the ELM should factor in the rate exports to the U.S. fall when no one accepts our currency anymore.

There are several adverse effects originating in Import Land that need to be considered.

Also the ELM should factor in the implications of the 'net energy' of energy alternatives produced in the Import Land.

'Plain Vanilla' ELM is bad enough, with the add-ons 'Net Exports' decline rate can be expected to be somewhat worse!

There's likely to be several 'Liebig minimums' we haven't even considered - yet.

Although "they" may not accept our currency, they will likely demand payment in grain.

I would if I was "them". In a heartbeat.

That quote by Greer is excellent and spot on. Thats the problem with EROI analysis - it doesnt go far enough. Not only to we need high energy gain to continue our current trajectory, but we need this energy gain TO COME IN THE SAME FORM THAT IT HAS BEEN, namely liquid fuels. If global EROI of oil is around 19:1 (so says Charlie Hall), and declining quickly, I would argue we need a 30:1 gain with equivalent scale in order to transition the infrastructure into something that can use renewables. So we need both high EROI technologies AND enough additional energy surplus (over and above what we need to grow) to make the transition. Greer said it better than I, but basically replacing 20:1 oil with 20:1 wind is only sufficient, once the wind/electric infrastructure is in place. I had to buy a new tire for my truck today - on the way to store I saw people with flame machines and petrochemicals repairing the cracks in the county road - a crew of 10 people and 4 trucks - all this stuff has to stay reasonably constant while we transition to new modes of energy. To do that we need more than we initially had.

There are a number of efficiency improvements that might be implemented through retrofits to existing assets. A highly efficient continuously-variable transmission will improve vehicle fuel economy by about 20%. Regenerative braking, hydro-pneumatic or electric, might yield another 20%. BMW apparently improved the fuel economy of some of their engines by about 15% at least partly by replacing throttles with variable valve lift and timing.

The problem is, there's little interest in incremental improvements. Maybe that will change when shortages become widespread, but individuals would have to spend their own money for efficiency improvements whose greatest benefits would accrue to everyone. Much as with buying a hybrid now, the added cost is borne by the individual, but the majority of the benefit of reduced demand is distributed to everyone, because the price elasiticity of fuel demand is so low. IOW, a small reduction in fuel demand leads to a large reduction in fuel price, which benefits everyone, but the individual who benefits most may be the one who lets others spend money on efficiency but pays less due to the reduced demand that results from the improved efficiency.

if the old equipment can no longer be used for its intended purpose, because of lack of fuel.

That is exactly why I have kept my old car and refuse to buy a new one. In the event fuel gets scarce, I will convert the car's engine to run on natural gas and use it to power a generator, while also using it as a water and space heater.

Ahh, the magic of welding.

I know enough about oxygen sensor loops to at least be able to set the fuel ratios to optimum, and if I set the engine up with a good oil system, it should run several years without a lot of fanfare, as it will no longer need belts or pumps, and its carburetor will be replaced by a microprocessor controlled valve which will inject just the right amount of natural gas to the incoming air.

I say try building a D9 Cat Bulldozer with a factory powered by PV electric.

Not even addressing the sunk costs that will need to be written off like you say Gail.

Soveriegn Default is where we are going. (and you know it Gail).

Our collective debt cannot fiscally/physically be repaid.

Never. Ever.

That is what Peak Energy boils down to.

Our collective Pensions/401's will be revealed to be worthless.

THat is our future. Plenty of "Stuff" of little value.

(Consumer goods at flea markets will be very cheap)

What softens the blow a bit is that the infrastructure doesn't have to be rebuilt overnight. To the extent that X% per year of the infrastructure gets rebuilt using an equivalent that reduces demand for fossil fuels by X%. The value of X being set by the depletion rate I'd imagine. Any idea what percent gets rebuilt each year due to attrition?

Pics worth a thousand words, indeed. 8D

H/T to Elaine Supkis, Money Matters

Welcome, Fred. Good to have you here.

Overbought retracements.

Bearish triangle forming possible.

Commodities did go down, but are still at elevated levels. The USD went up, but it is back down again, and is almost back at its low.

