Post-script

      I am really fairly freaked out about the state of things currently... if you follow one or two of the "Prophets of Doom" links above, you'll see why:

      We are on the precipice of societal collapse. I really strongly believe that this is true, and feel like a voice crying out in the wildnerness... oil prices, as you all know, are skyrocketing, and they will simply continue to do so. Is oil a renewable resource? No indeed, it isn't. We will run out, and very very soon will come to the peak of our production, at which point, though demand keeps climbing, the supply will run begin to run dry.

      What does this mean? The end of our way of life, certainly: no more will it be economically viable to truck in products and food from all over the country, let alone the continent or the globe. No longer will electricity be affordable. In fact, virtually everything in our lives right now pivots on the availability of oil, and our economy is based on the false premise that oil will become more and more readily available. Money is simply a symbol for oil, and the banks know that oil is our actual currency. And it's about to get cut short.

      So then what does this mean? No more Wal Marts. No more CDs. No more going to the grocery store to buy your US-grown peaches and your South American grapes.

      Prepare yourselves. Honestly. Get ready, and then watch and wait. Our grandchildren will read about society the way we know it now and think it fiction; it will cease to exist.