Call the Gas Company Before You Dig

Word on the internets suggests that the US and world economies are bracing for a major blow in September. Sorry to be a “sky is falling” guy – I really don’t know what I’m talking about, but I do read a lot of internet press and there are alarm bells ringing rather loudly.

Here, we see one of many reports suggesting the imminence of an attack on Iran (US, Israeli and possibly UK) “likely to be on a massive multi-front scale but avoiding a ground invasion.” Just skim the bullet points.

And look here this week, under the headline “Video: US Comptroller says America is facing total collapse.” That's on "60 Minutes."

Not mainstream enough for you? Not immediate enough? In the Dow Jones Financial News we see that an anonymous investor last week bet 6.9 billion Euros that European markets will drop by a third (read "crash") by the end of September, 2007. The keyword here appears to be "volatility."

Maybe it’s all just an orchestrated propaganda effort to stimulate the economy – hoping we’ll all go to Home Depot for plywood and concrete to build our shelters, and to Costco for canned goods to stock them.

Or maybe we’re really reaching the end of the new Roman Empire, and the best thing to do is just prepare to adapt. I do like the idea of Cascadia, the new country made up of the region from Vancouver BC south as far as San Francisco. Mexico can have L.A., and half the Midwest is already run by the Taliban.

Sorry to get heavy with you, babies. I see all this stuff, then I look out the window and birds are chirping, the sun is shining, people are saying, "How do you do?" ... just like that beautiful September morning back in 2001.

Politically, with the people of the US so ready now to respond to Big Idea candidates and so interested in local solutions to energy and environmental threats, I find it rather exciting that we may be backing toward the cliff's edge. We seem to do our best work under pressure.

We now return you to that video of Miss South Carolina.