Mexico is currently the #2 supplier of crude to the United States and Venezuela #3. But not for long.

Read and weep.

Like I said, the polarization continues. War will follow. It's just a matter of time.

From my blog.

Reading Strauss and Howe's excellent book, The Fourth Turning reinforced something I already knew at gut level, have known for over thirty years: there will be in the lifetime of my generation, another major world war. Furthermore, I think the US will be knocked from its postion of prominence as a result of that war.

But before hostilities erupt, a polarization must take place, is taking place, as countries unite in a struggle over diminishing natural resources.

I was pleased to see someone added a couple of Terry Allen songs I like to MySpace. I promptly posted them to my profile playlist. Check out Cortez Sail and Our Land. Now that's the America I know.

While you're at it, check out Fred Eaglesmith's Tenderbox. I know, Fred's a Canadian. But he gets an honorary Texan badge for that one. Any local interested feel free to join me to see Fred tonight in San Antonio at Casbeers at the Church.

PS. I also found Ray Wylie Hubbard's Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Add Steve Earles The Unrepentant and I now officially have the best playlist on MySpace.

According to this article, losses by ranchers and dairies have led to reductions in cattle herds.

But we have significantly more people to feed than we did in 1958. Draw your own conclusions.

knowing that we (American citizens) bailed out Wall Street bankers this year. The cost for their yearly bonuses? A mizerly $500 from every man, woman and child in the land.

What would we do without them?

Yesterday I learned my youngest son is in jail again. The crime is old, something he thought had been resolved. One of those cascading affairs that traps the young and poor of our nation. A minor crime that causes suspension of the driver's license and involves fines. You need to drive to get to work to earn money to pay the fine but that's against another law. Etc.

Tonight Levi is at a privately run institution near Austin. He tells his brother the place ain't so bad and he wants to stay until the matter is cleared up.

Last week he fought for his life in a Harris County jail. Gang related shit (he's not a member but the others were).

Amazingly, our economy continues to lurch along as if all is well. But it isn't.

Karl Denninger fills in the details.

My father recently dissolved a family trust representing money we earned from the sale of a foreign holding and distributed the money between me and my siblings. As a result, I had the distinct pleasure of writing a big ass check to the IRS. That check represented more money than the entire sum of money I have earned with countless hours of hard work since I got out of prison in 1991.

Selecting one artist, one song or one cd for album of the year is a daunting task. This year I wrestled between three offerings, Ryan Bingham's Roadhouse Sun, Matt King's Rube, and Dustin Welch's Whiskey Priest. All three are the works of talented young artists but in my opinion, no collection is complete absent any of the three. The word best entails only one so only one must prevail.

Step aside old timers. I present Dustin Welch and Whiskey Priest:

In a season of fictional post apocalyptic movies The Book of Eli stands far above the rest (and that includes the Road). Some criticize the ending; I thought it quite appropriate.

Denzel Washington plays a man on a mission, his job, to deliver the last remaining Bible on the planet to some unknown place, West. Washington reaffirms his position among the best actors in the business.

Gary Oldman contributes an excellent performance as the leader of a bunch of predatory survivors; he desires the Bible to be used as it was in days of old to manipulate the masses, only this time for his personal benefit. A good guy is only as good as his adversary is bad, and Oldman is one believable bad son of a bitch.

Mila Kunis plays a very fuckable young adopted daughter of Carnegie (Oldman) intrigued by Eli and the apparent goodness he emanates (if you can call a walking dispenser of death good).

See the movie.

Leah and I drove to Austin to see the first of two screenings of Michael Ruppert's movie CoLLapse at the Alamo Draft House Ritz. If you live in Austin (or anywhere else in Texas for that matter) and want to see the film at a theater, tonight may be your last chance. If you choose to go, buy your tickets now on-line. The show sold out last night and probably will again tonight.

I am told that you can see the film on pay-per-view on some cable networks.

I'd like to tell you I enjoyed the film, but CoLLapse is not the kind of film you see for enjoyment.

James Kunstler, author of the Long Emergency, offers his predictions for the upcoming year. Buckle up, for the ride is about to get scary. Essential reading in my opinion.

posted their online issue for Oct. Nov. and Dec.

