<DrumBeat: November 6, 2008 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: November 7, 2008>

119 comments on The Immediate Fuel Supply - Thoughts for a New Administration

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darwinsdog on November 6, 2008 - 11:24am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

Shred your credit & debit cards. Cash transactions only. Horde silver dollars, if you can find them. Don't leave an electronic trail of your transactions. Don't enrich financial parasites by participating in their scams. Don't borrow or lend. Do honest labor that does minimal harm, if any, to your local ecosystem & to the biosphere at large. Give up your computer & other electronic devices. Disdain the ICE. Learn manual skills. Eat low on the food chain. Lose weight. Give up your Joneses. Make yourself useful. Shut up... Otherwise, when the time comes, you won't even be any good as farm labor. You will starve.

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puhkawn on November 6, 2008 - 12:04pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hmmm, having a little trouble giving up your computer I see. Help us out here unplug it.

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darwinsdog on November 6, 2008 - 12:28pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I have unplugged it. I gave up the landline, DSL & the internet at home. Here at work they provide the damn thing for me. Killing frost came on Oct. 12. The irrigation water is off & the weeds are dead, so I have nothing better to do these days than sit here & read nonsense such as your mindless post. It sucks but for the time being I need the paycheck. I'd rather be home cutting firewood for next winter. Sorry if my truth-speaking makes you feel defensive.

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Willem Verkerk on November 6, 2008 - 12:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"Do honest labor"

vs

"I have nothing better to do these days than sit here & read nonsense such as your mindless post. It sucks but for the time being I need the paycheck"

???

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darwinsdog on November 6, 2008 - 12:45pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I agree. Number crunching doesn't constitute "honest labor." But it's what they pay me to do at this time of year. Don't blame me that we live in an insane society.

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thomas deplume on November 6, 2008 - 3:01pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You are being paid to read and post on the Drum!!! How can I get in on the action?

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darwinsdog on November 6, 2008 - 3:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Work for the government. ;)

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airdale on November 6, 2008 - 3:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

1. Reduce our tax burden.

"Work for the government." So I take it you work for the guv?

You said you had nothing better to do but sit and read and post.

So reduce our debt. Quit.

I once contracted to the government. The civil servants did nothing but watch the contractors do all the work..including what the CS were supposed to be doing.

I learned the lesson well. I quit.

Airdale

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SacredCowTipper on November 6, 2008 - 3:57pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I'll hire you, but you're on the same compensation plan I've got ... and you're free to read all the blogs you want :-)

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Luke on November 6, 2008 - 3:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I agree. Number crunching doesn't constitute "honest labor." But it's what they pay me to do at this time of year. Don't blame me that we live in an insane society.

How about using your experience, education, and analytical abilities to help others in exchange for a fee? That sounds like honest work to me. Maybe not Labor, but certainly Work that can be traded for goods and services under terms where everyone goes home happy.

Maybe that's just me, though.

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darwinsdog on November 6, 2008 - 4:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

How about using your experience, education, and analytical abilities to help others in exchange for a fee?

I taught for many years, at several different levels and quite frankly, I burned out on it. The last thing I want to do at this point in my life is go back in the classroom. I discourage young people from seeking an academic education these days. My counsel to any teen or young adult is to apprentice him- or herself to a blacksmith or experienced farmer, and learn something useful rather than pursuing a diploma which will soon be good for nothing more than asswipe.

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FMagyar on November 6, 2008 - 8:51pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Ok, chuck the MBA diploma then but surely art, literature, history, music, philosophy, mathematics and science will still need to taught and someone will have to teach these subjects, along with basic survival skills such as farming, animal husbandry, carpentry, black smithing etc.. etc..

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airdale on November 6, 2008 - 9:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Why?....I find that most of our real honest culture has gone down the rabbit hole with Ipods,boomboxes and other noise makers. Hard to find good authors these days. A few are still around but few. Check the local theaters for some really sad noxious flicks.

Oh..say how about that last Chuckie movie or another Texas Chain Saw movie?

I used to go to the movies quite often. Haven't been in a couple months now. Its a wasteland. For music I have to go back to Bluegrass. Todays country is morphed into bimbos doing bumps and grinds and the Dixie Chicks. Real culture. Speaks to the inner man then!

When was there last a real philosopher? Only Robert Pirsig comes to mind.

Plenty of those who teach philosophy but no philosophers.

Airdale

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jokuhl on November 7, 2008 - 1:45pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Airdale;
Tend to agree.. but I gave myself a rare 'movie night' this week and went to see Angelina Jolie in 'Changeling'.. which I thought would be a wierd but tolerable Sci-Fi/Horror piece.. it's what I get for sometimes going in blind to a movie.. but it's a REAL FILM! By God, someone made a real movie (Clint Eastwood, as it happens), and nobody told me! Check it out if you get the hankering for some decent storytelling. It's not soft or light, by any means.. it's the guy who made 'Unforgiven', after all.

Bob

all week I've been muttering, 'A man's gotta know his limitations..'

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airdale on November 6, 2008 - 9:26pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Ahhh...we agree on this but there is a big problem here.

There aren't that many blacksmiths. I know for I am one.
I am also a farmer and they don't usually take apprentices and also they are farming in a different mode than the survival mode. In fact they are creating much of the situation that is happening.

Most farmers don't know how to raise table food. You won't get anywhere learning to drive a combine or a planter. Most farmers deplete the soil instead of building it up. yada yada yada...

Also you may notice that massive amounts of our scrap iron and other metals seem to be going to China. Now that scrap iron has fell to $60/ton is might slow down however this is what a lot of blacksmiths utilize,scrap metals. Scavengers are making it hard for smithys.

I have to go scrounge and find that its disappearing rapidly. Old farm implements as well. Stuff we really need to stay here.

Airdale

Airdale

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Don in Maine on November 7, 2008 - 4:22am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

My sat modem and laptop draw a combined total of 20 watts. Not to hard to generate right here. No wired infrastructure to fail. It's there if you look for it. So many here complain, yet want BAU, there is a different way and it's not really all that hard.

Don in Maine

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119 comments on The Immediate Fuel Supply - Thoughts for a New Administration

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