Smaug and Smoke

I just finished listening to "Internal Combustion" by Edwin Black on CD.

Edwin Black has got to be one of the greatest researchers that I have ever read.

What I came out of this book with is that corporations do a helluva lot of back stabbing...of the people. Much more than I have ever imagined. The oil corporations keeping alternative fuels out of the system because they want to continue to make more profits off of the oil, which means more war in order to steal those resources.

I think the alternatives could have made things better in this world had they been put in place years ago, but the corporations have one thing in mind and that is making vast sums of money. They crushed the electric car. They participated in the destruction of public transit. They've had our government finance vast amounts of war to help create their wealth. They've murdered, stolen, robbed, polluted, destroyed, and now we all get to pay for it.

It is a very very interesting book which I plan to read also sometime soon in order to get a better taste of the details I missed.

Did you know there was a bicycle cartel in the late 1800's early 1900's that participated in the car industry to try to prong capital out of anyone trying to produce an internal combustion engine? Columbia Bicycle headed by a fella named Pope who used to sue the shit out of anyone making, buying, or even caught riding a bike not built under his patent license.

Ford and GM both were Nazi supporters who collaborated with the enemy. One of GM's employees (as well as Henry Ford himself) were awarded the highest foreign civilian awards for service to the Nazi's. Interesting interesting stuff, I'm tellin' ya. Read this book.

Edwin says there is a car that runs on hydrogen. However (the book was written three years ago), his book is the first I have heard about this and I don't see any of the production predicted in the book happening now.

We live in interesting times, folk. We live in interesting times.