Hey, lets just tell big bus. to switch over to electric cars we can plug into our solar roofs. It would put generation and generation to work.
http://my.care2.com/leoburg

I’ll admit that the image of a roomful of people chanting "Yes we can" in unison is chilling to me. I see a party embedding our country deeper and deeper into ever more elaborate and entangling alliances. But what is the choice, to wield American military might in the Middle East like a game of Whack-a-Mole, planting permanent bases in every country with an oil interest? Once again I'm a Catholic schoolboy, marveling at the capacity for faith of those around me.

It would be nice to have our country be well thought of through out the world, but that seems unlikely. Even to have other countrys not hate and want to kill Americans would be a good thing. Don't they know that we kill each other so much that we don't need help from other countries?

What would be the worse case scenario if we no longer had access to crude oil? The American way of life would largely revert to the way it was before automobles were invented. People could travel on trains and on bicycles. And river boats. And walk. People would hate that and get to work on alturnitive fuals. I bet it wouldn't take long.

By the way, the middle east has a lot of oil, but they can't grow much food in the desert. Every country that has oil needs something from the United States, besides soldiors. What if we charged $100 a bushel for grain, or whatever the price of oil is at a given time?

That would mean that American business would have to put Americans first and that would be a good thing. If people all over the world worked together for the same goals; ending hunger, sickness, crime and hate, the goals would be met so quickly. Man, I have way too much time on my hands!

What would be the worse case scenario if we no longer had access to crude oil? You asked.

Ah, a much worse case scenario would be triple digit inflation and over 50% unemployment. Followed by some kind of war for food due to shortages. (We not only import a lot of oil we also import a lot of food.)

Trains, trucks, tractors, ships and most boats run on fuel oil.

Wouldn't it be better to just start working on alt fuel now and get off the oil less painfully.

Alt fuel and weaning us off M/E oil - Carter started us in that direction 30 years ago. Seems like those ideas ran into a brick wall. Why?

President gas man et al have us right where they want us.

It as the other day that I heard, the whole world would love to eat as American's do. The problem being, we would need a few more planets to grow the food. I don't totally believe that. Though when jerry Brown said years ago, "when China has 2 billion cars, we will need a few other planets to take care of our oil problem. And there are not many very close by."

When I said, if we had no access to oil, I meant something horrible has happened-possibly another world war to cause it. Trains, ships and riverboats can run on steam. Homes can be heated with wood furnices and electricity produced by water power. Horse-power was produced by horses. Life wasn't that bad before oil fualed the world, although it would be very difficult to go back. I would certainly miss my computer and the internet if it were not available. We would still have the most important things, like family, friends and music.

The "good old days" weren't always that great. I can remember when my grandparents farmhouse didn't have a toilet or bathtub or a phone. Using an outhouse wasn't a bit pleasent. Back then, at least, most americans were not deep in debt. The idea of saving up for what you want is good.

I guess people can adapt to whatever they have to. Our country has gone through a great depression and survived. Eating the way "americans do" is pretty much killing us. Perhaps getting back to basics could be a good thing. I read somewhere that the way americans can prepare for such possible emergencies is to grow gardens for food, get out of debt and get and learn to repair a good bicycle.

Well, we did the get out of debt thing...but I'm not growing a garden unless the deer population around here is drastically reduced! The last time I attempted to grow a few tomato plants, the deer waited until the 'maters were just about ready for picking, and in one night they ate them, vines and all right down to the ground! You can't really have a garden around here, because the critters eat it all...and the homeowner's association in this neighborhood frowns on garden fencing...which most deer can jump over, no problem.

Sue, Are you familiar with those indoor garden kits? They look like some sort of hydroponic device. I think they're called an AeroGardens. Anyway, growing tomatoes indoors is appealing, no pesticides, deer, etc. Not sure if the cats would eat them though! Larry

I know what you mean Sue. I bet the deer stood at the edge of the woods watching your toil and snickering about how they were going to feast on your tomatos. We've had the same problem. We even tried to grow tomato plants in 5 gallon plastic buckets, without success.
When we first moved to Arkansas from St. Louis we were gung-ho about making a garden. It did not take me long to get over that. Gardening is way to close to the ground. I just can't do all that bending anymore.

We have deer around here but we've been lucky that they haven't invaded the garden, if they do I will put up a fence around and over it. They can have the berries at the edge of the woods but my veggies are ours except for those I throw into the woods because of insects or over-ripeness. I think having two dogs helps keep the deer away--though I do love photographing them when they venture to the berries.

My big shock last year was when our two young peach trees had the most abundant blooms and the winds and rain didn't blow them away so we had an amazing crop of young peaches.....until the squirrels discovered them. Squirrels LOVE little green peaches and before I realized what was happening, the trees were stripped bare except for one lone peach. This year I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the squirrels away.

Er, what was this thread about? This isn't the Organic Gardening forum, is it?

Ron Paul is a farmer and grows organic tomatoes.

Thanks, now I don't feel so bad for going off on my gardening experiences.

I'm not certified organic but I'm adhering to organic methods.

You're welcome! Here are some tidbits on Ron Paul the farmer:

http://www.farmersforpaul.org/index.html

Several years ago I had access to a bunch of pecan shells and decided to use them as ground cover in my flowerbeds. It looked pretty good, but I hadn't realized that there was quite a lot of pecan left in the shells and the squirrels had a feast. Our little dog went NUTS trying to catch a squirrel.

I don't have the acreage to grow tomatoes in the house...or enough sunlight! I already have our bathroom ledge by the tub already full of orchids that are getting ready to bloom...and I'm not evicting them!
The better choice for me has been to visit our local once a week Herndon Farmer's Market and buy THEIR local home grown tomatoes. It's also a great place to get the best sweet corn, green beans, squash and other veggies, from the people who grew them. It's seasonal, so I have to wait until they've got 'em, but it's worth it. In the meantime, Wegmans grocery has pretty good tomatoes still on the vine. Not as good as the home grown local ones, but at least they taste like a tomato instead of wet newspapers, like most of the store tomatoes that were bred for long shelf life and not taste.
I'm dreaming of the first 'mater sandwich of the upcoming summer...sourdough bread,(sometimes toasted, sometimes not) a good amount of Hellman's Mayo, a little salt, and thick, juicy slices of homegrown tomatoes. Nothing better. Tastes like summer!