I'm way to pre-occupied by the end of the age of oil these days. I just finished an amazingly detailed book by Michael Ruppert called "Crossing the Rubicon" about the end of the age of oil. He makes a firm case that we are about at that time when total potential oil extraction will peak and the world begins the slide toward a world we will not recognize. What happens when the trucks stop arriving at Wal-Mart and our super grocery chains with food? And to the hospitals with medication? When there is no longer enough oil with which to harvest crops? Is it in fact too late to develop alternative energy sources?

They say there is enough coal for electricity generation for 300 years. A process that turns coal into liquid coal looks promising and the liquid could be delivered by existing pipelines (which is good because delivery trucks won't have enought gas to transport the fuel). But coal, too, is a finite
resource. What kind of world will our children grow up to.

I have a full time job and so does my husband but somehow I'd feel more secure with a piece of land, some cows, chickens and non-genetically-altered seed so that we could actually sustain ourselves should all the lights go out and the streets become silent again except for the clip, clip of horse-drawn carriages.

"Not enough time" - good ole standyby excuse #1! Enough of that. So, what did I accomplish today? I made one heck-of-a stack of french toast this morning, missed church, drank 3 cups of coffee so far, took 4 emotional (and fun) 5- to 7-yr-olds to the park and soothed bruised shins and egos while we were there, and now I'm here, NOT wanting to look at my mountain of Microsoft Project schedules for my marketing communications projects, in denial that tomorrow is Monday and my many weekend tasks (like finishing the great American novel and also the household budget) will be unfinished. But it is really OK because I gave it my all this weekend, lived in the present, laughed with my friends and showed unconditional love to my family. I guess that's really all I can ask of myself. And it really doesn't matter if I get it in return.

I wish Michael Savage would run for President. I think his ideas would help save America. His ideas of protecting borders, language and culture make a lot of sense. I love diverse culture, but right now illegal immigration is being ignored and taxpayers are picking up the tab for health care, education, unemployement.

Perhaps it's because I was an immigrant in another country, myself, that I have strong feelings on immigration. I sympathize with those who have followed the laws to become citizens only to see those who have not followed the laws being "rewarded" with subsidies and jobs.

I'm pretty disappointed about Bush's performance in the first debate. I've heard the spin: he was tired from visiting hurricane victims in Florida; he works all day while Kerry primps and tans. I've heard Republican pundits praising that he stayed on message and delivered a very strong performance. What? They must be kidding! It was as if he could only remember one phrase "wrong war, wrong time, wrong place" and one message "what message does that give to our troops and to our allies".

I was embarrassed for him and winced each time I heard him start a sentence and then use, as the second word, "uh" (as in, "We, uh........(long pause) are helping the, uh.......(long pause) (embarrassed smirk) folks in Iraq...).

He did not come across as someone in command of the facts, but Kerry did. My worry, though, is that this Extremist Islamic threat is actually real and that a consensus-seeking President isn't what the world needs now. Kerry talked about "reaching out the the Muslims". What? I don't think you reach out to these maniacs who choose to behead fellow human beings. He isn't calling them what they actually are - brutal murderers.

But then I think about all I've read. Has this threat manufactured and a culture of fear been fostered so the goals of PNAC can be implemented? Is it live or is it memorex?

There must be oil there. We instigate Preemptive War but not Preemptive Help? Why are we not leading the charge but waiting for the UN to make a decision? Soon millions of people will die there and, had we acted sooner we could have done something, even it was just setting up solid shelters and providing food and clean water. The U.S. has missed an opportunity to show its other true colors and provide the means of life and hope in a situation where there would be no question as to whether or not we did the right thing. My heart grieves for the people of Darfur who are suffering and dying while the world watches – or ignores.

QUESTION: How does a mother of two find time to write?

ANSWER: She doesn’t.

Just a few more hours in each day, please. Time to restructure my life!

Believing in a creator is more plausible to me than is a belief that complex life evolved from single celled entities. The one stumbling block for me in believing in evolution is a question I have that has never been answered, which is this: Anything less than a "completely evolved" uterus could not sustain life, nor could anything less than a "completely evolved" sperm or egg work. Are we to believe that these things just evolved suddently to their functioning state? Doesn't evolution propose there were slight mutations over time? How was life begun and carried in wombs that hadn't yet evolved to sustain life? Answer - it wasn't. Life began when the creator began it.