The Fed thinks it can manipulate markets. When the problem is out of control computer trading, as in the 1987 crash, then an intervention is capable of turning things around. But they are only going to be able to override fundamentals for so long, especially in commodities. And the fundamentals for the US economy are very bad. Really all they're doing, whether it is intentional or not, is allowing the big players to unload their holdings on the "dumb money" that is being suckered in to "buy on the dips" by TV's smiley faces and Fed interventions.

Dave - "Anything but a planned, cooperative and collective, orderly retrenchment to sustainability."

I have been considering the notion of sustainability. When you consider industrial societies and modern urban cities sustainability is a fiction. Take my older sister for instance: She recycles and goes to the supermarket with re-usable bags. She feels good about it. But it is a fiction. We're in a crises of epic proportions and

"...one path leads to despair and utter hopelessness.
The other to complete extinction.
Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly"
Woody Allen

Face it, we can ramp up conservation, electric cars, solar hot water heaters but none of it will ever be enough to avoid the consequenceses of overshoot.

Daily luxury cruise ships depart American port of calls full of over-fed complacent Americans who gorge on cheap food prepared by minions of low paid slaves (the luccky ones) from foreign nations.

It would be laughable but it's not...

ET:

You are entirely correct, it is not possible for an individual with no assets to tackle a problem of this magnitude. Which is why the only way out of this, if there is one, is by a group effort. For example, cities setting up trains and buses that transport your "poor bloke" to work and shopping so that he needn't purchase a car. Perhaps the local utility company would place the PV array on his roof and sell him the electricity it generates. And maybe he'll pay for the electricity and train fare and food with a salary from his new maintenance job at the solar plant on the outskirts of town.

It is not that different from now. No one starts with an empty lot and builds a home entirely by hand. We all rely on a vast number of architects, engineers, craftsmen, chemists, physicists, EEs, bankers, lawyers, clerks and more to come up with the designs and materials and financing for our homes and goods. The problem, as I see it, is that we (as a society) haven't yet made it a priority.

The design life in 40 years. One component (the floors) may have been specified too thin, or the wrong alloy. If so, rather than spending scarce $$ of new cars too soon, spend a few $ on more frequent inspection.

Unlike you, I think that well maintained rolling stock can, and should be, life extended. Use them in rush hour only service when near end-of-life, but keep them for 45 and 50 years if possible (and if it was a "good car"). Paris kept one series going for almost 70 years.

Mid-life (20 years) life extensions are common. I would consider the value of a second, more extensive, life extension at 40 years. It is likely to be cheaper than new cars.

New Orleans did a very extensive life extension at 67 years on our streetcars.

AFAIK (I have ridden on them) little if any salt gets from the freeways onto the cars (more does drift onto the tracks, which are lower and there 24/7). Salt corrosion of cars has not been mentioned as a problem with WMATA cars. Steel supports for aluminum would not even be considered (see article) if salt was an issue.

Best Hopes for Long Lived Infrastructure,

Alan

PS: I saw car #29, our 1897 Ford, Davis & Bacon work car on the tracks yesterday :-)

At least trains don't fall out of the sky when system failure occurs.

Anybody want to talk about American, Delta, BA grounding large parts
of their fleet?

I'm interested in this from another angle as well. I don't buy new cars: I buy (every 6 to 8 years) a used high end (Cressida, BMW) car with over 100,000 miles on it. I tell myself that these cars are built enough better to compensate for the age. So far so good. I save tons of money and get comfort and standard shift and just shy of 35mpg at 65-70mph. Of course, 15 years is not 40.

Washington DC is *THE* federal city. Under the US Constitution, the various states are responsible for it's welfare. Which is why they do not get a voting Senator or US Representative.

It is a one industry town, and that industry is tax exempt. In lieu of taxes, in order to have a functioning city in which to have our National Capitol, the Federal Government contributes money.

A high percentage of Metro riders are federal employees, I would not be surprised if half were, based on personal observations of rush hour.

In addition, DC Metro saves about 100,000 barrels of oil every day, and that # is growing. The Feds refused 18% federal fudning to save another 20 to 25,000 b/day, although many Oklahoma Interstates were build with 90% federal funding.

Alan

Aluminum is much more susceptible to fatigue than steel. And BART has uniquely aluminum cars (it let them build lighter elevated structures and saved fuel for generations),

The new streetcars we build in New Orleans were built out of 3/8" Corten# plate and are immune to fatigue, and the floors are 3/4"
marine plywood with rubber layment on top. Multiple centuries before they wear out !

