It’s no news that folks are trying to dump their SUVs
because of the crappy mileage, but it’s a tough trade-in with gas see-sawing
either side of four bucks a gallon. So why not hang on to that four wheel drive
boxcar and cruise the backroads for firewood? With wood pushing $300 a cord and
higher, piling in free fuel might get your albatross to pay for itself. And if
you haven’t already got an SUV, dealers are practically giving them away. In the
golden days of yesteryear before SUVs, when the geese commenced to flying south

"Safe, clean, reliable" is their motto.

At least, sometimes.

This concerned Yankee (whose name also happens to be "Rob Williams") grows increasingly concerned about the viability of Yankee Nuclear.

~
I just caught an interesting interview on Democracy Now!, with Harper's Magazine publisher Rick MacArthur, author of "You Can't Be President: The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America." It's a book I'd now like to read, as MacArthur shares an interest of mine, namely that he is "...more interested now than ever in party politics and the barriers that the Democratic Party and Republican Party put up to prevent independence, prevent insurgents, prevent people with differing points of view from entering the political process."

MacArthur discusses the stagnant Republicratic political machine and the factional infighting within, noting, as I've certainly thought, that the internal divisiveness is representative of power struggles and not ideological struggles. Just because Hillary, Obama and McCain take potshots at one another doesn't mean there's a dime's worth of difference in terms of who they've sold out to and what they will deliver to the American public. They're just arguing over who gets the spoils.

Of particular note are the discussions of the Clintons ousting Howard Dean, Obama and Hillary's abandonment of anti-Iraq war Lamont in his race against Neo-Con Lieberman, and the obvious truth that Obama isn't really going to change a God-damned thing about the Empire's warmongering.

-Democracy Now! Interview with Rick MacArthur.

World oil production has been on a plateau for the last several years. Is that a temporary leveling off, a geologically imposed peak before long-term decline, or something called "peak oil lite"? The theory of peak oil lite is that human-based reasons, not geological reasons, are creating at least a temporary peak in oil production.

The thing is, it's pretty hard to tell peak oil lite from geological peak oil. When the world nears or reaches geological peak oil, it unleashes human forces that keep production down.

For example, Iran and Venezuela have both said recently that they think OPEC should commit to reducing output at their meeting on September 9, since oil prices are going down. Yes, they're saying that the price of oil is too low!

Because oil production is so tight elsewhere, OPEC has real power to jack prices back up. OPEC's power to raise oil prices is strongest at the time of regional or world peak oil.

Read and view this book at Amazon.com.

Thanks to the Ohio Republic's Harold Thomas, for re-posting this vital philosophical DECENTRALIST statement created in Vermont two decades ago.

Credit goes to Greg Guma, who posted these last week (we re-posted them yesterday, as part of Greg's larger THINKING OUTSIDE THE EMPIRE BOX blog) - Greg tells me he was there at the 1977 meeting.

Veteran Vermont politico Greg Guma gives some thought to an independent Vemont here at his blog last week.

It is nice to return from a three week blog "fast" to see more and more thoughtful and committed Vermonters considering the notion of Vermont independence.

Good to be back - it promises to be an interesting autumn.

Leave peeping,

Rob

As noted here last month, the Middlebury Institute commissioned a Zogby telephone poll that found that 22% of Americans believe that any state or region has the right to “peaceably secede from the United States and become an independent republic."  I have a feeling the mainstream media was terrified to carry the story, but Middlebury's not finished promoting it. Feel free to get the word out yourself! See some news and blogs that did cover it below.

MASS EXTINCTION,
By Nelson Bonner
of one million species
in the next 42 years.
That’s one species
every 22 minutes
two point seven
every hour.

I’m walking my
not often enough
five mile walk
around a portion
of the perimeter
of the town
where I live.

A Monterey Pine
lopped off at
about 30 feet
stiffs I call them.
A pile of segments
at its base the
three foot chunks
are riddled with
woodpecker
acorn stashes.

Three miles of
my walk is along
the shore of the
Pacific Ocean and
the Monterey Bay.

Gray overcast day
hardly a horizon
on the water.

How much influence do any of us really feel in national or even state politics? What can we do about the dysfunction we witness? It's easy to feel hopeless with our political system but we do what we can.

Our energy needs seem to put us in a similar boat: we're at the mercy of what the corporate world wants to sell to us, and they set the prices. But in terms of energy, we actually can make individual choices that give us much more liberty, or even complete independence, even without the support of industry and politics.