James Wolcott: Monday Is Funday

As you know, I like to start the week off with a peppy note of optimism. Something to put a hopeful spring in your step as you walk that well-worn path from the cubicle to the candy machine, or from the home office to the bathroom cabinet where you keep the pills.

And what better pepper-upper is there to be found than James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency and the weekly web update Clusterfuck Nation Chronicle ?

Here's his latest lyric from a leafy glade, and I think we can all agree the final graf is a real feel-gooder.

"The [New York] Times's star columnist Thomas Friedman is making hay this season with his new book, The World is Flat, about the global economy. His book asserts that current trends will continue indefinitely -- China will continue to manufacture ever more of America's household products, Americans will continue to enjoy cash-out home equity loans to buy plastic patio chairs made in China, WalMart will keep running its warehouse-on-wheels at a thumping great profit, and all impediments to global trade will be vanquished by telemarketing, computer technology, and confident corporate can-do spirits. I am tempted to ask how Friedman manages to type on a laptop with his head so far up his ass, but this blog is dedicated, above all, to a high-minded brand of politeness so we'll just say that he is not paying attention to a gathering global energy shitstorm that is going to change absolutely everything -- including global economic relations which pundits foolishly maintain to be permanent conditions of life.