk into the water we're all getting wet

btw, anybody been watching the "Who's online": 178 Guest, 80 Members
I think someone mentioned a while back that the crash is here when we reach 200 members online

[EnemyCombatant]

I think the government has 2 words for you people.

PATRIOT ACT

We must assume that the government knew this day would come and the likelihood of panic. Also note that the patriot act was being prepared even before 911.

You call him Gonzales I call him OBrien (1984) is our AJ while Chertoff (whose cousin penned that Popular Mechanics 911 article) is over our Dept of Homeland Security. The same one that was responsible for architecting the 'illegal' detainment of illegals after 911.

Not to mention Ashcroft's detention centers (I call them concentration camps).

Hey, they don't call me the EC for nothing.

The best way to fight this thing is to get the Patriot Act overturned in your local municipality. 100s have done so already. I believe we have to organize locally.

Now it should be easier than ever. There was a congressional hearing on peak oil, there are enumerous mainstream references to peak oil. It should be plausible to convince your community that there is a problem and they need to react. I believe a window has been thrown open but it will close soon.

Regards

[Licho]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Possum', 'I') am definitely feeling panicked with oil prices spiking and OPEC beginning to look like frightened deer in the headlights....

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')I feel that these are important times to prepare for the worst. If I am wrong, little is lost. If I am right, I may be my family's only hope for a decent, but hard life. I would rather take a chance on becoming a laughingstock rather than face likely misery because of false optimism.

[JoeW]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Olaf', '
')but I must say, some of the recent developments have me a little nervous and unhinged. Perhaps not quite as mentally prepared as I thought, mostly because I figured there would be more time.

[mistel]

I say snap out of it. I remember the mid 90's when the US deficit was going to cause the next collapse. I still have a small handbook that was printed by an advisory service that I subscribed to that showed how it was all supposed to happen. What really happened? Clinton raised taxes, the deficit became a surplus, and the economy boomed. I took this poor advice and sold a piece of investment property that I had, worst mistake I ever made.
Consider this, soybean oil trades on the CBOT for 22 cents a pound. That works out to about 35 cents a gallon. I'm pretty sure you can put straight soybean oil in a diesel. I know for a fact that you can put straight vegetable oil in a diesel, they do it in Europe where vege oil is cheaper than Dino Diesel.
Returns on in the stock market have been crap lately so many funds are buying commodities and pushing up all prices. Much of it is speculative and cyclical. look at the open interest for an oil contract then look at how many contracts actually get delivered on. It is a very small percentage.

[RockHind]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')
Consider this, soybean oil trades on the CBOT for 22 cents a pound. That works out to about 35 cents a gallon. I'm pretty sure you can put straight soybean oil in a diesel.

[drew]

I need more time to prepare; for what I'm not sure. The jury is still out here. A big recession will do a lot towards 'demand destruction'. ( a nice word, like collateral damage ) I wish I had less debt, and more money of course, and mostly wonder what I'll do for a job if the economy goes belly up. I would expect that the bank will still want its mortage payment, and the city will still want its taxes. I have some oilstocks, I guess I'll be holding them close to heart. Need more time, more time.....

Drew