"Any of you liberal arts majors who might argue that we can do better than what thermodynamics says we can do are arguing from a deep reservoir of stupidity."

Well, I don't know how you get that from the suggestion that solar panels atop houses are a logically attractive plan to take some of the peak summer household AC load off the central electrical generating plants and the distribution grid, but then I don't know how you got that I was a liberal arts major arguing that we can do better than what thermodynamics says out of that either. Me, I'd figure that the folks who think you can take the carbon that was pulled out of atmospheric CO2 over millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? of years by plants and sequestered underground, and return it all to the atmosphere as CO2 over the span of a few decades and not face some kind of de facto nonlinear limit, to be arguing from a deep reservoir of something.

It's like every other group; there are fine evangelicals who I am happy to spend time with, who believe that the best advertisement for their life is their life itself and their moral character, then there are the rest of the group. And like with most groups, 50% of them are below average.

As with stem cell research, attempting to squelch it or even just slow it down by withholding public funding will just assure that it is conducted by private institutions with private money, meaning it will be done in private (i.e. without public oversight), without ethical discussions, and without public sharing of the results so that there will unnecessarily be much more of it going on.

I don't see why every candidate has to be photographed going to St. Patrick Day festivities.

Despite your observations, and all the other poll results, that the majority of Jews were against the Iraq war to begin with much more than other American groups with the exception of Arab-Americans; opposed George Bush from the beginning much more than other American groups including Arab-Americans, with the exception of African-Americans; and currently oppose both the war and George Bush even more than the majority of Americans, it's still our fault because of some Jewish loudmouths which, apparently, it's our job to stifle.

So, a lobby which represents the minority rightwing of the Jewish population, a smaller minority than the rightwing represents of the rest of the US population and an ever-decreasing minority according to the numbers published in the article and elsewhere, has a lot of influence with an embattled rightwing administration foundering for support. Well, I noticed plenty of articles in Salon discussing the similar rightwing loudmouth phenomenon of Bill Donohue and the Catholic League (http://search.salon.com/salonsearch.php?search=catholic+league&breadth=salon), but none of them seem to be suggesting that American Catholics are responsible for pulling the plug on that outfit. All the more thought-provoking considering the unending efforts of the Catholic League to point out how Jewish perfidy is damaging America, and the lack of similar attacks by AIPAC among their various hysteria. Were AIPAC to engage in a race-based attack on American citizens, Catholic-Americans, African-Americans, etc., I think the Jews would indeed unplug them, which keeps them in line. AFAIK, even Arab-Americans do not get tarred with a broad brush, Donohue style, by AIPAC.

As for AIPAC's effectiveness; well, they represent the most conservative (and therefore, wealthiest) element of a part of the American population which is highly urban and has a culture which promotes education, literacy, social success, deferred gratification, self-sacrifice for the sake of future generations, etc. etc.; i.e., with the tools and skills to make their wishes and/or demands known, even if they don't precisely coincide with the wishes of the rest of the Jewish population.

And finally; while I approve of the default leftist position of sympathy for the underdog, even if for many people it seems to have obscured some of the details of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict prior to 1967, I would think that readers here would be astute enough to be able to figure out why the older generation of American Jewry, many of whom arrived here after WWII, might be just a touch sensitive regarding issues which they see as threatening the survival of their nation.

Anyway, I look forward to the next installments of this series; Can American Catholics unplug the Catholic League? Can American gays unplug the Log Cabin Republicans? Can African-Americans unplug Condoleeza Rice? and so on.

"(i, as an old guy was looking to talk to other posters, but it seems that this board is like a tree where people leave their notes and leave.)"

Like dogs on a tree....