Nobody is allowed to notice that 1) TWO cuntries made a pact and TWO countries invaded Poland in Septmber of 1939and the Glorious Allies, who were “obligated” to protect Poland, declared war on only one of them.

Britain said it was upset at Hitler for bullying small countries. So, while Britain was warring against Germany, Stalin went ahead and siezed all three Baltic countries and invaded Finland.

But when Germany invaded Russia, Churchill immediately ALLIED with Stalin. Since most people don’t even notice that TWO countris invaded Poland and Britain declared war against only one of them, the reason I put ALLIED in caps will be of no interest to the average person.

I used to instruct international law, and there is giant difference between two countries fighting he same country and two countries being ALLIES. Finland later made it very clear that she was fighting Russia, but she was not an ALLY of the Axis.

In 1812 the United States declared war on Britain, but she was never an ALLY of Napolean.

This is no quibble. There were many life-and-death cases where this distinction was vital.

In Churchill’s case, he promised refuge to the Vlasov fighters against Stalin, got them in his hands, and then turned turned them over to his Ally. His promise, he said, was a subterfuge of war.

Since he was an ALLY of Stalin, Churchill intimated, the Vlasov men were not negiotiating with someone independent of Stalin. They were negotiating with an ALLY of Stalin, a single unit.

Oh, yes, there is a reason why I capitalize that word ALLY.

A tip from Andrew Sullivan. Got Youtube a find a video titled:Building Stonehenge – This Man Can Move Anything.
Mommy Professor is mystified by Stonehenge. Supernatural powers cannot explain how primitive white men could have moved the stones and set them up. Ditto, Easter Island.
This guy is no PhD. He is a retired construction worker and he has done what happened at Stonehenge and Easter Island that Mommy Professor has intoned, It is Impossible.
Furthermore he has done it as an individual, without machinery, animal help, or even a small tribe to help him. He moves stones the size and weight of those at Stonehenge. He does it by the sweat of his own brow and the White man’s brain.
Mommy Professor could not have figured this out in ten thousand years. He moves a several ton rock pillar a goodly distant and then implants upright in the ground, solo. He is not a young man. He uses pieces of wood and small rocks to do it. Not high tech, Very primitive. This tells us more about the history of Northern Europe and White genius than any major university history faculty knows.

I always try to find historical parallels.

In the 1920s Henry Ford made one of his few unsuccessful investments by losing a huge fortune in trying to develop rubber farms in Brazil he was, in fact, prescient.

In 1942 Japan held all the available rubber-tree growing area. Some movies made in 1942 show people fighting over a tire. What rubber we had was being emergency recycled for military use.

My family used to tell me how BAD the new artificial rubber was back then.

But by 1945 the new tires were better than the old ones.

It is important that we recognize the difference between a really serious problem and The End of Civilization As We Know It.

Looking back, we find the rubber shortage almost amusing. It was NOT amusing at the time. Henry Ford didn’t build all those rubber plantations to protect his car production because it was a minor matter.

Peak Oil IS a serious matter. Serious matters like that, as Peak Oil folks point out, is what revolutions are built on.

Simmons may have converted me on that. The day one can’t be converted by reasonable argument is the day his mind is dead.

But this does not make the “Oh, God, all is lost! Civilization is DOOMED!” talk sensible.

That’s not Simmons. That’s the panic wing of Peak Oil.

Tack with the friggin’ wind, gang, but don’t jump overboard.