I contributed a review of Matt King's Rube and came out in support of Kinky Friedman for governor. Kinky has since withdrawn from the governor's race and is now running for agriculture secretary.

Project Censored

I read about most of these during the year, but I look for news in unconventional places. Of particular interest to me are the articles concerning Ecuador.

Last night Leah and I attended the best live music show I saw this year. Guy Forsyth, Carolyn Wonderland and three members from their respective bands put on a spectacle you had to see and hear live to comprehend. I have no words that suffice.

So the first three music awards for the year, (kind of neat, being the only judge):

Best live show: Guy Forsyth and Carolyn Wonderland' Christmas show at Sam's Burger Joint in San Antonio.

Best male vocalist: Guy Forsyth

Best female vocalist: Carolyn Wonderland.

I'd try to come up with someone to compare these two to, but it would be a step down. So, why bother?

Posted without comment, the first of four clips at youtube:

Here.

Read what I think about that here, if and only if you're not offended by cussing.

I don't share Joe Bageant's hope that democratic socialism somehow rises up to save the day, or even that it could were it tried somewhere. But Joe does a good job of presenting the fallacies of our current political policies and heroes.

If you ask me for a solution to America's ills, I don't have one: nothing formed by the hand of man will work. We are the last empire, the feet made of iron and clay and we are soon to be broken to pieces.

Read Joe. You'll laugh and you may cry, if you have a heart.

Thursday, December 3, 2009
Inheritance taxes and the family farm

Sean Paul Kelly recently posted a piece in opposition to a bill locking in inheritance taxes at 45% with an exemption for the first $3.5 million. The post seemed to draw nothing but praise.

I don't agree, but I needed to think about the matter a bit before posting.

Consider the implications on the farm where I now live and work, should the new inheritance tax scheme come into effect (55% tax above $1 million exemption). My dad bought this place for somewhere around $700,000 about ten years ago. If he were to leave this land to me, the current value is somewhere around $3 million.

How utterly fucking convenient:

Bloomberg.

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Mark Pittman, the award-winning investigative reporter whose fight to open the Federal Reserve to more scrutiny led Bloomberg News to sue the central bank and win, died Nov. 25 in Yonkers, New York. He was 52.

Pittman suffered from heart-related illnesses. The precise cause of his death wasn’t known, said his friend William Karesh, vice president of the Global Health Program at the Bronx, New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Day before yesterday, I received a couple of copies of Contrabando, the original hard-backed version. For whatever reason, I picked up the book and began reading. It's been long enough that it was almost, (but not entirely), like reading the work of another.

I felt like I needed a marking pencil. The writing is stilted and disjointed in places. I found repititions. Inaccuracies. But the story behind the words still has value. It's a flawed depiction taken from the front lines of this so-called war on drugs which is really a war on people. A flawed version of one that has actually been there is better than a well written version of those that have not.

Henry Ford, for all his faults, once stated that he needed to pay his workers enough that they would be able to buy the cars they manufactured. I guess globalists thought such laws don’t apply when you ship the jobs to a foreign land.

Now I hear people say that a cheaper dollar will make American products more competitive to foreign buyers. Who exactly is going to buy these “cheaper” American goods? Some Chinese guy earning $2 a day? Now out of a job because there’s an ongoing depression in the United States?

Rather than bring the rest of the world’s workers up to some sort of decent living standard, global financial players and manufactuers raced toward the lowest common denominator: workers earning slave wages, receiving no benefits, toiling in unsafe conditions, exploited to produce a bunch of cheap disposable products then sold in our big box stores.

Read and weep.

Consider two turkeys. One is a wild turkey, part of a flock that lives in our pecan bottom along the banks of the Guadalupe River. She finds food, shelter, water, protection from predators and all the other things she needs to survive in her environment.

The second turkey lives across the road, not more than a mile from the first, in a house full of domestic turkeys being fattened for market. This turkey has a roof over her head, climate controlled air, is never too hot, never too cold. Food and water is automatically dispensed at all hours of the day and night for her consumption. The walls keep predators at bay.

I've created a new blog site. A first for me.

Not much there at the moment, but there will be as time goes by, good Lord willing.