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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (202171)	12/26/2010 12:10:56 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 361804

They haven't figured out it takes energy to grow, and world energy cannot be increased in the foreseeable future, meaning within 25 years. Takes a lot of windmills to replace one oil well, and we are bidding against everybody else for that oil. It's a zero-sum game. Chindia's, actually BRIC's growth is coming out of Europe's and our share of the pie. Friedman gets it; Krugman needs to spend an hour a day with him until he dies, too. What Friedman knows, and Krugman doesn't, is that this started that day in Dec, '05, when a construction worker in Atlanta pawned his tools to buy gas to go to work, where he discovered he had no tools for the job.

To: koan who wrote (202171)	12/26/2010 5:10:56 PM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 361804

DECEMBER 26, 2010 Winter Weather Expected to Dominate Conversations of Boring People Statements of the Obvious Pound the Northeast NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) - Tedious observations about the severe winter weather are expected to dominate the conversations of uninteresting people for the next 24 to 48 hours, boredom experts warned today. With blizzard conditions blanketing the Northeast, a powerful front of mind-numbing weather-related banter is expected to pound the Eastern Seaboard from Sunday into Monday, with statements of the obvious stretching from the Carolinas to New England. "Blizzards like this are when boring people really come alive, unfortunately," said Dr. Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota's Meteorology Institute. "I would advise everyone to stay inside and avoid all contact with dull individuals unless it's an absolute emergency." Tracy Klugian, 57, a prominent bore from Cincinnati, Ohio, said that she planned to take a break from her scrapbooking hobby to post Facebook updates about the weather on an hourly basis. "I live for days like this," said Ms. Klugian. "I've already said 'so much for global warming' ten times today." Ms. Klugian said she was spending the afternoon calling friends and relatives "to ask if it's cold enough for them." "I sure have a lot to say about this snow and everything," she said. "I can't wait until somebody picks up."

To: koan who wrote (202171)	12/27/2010 12:31:16 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361804

A Drum post amazon.com. I read this book a few days ago and recommend it to you. Is it the best written book out there...no, but it has many ideas and themes that would be familiar to TOD readers/members. The book depicts a U.S. of 2045 where science is roundly disdained, and to get a decent science/math/engineering education one must go overseas or go to exclusive institutions where foreigners can teach you. Schools/institution which teach the the theory of evolution must be guarded to prevent domestic terrorist attacks, mainly from ultra-fundamentalist religious groups. Many new religious cults are thriving, including two competing sects which each predict the coming apocalypse: One in 2054 and one in 2058, and the sects are practically at war with each other. Wal-Mart has sold most of its stores to these new charismatic mega-churches and profits from thsi rental activity...as the demand for big-box stores has collapsed due to the demise of the car and the demise of people's disposable incomes. There are so many themes discussed on TOD that are prevalent in this novel that I would have thought it was written by one of the TOD members/readers: - Detrimental increases in population - the demise of the private car - the increased use of (very crowded and hot) rail service - Desertification and other negative outcomes from human-induced climate change - The desertion of the suburbs and movement of people into cities where walking, rickshaws, 'took-tooks), etc are the way to get around. - The increasing divide between the rich and everyone else; the down-slope of the so-called 'Middle class' and the great increase in poverty, - Sub-division of McMansions to hold three or four families where one once lived - Sub-division of lots with yards to squeeze in 6-story apartment buildings between homes. - Mass migration from the SouthWest and SoCal to places such as Chicago and Wisconsin (where it is now regularly in the high 90s (F) in May. - Governments at all levels wither and become from men for eight huge conglomerates which run the World from three ultra-swank islands (one in the Caribbean, one in the Med, and one in SE Asia) - Rampant un-employment results in laws prohibiting more than one person in a household from working, and mandating minimum numbers of employees in establishments, in order to satve off riots which occurred back in the 2020s-2030s. - Hotels which charge the guest for each toilet flush and each drop of water used in the shower, etc due to shortages of water - Everyone must have home water purification units...tap water is undrinkable... - The U.S is depicted as what we would now characterize as a third-world country, and many undeveloped areas in Africa and elsewhere have become nightmare zones, news from which is censored from the 'developed world'. An interesting and disturbing take on societal collapse... Heisenberg on December 26, 2010 - 2:21pm