Random Nuclear Strikes

Testing…What is pissing me off is i cant seem to post pics on the iphone…

Been thinkin’ about switchin’ to a diesel. Safer in collisions, you can store a bunch of it at home without the explosion risk of gasoline, and the efficiency will silence any protest by my environmentally-conscious daughter about buying a monster truck or SUV. I would like to go with a non-Government Motors brand if possible. Never owned a diesel before, but the family’s owned Suburbans and I like the size. Whadday’all think of this Excursion? Fair price?

What’s this rusty-looking undercarriage item? Is it a concern?

Amusing beer ads, overflowing with pure wisdom. Click to embiggen.
 

Values in today’s dollars

very interesting

I think I may have to read this book. I’m a sucker for eerily accurate predictions:

What are we in store for in the coming Fourth Turning?  In 1997, the authors predicted:

Around the year 2005 [give or take a few years], a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood.  Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate.  Political and economic trust will implode.  Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire.  Yet this time of trouble will bring seeds of social rebirth.  Americans will share a regret about recent mistakes – and a resolute new consensus about what to do.  The very survival of the nation will feel at stake.  Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.

The risk of catastrophe will be very high.  The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule.  If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, total war…

Yet Americans will also enter the Fourth Turning with a unique opportunity to achieve a new greatness as a people.  Many despair that values that were new in the 1960s are today so entwined with social dysfunction and cultural decay that they can no longer lead anywhere positive.  Through the current Unraveling era, that is probably true.  But in the crucible of Crisis, that will change.  As the old civic order gives way, Americans will have to craft a new one.   This will require a values consensus and, to administer it, the empowerment of a strong new political regime…By the 2020’s, America could become a society that is good, by today’s standards and also one that works.

Thus might the next Fourth Turning end in apocalypse – or glory.  The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, and millions of people scattered or killed.  Or America could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition.  The rhythms of history do not reveal the outcome of the coming Crisis; all they suggest is the timing and dimension.

I do NOT like the idea of a “Gray Champion” emerging to lead us into the next iteration, though….

I’m never eating chicken nuggets or patties again