Why would we not expect demographic targeting in these products? Revealed consumer preference is why women's shampoos are packaged to resemble perfume bottles while men's resemble quarts of transmission fluid. A consumer who self-identifies as a customer for a Lady Titanium will be receiving discount offers that would not be of interest to the bank's male customers.

There are thousands of branded affinity cards these days. To be generic and utilitarian in credit card packaging is to waste marketing resources while leaving money on the table.

That's why it's important to point out that, whatever you've heard about "selfish genes," the secret to humanity's success lies in Hobbesian competition rather than in individuals' capacity to cooperate, and even to act altruistically. While there are short-term benefits to individuals who behave selfishly -- say, by stealing or hoarding food -- the long-term benefits of sharing usually outweigh the quick payoff, provided that everybody else in your group also participates fairly. Human beings are what biologists call "hypersocial," more social by far than any other animal, and the major product of our deep investment in sociality is our culture....

The second sentence contradicts the first. Is Hobbesian competition, or hypersocial, altruistic cooperation the key to humanity's success? Laura, I suspect you either reversed the arguments (Freudian slip?) and intended something like:

the secret to humanity's success lies in cooperation rather than Hobbesian competition

or that you meant to distance yourself from the first view, as:

whatever you've heard about "selfish genes," -- that the secret to humanity's success lies in Hobbesian competition rather than in individuals' capacity to cooperate -- the long-term benefits of sharing usually outweigh the quick payoff....

And wow, there is a lot of unsolicited advice! "Eat x y and z and you'll be skinny like me."

I find unsolicited advice as irritating as anyone, but the display here reads: "Post a Letter About This Article." That's more than a solicitation; it's an imperative. You can't expect Salon Letters to function as a closed-off pity party.

Certainly anyone actually promising outcomes, as you claim, is wrong to be doing so. For the most part, we "concern trolls" are sharing our experience, founded in body and food science, in reading and experimentation, just as others freely express the futility and resentment that is equally real and galling to themselves.

Choosing between change and acceptance is something we all do in our many aspects. Good health is desired by everyone; it's constructive therefore to share some ways we've found to give our life force a fighting chance. Which will typically entail both change and acceptance, and sometimes even the protective carapace of denial.

With a few exceptions like honey, animal foods (meat, fish, dairy) are fat and protein, and grown foods are carbohydrates.

Grown foods are carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, protein and fiber. Fiber in particular is the substance that fills you up, then thoroughly cleanses you. It's key to healthy weight loss. Steam your food in water, rather than frying in vegetable fat. Instead of bread, rice and potatoes, fill up on sliced turnips, onions, and, most importantly, sliced butternut squash, steamed to perfection with savory seasonings. Eat plenty of the good stuff. Do not tolerate hunger; it'll destroy your mood and your diet.

And a few minutes each day of exercise to get your heart racing is infinitely better than none, and will set your body up for more.

(I've been down the road, and won't be fat again.)

Electricity is what many folks think of when they think of "energy," but it's just one form, and it's used for millions of really stupid things. Why should a coffee-maker be electric, for example? What you're doing is heating water, and if all you want to do is HEAT something, there are far better approaches than piping electricity 400 miles from the plant to your coffee-maker.

I'm afraid you've picked a dreadful example. Ever compare electric percolators and drips with stovetop percolators? The stovetop model requires the entire pot of water be brought to a boil before the first drop begins to brew. Then you'd better be there to reduce heat. Then you've got to brew the entire pot at a full boil before the first cup reaches full strength.

The electric percolator heats to a boil a small amount of water at a time. That's because the electric element can direct heat to a concentrated area, unlike the stovetop percolator's base. Thus brewing begins immediately, and the system cuts heat when brewing is complete. Much safer and more efficient, but the entire pot still must be brewed to achieve full strength.

The drip pot takes the idea a step further, by heating the water only as it pumps it over the grounds. So you can drink your first splash of full-strength (if off-tasting) coffee almost immediately.

Coffee-making isn't merely the application of dumb, undifferentiated heat. It benefits from the concentrated heat the electric element delivers, from the electric pump, and from the control of the microprocessor.

Those who use the drip are considering their time, their safety, and the reliability of the controlled brewing process. They're making a rational choice among devices which appear similar but which function very differently through everyday applied technology...which we won't be giving up willfully or anytime soon.

So who represents the "South" at this proposed dinner table?

We do. All whose stake in the polity will recalculated to assure its preservation.

Amigo, as you noted, I referred to "this War Room entry." And I was right, wasn't I?

You referenced the War Room entry, and mischaracterized its supporting evidence as consisting of one gopster rather than a balanced article in The Hill.

You didn't follow up then, and you won't own up now. Which is why you have to look in the shaving mirror every day and see a professional liar.