What the UC scientists failed to notice is the difference between energy used to generate electricity and energy that can power a car or other mobile vehicle. Coal is abundant and can generate electricty but cannot easily be used in a car. Even though ethanol absorbs many energy inputs in terms of fertilizers and electricty to run the plant, the result is a form of energy that can be used in a car. The talk about carbon in the atmosphere etc., misses the point that ethanol can power a car.

Isn't Romney quiting to support the war just a variation on fellow Massachusetts official John Kerry quiting the Democratic race to oppose the war as he said last year. Isn't there more than one speechwriter in Boston these days?

I don't get these mergers. What advantage does a large airline have over a smaller one? The big money seems to be made with start ups like Southwest (70s) and JetBlue (90s). The legacy carriers are struggling on, but hardly employing a size advantage. Plus, if they merge and there are layoffs, the newer, lower paid pilots will be the first to go, leaving the surviving carrier with higher pilot costs. There's a saying on Wall Street -- two losers don't make a winner.

Mergers work in some industries like banking where you can spread the costs of developing online services and backroom operations over a larger group of customers. But the airlines just fly one airplane at a time with the same compliment of crew. There's no economy of scale.

Also for the poster who said flying was better in the old days, I actually disagree. Planes used to be much less mechanically reliable and were for prone to lengthy delays for that reason. Plus, smoking was allowed on all airplanes and in the terminals too. Yuck. And flying was much more expensive. The first few times I went to Europe was on a student charter because the cost of buying a ticket on a scheduled airline was prohibitive. Now a ticket to Europe costs the equivalent of a couple fancy dinners out.

Some people claim that the French hate Americans because we are loud and borish or because of George Bush, but the truth is we have stripped their culture of everything we could, imported it to the US and made it better. We even rub their noses in our superior wines, cheeses, French bread, French cuisine, painting etc. Now we are going to take truffles.

Wal-Mart does have very low prescription prices. Much lower than anybody else. And they are nice and professional, too. I think they figure on making money by you shopping when you come in for your prescriptions, which is fine with me if it helps lower the cost of drugs.

Regarding doctors, they are their own worst enemies on topics like this. If you visit a doctor's office, the parking lot contains two old Hondas that belong to his nurses and one new Porsche or 7-series BMW. Always. I'm sure doctors deserve the best in return for their professionalism, but it really rubs the noses in the ground when they struggle to afford co-pays so that doctors can drive uber-cars.

If airlines would just fly the existing airplanes more slowly, it would save an enormous amount of fuel. At 300 mph, jets burn half the fuel on a distance basis than they burn at 500 mph. Plus flying more slowly would create more jobs for pilots, Patrick.

Each of them is controlling and bullying. Each wants the other to change to accommodate the other. While it's obvious the husband wants her to speed up, she's also trying to control how he exercises. If this is just about exercise, I suggest they find different exercise partners. If this is a power play and spills over to other areas, I suggest the find other life partners. Two controlling people can't be married to each other, they each need to find a follower.

A lot of women dawdle. It's a way of controlling their man. The man is required to move at the woman's dawdling gait, to wait outside bathrooms for the woman, to sit in the living room waiting for her to put her face on, to linger in a department store while she tries stuff on. I hate women like that. He should KICK HER TO THE CURB and find somebody with more energy.

If Hillary quits, she admits that she doesn't measure up to her husband, and that she has let down the women's movement, which won't recover for decades. Her career is finished and all that awaits her is death in obscurity.

The husband should get his slow-poke wife a gym membership so she can lose weight and move faster. The idea that women are not as fast as men is just not true. Marathon times for women are within a few percentage points of men's. In most sports, women have been closing the gap with men in terms of performance. For the LW to argue that women are the weaker sex is absurd in this day and age. If she chooses not to slim down and work on her athleticism, he should DTMFA.

At many Catholic high schools, a priest or nun teaches the sex education classes -- and they have taken vows of chastity.

Garrison Keiller talks about Obama being his "brother" (from another mother) and McCain being his papa, but Keiller seems to be 20 years older than McCain. I saw the Prarie Home Companion movie and that Garrison Keiller is old. His official bio says he's 65 but I'm close to that age and Keiller is much older. Maybe it's living in Minnesota that aged him, but he's an old dude. I'm not sure that age or race is as important when picking a leader as Keiller thinks it is, but he seems more like Obama's grandfather, and McCain's papa.