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53 comments on A Discussion of Friedman's "Gas Pump Geopolitics"

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IndyDoug on April 30, 2006 - 2:58pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
Fiendman says nothing about peak oil or oil depletion. Why does the big media keep peak oil in the closet?
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totoneila on April 30, 2006 - 3:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Hello IndyDoug,

Peakoil will Milgov & MSM forcibly shoved down everyone's throat until we are 24/7 choking on it when TPTB declare martial law and reinstall the Draft.  Until then, unless the general public quickly overcomes denial [not likely], we are headed to the '3 Days of the Condor' scenario and the 'Nuke their Ass--I want Gas' mindset.  Mark my words.

From AngryChimp's post at the Yahoo energy forum, AlasBabylon:

1.4mb PDF
http://tinyurl.com/poca3

Source (html):
http://tinyurl.com/lp2bf

 What does America prefer?

"Nuke their Ass--I want Gas"        HUMMER bumper-sticker

or "No Thanks--I like Empty Tanks"  bicycle bumper-sticker

From the movie,"3 Days of the Condor":
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[Turner]: Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?

[Higgins]: No. It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In 10 or 15 years-- food, plutonium, and maybe even sooner. What do you think the people are going to want us to do then?

[Turner]: Ask them.

[Higgins]: Now now. Then. Ask them when they're running out. Ask them when there's no heat and they're cold. Ask them when their engines stop. Ask them when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. Want to know something? They won't want us to ask them. THEY'LL WANT US TO GET IT FOR THEM.
---------------------

"We see the rising floodwaters, secretly working to make the others drown first".

I would hope we prefer Voluntary Population Control & Powerdown instead.

Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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fleam on April 30, 2006 - 5:50pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I have got to see that movie. All I know about it is, it was Kevin Mitnick's favorite movie when he was hacking, hence his hacker name, "Condor".
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Donal on April 30, 2006 - 6:12pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
It was a good movie, but it is funny that the book was Six Days of the Condor.
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AngryChimp on April 30, 2006 - 6:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
This has more "impact"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUz_JHeM59M

==AC

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totoneila on April 30, 2006 - 7:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Big Thanks for posting this, AC--I am glad you are more computer savvy than I am.  Seeing this film segment scares the Hell out of me because it was made so long ago, yet seems to exactly predict what lies ahead as we go postPeak!

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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Alaskan Pete on April 30, 2006 - 8:30pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Bob, you want prescient and scary, watch the opening 5 minutes of "The Road Warrior"...the old second part installment of the Mel Gibson "Mad Max" trilogy. It starts with newsreel style clips of the fall of civilization/global war as oil supplies dry up. Great film too, if you enjoy action movies.
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pstarr on May 1, 2006 - 12:20am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
As i recall the very next scene has the protanganist, (notice I don't call him the "hero") a young mel gibson, fighting and killing for a rusty hubcap's worth of gasoline. very prophetic. The entire movie concerns a oil-tanker load of  . . . sand
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beggar on April 30, 2006 - 3:43pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
In the 2,002 Pre-Iraq-Invasion article, TF is expostulating from the typically "dumb-and-dumber" egocentric perspective our media so carefully cultivates.

"Gosh, Golly, Gee Whiz -- will we see oil at six bucks a barrel or at 60 bucks a barrel if we invade?  Can we wreck OPEC and cause revolutions from Iran to Venezuela so that we can install obediant puppets in those places which happen to have our oil under their ground?"

Perhaps it does some good to look back to the days before "Shock and Awe" to see how the Neo-Con thinking was rationalizing every possibility strictly in terms of oil and how we could get it cheap and dirty.

"Peak Oil?  Global Climate change?  What has that to do with me and my bigger and better SUV, McMansion, and the promise that the age of 60 is 'the new 30' and so I have years to of nothing more than more and better orgasms between now and my 120th birthday....by then, 120 will be 'the new 30' and I'll live another 120 years with the same expectations, only softer skin and an even bigger and better SUV, flying to a senior vacation colony ("Bushville Grande" don't you know) on Mars on weekends..."

Ooops. Sorry to be so cynical.

What does TF say today?  That the stock market is on a permanent, eternal upward swing?  That real estate is an investor's bargain?  That gold is fun to have lying about the house in piles?  Or that he keeps a stash of gold coins in the change drawer of his new hybrid Lexus?

Ooops.  There I go again.

The subtext of all American politics and media narrative today is this:  how in the Hell can we kill and intimidate more people through brutal wars so that no one will stand between us and our next fix of petroleum.

That is it.  Bottom line.  "I want my oil, and I want it now, and I want it cheap!  Where's my dealer!  Where's my oil!"

Ooops.  There I go again.

A few glitches in the system have allowed the term "peak oil" to be uttered seriously lately.  Does that mean we are passed the stage where they laugh at or hate those who take peak oil seriously, or are we still getting to the "laughing at" and "fighting with" stage?

Are we anywhere near the stage of talking about nthe reality of resource depletion, of peaceful allocation of resources?

Are we to the point yet that people accept that global climate change is also an issue, and that we must take that into account as we deal with peak oil?

Imagine the USA this summer if gas gets to five bucks a gallon.  There are too many guns on the street.  There are still too many racial tensions and class divisions.  Even five bucks a gallon will turn us on our heads.

TF, what are you thinking about, now?  If we bomb the Hell out of Iran, maybe we will see revolutions from the UAE to Venezuela...again?

Maybe we will see six-dollar-a-barrel oil again, if we only bomb Iran?  How about $200.00 a barrel oil?

Roll the dice and see what happens...again?

--even so, pedaling for peace and ecojustice -- Gary (beggar)

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fleam on April 30, 2006 - 5:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Beggar I think we're going to see $4 this summer and that will be interesting enough.
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costa rica Johns on April 30, 2006 - 10:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Awesome post there beggar. Couldn't have said it better.
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Brother Kornhoer on April 30, 2006 - 11:00pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I remember TF writing in the last year or so about how he realized before the war that it was going to happen, that the train was pulling out of the station, and he jumped on the bandwagon (sorry for the mixed metaphor) so as to be in a position to promote his idea of the war transforming the Middle East, which closely paralleled the NeoCons' ideas.    He then went on to blame the whole debacle that resulted on the NeoCons' blotched implementation of the war.....buzzz, wrong answer, Tom, it wasn't a tactical mistake or even thousands of tactical mistakes but a huge strategic mistake from the get-go, the damaging results of which will play out for the next 15 years, if not longer.
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