Energy fears create a new bitter class

Via AP/Yahoo Green, more clinging to guns and xenophobia:

BUSKIRK, N.Y. - A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."

Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.

Maybe some of these folks have seen too many post-apocalyptic science fiction movies. Many are convinced that we're headed for anarchy by 2012. So they're planning for a personal future that looks like half the content on the Sci-Fi channel. Think "Little House on the Prairie" with Mel Gibson and Ruger's entire product line in the starring roles.

Democrat oil policies obstructionism doesn't seem to be creating the utopia that the left promised, does it?