“The way I might see this, it’s all a plot by the Chicoms and the Peoples’ Liberation Army. They suck up all the oil they can lay their hands on, in an effort to diminish open market stocks and drive the per-barrel price to ruinous levels…

Meantime, in their highly-secure labs, they work diligently on creating an alternate fuel source, using rice as the primary ingredient, and foment a ‘food and saki crisis’ by buying up and hoarding large stocks of it, with huge purchases from South Korea, Japan, and a large segment of South East Asia, as well as from San Francisco (a Rice-a-Roni crisis is soon to be looming, just you watch)….

They wait until the Middle East oil is nearing depletion, and then with their own home-generated stocks of roil (oil made from rice), they become the world’s major suppliers of alternative energy. At their price, of course. And just before they can conquer the world with their incredible scheme, James Bond and some lethal babe will uncover and thwart them, before having mad sex in some high-tech venue, with some Asian farmer standing by saying, “Oi? Gyaa!”

Of course, this is just one possibility. Another one involves Vaseline, sheep, a turbo laser, space aliens and Dr. Strangelove…. Yeah, I know…the world’s going to hell, and I’m being silly. Gotta be something in this screwy time; how else can we face the possibility that enough ‘Mericans are bamboozled into voting for a President Hildebeest Clinton or President Obama-lama-dingdong, and sending the US Constitution to the scrap heap of history?”

All the economic indicators lead me to believe that even harder times are coming.

BTW, I read the other day that the Southern Hemisphere’s wheat crop has also failed. I don’t have a verification link, however.