I agree--the problem isn't just the cars, it's the infrastructure. Infrastructure is much more complicated, changing it isn't sexy or "stroke of a pen", it involves thousands of towns, cities, and counties across the country. But we must do it, and put some political will behind it.

I live in the burbs, and I moved here to be near a job. I now work at home, so I don't commute. Even given that, here are some questions that are extremely relevant to carbon, to European-style car-free infrastructure, and to any potential carbon tax.

1. Why is my nearest grocery store a mile and a half away? Answer: land use planning says my neighborhood is for houses. No businesses, no how, no way, not in my backyard.

2. If I need to go downtown for a few hours in the middle of the day to meet a client, I'd love to take public transit. But the suburban park-and-ride lots are full by 8:00 a.m., there are no spaces available for anyone who is not an all-day commuter. Why can't we reserve park-and-ride spots for partial days or hourly meters?

3. Why can't my kids walk half a mile to school? Answer: because they'd have to cross a major arterial road with no light or crosswalk in morning traffic. So the school sends buses so that a couple hundred kids can cross a dangerous road twice a day.

4. Why can't I ride my bike anywhere safely that would be an actual errand (shopping, library, etc.)? Answer: the suburban arterial roads are engineered for cars, not bikes. I can ride a bike, but I can't actually GET anywhere useful safely.

We can't just write off the suburbs and hope they disappear because they were designed all wrong. There's too much infrastructure out here (roads, sewers, schools, electric lines, etc.) to throw away. A carbon tax on gas-guzzling cars won't do it all either. The things we have to change won't be easy, and can't be done on a national level. They involve an infinite number of local, state, and regional laws.

Why is it that to so many religions, "atheist" is synonymous with "immoral"? That somehow because I don't subscribe to any religion, I'll end breaking laws, killing people, crashing cars, breaking into houses, and whatnot? That I cannot possibly have a moral compass without religion?

Ain't so. There are far more laws and rules that govern my life than those found in religious texts. I happen to be a nice person. I have not yet murdered anyone, or tortured a puppy, or done a hit-and-run on one of my neighbor's kids. I mow the lawn, pick up my neighbor's mail, volunteer, and generally live a sane, lawful life.

If I hailed from India and explained to my Christian neighbors that I was Hindu, and celebrating Diwali, the Christian neighbors would think it was interesting, and welcome the diversity in their neighborhood. If I announced to my Christian neighbors publicly that I'm an atheist, I'm greeted with either sorrow or silence. Why? Why is it so frightening to religious people to have someone in their midst who just doesn't buy it? Why is it socially acceptable to say "I'm a Presbyterian" or "we're Jewish" or "my family is Mormon" but not "I'm an atheist"? Why does being an atheist feel like a dirty secret in America?

Freedom does NOT require religion. Freedom requires that people are allowed to practice their religions as they see fit, and also that people are allowed to NOT practice any religion and still be accepted members of society.

It's kinda hard to point fingers at the Chinese.

Thou shalt not do what we've already done.

We already have an enormous fossil-fuel-burning first world infrastructure, but you're not allowed to have yours because we got ours first.

Sorry, but that argument doesn't hold a whole lot of water, especially if one is speaking from the Chinese point of view.

The only thing that might cause any willingness on China's part to change their ways is if WE had wholesale willingness to change. If masses of Americans, all across the continent, started planting begonias in their cars, turning them into park benches, play structures, etc. What if we instituted electricity rationing... gasoline rationing, or JUST ONCE for one year spent more on bike lanes and public transit than we did on highways? What if? Then maybe, just maybe, we'd have a shred of an argument to tell the Chinese what not to do with their power plants.

Harumph.

... We want you Chinese to make all our cheap stuff and ship it to us, but we want you to live in mud huts, pump your water with a hand pump, and power your factories by exercise bicycle while you make our stuff.

Thanks. Can I have another happy meal toy and an electric toothbrush please?

... that they couldn't and shouldn't have afforded in the first place. What have they lost, really? A nothing-down mortgage, a year or two in a house, with lower payments than they should have had, by rights. How does that make the house "theirs"? They paid a couple years of rent, to a byzantine complex of financial institutions, and now they can't afford it any more. The buyer, the seller, the realtor, the lender, were all stupid enough to enter into this contract together, and most of them got burned.

I guess my sympathy isn't roused. It sucks for all of us at a national level to watch all these parties dig themselves out of their own stupidity and greediness. But geez, take the hit. We all knew, or should have known, the risks of buying more than we could afford. If it seems to good to be true, it is.

The photos don't bother me so much... just the bone-thinness of her. OK, some people are like that naturally, some get like that from athletics. A fair few others, especially in the fashion industry, get there through some fairly unhealthy means.

That was beautiful. Every word. Bravo.