Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide (James Howard Kunstler)

[Tace]

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

Oct. 31, 2011 -- I landed back in the USA Wednesday from Sweden. What a downer to be reminded that more people speak English in the foreign country you just came from, and to notice what a slum airport New York's JFK is.

"Wretched refuse yearning to be free," the poem at the statue of liberty's base declares. How prophetic. Nobody in baggage claim understood the sentence, "Which carousel does the luggage from BA 4872 come to?" Quien sabe? Vem vet? Kim bilar? 谁知道? Ποιος ξέρει?

The Europeans, by necessity, may excel at learning languages, but at banking and money matters they are perhaps not such geniuses -- no matter how creamy the shopgirls are -- and in the politics of the region things often devolve to the level of a lethal pie-fight. Now that Germany and France rolled out the latest provisional miracle rescue of their countries' banks, jubilation reigned in the stock markets and the OECD economy is presumably back to turbo hyper warp speed.

more

http://worldnewstrust.com/nowhere-to-run-nowhere-to-hide-james-howard-kunstler.html

[Demeter]

1. Kunstler is Getting Tiresome

and uninteresting.

[Chan790]

3. Getting?

It took me <140 words of his first article I ever read to dismiss him entirely for what he is...a histrionic chicken little. The sky is falling, the sky is falling, civilization is ending today and no matter how many times he's disproven on that assertion, he just keeps coming back for more. It took me a while to figure it out, it must be profitable to him in some way, the only way he can earn a living because frankly he's a terrible writer and he's never demonstrated any attempts at other labor-able skills.

James Kunstler is the Harold Camping of the left. We'd all do a great service to humanity to ignore him.

[Tace]

4. Feel Better Now?

Have a nice day. : )

[Chan790]

6. I'll feel better when his crap gets the same treatment as other non-credible loonies here.

There's a long list of sources that aren't allowed to be posted here and Kunstler belongs on it.

I'll try to have a nice day, thanks. :hi:

[Tace]

7. Where's The Long List?

I don't want you censoring what I see. What are you talking about?

[Tace]

8. Chan790: I'm Responding To Your Points

I appreciate your comments about the post, even if they are critical. I'll try to respond to each of the points that you made in your first reply to this post:

--Histrionic chicken little. The sky is falling, the sky is falling, civilization is ending today and no matter how many times he's disproven on that assertion, he just keeps coming back for more.

Kunstler's latest permutation has been as a peak-oiler. His main topic is limited petroleum resources and the impact. Kunstler's previous "Chicken Little" gig was as a Y2K popularizer, or doom-sayer. Google is your friend. I'll only add that Kunstler's Y2K warnings may have helped avert possible Y2K disaster.

--It took me a while to figure it out, it must be profitable to him in some way, the only way he can earn a living because frankly he's a terrible writer and he's never demonstrated any attempts at other labor-able skills.

Yes, this is profitable for Kunstler. The reason he writes a weekly column is to promote his profitable endeavors, such as writing novels.

--James Kunstler is the Harold Camping of the left. We'd all do a great service to humanity to ignore him.

I get your Harold Camping analogy, although Kunstler doesn't set specific set dates for his predictions, as Camping does, he often has more general predictions, such as, "I won't be surprised to see it all melt down this fall," etc. (That's not an actual quote, but a paraphrase of something he might write.)

But ignore him?

I'd no sooner ignore him than you.

Cheers

[truth2power]

5. I don't get it. Kunstler isn't saying anything in this piece that sane economists and

other sentient beings haven't already said. I think it was Chris Hedges, IIRC, who said, "These are the good times", i.e., it's going to get even worse.

And as far as the baggage claim incident, I was just ranting to a friend of mine a couple of days ago about essentially the same problem. You try to communicate your needs to someone in customer service etc., and they act like they don't understand plain English. It's pervasive.

I've wasted inordinate amounts of my time, which is as valuable as anyone else's, trying to straighten out some simple issue with someone whose listening skills appear to be nil. It's extremely frustrating. I can't believe no one else on DU has experienced this. :shrug:

[Tace]

2. Some Weeks Are Better Than Others

Took me until today to get to Monday's column. I try to post it each week.