My letter to Derek Thompson at the Atlantic Magazine

Dear Derek,

While I of course understand that it is not the Atlantic's job to help avert disaster, I know I can always go to you for excellent post-disaster analysis of where we all went wrong! In that spirit, I anxiously await your December 2012 post entitled,

"The Oil Supply Warning Signs Everyone Missed"

by Derek Thompson

"In 2010, while America was preoccupied with a contentious mid-term election and the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, several respected institutions issued warnings of an approaching oil supply crunch, what is now widely seen as the onset of Peak Oil. In retrospect, the story of overlooked warnings and missed evidence is eerily similar to the run-up of the Iraq War and the 2008 housing/debt bubble. In each case warnings came from several of America's and Britain's most respected institutions, yet fell on the deaf ears of a mainstream media that continued to rely on optimistic predictions of well-connected experts. Now the public is rallying behind President-elect Palin's call to ban the "lamestream media" because "their repeated failures have shown how completely f-ing useless they are."

The first missed warning came in April 2010 from the US Military's top brass. In their yearly "Joint Operating Environment" report, they warned of a "Peak Oil" situation by 2012, where oil production figures would not be able to keep up with demand , with severe oil shortages crippling the American economy by 2015. Amazingly, only one major newspaper, the Miami Herald, reported on the military's warning. http://www.miamiherald.com/201...

The second and third warnings came from Britain in the summer of 2010, where a group of British industrialists led by Richard Branson issued a similar timeline for Peak Oil. Meanwhile, Lloyds of London warned that the "just-in-time delivery model" of retailers like Wal-Mart was in danger of failing, and that businesses who failed to adapt to an oil supply crunch were in severe danger. However, even as key members of government and business clearly saw the danger, in 2010 most still looked on peak oil as a crackpot theory . The public was completely uninformed, and continued purchasing large numbers of SUVs throughout 2011, looking at cheap oil as a birthright.

Today, the main political question is whether President Plain will receive the blame for the long gas lines and ruined financial landscape that is expected in 2013, or whether voters will blame her predecessor Obama, whose reelection was doomed by voter anger over high gas prices and his inability to fix the situation."

Warning. Warning. Imperial Information Feeback System Failure.

I give the Atlantic credit for at least mentioning that "oil supplies are not keeping up" which is an improvement over the normal MSM spin, but what remains unsaid is:

Oil supplies have been flat sent 2005. I repeat, oil supplies have been flat since 2005! Thats 6 years!!

Why? That is the million dollar question. Of course, luckily only craaaaaazzy people would say its because we are on the bumpy plateau before peak oil. Americans, please go about your business as usual. Do not read such websites as the Oil Drum, they will only induce heart burn and related anxiety disorders.

Watching the MSM sllloooowwwwlllllyyyy wake up to peak oil is going to be great fun over the next year or two. Our society seems to be incapable of seeing major f---- ups before they happen. The Iraq War. The housing/debt bubble. And now the oil supply crunch. The evidence was easy to see for each one of these beforehand, but there is something seriously amiss in the information feedback systems of the Empire.

What's Up With Oil Supply? The Unasked Question

It is incredible how lackadaisically the mainstream has accepted the permanence of +90 a barrel oil. Something that was unthinkable in 2004, when oil was at $25 a barrel and projected to stay that way for decades to come, is now easily explained away. “Global oil demand is slowly rising as the U.S. and other major economies recover,” says Jerry Dicolo in the Wall Street Journal. Dicolo appear to forget that from 1990 to 2004 global oil demand rose just as fast as it is now, and yet oil prices held steady under $25 a barrel year after year after year. The question “I wonder what’s different now?” does not seem to occur to him.

There is a mental block that seems to prevent the understanding that oil production has been flat since 2005, and that thus a supply problem, not a rising demand problem, might be the reason why oil prices are flirting with triple digits. So the real question is: why is there a mass societal avoidance of recognizing our oil supply problem? Why can't Dicolo and all the others mention this simple fact?

Interview with Anthony Bourdain

is...............here. I know that some, the Sensation included, are fans:

Q: What differences do you encounter when planning a show at a domestic versus an international location? How do you scout them out?

A: There was a basic change in perspective that happened, looking at a place outside of New York with the same approach I give to foreign countries. Very early on, I was a snob about where we went. The Vietnamese could do no wrong, and I tended to look down upon or sneer at Middle America and the South and Southwest. That's changed a lot for me over time. I eventually started cutting people in the States the same slack that I do for people who believe very different things on the other side of the world. But generally what gets us to a place is we get hooked into a visual or film cue.

Snowbama

Today, I awoke to a bit of an Election Day miracle.  I had been told by my boss,

"Tim, I can't afford to let you take off any Mondays or Tuesdays cause Scott can't cook and it gets busy we're fucked." 

So, even though I really wanted to be able to take the day off it wasn't viable financially or responsibly.

Well, this morning as I awoke to white flakes of freedom falling from the beautiful spacious skies;  a text message from the heavens proclaimed that there would be no lunch at Wormwoods.  So, today I was able to just sit at home and drink coffee and watch CNN to see the live footage.

One thing that I really enjoyed reading today was what will the Bush legacy be.  Will history be kind to W. or will we always see him in the manner that we have seen him for the last 6-8 years. 

Well, personally today I have found myself being very generous in conversations about Bush.  I almost felt that if I were to be inaugurated, which by the way is in many ways funny so go ahead and laugh, I can't think of a better guy to receive the Presidency from.  

I guess we must just let bye-gones be bye-gones.

Locked out

Have now been locked out of the house for almost 24 hours.......

I think the universe is conspiring against me.......very suspicious........

Great paragraphs from Wikipedia

"Adams made pets of several grizzlies and often wrestled with them. His most delinquent grizzly, named General Fremont (for John C. Fremont), during a playful wrestling match, struck Adams in the head, cracking it like an eggshell. The wound healed, only to be reopened by the "General". Although never fatal, by the fourth time the General severely injured James Adams' head, it left his brain exposed."