The Death of Globalization?

I am beginning to notice that the mass media (by mass media, I mean outlets like the Times and the Post, not television media so much) is starting to catch on to the peak oil phenomenon. They aren't saying "peak oil", but they've caught on to the fact that the days of cheap oil are over, and that the current price of a barrel is due to the sensible theory of supply-and-demand, not the nonsensical "speculation" that's been making the rounds for months.

A possible consequence of peak oil, voiced by Kunstler but also others, will be the death (or at least, dramatic downsizing) of what is known as globalization. And this article in the Times seems to bear this out. What fueled the emergence of globalization (pun not intended) was cheap oil. And with globalization came many changes, among them the propensity to catch fish in the Western Hemisphere, ship it to China to be filleted, and then shipped back to be sold and consumed. I don't know what name this goes by, but suffice to say, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. But what made it doable at the time was cheap oil. Now that PO is upon us, major companies are beginning to relocate their factories from Asia to closer to home.

Global warming, lost jobs, and all the other consequences of globalism probably were not going to doom it in the long-term, but peak oil just might.

McCain makes a huge campaign blunder...and CBS attempts to cover it up

As I'd predicted, I haven't been keeping much track of this campaign at all. Along with being too busy, the issue of PO has made elections like this one more irrelevant to me than ever. But what I do find striking about this election is the GOP nominee, McCain. This guy is a trainwreck, and if elected, he could rival Bush in his ineptness as our occupant of the Oval Office, From what I see, it seems that barely a day goes by without him making some kind of blunder or verbal miscue. And it may not necessairly be due to age, although if it is, I feel terrible for the guy, and it's certainly nothing to make light out of.

Besides, my big problem with McCain, and him being the age that he is and serving in Congress as long as he has, is not his mental faculties (or possible lack of them), but the tendency of people his age, and in the same position for a long time, to be extremely set in their ways and to fail to realize different points of view. Because we've had a guy with a similar mindset for the past 8 years in office, we've gotten in a big mess, and we don't need 4 or 8 more years of the same.

Well, that's enough of that. Now, as to why I wrote this post. The other day, in a CBS News interview, McCain made a huge blunder that could seriously undermine his campaign (if reported enough, which seems to not have been the case so far). He said in the interview that the "surge" of troops into Iraq was responible for the "Anbar Awakening", which were the coalitions of Sheikhs in the Anbar province who formed coalitions to ensure security by driving extremists like Al-Qaeda in Iraq off their lands. However, the "Awakening" was first announced by a U.S. general in Iraq on September 2006, at least four months before the new "Surge" policy was announced by Bush. McCain is running his entire campaign on foreign policy experience, as his positions on other issues (economy, health care, etc.) suck. And, judging from such a big-league gaffe as this one, he's even screwing up on foreign policy.

But that's not the end of the story. CBS News, who conducted the interview with McCain, left his exact quote on the cutting room floor. It can be found on their official transcript online, but their decision has already impeded this important statement from being viewed by the millions of people who turn to CBS as a news source. What's also interesting is that the question in which McCain answered by saying that the surge came before the Awakening, was still aired on the program, but an answer from McCain to a different question was aired in its place.

This is from the same network behind Rathergate, the controversy over Bush's Air Force Reserve records on 60 Minutes. Over questionable typography, there was a huge uproar from bloggers, investgations were conducted, and careers were ended. And there was never any proof that the allegations made in that report were false. Yet, here we have an interview that was edited to substitute a different answer to a different question, a serious breach of journalistic ethics (if such a thing even exists anymore), and yet no one's talking about it, and nothing will come of it. For shame.

Home Depot Honors Fallen Soldiers With Great Prices On Tools

This is a funny video from ONN (Onion News Network). This isn't for everybody, the subject matter involved is very sensitive, but if you have gallows humor, you'll enjoy it.


Home Depot Honors Fallen Soldiers With Great Prices On Tools

My favorite part is when the woman interviewer asks the soldier's mother, "In your last phone conversation with Andrew, did you talk about home appliances or repair?"

It's been awhile (again), but I have good news

It's been awhile because I've been very busy. I started an overnight job around 3 weeks ago, and last week, I was hired as an assistant for a community land trust (I will explain the concept in a later post, but for now, it basically promotes affordable housing). I start next week, and I am currently researching it whenever I have time. I also start school next month, in what will hopefully be my final semester. My online class is finished. So, I'll have 2 jobs, be going to school full-time, and have been approved for a federal work study, in which case I will have to work an additional 10 to 15 hours either at my college or in some other public service.



So, I'll be a busy boy. But I was very excited when I was invited to the office last week and told that I had the job. I had a really good feeling about it from the moment I applied and received the letter inviting me to the interview. I read about CLT's, thought they were a novel and unique concept whose time, I feel, will be coming (in light of our real estate market, as well as other problems in our society) and I'm glad that I got the job. I even saw the piece of office space that's reserved for me; for someone who's spent most of their working life lifting cases and doing other kinds of menial labor (not that I look down on it, it paid my bills and you always have to do what you can to survive), it's nice to have a position in which I can use my brain.



