Hey hey hey! Blue state lefty here living so close to the ocean that I can smell the tide when it's low. I hate big cars, gasoline, Republicans and petroleum wars. I also live in a selfish fantasy bubble within which my wealthy neighbors and I up and down the coast are digging our heels in to make sure we don't have to live like the urban and third world poor whose coastal views have been contaminated by overcrowding, industrialization, transportation of goods and the general detritus and filth of the 21st century.

Most of us aren't Rockefellers or Vanderbilts. We're middle-class people with kids in public schools and a mortgage and car payments to make. We don't care what our 2-acre minimum lot size commute 40 miles into the city every day lifestyle is built upon. All we care about is that when we flip the damn switch, the light comes on.

Somewhere far away people are dying to keep our oil flowing. Yeah, Bush sucks - I hate him, too. We fielded the best we could find - perhaps the greatest man ever to emerge from our elite prep schools. Thank you, John Kerry, for representing our interests so boldly in Washington and throughout the rest of the world. Now please go away.

Windmills are cool. They remind me of big pinwheels. I saw the ones in Altamont once and was enchanted with them. Thank god they're hidden way over there, though, because here in the summer I want to sit on the beach with my goddamn fried clams and look out over water that's blue without any confusing spinning things to make me dizzy. Mexicans live in Altamont - not in Duxbury, Hyannis, Yarmouth, Dennis or Harwich. If we can keep the Mexicans out we should certainly be able to keep those greedy industrialists from building any spinning shit that might get in our way.

We get our power from oil which comes to us on big ships. Every once and awhile one of them runs aground somewhere and lots of fish and seagulls die. Fortunately we keep those ships away from our beaches here. I'm not sure that I could enjoy the beach if I thought there might be oil there.

I've seen the filthy cesspools that get created when lots of poor people live on top of one another. Delhi, Bombay, Chongqing, Shanghai. They can't help it, though, right? I mean, if they could, they'd all live like we do on Cape Cod, too. We must protect this lifestyle for ourselves at any cost!

The 21st century has barely just begun and we've already comfortably buried our heads in the sand. I sure hope we can keep it up!

I'm setting sarcasm aside for the sake of this letter only:

If you haven't seen it, check out this beautiful collection of photos about off-shore wind farms.

http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/01/wind-power-in-stormy-waters.html

Well, I live in what is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I've got lots of bridges interfering with the "view".

South Bend, Indiana must be lovely this time of year.

How do those who support this position square that with blind obeisance to [their interpretation of] 2nd Amendment gun ownership guarantees?

We must be allowed to keep guns at home in order to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government that might act against us in violation of constitutional powers?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262387,00.html

I'm looking forward to the inevitable rhetorical acrobatics from Bush and his core of supporters explaining why, ultimately, the troops should blame the Democrats in Congress for these extensions. I'm sure that there's a special team at the Heritage Foundation working late tonight mapping out a strategy for assigning responsibility elsewhere.

We love you and love your blog! Keep fighting!

Andrew:

If you're on an India kick, check out Suketu Mehta's excellent non-fiction Maximum City which is about modern day Bombay. It is one of the best books I've read over the past 12 months.

It also prompted me to read Shantaram, autobiographical fiction about India - highly recommended - as well as Sacred Games, straightforward fiction about Bombay that was reviewed here at Salon.

Brain candy!

Clearly LifeWin/Get Motivated is a bureau through which he is being hired to speak at different locations. Can we get a list of Giuliani's speaking engagements booked through/paid by LifeWin/Get Motivated?

Spoxwyfe:

See: "Histoire d'Un Poisson Rouge," 1959

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=229236

I saw an AP article about the study first thing this morning and it generally emphasized the positive aspects of the report. It didn't shy away from some of the troubling numbers, but it certainly presented the study's findings as good news. I concur.

Then I visited Malkin's site and saw her noise about it. It occurred to me that for Malkin and her followers (Malkinites?) the glass is always half empty. There is literally NOTHING that report could have said that they wouldn't have been able to twist into the latest Muslim outrage of the day.

Cheech Marin with a cleft lip as Hurley's dad? Who knew?!

Hates immigrants and hates evolution. A poster boy for the crazy wing of the new GOP!

Great episode!

Is the television-thrower wearing a hat that resembles two breasts behind a halter-top?

That's even classier than a foam finger!

I must say that I was shocked at your refusal to agree to turn over the $50 SIM card upon your leaving Ethiopia. Having been in similar situations around the world over the past two decades, I don't think it would have occurred to me to say "No" - and I'm no angel, either.

As Westerners traveling in poor and war-torn nations, we should be happy for any opportunity to make a token gesture that will genuinely help a local at little or no personal cost to ourselves.

How long did you keep the SIM card in your wallet before you eventually threw it out?