Alan

# Steel alloy known for it's toughness, corrosion resistance and lack of fatigue.

Ed Tennyson (now about age 90) may have been the last REALLY first rate manager hired by transit authorities. It has NOT attracted "the best and the brightest" for several generations now.

Ed's next to last full time job was starting up operations on the San Diego trolley (back when it was single track, and that was a challenge to get good on-time performance, but he did). SD Trolley was the first modern Light Rail line built in the USA.

His last job was estimating ridership for WMATA. Before the first line opened he estimated ridership for the completed 103 mile system. He was off by 3%.

Ed knows the weaknesses of WMATA well, but he is not as harsh as you. He was hired in retirement by Arlington to 'watchdog" WMATA for a decade. He did say that one primary reason to build DC Metro was so that a skeleton staff could get to the Pentagon without any oil what so ever.

You may not like DC bureaucracy, but a lot of bad things happen if the folks at the Pentagon, SEC, FDA, FAA, etc. do not show up for work. Eliminate the work force first (and I have some sympathy there), and THEN the transit system, but not in the reverse order.

WMATA and BART are the only two major Urban rail systems built in the USA in my lifetime, and DC makes a good "before & after" comparison.

Alan

Ed's first job out of college was electrifying 10 miles more of the Reading Railroad (see Monopoly board game). He was also on the staff of the prosecution of GM for getting rid of streetcars (they won, GM paid a $1,000 fine). He gave a presentation to the board of the Long Island railroad on the advantages of 100% electrification as Dwight D. Eisenhower was giving his second Inaugural Address. etc. etc.

But, if a transit system is built in a productive locale, I will push for funding for it.

We're running low on productive locales to build transit systems -- all the manufacturing jobs keep going overseas

(signed)

D.C. area resident and daily Metro rider*

* I take a bus to and from Metro to reduce my consumption of imported petroleum

Yes, you can have one!!

If you find yourself with a lot of time on your hands, so to speak, you can build your own. Most of the cost of a small home build aircraft is the engine and instruments. You can put several thousand hours of your time into it, which is probably better than sitting in front of the TV watching cartoons or playing golf.

http://www.kitplanes.com/

Don't ask where the fuel will come from, though...

E. Swanson

the only real way to cause change is through votes and lobbying politicians.

I'd say no. Using the computers, network, and databases - the way people spend their money will have more of an effect.

The real growth in the economy over the past 20 years has been small businesses with less than 20 employees. The franchise systems are a large part of that. When legitimate manufacturing firms shuttered and sent the jobs overseas everyone started opening Subway Sandwich Shops, coffee sales outlets and tanning factories or worse yet they go to truck driving schools and buy tractor trailers. These unfortunate people borrow against the equity in their homes and SBA loans. Why? For the American opportunity to work themselves to death just to keep the doors open or the wheels turning.

These busineses operated on the margins of less than 10% so any downturn or rise in overhead is devastating. When they raised the national minimum wage last year and the dramatic rise in the cost of product a lot of these marginal businesses are on the ropes. If they raise their prices too quickly they lose customers and they go out of business. If they don't raise prices their margins are too low to justify staying in business and they go out of business. The franchisers have already gotten paid so they can afford to see a large percentage of the franchisees fail. This is capitalism.

I worked in the Retail Leasing business for years and I have seen more mom and pops go under the train than I care to recall. But I can assure you that if I had ever tried to tell them the truth that their yarn store would fail they would have fired me. So like a good little capitalist I drew up the triple net leases and then 6 months later I would flinch when I saw the going out of business sales. I was too ashamed to ever contact them!

Back in Sunnyvale, California, I'd go to the park and there'd be people walking, and playing with their kids, Indians, Chinese, etc., and Caucasians but the Caucasians always turned out to be, when I listened, immigrants from Europe. Americans, actual Americans of whatever ancestry, with American accents, were rare to nonexistent.

There's a lot of culture reclaiming to do.

That being said, where I am is a great place if you're a range steer or a peregrine falcon, but in human terms it's a Kunstleresque moonscape, utterly automobile-dependent, even less a promising place to live than Phoenix.

So, I am making plans to get my butt back to, well, Sunnyvale California, and hope to not have to endure another winter here. So, 6-7 months here of warm weather, but I'd like to get going ASAP.

