Huzzah! Excellent piece and excellent point.
We need to get to the stage, of course, where we just do not need so much Transportation. Does anybody really like the way most of us live today? HAVING to have a car, feed it, care for it, house it, repair it, insure it, pay the licensure and fees it requires...and having to use it in company with too many others of its kind, at too high of speeds, threatening life and limb on a daily basis? I don't really think so.
World War II rationing was the last example of what can be done when something has to be done. Even that isn't entirely comparable since we werent' so dependent down to the last man woman and child on automobile transportation for survival. Bill Maher, of all people, right after 9-11 came out with a book of adapted WWII-style posters advocating similar measures called When You Ride Alone You Ride With bin Laden", which I regrettably "read" in the bookstore aisle and then didn't buy. Unlike much of his stuff it was both moderately humorous and entirely sensible.
So much of what we're paying so much for is so much waste. Get rid of that and then see what we need to accomplish the things that need doing.
/rant 
World War II rationing was the last example of what can be done when something has to be done.
Yes and isn't it IRONIC that today we--and in particular, conservatives--look back so fondly on the WWII era as a time when everyone "pulled together" and the country was unified?
I wasn't alive back then, I don't know how true that is, but that's certainly the image we're all given by the culture today. It was *romantic* and *noble* to sacrifice for your country, to ration your sugar and olant a victory garden and use paint to draw a seam up the back of your legs instead of wearing nylons.
And look where we are now ... a "nation of whiners" who wouldn't dream of sacrificing one degree of comfort for the cause. We're a nation at war and you'd never know it. We're too precious to see the flag-draped coffins or the faces of the fallen on TV. Planting a community garden is some weird hippy-dippy thing, conservation is a dirty word.
And the reason why? These things that brought the nation together in the 1940s and could bring us together now are, at their root, anti-consumerist. And God forbid we should ever STOP BUYING SHIT WE DON'T NEED!
There, that's my rant ... thanks, Xan!
Why should Americans have to sacrifice and lower our standard of living.
Oil has made it possible for us to change everything in life and be able to travel any place in the world. We are able to get products from around the world because of oil. There is no realistic alternative to oil.
What have Americans done that we should be over-charged for gasoline. For all the sacrifices we have spent in the Middle East we should be getting it for free.
Today the war is a Jews' war. We should not be subjected to terrorism or problems getting oil.
Today we can't come together as a nation because Jews (Jacob Javits) gave us diversity. We were lied to regarding why we attacked Iraq because the rest of us have nothing vested in dying and sacrificing for a jew state. Over 98% of us are non jewish.
Why did we fight WW2 against an Aryan nation? Whats the difference between an Aryan Nation and a Jewish state?
We fought against our own people the aryans but today our children are in the Middle East killing Muslims and being killed by them because of an ethnic Jewish state. And Jews are the ones who contribute the most to the Democratic party.
In the last election the liberal/Jew moneybags in the party gave Al Gore the boot and foist John Kerry off on us so that whether a Liberal or a Neocon got into the White House our middle east policies would be the same.
Rahm Emanuel is the democrat who chooses party nominees. He was born in Israel and served in its military and is now a kingmaker in the United States Government. His Father was an Israeli terrorist.
What makes you think Barack would get the nomination if he were not bought and paid for by the moneybags.
Holocaust against Arabs and speculation regarding bombing Iran are driving oil costs.
both Iraq and Iran were provoked into switching to selling their oil in Euros by the vile, evil Jewish neocons who stole our White House.
Petro dollars were the basis of the American economy. Now we are trillions of dollars in debt and China owns us because we have borrowed so much to wage holocaust against Israels enemies.
Its a joke to talk about cutting back on gasoline. We should never have been put into this position.
votenader.org You have nothing vested in supporting Liberals or neocons. They have destroyed the traditional Democratic and Republican parties and they are destroying America. After all, they never wrote the Constitution or built this nation so why do they care.
Dang, Barbara, get some therapy. You've got some issues.
I'm proud to say your distorted, hateful views of this country don't represent the views of my blog or the majority of this country.
Barbara, You cannot say those things in America about Israel. You're correct, but you cannot say it!
Barbara is right!
Buster, I don't see Barbara saying negative things about Israel the country and its policies. I see her saying hateful things about Jews, the people.
BIG difference. HUGE difference. And completely despicable.
i kinda thought we fought the aryan nation because they were bent on world conquest and declared war on us.
