Folks:

Plugging a hybrid vehicle into the standard electrical grid system to charge its battery is a false economy. The power plants (and distribution line losses) that provide the electricity for charging the battery are generally LESS efficient than the ulta-low emission engine inside the hybrid vehicle.

Folks:

It seems to me the revelation of the "terror plot" against LA is actually nothing more than another plot by Karl Rove to change the news subject from the scolding of Bush at the C.S. King funeral eulogy. Instead of discussing the very real complaints brought up there, the media is now chasing its tail over non-provable terror plots.

Is this the greatest contry in the world, or what!?

Cheers.

As much as GW is the cause and creator of this fiasco, how do we apportion demerits to the 53 million Americans who voted for this belligerant frat boy?!

Farehood:

Only those willing to attain a strong state of suspended disbelief can be enthralled with John McCain. Not only is he a flip-flopper, he has (is) wholly inconsistent, AND ineffective. Most folks take a likin' to him because of his "war hero" status. In fact, he is (as he has explicitly stated ) a conservative Republican!

The more you watch him the more one realizes there is NO substance there, other than his avuncular nature. Our current president seems to have been elected with similar characteristics, with disastrous results to the nation (and the world!).

Folks who think to vote for John McCain should stop watching movies and start living in the real world.

Not to plunder the thunder, but a climate of hope ignores which way the wind blows. The US (ignoring China, India, and Europe)isn't ready to hear about hope for change when most think the climate is just fine. And most political leaders from city mayors to most governors don't have a clue about how to lead on this issue.

And since most americans are frantically trying to pay off the mortgage on an oversized suburban home, they have little time or inclination to read (let alone, understand) the key concepts delineated by Tim Flannery in "Weather Makers". To make a signicicant impact on CO2 emissions the suburban, auto-dominated, central electral power-generation paradigm will most likely need to be abandoned. Who do you think is going to be first to jettison there Hummer and big-screen TV? The middle-class? Dick Cheney and his "non-negotiable" life style?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a proponent for change. I've been advocating and implementing environmental design and solar planning (as a Landscape Architect) for over twenty-five years; to no avail. Practically all clients say they want to implement good environmental design, until they see that it costs a little more to implement and MAY involve some lifestyle adaptations. Few make the effort. My experience with the small scale does not portend grand accomplishment at the large scale.

I've come to believe Jared Diamond's premise in "Collapse": civilizations just hurtle forward until environmental collapse makes them no longer viable. The human pain and suffering will be substantial (if not complete). And evolution continues.

Stop the nonsense, Farhad!

John McCain is NOT a Republican Bill Clinton. He is a conservative Republican. Avuncular and occassionally witty, but a Republican politician just the same. He is NOT GOOD for the future of America.

Mr. Smith:

Were you born yesterday? Any long time reader of kaufman's kolumn is well aware of Kings's west coast origins, current family status, and current homefront in the middle of the USA. As for more bad typing about Bonds, even a schoolboy recognizes an out of order dog pile when it appears. No need to idiotically pile on!

Cheers (Bronx variety).

In "The Weathermakers" (by Professor Tim Flannery) a point is made that jet contrails, by helping to create clouds in the sky, actually may be assisting the COOLING of the earths environment. (Clouds reflect sunlight back into space.) He also points out that if CO2 is the most serious of the greenhouse gasses (and it is!) then the everday use of electricity in coal fired power plants is much more damaging than jet travel.

I'm a fan of basketball. But the NBA Finals officating is beyond excuses. This stuff is getting to be more like the World Wrastlin' "drama" than true competition. Mark Cuban has every right to be pissed. NBA officals are attrocious!. Could it be they're thinking more of keeping home-fans and sponsors happy? I think so. And the NBA has now joined the dust bin of foolishness.

And I used to think World Cup soccer games were poorly officiated! The NBA is the new champ.

Leave it to King to try and interpret Floyd Landis' mother comments reported in the media. (Comments not made in King's presence, and most likely read in an AP report.)

No matter that King's relation with the sport of cycling is distant, at best. His understanding of the mothers comments suggest those of two close individuals. King, how was a mother of Mennonite persuasion going to make the pronouncement you suggested toward a son and sport very far from her daily existence? Her comments are her comments, nothing more nothing less. They don't need your untutored perspective!

Cheers.

I wonder just how small King's world has become in his dotage.

Most of the world considers World Cup competition (of any kind) superior

to the Olympics (despite the rings). Why? Because it is an assemblage of the

BEST competitors (pre-selected)in the world. Not an all-comers-meet of nations that is the Olympics.

Whether it is skiing (downhill or nordic), track & field, soccer, OR basketball the stiffest competition

is to be had at a World Cup event! Now, the Rings may make for attractive spectacle to the doting American sport fan.

But it is NOT the best competition in the world.

Cheers.