Daily Kos

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    •  Actually, I haven't (4.00 / 34)

      But I'll add it to the list.

      Halfway through writing this, I got a charley horse in my leg so bad that it made my foot twist around, my knee come up to my chin, and left me screaming for ten solid minutes.  Then I threw up.  An hour later, it still feels like someone worked me over with a baseball bat.

      Somehow, I fear this experience might have...tinted my writing.

      I have more hope for the miracle than the above might indicate.

      •  Suggestion (none / 0)

        If you want a miracle shouldn't you post this on Redstate?
        •  I would, only... (3.92 / 13)

          I can't.  I made the mistake of replying to a "Democrats are using Katrina for political gain, how horrible" message with a suggestion that Republicans had been running on 9/11 for the last four years.

          Lost my posting priviledges quicker than you can say "it's all Clinton's fault."

          Feel free to copy paste if you want.

          •  Just snarking (4.00 / 11)

            it would be a waste of time.  Although they are the God people so they should get on the stick.

            I think we lost out chance at cheap energy when we stopped the ongoing efforts in the 80's.  To get cheap energy you need cheap investment to build the alternates which means you need cheap energy.  We had a couple of decades of cheap oil and we pissed it away, waiting for the magic of the market.

            •  Dead on! (4.00 / 5)

              I think we lost out chance at cheap energy when we stopped the ongoing efforts in the 80's.

              Our worst mistake of the last half-century, IMO.  Thank you very much, Mr. Reagan.

              Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. -- George Bernard Shaw

              by dsteffen on Sat Oct 08, 2005 at 02:59:37 PM PDT

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              •  Reagan Was the Worst Mistake (4.00 / 8)

                in the history of free societies. Worst==most damaging.

                We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy.... --ML King "Beyond Vietnam"

                by Gooserock on Sat Oct 08, 2005 at 04:01:42 PM PDT

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                •  Lost opportunities (none / 0)

                  A perverse humanity, sub-species hominus americanus, probably would have found a way to blow this necessary transition anyway, but his era of reaction and neglect sealed the fate of -- ?? -- billions...

                  If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State...

                  by HenryDavid on Sun Oct 09, 2005 at 09:56:25 AM PDT

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          •  I would if I could (none / 1)

            but one day the issue of abortion came up and I was history.

            I do not know what weapons World War III will be fought with. World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -- Albert Einstein

            by elveta on Sat Oct 08, 2005 at 01:46:00 PM PDT

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        •  That cartoon (none / 1)

          is my very favorite.  How wonderful that someone else uses it for an example!  (My attempts have been met with rather spotty reception.)

          Books are humanity in print. Barbara Tuchman

          by gazingoffsouthward on Sat Oct 08, 2005 at 01:36:07 PM PDT

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      •  Sounds like a metaphor for societal collapse (none / 1)

        Unfortunately, when society collapses the pain doesn't go away and you don't stop throwing up.

        - "You're Hells Angels, then? What chapter are you from?"
        - REVELATIONS, CHAPTER SIX.

        by Hoya90 on Sat Oct 08, 2005 at 01:29:11 PM PDT

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      •  Kunstler useful, though overwrought (none / 0)

        Kunstler's done us all a service by flogging this idea in its most overwrought, hyperbolic form, and there are certainly holes in his arguments, but his central obervation holds (here in his comments at last week's PetroCollapse conference in NYC, but repeated in various forms throughhout his recent work):


         The Las Vegas-i-zation of the American mind is a pernicious idea in itself, but it is compounded by another mental problem, which I call the Jiminy Cricket syndrome. Jiminy Cricket was Pinocchio's little sidekick in the Walt Disney Cartoon feature. The idea is that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. It's a nice sentiment for children, perhaps, but not really suited to adults who have to live in a reality-based community, especially in difficult times.

        The idea - that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true - obviously comes from the immersive environment of advertising and the movies, which is to say, an immersive environment of make-believe, of pretend. Trouble is, the world-wide energy crisis is not make-believe, and we can't pretend our way through it, and those of us who are adults cannot afford to think like children, no matter how comforting it is.

        Combine when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true with the belief that it is possible to get something for nothing, and the psychology of previous investment and you get a powerful recipe for mass delusional thinking.
        As our society comes under increasing stress, we're liable to see increased delusional thinking, as worried people retreat further into make-believe and pretend.

        And the public wants what the public gets
        But I don't get what this society wants

        by drmls on Sun Oct 09, 2005 at 08:01:27 AM PDT

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    •  Or reading this: (none / 0)

      Life After the Oil Crash by David Savinar. This guy answers all the questions.

      "George W. Bush has helped those who have most, hurt those who have least and ignored everyone in between". General Wesley Clark

      by KristyZ on Sat Oct 08, 2005 at 02:09:46 PM PDT

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