Preparing For Our Worst Winter. Ever.

Really, I know I'm not alone in that I'll be practicing how to freeze to death these next few nights. The furnace is not coming on until it's absolutely necessary. And I don't need some $200,000-a-year mook to glibly spell out the need for energy conservation at this critical time. Nor do I need a moronic, multi-million-dollar cartoon character (that typifies Hastert's lack of budget oversight) to tell me what to do when I'm on the verge of either freezing or going broke.

I've just run the numbers, which I've been dreading since Katrina pummeled the natural gas terminals. It's every bit as ugly as Jim Kunstler spells out in his writing:

The serious public conversation of our energy predicament has not begun, and when it does it will be too late. In the background of all this, an economy based on suburban sprawl and easy motoring is going to absolutely fall on its ass, and that means a much quicker end to the housing bubble than we might have expected a month ago. It might also lead to both the demise of the airline industry and the nationalization of what remains of it. It will certainly quash any remaining faith that such an economy can produce wealth, which is what the financial markets are based on, so look out below on Wall Street.

I'm estimating ours as $500-600/mo gas bills. Easy. And that's if I keep the thermostat low.

Read some more Kunstler and tell me the Hastert Highway is still a good idea. Tell me Hastert's worthless energy bill, with the grandstanding speeches in front of the gas station in DC will do anything for us this winter, or even next year.

Tell me ignoring the need for energy conservation and meaningful, transformational energy policy for the past 25 years because they could associate those things with Jimmy Carter and spin it into more power for the powerful wasn't the aim of the Republican Party all along.

If my Baptist upbringing serves me correctly, Lucifer is preparing a nice little corner for these greedy bastards.