Here, nobody walks anywhere, unless you're very poor. The homeless are a far greater percentage of the population than anywhere in the SF Bay Area. There are programs I may need to use in the Bay Area, and at least they were there. Here, they are not.

Living here means being utterly dependent on gasoline or diesel, driving long distances, not having work about half of the year, it's ..... just not my cup of tea I don't think.

I really look forward to the bay area again, it's public transportation, being able to ride a bicycle around, etc. Here's to LOW energy consumption.

"...bemoaning outsiders coming in a driving property values up..."

Or it could be thought of as greedy sellers driving the price up.

"fewer wage earners". Key phrase.

Thank you for your reply.

But as I related to someone on another web site, we had these choices
before 911. It's no accident that we were heading into a Recession
(see Survey Manufacturing Index Chart) then.

But then the Housing Bubble got blown and everyone (or not everyone,
the savers get/got punished) pulled cash from their homes and spent it.

We were bankrupt in 1985 (again see debt charts-debt explodes in '85).

We are now insolvent and the World's Savers and SWF are holding the only
non committed cash.

The Collapse has already happened.

Until we see people like Paulson, Greenspan, Cheney ("So?") in orange jumpsuits

the only change we'll see is more families in soup kitchen lines.

"Now that we have utterly collapsed our banking system, the Fed has to lend and to lend means to produce money out of thin air. If this were still a bubble, this action would be causing great inflation. But money is vanishing faster than the Fed can lend it. The Fed is dropping more and more rules and has been edging into 'no restrictions/no questions asked' more and more and has expanded this from banks that are 'sound financial condition' to not only bad banks but to NON-BANKS. This insane policy will stop the collapse but only at great cost. And it will keep all the bad things going.-Elaine Supkis

Sincerely, James

History has shown that wage increases without productivity increases are inflationary...but, in the 'new economy' since Regan entered office that history is out the window. Real wages have remained flat even with productivity gains while inflation has been held in check by imports. No rescue by rising wages is on the way.

That only leaves falling home prices to meet wages as a solution to the housing backlog and mortage melt down.

Faith in the currency by foreign investors is declining daily. If the Fed remains on it's present course of cutting interest rates we might observe the end of the era of the dollar as world reserve currency. We might see a melt down of the short term treasury bubble. No one seems to recognize that T bubble forming. I believe the Fed is going to take steps to slow the speculation in commodities. The Fed seems to believe, right or wrong, that speculation is driving commodity prices. It must be very tempting for the Fed to whipsaw commodity speculators and destroy paper wealth in that sector, driving more flight to treasuries...can't let those exchange traders be right...or wrong. Aint unregulated capitalisim great? The 'unseen hand' has a hammer and we are all nails.

Some interesting events from yesterday as posted on Mish's site:

'Eye on Commodity Prices
There was an interesting "buzz" on Minyanville on Thursday about commodity prices. Here goes from Minyan Peter:

Three things that caught my eye this morning:

The WSJ reporting that Valero (VLO) is cutting back refining output because of a surplus of supply.
Oil trading flat/down despite the announcement of a terrorist bombing of a major Iraqi pipeline.
The CME announced an increase in commodity trading marginrequirements.
While discrete events, all again raise the question of peaking consumer
commodity prices. Two things to keep in mind:

First, commodity price inflation has been cited repeatedly by the Fed as a concern. And given the view of many that the most recent price rises are a function of rampant speculation (versus fundamental demand) I would not underestimate

a) the pressure placed on the CME to increase margin requirements by banking regulators to curtail speculation

b) how stability in commodity prices (let alone price declines) opens up the Fed's ability to drop short term rates further without pummeling the dollar.

Second, while everyone will likely cheer commodity price declines as the savior of the US consumer, asset deflation, whether in housing, commodities or anything else is like Kryptonite to the banking industry. And don't forget, too, how much lending (particularly M&A related) has been done in the past five years in support of commodity related companies - particularly in Asia.

