I have no interest in discussing the pregnant daughter - let's discuss Ms. Palin, who is supposedly qualified to be President. And I get it that she is absolutely opposed to abortion. No need for further discussion there.

OK, so what does Palin believe federal policy should be towards birth control? I also want to know her actions on Alaskan birth control policy, and if, and how, the U.S. should support birth control in foreign, third world contries.

Her answers are much preferred to suppositions. Can SALON handle the assignment?

We, the people who constantly carp about needing cheaper power (and jeans and food), are the cause of this problem. The coal industry has been a brutal, despoiling actor since before the Revolution. Our pathological insistence on ever cheaper energy pushes coal producers to heights of industrial destruction unimaginable to our ancestors. And it will get worse. So avert your eyes.

Many common practices are blatantly immoral. Cutting off a mountain top and dumping it into the valley - come on! How is that justifiable? Only because no environmental cost will restrain our American life style. The coal monster must be stopped, but don't pretend only coal executives will suffer. Costs will go up, a lot!

As for windpower, this article was stunningly immature - apparently based on T. Boone Pickens' commercials. The first absurdity is that we are talking about "Power For the Grid", not fairy dust. And The Grid only accepts strictly even power, or it crashes. Windpower advocates insist we ignore that basic requirement because at best, windpower is wildly inconsistent. Then the description of the amount of land required for the turbine field, the amount of power produced, and the jobs created, and this article rockets off into the Land of Makebelieve. Everything is beautifuuul, and oh so easy...

Read the analysis of windpower potential done by GE Consulting (GE is the major U.S. wind turbine manufacturer) for NY State. Windpower productivity is shockingly bad - about 10% of rated capacity in NYS. And that 10% is an average, according to the turbine manufacturer. Does anyone believe the manufaturer is under selling the quality of its product?

"THE EFFECTS OF INTEGRATING WIND POWER ON TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

PLANNING, RELIABILITY, AND OPERATIONS"

Prepared for:

THE NEW YORK STATE ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Prepared by:

GE ENERGY, ENERGY CONSULTING

The immature insistence that we can replace a brutal, monster industry with a few gently turning wind turbines, and keep on going the way we have been, will destroy our nation. We need to think like adults, and put childish things behind us.

I enjoyed this discussion of the values in stability and instability. The northern Adirondacks, where I live, is a relatively stable system but transforms observably within small segments of a human's (my) life.

In a short time frame, say less than 40 years, we want "stasis". Without it we lose control over our habitat. Unfortunately our human drive for stasis translates to the production and maintenance of lawns and parking lots. These perceived stable environments are wastelands. The oceans seem to be suffering similar habitat treatments.

So, pretending that there exists a "natural" habitat is to analyze in the distant theoretical environment, rather than describing the observation of forest and meadow, the charming otter example not withstanding.

I enjoyed this read, but prefer analyzing our World through the dual lenses of gardening and health. I define health as the ability of a habitat to clean itself and support an optimal species diversity. Gardening is choosing levels of evolution, such as forest or meadow. Analyzing and prefering specific levels of evolution has a period focus similar to the stability/instability article.

Health has a stasis goal. Short term and stable. But it differs from the current stasis model in that lawns and parking lots neither cleanse themselves nor support optimal biodiversity.

So, the healthy gardener analyzes his environment for strengths, chooses desireable periods of development, supports the perceived strengths, reduces pollutants, and after the system stabilizes, only then inserts missing elements - weed, protect, and after stability, plant.

Brown opposed, violently, the absolute and violent control of humans who were restricted in all ways. McVeigh, and the rest of the right wing wingnuts, violently oppose mild restrictions on reckless issues of entertainment, and , rarely, economy.