Four Long Reads

Four Long Reads

Over the long weekend I accumulated some lengthy articles that I recommend to one and all.

Ten ways to prepare for a post-oil society at The Bridge is a look at just what post peak oil is going to mean:

Expand your view beyond the question of how we will run all the cars by means other than gasoline. This obsession with keeping the cars running at all costs could really prove fatal. Get this: the cars are not part of the solution (whether they run on fossil fuels, vodka, used frymax™ oil, or cow shit). They are at the heart of the problem.

This is the sunset of Happy Motoring (including the entire US trucking system). Get used to it. Don't waste your society's remaining resources trying to prop up car-and-truck dependency. Moving things and people by water and rail is vastly more energy-efficient. Virtually every place in our nation organized for car dependency is going to fail to some degree. Quite a few places (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami) will support only a fraction of their current populations.

Mark Kleiman writes in the American Interest at great length on US drug policy. It lends itself poorly to excerpts, but among many other things it includes alcohol as part of a comprehensive drup program, recommends aboloshing the drinking age, and rather than suspend drivers license, suggests a suspendable "drinking license." Doesn't call for full blown legalization, but does suggest tokers should be able to grow their own.

Richard D. Kahlenberg in Washington Monthly on race, class, the overlap and the difference:

Part of the resistance to policies like class-based affirmative action is that its color-blind approach is seen as suggesting that racism is no longer a problem, a thing of the past. But in fact, class-based programs incorporate not only the legacy of past discrimination but also the reality of current-day discrimination.

ANKOSS at Kos examines the Sacred Cult Of The Soldier:

Through a confluence of militaristic propaganda, ruthless self-interest, and the spontaneous growth of popular myth, a cult of glorification of the common American soldier has arisen.

What are the consequences of making soldiers sacred?

1. Anything that can be said to endanger our soldiers becomes a lever for political action. This is how Bush is ginning up a casus belli against Iran. THEY ARE ENDANGERING OUR SOLDIERS!

2. What the military wants, the military gets. You name it: F22, F35, V22, high-tech, low-tech, no-tech, working, junk, vaporware. OUR SOLDIERS DESERVE ONLY THE BEST!

3. Military sevice becomes a prerequisite for political office. HE/SHE UNDERSTANDS THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING OUR SOLDIERS!

4. Perpetual conflict and low-intensity war become a norm. OUR SOLDIERS NEED COMBAT EXPERIENCE!

5. The civil sector is sacrificed to fund an ever increasing military establishment. WE CAN'T LET OUR SOLDIERS DOWN!

6. Criticism of the military becomes taboo. One bad joke at the expense of US soldiers ended Kerry's presidential hopes. INSULTING THE HONOR OF OUR SOLDIERS IS FORBIDDEN!