Great to hear from you – didn’t know you were blogging again. You’re on the blogroll now so I remember to check from time to time.

I’ll be interested to hear what sort of conversations you get into with your Buddhist friend if you go see Avatar together.

The Bible is out of touch with modern science. Pantheism, on the other hand, embraces the scientific discoveries that we are ralated to all living things through hundreds of millions of years of evolution. We humans were created by the Biosphere, not by some supernatural “God”. Every time we take a breath we are dependent on the combined metabolic activity of millions of species of plants and animals. Nature spirituality is a beautiful way of of life that can help us live fulfilling lives in a way that will maintain the integrity of the Biosphere.

As a book report, I thought it was great. As political theory, I have no idea where you are coming from… It seems to me, what a sad testimonial to the gullibility of the average American… It sounds as if you actually believe globalist propaganda handed down by people in power. In my opinion, one would be better off just reading fiction. At least there are happy endings in that case. When considering the fate of the poor 3rd-World globalists trying to climb out of poverty on the back of the New World Order, I doubt that will be the case for them… They will probably be far worse off in the long run, when all is said and done. When the huge multi-national corporations that control the global political machine are done lining their pockets, we will see just how important these people really were to them. I shudder to think how history often repeats itself, and in the past, human solutions to poverty often included such noble endeavors as slavery and genocide… Who will resist such movements, if there is that much to lose for rocking the boat with such a tight economic grip on the world and its resources? The Bible speaks of world-wide economy and government, and not in a good way. We are warned that even the elect may be fooled. Perhaps America is the woman who rides the beast in Revelation? Lady Liberty herself? If our job is now to be the world-wide enforcer of security for the New Order, what does that really mean??? That anyone who does not go along with “the plan” gets annihilated? Draining the swamps? Very liberal, indeed… Don’t these people have a choice? No, terrorists are not the real threat to America. The real America is an idea, even more than a place. If personal freedoms and self-governance are allowed to be overthrown for a global agenda, and the military is lent out for hire to the economic world, then the real America does not exist any more… The very wealthy people attempting to take over absolute control of the whole world by manipulating global economy and government are the real threat. The crazy fundamentalists are sadly right about that fact… Maybe their awareness of this factors into the price of oil somehow? After all, aren’t most of the same countries involved in oil production and terrorism? Why not use economic terrorism if bombs don’t scare us away? The best thing to do is to prepare for difficult times ahead. I recall an old slogan of not that many years ago…”Buy American! Save jobs!” Choosing local goods and services will be one part of the solution, I think, economically, as well as environmentally. I am sure we will also have to learn to do without a few luxuries we take for granted, as the so-called energy crunch worsens. If there is any hope for the 3rd world, it will be to develop their own resources and get away from dependence on the system. Maybe developing alternative energy solutions should be a top priority for them. If we can’t figure out good solutions, we’ll probably just have to start another war or something… It’s hard to change human nature.

It would be interesting to analyze whether the USA would, in the long run, be made more secure by spending the money/energy/effort to “drain the swamps,” or by expending the resources domestically to create a society and culture more resilient to resource scarcity. Put forth a continuum of options from full-speed-ahead-swamp-draining to as-isolationist-as-practical and create graphs of Dead Americans vs. Time.

Cheap energy has made possible not only free trade but also hyper-dense urbanization. Is it possible to make large urban centers locally sufficient? If not, what happens to the half of the world’s population who live in them?

I’ve seen no indication whatsoever that the energy abundance we currently gain from fossil fuels can even be approximately replaced by “green” or “renewable” technologies, at any price point. And, eventually, we’ll be having the same discussion about coal that we’re now having about oil. What decline in standard of living will this force upon us, and what will that do to the desirability or practicality of a global economy?

How does globalization based on an economy dependent on continued exponential growth deal with the practical limits to growth imposed by a finite planet and the laws of physics? Is it even viable (is globalization an ideal worth pursuing?)

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?