When I was in college in Richmond, Virginia, there was a fabulous little hole in the wall of a bookshop called Carriage House Books. It's still there, near the campus, and just as cozy. Carriage House always welcomed browsers, even though it was crowded, pokey, and tiny. If you were particularly lucky you could snag one of those library-style step stools, blend in to a … [Read more...]
Neither apocalypse nor paradise
I'm pleased that my little article on the high volume of collapse talk coming from peak oil writers recently generated some attention. And I'm grateful that as someone so obviously committed to Transition as Dave Ewolt judged my musings worth an intelligent response. I'd like to address some of his excellent points here. For me, there are three issues in talking about any … [Read more...]
Do shoot the messenger
If the right message is delivered by the wrong messenger, it probably won't get through. Even worse, the wrong messenger can make people who were neutral on an issue into hostile critics. Using the wrong messenger may be worse than using no messenger at all. That's the finding of a study on the Golden Rule done in October at the University of Virginia. For Christians, … [Read more...]
Thank you for oil
As families gather around Thanksgiving tables to voice the things they're thankful for—usually family, friends, "this time together"—I'll be offering my thanks for oil. Not for the olive oil that might be used to sauté some of our veggies, though I'm thankful for that too. No, I'm talking about petroleum. When we think about oil we mostly see it as gasoline, or lubricant for a … [Read more...]
Peak-ocalypse now: a cult of doom
Change out those barrels of potable water, haul a few more cases of pork-n-beans down to the basement and make sure that Messrs Smith and Wesson are well oiled up. That's right -- it's time again for the Peak Oil Apocalypse show, sponsored naturally, by Goldline International. To hear many peak oil bloggers talk recently, you'd think that Western society was sure to collapse … [Read more...]