Leonard writes like he's not too worried about running out of oil-- instead he's counting on folks like me, a mechanical engineering prof, to figure a way out of the current conundrum.

While I am mildly flattered by the faith, the main thing that Leonard and others consistently miss is the Damoclean sword of Peak Oil and Global Warming. Say we're not at Peak Oil-- then we keep burning the black stuff until we bake the planet. If we are, then we have an immediate societal transition that must occur, in order to prevent the chaos that will occur when you have a society forced to live on an energy budget approximately 40% lower than current levels-- and subbing in almost 100% of current transportation.

It's time to get worried, either way you view the Peak Oil debate. Because worried is not going to be enough in 2025.

Though I don't always agree with Rebecca's opinion, she usually gets her facts right. So the statement below is said in an amicable way.

The Religious Right and the Catholic Church believe that life begins at CONCEPTION-- so once that fertilized egg is floating around in there, ANYTHING that keeps it from surviving, like the Morning After Pill, or even the good-old-fashioned Birth Control pill, which prevents ovulation, and as a back-up, prevents implantation, are off-limits.

It's the Trojan Horse of the abortion debate. What these folks are really against is BIRTH CONTROL. The women of America have not figured this out. One law about life beginning at conception wipes out the Pill.

Something to ponder, fear, and motivate one to organize. This isn't just about abortion. It's far worse than that.

Am I just totally dense, or what? That's an anti-war/bring our troops home statement if I've ever seen one.

Ask yourself-- where are those troops hopping to? I don't find it sinister at all-- it's amazing.

Unfortunately, the interviewer, by taking an individualist approach toward questioning Wilson, missed the opportunity to understand or extract what Wilson actually thinks about religion and its purpose in human society-- and why it has been so persistent for so long.

Having not read Wilson's latest tome on this, I can't quote him. But I suspect, from the few clues given in the interview, that Wilson would tell folks that as an adaptation, religion really is a method of transgenerational knowledge transfer that encodes, in a very robust form, ways for humans to adapt successfully to environments. Religion is very much a social technology, with the most recent form-- monotheism-- being the most advanced technology.

Consider the arc of religion-- pantheism/frightened mysticism, to place-based polytheism, to monotheism/god in the sky (portable god) and understand them to be technological adaptations to a particular time-- and religion starts to make a lot more sense in contemporary, as well as historic societies. The most recent religious technology advancement-- monotheism-- allowed the Teutonic tribes to conquer all of Europe, and then, after the social evolution into the nation-states of Europe, America. It still runs us as a powerful social technology in present-day history-- or why would our President still talk longingly of Crusades?

The Elle piece, as well as Lynn Harris, both spend a lot of time focusing on whether Caitlin Flanagan walks the walk she talks. The answer is, of course, no. But that's no reason to discount her message. If you do, then you fail to understand the reaction of lots of other folks that won't bother to put the time into understanding the life of Caitlin Flanagan.

The reality is that Caitlin Flanagan's message itself is full of shit. Some women enjoy being at home-- for my wife, it made her absolutely crazy. Ain't nobody happy if mamma ain't happy-- and she stayed home with our two kids for four years.

I find in our own situation that the kids, now 5 and 7, actually like their after-school care. It's the time, in the world where I grew up, where Mom would throw you out of the house to play with your friends, which is what is simulated in their current situation. Mom is cerebrally stimulated. Yeah, the house is a little more messy, but everyone is happier, and with my paired effort, our children get tons of attention. If anything, by Mom working, it's forced me to be concerned about her mental health, and the health of our kids. I'm more included, and that's a good thing.

Caitlin Flanagan's message is bullshit. That's the real thing.

For those that like this particular approach, there are none more sophisticated at it than:

http://www.billionairesforbush.com

Start a chapter in your neighborhood today!

Arguments about why the Green movement hasn't been moving are tiring, for those that have been extensively involved. The movement has had problems not for any weird gender reasons (it's like explaining 9/11 with conspiracies that airliners with missiles were the thing that brought the towers down) which are embedded and fundamentally stupid. The enviro movement has been laid low by the general over-work of American society (no time to volunteer), coupled with the winning of the Green pick-up-trash-and-the-world-will-be-OK segment of the moment, and then overwhelming associated with the fact that the enviro movement has totally dumped basic social community-building as a strategy. Quite frankly, the rest of what you hear is bunkum. Serious bunkum.

Saying that the enviro movement is failing because people associate it with feminism makes about as much sense as saying that the movie "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" is about rebellion against technology. The enviro movement's failure is about the failure to build basic human community in its membership. And in case you're wondering about Pee Wee, it's about a boy and his bike.