and one thing that sticks out is the falseness of the old platitude about people being pretty much the same the world over. As people have already pointed out, values differ enormously by culture.

I had the great fortune to learn this at an early age, serving in the Peace Corps in Korea, perhaps the most Confucian of all Confucian cultures. At the end of my term, I worked as training staff for Peace Corps and married a colleague, one of the Korean language instructors. Her family held a variety of reservations, but my wife was and is a strong-willed person who would not have done well, by her admission, married to a Korean man of that age. It helped a lot that I speak Korean and have some understanding of the culture, but the whole marriage has been a continuing education. One thing her family did for me that startled me slightly at the time and even more now that I understand it better was to include me in the family register. Among other things, this means I have dual US/Korean citizenship, but it took real chutzpah on their part to include me in the family, especially given that the family is nobility. You can look up both her great-aunt (Queen Yun) and her great-great aunt (Queen Min) on wikipedia - these women were not retiring, shy, submissive Asian flowers. This was something I was not aware of until we'd been married for quite some years, but there it is, and it does explain a lot. It also is one of those family tales one can use as good examples for the children - viz "Your g-g aunt thought it so important to keep Korea independent that she was killed for it."

My wife is now clan matriarch, and has responsibilities that come with that, yet another bit of education for me. I've seen situations like the LW describes, and understand the conflict the man's parents and the man himself is undergoing. The root in my opinion is the clash between the western, especially American, high value of the individual, against the eastern, especially Confucian, high value of the family. And one can say that, recognize it to some degree, but it it so deeply a part of us that often it's difficult to recognize that it underlies how we react to situations like that.

who are planning a very secure seedbank somewhere way up north, with what looks like a beautiful exterior to the structure.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070209074207.htm

Where does that come from? I can think of a number of mayors whom the title would fit much better...maybe not Antonio Villaraigosa of LA, although it fits him better than Rudy. But how about Mike Fahey of Omaha, who is a democrat, considerably more liberal than Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson and considerably more decent than Rudy.

You should perhaps capitalize the word 'secretary'.

or maybe he was around back then and did say it. Or to another red-blue lightening rod, Lt William Calley. History repeats, and some of the same clowns are around to repeat it.

because she doesn't want to prevent pregnancies.

resembles a causal chain or sequence of events related to some original causes. Since I'm in medical research I'll give you a medical example - a scratchy throat and low fever will precede a nasty cold, but don't cause - it's part of the cascade of events caused by infection with a cold virus. Sometimes the chain breaks - you might get high blood pressure as part of the process on the way to a stroke, but you might not ever get the stroke for whatever reason. The high blood pressure doesn't really cause the stroke - it looks like the cause because it's close to the stroke, but it's really a chain of events.

Anyway, getting a bit long-winded, my point and question is, I thought a housing slowdown was part of a recession? A leading part, yes, but still a part? Or does it depend upon who's defining that word 'recession'?

2040 is a long way off, right? But....

I can remember in the late 80s plenty of talk about global warming, hottest year on record, and so on. Granted, Mt. Pinatubo blowing dust up in the stratosphere cooled things off for a couple of years, but still. And here we sit, even more in denial than we were 20 years ago. And alternate fuels? Gotta keep those cars going somehow, right? How about alternate transportation, how about alternate arrangements for work and residence? Still as much "utopian vision" and a subject for science fiction as they were 40 years ago. And Korea in the early 70s, when I was there in the Peace Corps, was considerably easier and cheaper to get around than my parents' hometown of Indianapolis.

Bah! 2040 will come - or peak oil, whichever comes first, and we'll still be sitting on our hands. It'll be interesting, won't it. I'll be 94 years old in 2040 - hope I'm around to give a curmudgeonly cynical laugh.