The other night I was in an insomiac mode and watching CSPAN. Roscoe Bartlett (R) Maryland was hosting a panel on the future security of the United States as it relates to the energy situation. His position was that we have reached/or are about to reach the peak oil production in the World. I went to his site www.bartlett.house.gov and rummaged around and found some documentation from April 2005 that followed the arch of the discussion Monday night.

Makes a good read...though is not feel good stuff...one begins to wonder what will happen when production levels start diminishing as demand goes up. The conflicts...the changes in transportation...how much production now depends on oil for energy or as a raw material to be converted into a product. We are at a dangerous point in human history and hopefully we are not going to just hope for a technological miracle to save us.

When I left for lunch it was raining. Not your normal shower type of rain. This was a frog strangler down pour. The valley has not had a good rain in some time and this will do some good. The rain had let up some what by the time I had eaten and returned to work.

Chrissy and I will be going to the fair tonight. That is if it don't rain or is not raining too hard after work.

I doubt very much whether the paper will publish my editorial. It is a bit dramatic...and over the top. But I feel that what is happening to our educational system is over the top. Fantasy as Science. The creationist are playing the fairness card, "Well, we should let the students decide whether Evolution or the Bible are the Truth."

As if science is voted on...science is not a democracy...it is based on assembled facts that are held to be true until disproven. No votes...just facts...and that is what is so maddening about the ploy that the Intelligent Design cabal are using. Nothing that the IDeist have put forth can be supported by science. None of their research has revealed new facts about ID. The IDers have not contributed one fact to the science of Evolution or even ID.

If Intelligent Design is science, where is the Science? That is the question that must be asked over and over until it is fully and truthfully answered.

Read today that the court battle over Evolution and Intelligent Design (ID) has started in Dover, Pa.

Why this battle is going on at this time is beyond me. I will not ever understand the mind of the religious fanatic. But I am moved by it. Scared really, because it is so important that this lie of the creationist be put to rest.

I wrote a letter to the editor (Yakima Herald Republic) stating my misgivings about the inclusion of religion into science. See below:

There is a battle waging between the Enlightenment and the return of the Dark Ages. In the Dover School District of Pennsylvania the Dark Forces have gathered to force a religious precept upon all children. They call it Intelligent Design, which is Creationism under an alias.The people that are pushing this ignorance have no idea of what science is and do not care. They only care about making the United States a theocracy, with them in charge of the Word From GOD. From the Christian Imams lips will come edicts for you to follow. From those closest to GOD will come demands that you submit to them. Somehow or other the ones closest to GOD in a theocracy are also closest to power.
The best way to control a population is through religion, and government plus religion is what is the goal of this Dark Alliance.
Please America wake up and see the future. To live in a theocracy will be Hell.

The Gulf Coast Wage Cut (suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act) (see Talking Points Memo) signed into law by Prez Bush is another piece of evidence that the Republican party is has no connection with the people that do the actual work in this country. He will limit wages of people in need and continue with the patronage and graft that has come to mark this administration. If you think that patronage and graft are not important to this administration just look at who is in charge of the hundreds of billions that will be spent on Katrina's' aftermath. Karl Rove, the original Dark Prince of political patronage. Much back scratching will be going on in the future as he rewards the people that kick back the most graft to the coffers of the Republican Party.
We are now seeing what this administration has in mind for the actual people that have made this country great. Poor wages, no viable Social Security, no health care.
Poor wages, because the suspension of the Davis - Bacon Act will not save this country one red cent in the reconstruction of the destruction left in the path of Katrina. Any monies saved will only go to the crony/corporations contracting the jobs. It will only add to the hardship of a group of people that need a living wage to rebuild their homes and businesses.
Social Security can be mended by removing the cap on deductions that are taken in out for it. I believe the ceiling now about $90,000. We Boomers will not live forever and this problem will be fixable to get over the hump. The recent spate of bankruptcies being instituted by major corporations that may well abrogate their responsibilities for their pension funds, and shift the payment of those pensions at a lower % by government guarantees (thus constituting a welfare for the corporate class), should be seen as a shot over the bow in the fight on how to fix Social Security. The United States of America cannot short shrift the middle class by taking away the only, and very small, pension that they may receive.
Health care is an anathema to this administration. Even though it has signed into law the most expensive Medicare bill ever, it did so by hiding the real cost and giving the pharms everything they wanted. An idea that could be bounced around would be for the government to pay for all preventive and basic medical, dental, and vision for all citizens up until they are 18 years of age. After that all are on their own. Once again at retirement (what ever age that becomes in the future) the preventive/basic are again covered. We would be supporting the segments of our population at most risk. Insuring that a healthy cadre of workers are always available enter the work force. Plus the support that we would have for our elders as they leave the work force and begin their retirement. I am thinking these changes would be cost savers in the long run. I have not the ability to run the numbers, but basic and preventive medicine must be cheaper than what we are doing now.
What we are seeing in the actions of this administration is the deconstruction of the American middle class.

