why does this newsgroup have beasts

It doesn't have any breasts because it's loaded with weenies. ;-P

We are, literally, dealing with China now, subverting the last remaining Communist empire with our dollars.

John

This is nonsense. The China and India seem like a threat now, but they don't have any oil. They are in a far worse situation than the US (since we have SOME domestic supply). You Europeans will be in big trouble, though, since it looks like they are gonna be able to outbid you for Africa and Russia's oil, and oil from the Middle East will be too radioactive to pass your stringent safety standards after Israel nukes the new super-Shiite state that will form and start sucking up every oil rich country after we withdraw from Iraq in disgrace. Karl Rove will call the withdrawal "Operation Victory" in a phone interview from his jail cell.

Europe does have some domestic oil - the oil fields under the North Sea are quite extensive, and the British and the Norwegians have been pulling out loads of oil since the mod-1970s. And we do have the advantage that our cities were laid out before the car was invented, and will continue to work pretty well when the car has to replaced by the electric shopping trolley.

Why would they nuke a city where they have major investments, and where their kids are in school?

They can now, from a speedboat or a submarine or a panel truck. What we should do is make sure they don't want to.

John

Appeasement? In what respect? We've told them we'd defend Taiwan, and we're pushing North Korea pretty hard.

What's wrong with using trade for mutual benefit? We could, of course, economically embargo China because we don't approve of their politics, but then we'd have zero leverage. We destroyed Soviet communism using one tactic, and we're destroying Chinese communism using another appropriate strategy.

The US ran deliberate trade deficits with Japan and Western Europe post WWII, for the same reasons, to get them hooked on capitalism.

John

I don't want anybody to work for a bowl of rice a day.

The ones I know are, quite a lot.

John

China's Communist in name only nowadays. In truth it's a Capitalist dictatorship with rampant ambitions of hegemony and your $$$s are flowing out there thick and fast and paying for some seriously heavy-duty re-arming. The Chinks already have enough Silkworm missiles to sink your entire navy - even allowing for their high failure rate. How long will it be before they can nuke NYC or LA?

How so? By a policy of appeasement? Does that not conjure up any historical lessons, John?

Promising to defend Taiwan is only fueling China's sense of inferiority and is engendering re-armament at a more rapid rate than it would otherwise occur!

Because the Chinks will happily and smilingly take your $$$s and use them to re-arm! You, OTOH, will see an outflow of $$$s and a weakening of your international purchasing power. Sure it'll make you more competitive, but do you really want to compete with a bunch of bastards that work for a bowl of rice a day?

Yes, you've destroyed Chinese Communism - with the accentuation on the Communism. OTOH, you're only fueling Chinese *militarism.*

The Chinks are already hooked on capitalism. Wake up, John! Do you really want your kids and grand kids growing up in the shadow of Chinese hegemony? The Chinese are not the least bit like you and I, you know. :-(

How do you plan to build and power those "Electric trolleys" when you have no oil left?

Wave power, wind power, solar cells, nuclear reactors (eventually fusion reactors) ...

The point is that there will never be no oil left - just ever decreasing amounts trapped in structures from which it will be increasing expensive to extract it.

Search on Athabaska oil shale - here is the entry from the top of the google list

The problem is going to be adapting to increasingly expensive oil. Energy costs will rise less rapidly, because we will stop burning as much oil and natural gas in power stations, making electric vehicles more attractive, despite their relatively poor performance.

There will presumably be lots of other social adaptions to the risng cost of energy - better public transport, more telecommunication and less commuting, better insulated houses, higher population densities in cities ....

I hope ths answers your question. More detail may be available on request - I don't claim to be an expert in the area.

Energy is still too inexpensive, it seems. Car engines still idle and cars are hardly sold on efficiency, housing is only slowly geting more energy-efficient, and so on.

Thomas

I'm depressed and under-motivated, but I'm not actively unhappy, and I'm not despairing. I keep working at the job hunting, and I do get the occasional positive response - not positive enough to get me a job, yet, but enough to keep me at it.

Er, since about 25 years ago. According to "Nuclear Battlefields" by Arkin and Fieldhouse, the CSS-4/DF-5 was deployed in 1980.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Your problem is that you can't recognise a frivolous question when you see one. Paul Burridge couldn't concoct a serious question to save his life. My answer - on the other hand - is perfectly serious, though the formulation was intended to be comic. There's a longer version of that response floating around somewhere in this thread, which even you should find serious enough to satisfy Ezra Pound's criiterion.

Not that Ezra Pound's judgement of what constitutes "civilisation" should be taken too seriously. He was a fervent admirer of Hitler and Mussolini, and would probably have been hung for treason after WW2 if his literary friends hadn't conspired to have declared insane.

You failed the acid test .

A civilized man is one who will give a serious answer to a serious question.

Ezra Pound

You're probably not actually "depressed" in the "clinical" sense. For example, I've shown a lot of the "warning signs" or "symptoms" of "depression", but I'm not, like, sad - I think it's just laziness (e.g., would be just as happy to stay in bed all day, that sort of thing.)

Something will show up - it always does.

Sometimes, however, it's not what you were expecting - when the Universe closes a door behind you, it opens new ones in front of you. :-)

Cheers! Rich

I'm manic depressive: manic most of the time - lots of fun, actually - and I get occasional deep, chemical depressions: chills, gloom, lislessness, irritability. I recognize it, my wife recognizes it, so we treat it as if it were a cold or a sprained ankle or something, just a nuisance that will pass in a few days. Just keep the lizard on the leash.

But the immediate problem is that I just did a batch of Bananas Foster for dessert. I mixed up way too much of the rum+banana liqueur mixture and almost flambe'd the whole family, Uncle Billy and his filipino wife included. So the leftover mixture is sitting here next to the piece-o-crap Dell in a beaker, and you can't throw away good rum even if there Creme de Banan in it. Weird drink, I tell ya.

Am I still making sense?

John