poll illustrates the attraction of the free state movement

[planetaryjim]

That gives me a product idea.  How about taking one of those bicycle carriers, the kind that mount on the roof and hold the bicycle(s) vertically, strengthening the supports, adding some grips, and perhaps a kind of "saddle" that would go inside the deer's belly to hold it up?

It sounds like a bit of work, but it would certainly display your deer as you drive home!

You might also offer a model that works on the trunk of a sedan.  Getting the deer onto the roof would be...harder than getting it onto the rack on the trunk.

[planetaryjim]

I'm not so sure that the current oil/gas boom won't last for about 7-10 more years.

A very, very interesting question.  I think most of these resource/commodity booms generally run about ten years valley to peak.  Which means that, if we accept 1999 as the nadir of the last bust, then the current boom runs through 2009.  It could certainly be two or three years beyond that, so 2012.  But, that's only four years more.

Why don't I think the oil/gas boom would last longer?  Because I am convinced that there is a huge economic bust in the works, on a scale we have not seen since 1722-1782 - the sixty year depression which brought us the American Revolutionary War and other fun stuff.

If I'm right, which is anyone's guess, then we are about to see a hyperinflation which is going to collapse the value of the dollar.  Yes, much, much further than it has been.  It is going to be very bad.  I think the current max inflation rate ever recorded is the Yugoslav dinar of 1993-1995, which clocked at five quadrillion percent per annum during the worst three months of that episode.  The dollar collapse is going to be worse, I believe.

The price of oil has been high since 2002, compared to 1985 or 1995 prices when there was little exploration.  So, we've had five years of money being invested in new exploration and new production techniques.  I think supply is going to result within the next two to three years - supply of new oil from new discoveries made since 2002, supply of new oil from existing production using new technology, supply of alternatives developed and marketed since the price rise became a fixture.  At current prices, I believe methanol made from trees can be sold profitably, and the conversion to "race car fuel" is pretty easy.  Bio-diesel apparently is just McDonald's french fry grease run through a filter.

So, supply is going to be way up in three years, even assuming idiotic environmental policies limit some of these products getting to market, or discoveries getting developed.  And, brother, I fear demand is going to be way, way down.  Down like the Great Depression was a walk in the park.