At least to me, commodity price deflation eliminates any notion of decoupling.'

remember that 100 years ago there was a financial panic nad JP Morgan got the bank heads together and decided which banks were sound and should be helped and which one's shoulden't. The US neds something like that again.

nate

thanks for u'r work , laying out the details & u'r opinions. i heard congressman chuck schuman interviewed on bloomberg & he had a good grasp of lots of specifics for a bill alleviating the foreclosure crisis & the first thought that came to my mind was; will work some & it will be 'catabolic' as in greer's definitions, i. e. prop things up longer, using capital/reasourses along the way.

all these plans leave out oil depletion [ & many big issues such as our debt/china relationship]& when they get going in earnest the plans will fail.

thanks again.

Treasury reveals new plan that will give Federal Reserve broad powers

Goodby, facade of free markets.
Hello, command and control.

Il Duce would have been proud.
After all, he did get the trains to run on time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benito_Mussolini&oldid=201763706

Glass-Steagall where were you when we needed you?
You fell victim to the Rubin/Greenspan/Clinton regime and the Goldman Sachs/Treasury revolving door.

Thank you very much for your reply, Mr. Hagens. I appreciate any hopeful insights anyone has, and try to avoid falling into the Derrick Jensen black hole of "hope is a narcotic."

Still, I doubt very much if there will be a revolution any time soon, even when the "elite" have taken everything. It didn't happen in Europe for well over a thousand years into the development of the aristocratic system, and even now, a lot of people who have nothing at all support the notion of "royalty."

One possibility of the outcome of catabolic collapse is that the central governments and their media mouthpieces will be able to keep an ever-growing disenfranchised class well-enough fed and entertained that they don't revolt. Even now, on the street you don't see people blaming either the bankers or the Government for the "sub-prime mortgage crisis". Just framing it that way is brilliant -- we have the less poor blaming the more poor for the result of their decisions to buy houses they couldn't afford!

Edited to add this comment from the Automatic Earth (Debt Rattle for Mar 29 just posted)

America is about to hand over even the last few bits of control over its wallet to a group of private bankers. As usual, this happens under the cloak of a crisis; the 1907 crash led to the call for a strong central bank. 100 years later, democratic oversight of the nation's finances is about to vanish in its entirety.

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/

We may not be screwed, but we surely will be changed

"It does no good to anyone to sit here and type 'we are screwed'."

I said that, and you know it.

How about this.

As long as we think that the people who got us into this catastrophe are
the same ones that are going to get us out, we're screwed.

And it does a lot of good to know that your situation as it currently exists is hopeless.

Once you get there, then other possibilities present themselves.

"I see the finance problem pretty clearly - but I just don't have any answers, at least from a policy perspective; therefore I root for the middle ground that punishes people for risk but keeps system intact so we still have freedoms."

Compromise now with these demons is death.

History is redolent with where we're heading.

All out war.

"I root for the middle ground that punishes people for risk but keeps system intact so we still have freedoms."

And since the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act, you haven't noticed that
our freedoms no longer exist.

We're somewhere around the Magna Carta not being signed yet in terms of personal freedoms.

Don't taze me bro! 8D

Enough on these pesky problems, let’s get to the BIG ONE!

$1000 Trillion in Derivatives.

It does no good to anyone to sit here and type 'we are screwed'.

I disagree. Recognition of the problem is a pre-requisite for a rational response. Right now, we have a systemic financial crisis that is global in scope. ALL possible outcomes lead to a situation that is worse, at least for Americans, than we have today. Some of the possible outcomes are truly horrific.

Even worse, we have an administration that has demonstrated repeatedly that it cares more for enriching friends and big campaign contributors than it does for the welfare of the US. The list of examples is legion: the invasion of Iraq, the reconstruction of Iraq, the response to Katrina, etc. Worse still, the same mindset prevails widely in the other two branches of Congress, as we can see from such things as the Bankruptcy "Reform" Law and the Medicare drug plan.

Paulson is thoroughly a creature of American Crony Capitalism. This is the same guy who repeatedly says he favors a "strong dollar policy", while actively doing things to weaken the dollar. He is, in common parlance, a liar. It is also important to remember that Bernanke, before becoming chairman of the Fed, was Bush's chief economic adivsor. He too is a Crony Capitalist through-and-through. There is virtually nothing this administration has done that hasn't made things worse for America, and Paulson and Bernanke are both "loyal Bushies".

