I want REAL hope: That when gas costs $46 a gallon, America will still shine...

The future scares me. I want reassurance.

"Yes, you will always have a charge card and, yes, there will always be a mall." I get that reassurance all the time but that's not the reassurance that I need. I'm not a fool. I know that we can't go on spending the earth's resources and living on peak oil forever. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER IT'S GONE!.

This is the reassurance that I crave: "No matter what happens with regard to your material circumstances, your life will have purpose and meaning." That's what I want to hear! "When peak oil runs out and our 100 years of mindless consuming catches up with us and we are living by candlelight and cooking venison over a wood fire, life will still be IMPORTANT and HOPEFUL and...." That's it! That's what I need!

And there is no one who is telling me that -- except possibly my priest.

The scariest movie ever made is not "Dawn of the Dead" or anything with Freddie Kruger in it. The scariest movie ever made is "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream" wherein the fast-approaching end of oil is documented extensively. Watch it if you dare! But don't watch it alone. You'll have nightmares.

There are big changes coming up in our world -- even as soon as in the next five years -- no matter who gets elected or who gets bombed, blown up or shot. And we must start preparing for them NOW. What will life be like when the inevitable happens and we have to live more realistically?

I want to know what kind of person I will be when I am stripped of all my "things". Will I still be kind and loving and good -- and free?

The Indians of the high plains had nothing but what they could carry from site to site yet they were men and women of courage and meaning.

Before they were overrun by the Communist Chinese, Tibetans lived simply -- even without ELECTRICITY -- yet they are legendary as being one of highest civilizations ever made. Why were they so great? Because they governed their lives by one simple question which they asked themselves constantly -- "If I do thus and so, will it be of the highest benefit to the most sentient beings? What can I do to help those around me?" As a result of their concern and care for others and, despite Communist propaganda to the contrary, pre-invasion Tibet, not Disneyland, was the happiest place on earth.

Pictures of a future world: Us, like mice, scurrying from war to war; vultures searching for prey.

Us, like heroes, building the most important civilization the world has ever known -- constructing it on the building blocks of the glorification of all that is good within the human spirit and soul.

Pictures of a future world: What is REALLY important? In the future, will America shine? We must, like a child who finally outgrows the Terrible Twos, turn to better things. It is time for Americans to stop squabbling with the world, stop childishly playing "cowboys" and finally become adults.

"Bring it on" is no longer an option. We can no longer solve our environmental problems by killing "redskins". And if one more person says to me, "Tell that to Al Qaeda," I too will start to get juvenile! 50 years of US/British failed "cowboy" tactics in the Middle East CREATED Al Qaeda. Duh.

Give me a future that is real. Please.

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Order the scariest movie ever made: http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

From Nigel: On Bush's watch, a staggering amount of American jobs were lost. http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/politics/fourmoreyears_flash.cfm

From Me: I wrote a book many years ago, entitled "Pictures of a Future World". It was about an Indian tribe who accidentally became immortal and witnessed millennia of man's inhumanity to man -- until Homo Sapiens managed to kill all of themselves off. When I wrote it, I had assumed that it was a novel.

Just in time for Hallowe'en: Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue! http://www.hrc.org/millionformarriage/hween04/

From Maureen Dowd: OP-ED COLUMNISTWhite House of HorrorsBy MAUREEN DOWDDetermined to throw a good scare into the Arab world, the vice president ended up scaring up the swarm of jihadist evil spirits he had conjured.

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It's time for our military to stop acting like bandits holding up the convenience stores of the world for oil.

Press Release: I'm still trying to rescue my daughter's friend "Jordan" from one of those "Behavior Modification" programs out in the Utah desert. Someone else in my same postition has filed a Habeas Corpus writ to try to get another child released from one of these programs on the basis that the child is behing held in involuntary servitude in violation of the 14th Amendment. The hearing is in federal court next week. If the writ is granted, it will mean that non-guardians can have input into whether or not chidren can be carted away to boot camps by their parents with no repercussions from the community. (See Feldman v. Youth Care of Utah et al, Case No.: 2:04-CV-00933PGC)

Good Morning America is doing a segment on the Feldman case. Somebody want to do a segment on Jordan too? 100 years after adult involuntary servitude was elimintated, it's time we eliminate child involuntary servitude as well! Oprah! 60 Mintues! Jerry! Do you hear me! Give me a call. E-mail me.

From Patrick: Fossil fuel may not require fossils, as the pressure of deep Earth has been found capable of creating hydrocarbons from inorganic matter. http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-09-13-3

From Studio Ron re the price of gas: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/BOR410A.html Iraq war:.. dollar vs euro? ... we have seen the price of gas rise to all time highs.
Don Knotts is Dubya....so Dubya-like...funny how Knotts' whacky character fits Dubya to a tee. http://www.dubyamovie.com/large.html

How low can Republicans stoop in this election: I just heard that Repubs are e-mailing the following ABSOLUTE LIE to their lists:
"Living in a heavily populated military area, we just received word that Kerry's group with Kerry's approval has been calling families of military members serving in Iraq and telling them that their loved one there is dead. They wait a while and then tell them that's what will happen if they vote for Bush." Kerry is NOT doing this!!!! How low can Republicans stoop? Pretty damn low apparently. (Repubs must be really desperate.)

From Vee Brown: We've probably already read "A day in the life of Joe Republican" but it is STILL the issue:

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

After work this evening, Joe plans to visit his father at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards.

He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.

Joe is happy to see his father, who is now retired and lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day.