Another big part of my life has been continuing to read about peak oil. Lately, I've been reading about survivalism. While most of what I knew about survivalism to this point came from pop culture (in which they're largely marginalized as being religious extremists, I find), from the little I've researched, most of them just seem to have a "be prepared" mentality. Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking of starting a new organization, one tentatively named The Peak Oil Society. I believe that community-based solutions to PO will be much more effective than all of us going it alone. My goal, if this gets off the ground, will be to initally educate whoever wishes to take part (perhaps by showing them the documentary "The End of Suburbia") and then try to invite guests and speakers who can teach us about survival skills, ranging from being able to grow our own food, medical training, self-defense, and other methods.

Yeah, I've Been Away

...and not in the literal sense, as in I went on a vacation or something. I've just been busy. I scored an overnight job, and I have an interview in the morning for a position that looks promising. I'm taking a summer class, in which I recently had problems. You see, I registered for the wrong class, while handing in assignments for the class I'd intended to register in (it's an online class, hence the confusion). But it got fixed up. I am still learning Spanish, and it's going very well. I'm using a computer program, and I'm committed to taking 2 lessons a day. I know that there's a big difference between knowing Spanish, and being fluent in it, as in being able to hold conversations and look on it and the words without even thinking, as one would do with their native language. But I'm working on it. I bought a microphone today for my PC, to speak Spanish words into it and make sure that I'm pronouncing them correctly. I'm then going to transfer it to my MP3 player to memorize them.

I'm also catching up on TV. I just watched all 12 episodes of this show called "Burn Notice", it gets my seal of approval, it's awesome. The 2nd season's coming on in a few weeks on USA; until then, you should go to Hulu.com and check out the first season. It reminds me of the A-Team, but cooler.

I'm still reading about peak oil. It's amazing in that I consider myself fairly well-informed, I keep up with the news and current events, yet I was so ignorant of this until I read Kunstler's book (which I've talked about). I'm currently reading another very informative book called "The Party's Over". Whereas Kunster's book was more of a screed, this is more of a heavier read. I recommend both books, go to your nearest bookstore or library and read them, then after you're done, read them again, and then keep up on it via the Internet. But one word of advice: I wouldn't recommend these books for bedtime reading. After reading Kunstler's book, my outlook on life totally changed. It was that mind-blowing. And I decided that I was going to devote as much time as my life would permit to do more research and also read about survivalism. But the first night that I tried that, I felt like I had this huge hole in my stomach and I couldn't sleep. I knew that I couldn't devote that amount of time. As much as I know it's wrong, I have to keep living my life, going to school, getting a good job (and hoping it lasts), etc. It reminded me of that saying, I'm paraphrasing, "people don't like too much reality".

Well, anyway, I just wanted to catch up. I want to say that I'm going to try to blog more, like I have in the past, but I'm tired of making promises that I can't keep. For the foreseeable future, I'll probably be too busy to blog regularly. But I will certainly try when I can. Until then, to steal a line from "Demolition Man" (a guilty pleasure of mine, as most Stallone movies are), "be well".

Waste Not

This article from the Houston Chronicle talks about a potential silver lining in this current era of higher gas prices due to the possible global production peak of oil. A growing amount of people are actually being conservative when it comes to their food. For far too long, we've been very wateful with our food, often carelessly throwing it out. But as the food prices are soaring, some of us are finally thinking.

This book by James Kuntsler has really had an impact on me. I went to Pathmark today, after that Quizno's, and you just have a totally different outlook going to these places. You know that it wouldn't be possible without oil. This suburban way of life of ours would have been a non-starter without oil. At Quizno's, I had a veggie sub, and for the first time, while eating it, I actually thought of where the bread, the lettuce, the olives, everything, all come from. How much oil was used just so I could have this for lunch? When you think about it, unless you're doing your shopping at a local farm, you're probably eating oil, literally.

One more thing on the book

I have at least one other thing to say about the book. I say "at least", because I'm sure I'll have more to say about it in the weeks to come. It's really changed my outlook. It's not a book you want to read before bedtime, I can tell you that much. Anyway, there was another conception of mine that was blown out of the water while reading this book. Up to this point, I thought of our soaring gas prices in the typical way: "pain at the pump", it increases the prices of everything and hurts the economy, etc. But this book helped me realize that these effects of our passing Peak Oil just barely scratch the surface of what could happen.

I'm astonished that more people cannot see the contradiction of our system, which I can see more clearly than ever. We are living in a system that promotes and advocates constant consumption and growth, and the engine that fuels that system, that is making that system possible, is built upon a natural substance that is in limited numbers and is already showing serious signs of decreasing. I find the willful ignorance of the average person even more scary than the ramifications of passing Peak Oil itself. I'm scared about the possible scenarios that I read about in this book occuring, but I really feel that Kunstler wildly underestimated the average American's connection to our way of life. I do hope that he is wrong, for all our sakes.