Putting the current problems in the framework of "Shock Capitalism", there is little reason to expect that TPTB won't use this as another opportunity to further reduce our freedoms and further concentrate wealth in the hands of the few. My belief is that they are hoping exactly for a middle way that lets them suck a little more wealth out of the middle class, while keeping the "bread and circuses" sufficient to prevent actual rebellion. And if rebellion comes, well, they are making preparations for that too, as evidenced by Bush's various executive orders, domestic operations involving the US military, and the use of Blackwater domestically.

One of the reasons Shock Capitalism works is that people are too slow to realize they are being screwed. People are reluctant to recognize that general freedom and prosperity aren't what these guys are working towards. They accept that the loss of freedom and prosperity is a necessary response to the crisis (whatever that crisis happens to be). And so TPTB turn the temperature of the pot up a bit more, and the frogs don't jump out.

Except it isn't that kind of pot. Nous sommes dans un pot de chambre, et nous y serons emmerdes. (Hehe...I love that quote).

Here's how far the system is from collapse: Las Vegas is still packed with tourists, and poker tournaments are still packed with amateurs who are paying up to a $20,000 buy-in to compete against people they have virtually no hope of beating.

Every trip I take to LA, the traffic is still heavy. There are still long lines at the bank and the grocery store. There are still long lines of Hummers and SUVs at the car wash closest to my house.

A house on my street got foreclosed after a flipper bought at the top. The house sold to a nice couple within a day of the bank putting it on the market, and I've had people knocking on my door ever since asking if the house is still for sale. And I'm in the Vegas area, where the situation is supposedly hopeless.

The solar contractor I've chosen is busy--there's a wait before I can get my system installed.

Even the lines at my closest Starbucks remain long.

The Fed is providing liquidity. They are not printing gobs of money. Oil prices are going up. The world is not at an end.

Eric, perhaps I was mistaken. Perhaps you should buy your gas from Conoco instead of Shell. That will cause Shell to buy a lot fewer barrels from Saudi Arabia and bring them to their knees. That will teach them to mess with folks who know the power of a boycott, and know how to set one into motion with chain letter email.

Hell it worked with bringing down the price of gas by boycotting the majors didn't it? Didn't it???

Ron Patterson

Eric, oil is a globally traded commodity so it would only matter if you didn't buy it at all (and were joined in the movement by the rest of the world).

'The whole purpose of having one cartridge for both is lots of ammo so you don't run low.'

What you say makes no sense what so ever. Why would one run low on ammo because they chose to use two different calibers, one for handgun, one for rifle? The storage of ammo for the future should have been completed long ago. If one runs out of ammo it is because of their own lack of planning.

'1900 fps in a Marlin with special loads.'

So, one is going to carry a 'special load' for the rifle and a normal pistol load for the handgun? Why not carry a real rifle with the abilities inherent in a high velocity cartridge since one is going to carry two seperate loads? Again, your contention makes no sense.

'combat weapons are pretty useless for anything except two legged predators.'

This is the only thing that you said that does make sense.

'The .223 would just wound the big ones.'

Wrong. I have killed many deer, antelope, several elk, and 2 moose with a .243. I could have used a .223, .270 or .222 to accomplish the same thing. All were one shot kills. The shooting and tuning of a rifle is done from a bench rest on a range. High velocity rifles, no matter the caliber, kill by shock. When the bullet strikes and mushrooms or explodes like shrapnel, it creates huge overpressure in the blood vessels and arteries and usually the animals heart stops immediately. This does not happen with a low velocity pistol bullet that simply punches a hole. It also does not work with a .357 cartridge that leaves the muzzle at 1900 fps, because by the time that bullet travels 150 yards it has shed a lot of velocity. Hunting should be done from a stand or cover, the hunter remaining motionless untill the quary presents itself. 'Scouting the terrain' is done prior to the hunt in order to locate an obvious game trail for the hunter to overlook. The shot is anticlimatic and automatic. Only fools attempt to 'track' a deer or other quary on their turf. A walk in the woods is a fine thing, but it is not hunting.

BTW, more deer have been killed by small game hunters using .22 LRs than all high velocity calibers combined. A behind the ear shot on a deer's head from a .22 will drop it in it's tracks.

Please do not post on subjects that you are not familiar with unless you are preface them with 'I think'. Obviously you are mouthing what you have read in gun rags, written by scribblers attempting to sell guns. You could cause readers of your posts to waste money on useless rifles chambered for pistol cartridges.

