"First, the increasing cost of discovering and developing new reserves, and the accelerating depletion of existing oilfields as they age. This goes under the rather misleading name of peak oil."

Come on, Soros, that IS peak oil. Finite planet, diminishing returns on obtaining a diminishing resource by an increasing population. How is "peak oil" misleading? A planet full of oil is scheduled to crash into Earth soon?

We all like to laugh about the Laffer Curve, which proposed that as taxes approach 100%, productivity approaches 0%. It was the founding wisdom of Reaganomics, though it wasn't all that helpful in terms of explanatory power. While it's true that if you tax away all income, there is loss of incentive to work, it was what was in the middle of the Laffer curve that counted, since taxes were never going to be 100%.

A more useful though similar curve would propose that as human survival tasks approach 100% of their awake time, their entrepreneurial efforts and inventiveness drop to zero. Since only a small loss of time to survival tasks (particularly when it manifests as interruptions) has a huge negative effect on creativity, I can imagine that the gross inventiveness of the human population will drop precipitously once the oil-fueled grid collapses and people have to spend all their time growing crops and defending their families and possessions. At that point, all the supposed inventors and entrepreneurs that reactionary birthophiles assume to be a consequence of our fecundity will serve only as a burden to the planet, not its salvation. Think about it this way: aside from improvements to IED technology, how many inventions are coming out of Iraq these days?

When Tony Perkins talks about the "moment" he became a "father" while bouncing an engorged foetus on his knee, all I can think of is Tony Perkin's trousers around his knees, his hairy ass in the air as he missionary-position drills into his submissive help meet wife, her head cradled in her crunchy hairsprayed Southern Republican hairdo, them both thinking, "It's a sin, I know, but it's one the Lord excuses!"

I didn't read anything in Giberson's interview that indicated the necessity for God. "Transcendant" is a mental state -- we all know our brains are extremely complicated, and it should surprise no one that our brains can overwhelm us with feelings - love, hatred, desire, hunger, etc. On some level our brains individually make their own rules - one only has to experience a vivid dream to know this. None of this requires a God. Our brains are the result of millions of years of evolution within the context of complex social groups. Just feeling something profoundly doesn't mean we're anything more than atoms obeying the laws of physics. God is sliced away by Occam's Razor if nothing else.

Let me write Obama's speech on this issue:

My fellow Americans, some in the Republican party have accused me of being arrogant for traveling overseas and getting a sense of facts on the ground. I prefer to see my trip as "audacious." Audaciousness is what moves this country forward. If it weren't audacious men and women, we'd still be a part of the British Empire, women might not have the right to vote, and some men might still own slaves. No one can solve the massive problems facing America today without a little audaciousness. Surely humility has its place, but if anyone expects a deeply and consistently humble person to run for leader of the free world, he needs to join the reality-based community. Thank you and good night.

I applaud the Mexicans for running their cars into the ground. Unlike most Americans, I do the same (I also like burritos, habanero sauce, and can sing "Happy Birthday" in Espanol, although I think the Pope is a lizard-person). Much of the environmental cost of a car comes with its manufacture, and to junk them before their time is just another stupid luxury Americans will soon have to learn to live without (along with their ridiculous lawns and disposable dipper-daps diapertrons). It's all well and good for everyone to drive Prii, but I shudder to think of the environmental cost of quickly migrating the global fleet of cars to this very-environmentally-destructive-upon-manufacture vehicle.