Late last night...sat on the levee and moaned...
Led Zeppelin

The information coming out of the NOLA area is just frightening. We now have a gov't which blames the victims. The facts do not support the Bush spin machine. Though this is a large area, FEMA dropped the ball. Why is a political hack in that position anyway? Who put him there?...Who put him there? I felt the question need to be asked twice, because the blame game that this administration is playing is so divisive at a time that cohesion is needed. We have an idiot at the helm. I, myself do not care that he is an idiot. It is just the fact that he is also President of the United States that makes me sick to my stomach. If I were a religious man I would say that God has saddled us with Bush as a trial. But what past sins we are paying for? I do not know. I am not a religious man, so my thinking is that as a country, we voted in the village idiot because of his lineage.
Collectively we are all to blame.

The last post had 2 areas that I had questions about. The first one was the collapse of the communication infrastructure. Land lines and cell networks were completely knocked out because of the nature of this disaster. That would leave the Shortwave and CB airwaves the most viable forms of communication in events such as this. Shortwave would be more likely to be locked into the power grid and be subverted at that point. CB's, at least the handheld, battery powered, 40 channel models would have a more than even chance of working in an environment such as happened in NOLA (New Orleans, LA). This is something that I am sure has been thought of already, but I have not heard of any information moving into or out of NOLA in this manner. Humans are very self organizing units but they need a lot of information to do it. With the use of CBs I am guessing organization of civilians and gov't would have made some difference. There used to be many CB clubs in our area (Yakima, WA.) and I am not sure of the status of them since cellphones have become ubiquitous. But it may be something to look into as an interlocking network of CB clubs would be able to hook up with Shortwave outside the affected area and coordination efforts would be better utilized. Also the passing on of civilian lists of dead and living would be of service to those with relations in the affected areas.

The second was the future of cities in general. As we have not come to the tipping point of oil exploration, yet. (When the maximum amount of oil is found and replacement will not keep up with consumption.) My speculation is just that, speculation. But when the tipping point comes, and it will come, what will be the future of cities? Will they once again be centers of commerce and society? Will the now crumbling inner cities be renewed? Will the burbs be the new inner city ghettos?

One other thing that is tapping at the back of my brain is what happens when the cost of tranporting goods from China or the Pacific rim becomes prohibitive? Does manufacturing start breaking up into regional concerns? Do commodities in order to be affordable need to be made near (and what is near?) point of sale? Has China come to the industrialization party too late?

The whole Katrina thing is raising questions that I am not sure that I am equipped to answer.

First, the almost total collapse of the communication infrastructure in and around NOLA. We (the US) pride ourselves on have the lastest and greatest when it comes to techno gear. This disaster has shown that we have over estimated our readiness and under estimated nature. How do we deal with these issues in the future?

Second, the pricing of fuel. Disregarding the obvious price gouging that will occur. How will the major increase in transportation fuel costs affect this country.What will the future of our cities be like? Think about this...we are now to a point where $5+/gal gas is not laughable. What does that do for cities? Does it force the people to move back into them? Do the burbs empty out? Does culture and neighborliness come back into vogue. The reason for cities in the past was that people needed to be close to where they worked and walking and mass transit were what was available. Time and distance had not been conquered by the internal combustion engine. Will this shock reverberate into the future? If cities come back as viable economic units, how will that affect thinking about mass transit? Will it become the new focus of government. I am not saying the auto is dead. I have too much invested in mine to abandon it without a fight and tears. I am just wondering out loud as to the repercussions of this event.

The nation is in shock at the devastation in New Orleans. The images of the destruction are like they are from a third world country. Are we going to see more Cat V hurricanes? Is this a precursor of what global warming will bring?

The complete collapse of the infrastructure is scary.