38 special loads work good for head shots at geese, turkey etc. Not very sporting

Head shots are a fine sporting thing. But considering the size of the bullet VS the size of the head - the misses and lack of energy dissapation of the round is why the law does not allow for head shots.

.22 cal rimfire VS turkey is legal in some places. But you might be farther ahead to get yourself a spring-powered break-barrel .22 air gun for your small game.

A .243 works VS deer. But the last deer I dropped with a 243 left the copper jacket OUTSIDE the deer after hitting a rib. Most of the lead was inside the deer - a bb sized exit wound on the other side.

Sure, everything will be fine-America`s leaders are working overtime worrying about the sheeple-they will just go get them everything they need-a chicken in every pot-those damn hippies don`t understand nothin.

'There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders...' Lord Acton

Itz da 'merkin whey, rite wxman?

I said it upthread and it bears repeating again....Fallon resigned for a reason.

Bill Lind says from your link dated Mar 26, 2008
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind137.html
that "The purpose of this column is not to warn of an imminent assault on Iran, though personally I think it is coming, and soon."

Lew Rockwell, on March 28, 2008, said
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/020247.html

Terrible rumors from Russia continue to swirl around the Middle East that the Cheney-Bush junta has decided to bomb Iran on April 4th or 6th, targeting not only nuclear-power research facilities but ships, planes, antiaircraft installations, and the Iranian pentagon. Apparently the nuclear-power reactor being built by Russian companies will be spared, but not much else. Will it happen? Certainly the neocon hate network is working overtime to make it so. Bush fired the anti-neocon Admiral Fallon. One thing we know for sure: it will be the typical Bush administration snafu, with horrific consequences for the region and the world, not to speak of the Iranian people, and reap much trouble for the US empire. Indeed, it could mark the end of the empire if, as Bill Lind worries, the Iranians in retaliation cut off water-food-ammo supply routes to US troops in Iraq, and, with the help of Shiite militians, capture large numbers of them.

Lind was also writing about a US attack on Iran in October 2006.
http://www.d-n-i.net/lind/lind_10_31_06.htm

"The third and final act in the national tragedy that is the Bush administration may soon play itself out. The Okhrana reports increasing indications of “something big” happening between the election and Christmas. That could be the long-planned attack on Iran."

Waddington of the Washington Times said this on March 30, 2008
Iran's meddling in Iraq
http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080330/COMMENTARY/788217470/1012

But this weekend the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, blamed Tehran fairly and squarely for the barrage of rockets which have hit the Green Zone over the past week. "The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone," he said, "were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets," and he added that the groups that carried out the attack were funded and trained by the Iranian regime's Qods Force.
...
Iran's support for rogue elements in Iraq has increased rather than diminished since Mr. Ahmadinejad traveled to Baghdad this year
...
It is in this volatile climate that the U.S. searches for a solution to end the Iranian regime's destructive influence in Iraq. Many believe that the solution lies with the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI), an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq's Diyala province, which is dedicated to bringing an end to the present Iranian regime
...
Following Vice President Richard Cheney's trip to the region to obtain greater support for isolating Iran, the U.S. would surely therefore do well to look at the MEK, which has the means and the will to bring about change in Iran, as a solution to this entire crisis.

Fallon has resigned but Petraeus hasn't and is finding reasons for Bush and Cheney to attack Iran.

The temporary replacement for Fallon is his deputy Martin Dempsey.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/551466.html

It is not clear whether Dempsey eventually will get that assignment or stay at Central Command. For now, Dempsey will remain at three-star rank, meaning he will be outranked by one of the commanders nominally in his charge: Army Gen. David Petraeus in Baghdad.
...
Bush is not expected to nominate a successor to Fallon until after Petraeus reports to Congress April 8-9 on his assessment of conditions in Iraq and his recommendations on how to proceed.

Bush is meeting Putin on April 6 and the nuclear power reactor in Iran built by Russia is not a target.

Next, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown will visit Bush on April 16, 2008.
http://www.newsahead.com/PREVIEW_08/Brown_Bush_Apr_08.htm
"Bush is expected to press Brown for more robust backing for the US attempt to increase international pressure on Iran to prevent it from obtaining the means to build nuclear weapons."

Bush and Cheney are discussing Iran issues with many world leaders. Let's hope a well planned long term solution is realised.