I used to be completely pro-choice, but in the broad scheme of life maximizing genetic variation is a positive good. A friend of mine had an affair with a woman who already had two children, who had never been married. Her intent was to have a number of children by different men. She dumped my friend soon after having the baby. She recieves child support from three men, or maybe more by now. In the broad scheme of things she is a genetic winner. She reduced her risk of genetic problems by having at least three men be the father of her children. They win by having a child with their genes. We have a basic drive to have children, which is the ultimate purpose of sex. So let's have them, but make sure that those who benefit pay for the children. That should include sperm donors, too. No opting out for any reason. Bastardy is a positive good.

I live in Idaho, possibly the most Republican state in the US. However, the NW US plus British Columbia and Alberta and Alaska would make a very viable country. Lots of oil left in AK, and the tar sands in Alberta have more oil in them than Arabia ever dreamed of. It just costs a lot to extract it, and there are a "few" environmental issues to solve. Anyway, the above grouping should tell the rest of the US and Canada to shove it. Especially the American South including those assholes in Texas. They can have their hurricanes, their religion, and all those new car plants. However, since the major oil companies are using some of their "obscene" profits in building up the infrastructure to extract the Alberta oil, the Texas oligarchs will still control our forseeable energy future. And since the Saudi family are major investors in the oil giants, they will have a fallback position when Osama kicks them out of Arabia. A lot of you "liberal" assholes will have to get your hands dirty and get real jobs working in the Alberta oilfields, instead of the cushy white collar jobs you now have. It will all be very interesting, in the Chinese sense.

You Alaskans will need us Southerners when the bust comes. You got lots of oil (more than big oil will admit), but you can't grow too much up there, and I don't think there's enough seals for all the blubber you'll need. Besides, you're pretty much owned, like the rest of us, by big oil and their Saudi buddies. What most of the writers to this forum don't get is that Big Oil and the Saudis also own the Democratic party. You can't get elected in this country without oil money. If you go against them too much you'll get primary opponents who will go along with the big oil agenda. They will prove that you are a communist and a child pornographer. I think that Big Oils strategy is to use up the rest of the worlds oil, making lots of money off it, and then start processing the tar sands and oil shale that the US and Canada have lots of. We'll all get pretty good jobs, and the Oil Oligarchs and the Saudis will live in wealth and comfort for another generation or so. The reason that Bush did not want to admit that our Iraq adventure was for oil was because then the American people would ask what's in it for them, since they were supplying the blood and treasure. Much better to pretend that it was the "war against terror". When Carter wanted to raise the tax on gas, the Saudis threatened retaliation, since the tax money would stay in the US and reduce the Saudi income. I'm 72, but I have no problem XC skiing or jogging eight or nine miles to get my groceries, so the rest of you wusses can learn to walk or starve. That includes Alaskans. After all, before the Irish potato famine the average Irish laborer ate 12 lbs of potatoes a day. At least Idaho has potatoes.

Between 1964 and 1966 I kept my Mooney M20E hangared at Van Dusen Air Service at Logan Airport. Two of us shared the expense of keeping a small single at such an expensive facility. I remember taking my girlfriend to Northern Maine for a weekend. When the ground controller heard our destination he warned us to watch out for the "meese". Another time I had engine problems during a night approach to land at Logan, while talking to approach control. He immediately closed the airport (causing problems for all the jets coming in to land, who were diverted). After an uneventful powerless landing, passing every fire truck and ambulance in the area parked along the parallel taxiway, the engine came back to life and we taxied to the hangar. I walked over to the tower in great trepidation, since I had caused the closure of a major airport. The tower crew thanked me profusely for giving them a chance to practice their emergency procedures. Normally, any emergency test plan was leaked and it wasn't much of a test. I was also the last plane to land during the infamous NE blackout of Nov. 1965. Very interesting losing all radio contact with the tower just after touching down.