Take a fast hike to the nearest shrink, Barbara. Take Buster with you while you're at it.
Barbara,
How's that vacuous anti-Semtitism working out for ya?
And Buster, if you go along with her, you're an anti-Semite, too.
Disagree with the policy of the nation of Israel all you want. I certainly do, esp. when that policy is contorted by the likudniks, but using racist slurs against the Jews is a vastly different critter.
This is little more than a cut and paste troll. It doesn't really understand what the hell it's saying.
catalexis,
What Aryan Nation screed is that crap cut-and-paste from? I'm not sure I want to know.
OH the troll is a Naderite.
I didn't realize that Ralph Nader was anti-Semitic. Way to sell your candidate.
You guys sure you wouldn't be happier supporting Ron Paul?
It seems to be a confused collection and the fact that it's double spaced (Heh, Kerners are GO!) leads me to believe that it is, in fact a simple un-reformatted select/copy/paste piece of juvenile troll hackery.
whatever it is, it is disgusting.
Yeah, Barbara, better trolling, please.
Dammit, that is too damn logical! Let's invade Venezuela instead.
You'd think this is something our free market conservative friends could recognize. They're all about increasing supply (the fact that there simply isn't enough supply here to make a difference be damned), but they want to ignore the fact that decreasing demand has the same effect and when the commodity is finite (such as oil), decreasing demand is the ONLY plausible long term solution (by the very free market rules they claim to advocate).
Ugh. I need to wash my eyes after starting to read that one comment.
Excellent points, Southern Beale!
I took a stab at this topic of oil prices a bit earlier today and my take isn't quite the same. Interesting comments here though!
Dang, I take a few days off to write and look what happens. Barbara would be better off on Stormfront or kinism.net.
I was just in Normandy at the American Cemetary and dang if there weren't tons of Stars of David mixed in with the crosses there. And the most decorated American unit of World War II was the Nissei Brigade, made of American-born, Japanese soldiers who kicked the shit out of Fascist scum all over Europe.
Two of my uncles, both half Cherokee and half Anglo Saxon, were decorated heroes during the Battle of the Bulge. I really wish those two bad asses were still around and in their prime. They might even forget that Barbara is a woman.
Cheney and Rove are Jews? Damn, the things one learns.
What puzzles me is the insistence by these crazies that the farce in Iraq benefits Israel. Most Jews, here and in Israel, opposed that war both before it began and as it has continued. In fact, most Jews recognize that Israel is in greater danger today than it was 5 years ago, precisely because of that war, which benefits only Halliburton and Pentacostal eschatology freaks.
Oh, and Barbara (or someone who cuts and pastes just like her) is trolling over at Aunt B.'s under the name southernvoice. She's added racism and xenophobia to her collection over there.
She's added racism and xenophobia to her collection over there.
I will have to send my deepest apologies to Aunt B.
Good heavens, SoBeale, you didn't make her do it. Let her take responsibility for her own bigotry. I was just astounded to find her over here, too, is all.
This makes my heart hurt.
SB--It's not your fault. Like nm said, and Aunt B said on her blog, it's the Internet.
It just makes me sad.
Sharon,
I totally agree. At least Barbara is more honest than most far-righties. I hear the same things said on Terry Frank's blog, but in code.
SB, you aren't at fault for this. Keep plugging along and please don't block Barbara, it is so much fun to make fun of such fools. She doesn't even know that we, in Hitler's opinion, don't qualify as an Aryan nation. He called us mongrels.
We should have Mongrel Pride!
Casey - what makes you label Barbara as a far right? She complains about the Democratic party nomination - she seems to be a Democrat to me.
Oh come off it Jim. So every time I complain about the Republican party nomination that makes me a Republican?
Quit pretending to be so stupid in an effort to smear Democrats as anti-Semitic bigots. I know you're smarter than that.
Jim,
I was using the proper political terms seperate of your Republican ideology. remember the basic political scale that should have been taught you in high school?
The far right is fascism, which Barbara clearly defended. The far left is Communism. I detest both.
Well I consider myself very conservative i.e. to the right, but I have nothing in common with Barbara. She did also reference a votenader.com website which I would not think would be classified as ultra right wing. She is not a Democrat, but her policies spewed here don't seem conservative either.
Jim,
Are you daft? All conservatives don't think alike. That is why I said far right. She seems to be pimping Nader as a way to derail the other two candidates. Clearly, Nader doesn't agree with her ideas. You can't seriously think that.
Jim,
Are you daft?
Yes.
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