Incidentally, solar power price parity has nothing whatsoever to do with the viability of plug-in hybrids. -- nkennedy

While it is true that current electric car technology (no even medium duty trucks at this point) offers a relatively short driving range, having a pollution free power grid they can plug into is part an parcel of the switch.

If all our automobiles became all electric overnight with our current electricity generating capabilities, we'd end up burning more fossil fuels to keep up with the astronomical increase in electricity demand, maybe enough to match the off set of retiring all the gasoline and diesel burning vehicles. Therefore, unless we have a carbon neutral way of generating electricity, an all electrically powered auto fleet would still be short of carbon neutrality, which is the whole point.

. . . the Earth uninhabitable for myriad species of plant and animal life in the next 20-50 years, the cost effectiveness of solar and wind power versus power generated by fossil fuels becomes moot.

It's entirely a matter of assigning fiscal and moral priorities. For example, how do you justify military spending at current levels when the U.S. is under no military threat (no, terrorism does not count because it's not a military threat)?

How do you justify paying government subsidies of any kind of industry not actively pursuing solutions to our current dependence of fossil fuel energy sources?

Why does a public good have to pay for itself let alone make money?

I figure we can address the problem now requiring a certain level of perhaps only short term sacrifice or inconvenience or continue to live exactly as we do now and sooner rather than later suffer from irreversible or unmanageable consequences.

The Beastie Boys are just plain silly. Three middle-class Jewish boys as rappers? And everyone thought Vanilla Ice was lame. I mean isn't "Fight For Your Right" just the flip side of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" without the make up?

I have nothing to say about his movie other than I'll never see it. But I find it disheartening anytime idiots like Yauch get additional public exposure.

. . . people with, apparently, cheap after market car alarms that go off when the temperature changes. Neighbors screaming obscenities and throwing eggs at the offending vehicles. God I miss New York.

But it would have been better for the country if she'd grown a pair when she became Speaker of the House. Then again, the same is true for Reed in the Senate. Their leadership in both bodies has been pretty limp-wristed and uninspiring. I can't think of a single significant issue where they have prevailed over the Rethugs and the White House.

. . . South Korean break dancers or Japanese Rastafarians.

We are rapidly approaching the point were only certain commodities and specialty items and materials will be shipped long distances. As oil climbs to $200/barrel (I say six months), you will see the beginning of a resurgence in domestic manufacturing (and reverse engineering, of course). Nations with export manufacturing comprising a significant portion of their economy, like China, will begin to struggle. For the U.S., as long as we work towards greater energy self-sufficiency, the end of oil will be one economic cloud with a silver lining.

And if you don't roast coffee darkly enough, it will taste weak and acidic, regardless of how allegedly special the beans may be.

. . . that if being a POW in an almost forgotten war (by 90% of the American public) from 30 years ago is a legitimate qualification for the presidency, then doing time in state prison must be a qualification for being a superior court judge.

. . . I could shop guilt free. Sort of.

For all you coffee snobs out there in the hinterlands (i.e., any place outside the PNW), if you have acquired a taste for good coffee, 99% of you can thank Starbucks.

When I was attending grad school in NYC in the early 1990s, there probably weren't six decent coffee shops in the five boroughs, with just one in Midtown (NO! Chock Full O Nuts doesn't count.) Most folks heading into work got their morning jolt, if so inclined, from those push carts that served a crappy "regular" in those blue and white Greek-themed cups. At this same time, Seattle probably had a dozen independent shops and Starbucks was just beginning its expansion. Portland wasn't far behind.

As B. Howell wrote, whether you trade elsewhere because you hate the evil corporate behemoth, Starbuck made America (and vast swaths of the rest of the world) safe for good coffee.

. . . by the arrival of a Starbucks on the block (djavier's example), the fact of the matter is that with Starbucks making good coffee popular, literally thousands of smaller chains and stand alone coffee businesses have opened in the U.S., East Asia, and even Europe.

On my ten mile commute to work through the suburbs to the ex-urbs, I pass by just four Starbuck, one Tully's, and eight other drive-through or stand alone coffee shops. All of them post-date the existence/expansion of Starbucks (which as been in business for 30+ years) and, in all likelihood, exist only because of Starbucks' larger success. The same is true of the variety one can find of whole bean and ground coffee in a supermarket (at least here in the Great PNW).

I rarely patronize Starbucks because I, too, prefer to support independents. However, only someone who can't see the larger picture (and is perhaps less than 40 years old) dismisses Starbucks as not being instrumental in creating a gourmet, for lack of better term, coffee market.