157 comments on A Critique of the 2006 EIA International Energy Outlook
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GAIA Host Collective
- The world is a better place because it is prepared to start a global nuclear war on 3 minutes notice...
- The "corner has been turned" in Iraq
- It's more important to preserve Corp. property rights than to treat 20,000,000 + people with AIDS who can't afford drugs
- It's a very bad idea to provide information about effective means of birth control and STD prevention to the worlds poor.
- It ought to be easier for a straight guy to aquire a machine gun than for a gay guy to aquire a marraige certificate
So, really, how much scarier could it get?By way of analogy: If I were to be walking down the street and see a dog come running towards me foaming at the mouth I suspect I would be scared, and with good reason. It would, on the other hand be both silly and unhelpful to feel hatred towards the dog.
Having fear i.e. being scared of something, is often adaptive behaviour in the evolutionary sense of the word, whereas being in a space where fear engenders hate can be quite maladaptive.
Hope this clarifies my position for you.
You hate him for his freedom.
-----------------------------
^^^^^^^ Sarcasm Alert ^^^^^^^
Whoever the Pres. of America is there will be a guy following him around for the entirty of his term with "the football" (The gadget that starts world war 3). Thus only an agent of intense evil can agree without reservation to be the President of the U.S., but more to the point Americans have collectivly embodied evil in their state structure because it contains the football carrier. To the extent that they are not working to dismantle this structure they too are agencies of evil in that they enable it at the least through their inaction.
Many of the things discussed here have echos of this: food vs feed stock for biofuel, environmental impacts such as Global Warming, "Demand distruction" in the global south etc.
We really need to start owning the evil inherent in the ways we consider going on these things if they are worthy things for consideration by human beings, in my opinion.
Please keep in mind that Bush has very low approval ratings, so while you(we) may not like him I don't think it fair to lump us all into a shitty box.
It would appear also that there are alot of people trying to get into the US. It would appear that they do not agree with you.
Bad isn't bad except by comparison, look at the opertunity that doesn't exist elsewhere.
Nonsense. Bush IS the problem with America. Polling throughout the free world prior to Bush were very positive; polling after Bush and his illegal invasion of Iraq became overwhemingly negative. That's a fact.
Delusional said:
Everything is known by comparison, Delusional. Mobility is the norm now. Talented people from say, Bosnia (oops, a Muslim world), or India or VietNam or S.Africa, or wherever, are looking to upgrade. Don't take it as a compliment that people are still coming here - many are also going to quality destinations like Australia, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Hong Kong, Bejing. Although I don't have a cite at the ready, there is evidence that the US under Bush and Cheney have persuaded many bright scientist around the world to seek opporunities elsewhere. Gresham's Law says bad money drives good money out of circulation (eg. silver coins are now hoarded). A corollary suggests bad leaders drive good human capital out of the country.
I don't think Tom meant that as a hit on all Americans, but rather as a general polemic on the policies adopted by the US government (which presumably acts in the name of the American Public,) and the elite that determine those policies. Capitalism is taken to be democratic, while it is one of the most undemocratic means of governance.
You may find "The Strange Language of Capitalism" an interesting read.
Caesar always says his legions are there to bring peace and justice. He just doesn't mention that he has to make desert in order to do so.
I guess it is pointless to rant about it, but IMO we need to take a deeper look at the brainwashing that is in place. For me it poses much bigger long-term dangers than the depletion of hydrocarbons, which in other circumstances would not present such a huge problem by itself.
Aldous Huxley wrote a book back in the mid sixties called the Witches Of Loudon, which was about a historical demonic possession frenzy in France in about the 13th or 14th century.
In part of his analyses he examined the madness of crowds and how they are manipulated, and even more particularily how nationalism can become a false religeon. He asserted that this worship of the state was the distruction of the Greek democracy in the Peleponesian wars. I believe we are at that state in the US now, with such inanities as a "flag burning amendment" and the number of people that worship the state and all its actions.
We have, through our own laziness, allowed a bunch of totalitarians to take over in Washington and they will stop at nothing to retain power. This obfustication about crude supplies is just today's manifestation. The automobile industry in America cannot admit that their model of how to run transportation is not working. I mean really, 400HP SUV's flying down the Highway at 80 MPH, or sitting motors reving in a 500 foot swath of concrete and steel polluting the atmosphere.The major gasoline marketers and refiners are just as delusional, because if they admit even to themselves that our hydrocarbon addiction is bankrupting us and their companies will not survive it is emotionaly intolerable and will cause the stocks to decline as investor's realise that Exxon and Shell and Chevron are like the tobacco industry-doomed and only worth the dividends.
Both political parties are to blame, they are whore to the almighty dollar. And I'm sure I'll get nailed for this anti-american sentiment, but the Emperor has no clothes!
For example-- I build a barn and my neighbor helps me for free. he then builds a barn. If i don't help him he will never (probably ) help me again. If I do help him he will most likely help me again in the future.
so, I'm a politican, I want money for election. someone gives me $ . There is legislation that affect thier interests. They want my help. What do you think is going to happen?
It sounds better with a neighbor and his barn but the process is the same.
So, unless we get rid of private funding of campaigns this will continue in all it's differnt forms such as a shitty report in an effort maintain the status que for whoever gave to the election.
Marshall McCluhan made the point about 1970 that the medium is the message. Amost all broadcast and print media exist to sell commercials, for gasoline refiners and marketers and car dealers. The media whips up artificial fear and anger to keep us hooked into watching and avoids anything that offends any advertisers. They want every problem and every solution to be reduced to a 30 second intervel and shy away from any question or solution with a more complexity. We need to break up these media conglomerates and limit their size or our republic will continue to get worse.
But thank God for the internet, or maybe Al Gore. It enables people to communicate and self publish.
The attitudes of American do allow, even foster, evil.
An example that's really hit home with me is the recent realization that my older sister is, in fact, the embodiment of pure evil. How did I come to this realization? Well, it starts with the iPod. I forwarded her the article about the working conditions of the Chinese slaves who make the iPod, as a "whatta ya know" sort of thing, as she'd been considering getting one. She took that as an attack. You see, in the US, you either agree with a person completely and say so, or if you don't agree completely you still say you do, since anything but that is considered an attack. I had to do a lot of "patching up" after sending her that article, believe me! Well, the ensuing conversation resulted in her admitting her belief that the overriding principle in life is Convenience. Basically, everything to her, the meaning of life, is Convenience.
If you think about that, that is really the very core of evil. She, a prep-school kid who should have had some contact with the ideas of estheticism, (sp?) the self-sacrifices of many historical figures from Jesus to Gautama to Tolstoy, has as her core belief that, That Which Is Good Is That Which Is Convenient. This is the attitude of the Nazis who found it most convenient to work the Jews to death and burn 'em rather than at least send them to Madegascar, of the US which found it most convenient to nuke two Japanese cities rather than sacrifice more troops, your average limousine lib who sends in the convenient Red Cross payment in the mail while ignoring the poor and desperate in their own town, and every soldier, everywhere, every time, who found it more convenient to kill than to ask questions.
I guess Jello Biafra put it best, "Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death", in the title of one of his songs. That's the core of American culture.
Not sure if Huxley coverd this in his book? but I know he was right into that sort of stuff...
It is quite difficult to acquire a machine gun in the U.S. (i.e. a full-automatic weapon). A semi-automatic weapon, however, is much easier. However, as with all things in our life, these weapons are regulated. What's next? Regulating knives? I'm all for limited government. Tell you what - when the government stops regulating my firearms, then it can also stop regulating marriage.