The bomb Ayers and Dohrn were working on was a giant shrapnel bomb (Possibly as much as 50 lbs of Amron encased in nails and bolts) They were going to take it uptown and set it off in the main hall of the Columbia Library between periods. How many people would have been killed and how many more permanently maimed or blinded? This doesn't fit any definition of revolution. It's nothing but sadism driven by upper-mddle class angst. The closest comparison would be pathetic trenchcoat mafia bombers from Colombine.

Matt

I can recall several emerging markets investors i knew claiming that there was no danger holding Chinese stocks until after the Olympics were over since the excitement in anticipation of the event as well as the Chinese government's own efforts would act as a floor under the market. My suspicion was that scrutiny accompanying the event would make it impossible for China to hide what was difficult to hide before (Gas lines,hunger riots,neighborhood removal,pollution,general backwardness) and that the publicity surrounding the event would be an opportunity for disgruntled groups to air their grievances. I think both have been borne out by events.

Matt

The irony of the author's title is that "humanity" has already been subsumed by modernity. What "humanity" needs is a catacalism (say in the form of an oil crash) followed by a re-civilizing along more sensible lines. What is the point of having an endless energy source? So we can continue the mindless build-out of the human footprint and accommodate even more dehumanized humans living their pointless lives in the service of distant capital? So we can have a Long John Silvers in every small town? So we can turn the earth into the death star,a planet resembling a giant microchip? No thanks.I'd rather take my chances on the shaky bridge to something new.

matt felix

I'm so fucking tired of the proposition that we should reduce population to 10% of what it is now. And how do you propose to go about this, bro? Who goes first? And who gets to pick? Perhaps we should start with the disabled, you know, out of racial hygiene concerns. And then we'll move on to the gypsies and the teeming dark people who reproduce too much. You pig. You fucking pig. You fucking luddite genocidal maniac. You belong in Nuremberg. Go away.

--You're not even alive. You may never have been. ZOmbie.

Matt

Worst Case Scenario: matt felix gets his way

What matt felix and his ilk want is an apocalypse.

Well, as I say to all my crazy Christian friends...you first! If you want to depopulate the planet, be my guest. Lead by example. Just leave me out of it.

Anyway, as for solar, it'd be nice, but even the co-founder of Greenpeace has seen the nuclear light. Wake up and smell the thorium, people.

--Modernity is an apocalypse of the spirit. The reality is that people simply can not be human with the level of stimulation that modernity entails. It's really that simple. That is precisely why people are so addled and seemingly unhappy in the midst so much material product. The great conceit of modernity is that we can be ANYTHING we want to be (spacemen,androids,cyborgs) and the reality is that we can not. Modernity is inherently alienating.

Matt

A Major Platform Win. Namely, healthcare. Hillary needs to be able to make the case that her campaign had a substantive impact on the race. The best way to do that is to get to write the party's healthcare plank in the platform. If Obama folds on the mandate issue, Hillary walks away with a policy win. Plus, this would please John and Elizabeth Edwards. Choosing Elizabeth to write the healthcare plank of the platform could appease both camps."

-- I am a long time Clinton supporter and I am basically of the belief now that Clintons don't care a bit about the issues and never have. I think the conservatives were basically right about them all along in this respect. I thought both the gas tax position and the saber-rattling about Iran showed a breathtaking level of calculated cynicism on their part (the first time this occurred to me was the Lewinsky Cruise Missle Attack on Iraq but i let this pass at the time. Now I think my instincts were right and it really was called a distraction). I honestly think the Clintons are "Liberals" only because they have packaged themselves as such. I think,constitutionally, they were just as capable of being conservatives if they had seen a reason to adopt this package instead at the time they embarked on their political careers.

Matt

A side note: A number of readers have argued that world demand for oil hasn't grown fast enough to justify the remarkable growth in prices, so there must be something underhanded going on. But I think that argument doesn't appreciate how all you need is just a little bit more demand than supply to get prices moving up quickly. "

--Part of the problem is that supply is confused with production. Supply, in our case, is the net amount available for import by importing countries. While global production has plateaued,net exports has fallen a few % points from its peak a couple years ago. This phenomena is known as the export-land model and is a result of increasing consumption by exporting countries. This is really at the crux of rising prices IMO.

Matt Felix

Feudalism is merely a system where people work in exchange for life's necessities rather than cash. As we enter an era of greater and greater scarcity (we are) such a system should appeal to more and more people.

Matt