Bumper stickers

You can find the darnedest things on bumper stickers. Recently a friend sent me a couple that were pretty good. One went like this:

No, you can't have my rights, I'm still using them.

Another one went in the direction of theology and etiquette:

I'll be JESUS would have used HIS turn signals.

He probably really would have, you know.

Meanwhile, given all the coal rhetoric around El Cabero's beloved state of West Virginia the following bumper sticker sized slogan came to me:

Whale oil kept the lights on.

That, of course, is a riff on the ever popular "Coal keeps the lights on." I must say in my defense that I'm not trying to be a smartass about this. It is literally true. The whaling industry and the oil harvested therefrom was a major source of lamp oil in the early 1800s. As I understand it, Confederate commerce raiding during the Civil War helped put an end to whaling as a major US industry. Meanwhile other fuels became more practical.

The wheels kept turning. But they used different fuel. Like it or not, the same thing might be happening now. We need to tone down the rhetoric and start thinking about how to deal with this challenge.

LAST WORD goes to Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED