This is an interesting thought experiment, but it is completely outside the pale of anything realistic.

What kind of insect hive do you think we live on? We can't get three nations on this planet to agree to a lunch menu, but we're going to get everyone's buy-in on large-scale geoengineering projects?

With all the conspiracy theories out there, how popular do you think the "blot out the sun" program is going to be with voters in democratic countries?

And for what? So we can tune the earth's temperature down a few degrees instantly? Global warming is bad therefore global cooling is good?

It's not WARMING that's the problem, it's CHANGE, rapid CHANGE in the environment. This is the equivalent of banging on your dryer with a mallet to get it to balance.

There's a simple answer for global warming which we are going to implement by default: ignore it. As the climate changes and water rises and farmlands become deserts, people will displace and then settle into a new niche.

Eventually, we will burn all the oil in the world and the Earth's climate will stabilize. Let's hope it's livable for humanity by the time we get there.

We're not going to do anything about global warming. Certainly nothing expensive and flashy. Isn't that apparent?

...that if the current counting system had Clinton ahead but the proposed alternative would put Obama ahead that we wouldn't be hearing any clarion calls for "fairness" from Clinton supporters?

Yes, if things were different, they wouldn't be the same. And if a frog had wings, it wouldn't bump its ass a-hoppin'.

...when we were all excited about the prospect of both a woman AND an African American being at the top of the roster for the presidency?

Wasn't there a time when we were ALL saying that a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton dream ticket was what we all wanted?

Wasn't there a time when we hoped that this primary season would be a crucible where we would test competing ideas for the future of America and develop a strong, progressive vision to dig ourselves out the mudhole that the Republicans have thrown us into?

But now what do we have? A weekly squabble over whose minister is nuttier, whose resume is more padded, whether white men are more racist than they are sexist in their voting and how we should rewrite the rules of the campaign while we campaign about whether the campaign should be about the campaign.

Whether it's Clinton or Obama at this point, we have all lost be allowing ourselves to be invited into another game of power for power's sake.

We're done. If things are this bad and all we can talk about is pantsuits and bowling scores, we truly are done.

Great job, Democrats. Great fucking job. Be proud.

http://www.schlage.com/

...if women ran the world, everything would be peaceful and beautiful and we'd all live a cooperative paradise of love and emotional support.

...you forget one thing: someone gave those Arabs our oil and we mean to take it back.

Nothing else is relevant.

If you really wanted children, you wouldn't let this stop you.

Do you resent your existence? Do you think your parents acted unethically in bringing you into the world?

Of course not.

Like many, I admire Chuck Hagel for his courageous stand against his own party and president on the war, but the suggestion that he should be the Democratic Veep shows just how far down the rabbit hole we have fallen.

To wit: lies and illegal war should not be a partisan issue. Just because someone in the ruling part parts company with his fellows on such an egregious issue does not mean that he's a worthy avatar of the OTHER party's core values.

Hagel is a Republican. He holds to the mainline Republican views on abortion, gay rights, taxation, welfare, education spending etc etc. And he should not be put in a position to have to change that integrity just because he agrees with (some, okay, most) Democrats on a single issue: the war.

The instinct here is good. The two parties MUST come together on Iraq. We must stop accusing each other of being anti-American or wanting failure or not caring about the deaths of our troops or the population trapped under this grossly mismanaged occupation.

But can we REALLY find no worthy DEMOCRAT with Hagel's integrity and qualifications? What use, then, the Democrats?

There'll be more to do in Obama's first term than deal with Iraq, and Hagel will not be on board for all of it.