The very idea that investing in technology (energy efficiency) will stunt the economy is so silly I don't know where to start. Yes, it costs money, but the returns on such investment are staggering.

Show me growth that doesn't mean more population growth...

Economic development is widely shown to depress population growth.

...and/or more net resource consumption...

To date it's always been more efficient to increase resource extraction than to get more out of fewer resources, but both strategies have been used.

There is a basic law in the universe and practiced ruthlessly by Nature (every living organism besides humans) here on Planet Earth: entropy.

Pardon me, but there's nothing about humans that contradicts entropy. We are every bit as much in its thrall as every other entity in the universe. Of course, the basic rules of thermodynamics ("you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't even quit") apply to closed systems, and nothing on Earth is a closed system...

"Kurdistan" is going to be our new best friend and oil-supplier. The pipeline runs through Turkey... - Ebonius

And we all know how much Turkey just loves the idea of an independent Kurdistan. They'll be sure to cooperate in every way.

...the war in Iraq is usurping the terrorist ability to wage war elsewhere.

Were that true, they wouldn't be resurging in Afghanistan. Worldwide terrorism is increasing, the security situation in Iraq is worsening, Afghanistan is coming apart at the seams, and North Korea and Iran are pursuing their nuclear programs undeterred. Face it - we're losing ground on all fronts.

It takes a realist to make the best of a bad situation. Unfortunately, realists seem to be in short supply these days. Dreamers divorced from basic reality got us into this mess, and they certainly aren't going to get us out by doing more dreaming. Eye of Sauron, indeed...

I've never seen such a huge stream of strawmen and non-sequitors blatantly dodging the issue. You ran off on your own little tangent, while conceding every point that was actually made. What was the point of that? Or was it something like our friends Patricia Schwartz and Robert Franklin, who'll take ANY excuse to make stretched references to their favorite issues (pot and put-upon fathers, respectively)?

I want to get married before I'm 30. And have my house. And make the kind of record I want. And I'd like to win an Oscar before then.

Well, three out of four isn't bad.

Are you referring us to the same "Darwin Awards" that snopes.com regularly debunks?

Why would they be referring to random spoof e-mails instead of the real thing at DarwinAwards.com?

Jevon's Paradox states, in essence, that any energy saved in efficiencies, is used up by increases in consumption and increases in population.

That paradox necessarily assumes population and supply are uncapped. So, you're taking an assumption of uncapped potential and contrasting it with the reality of capped potential to produce a disaster scenario. But your assumptions contradict each other - either supply is uncapped and Jevon's Paradox applies and we'll never run out or supply is capped (which it obviously is) and we will run out but the paradox doesn't apply so efficiencies can blunt the issue.

If they are, I feel compelled to believe that Maliki is suggesting that only the Iraqi public can decide when the US leaves. (?)

If the Iraqi public were allowed any say in when the US leaves we'd be long gone by now.

One of the selling points of Democracy is the ability to settle differences without bloodshed. By outstaying our welcome despite the supposedly democratic government we gave them, we essentially obviated that respite. So, they're expressing themselves the only way we're allowing them to...

Sounds just like our Christian fundies here in the U.S.. Rhetorically, they're essentially indistinguishable.

Turning natural resources into garbage is fundamental to metabolism - you can't get away from that and still be human. (Or machine.) Of course, there are also many instances of garbage being turned into natural resources.

It's too simplistic to be a useful paradigm no matter how you try to spin it.

It is well documented that Laura Bush's politics are little akin to her husband's.

The more birth control, the better in my opinion. People who don't want kids shouldn't be having kids and that's that.

It ain't hard for a man to get herpes from a woman through unprotected sex

You can get Herpes without having sex at all... But yeah, condoms are good. I mean seriously, even if the odds of getting AIDS are low, the consequences just aren't worth it, and even curable STD's aren't exactly fun.

I guess the Republicans are throwing taxpayers money at the religious right in hopes of getting more of them out to vote.

There is a substantial body of research that shows non-profit micro-finance works. It'e the for profit micro-finance that does not work. The two things are absolutely separate, and this badly designed studies conflates them.

Off the cuff, the study is titled "Microfinance as Business," which suggests that it's regarding for-profit enterprise.

I don't know about this. 6am for any real techie is like midnight for normal people - they went to sleep at 2am and expect to get up 9-10am. And there are few other people who would consider it to be an ideal moment for anything but maybe breakfast.

Hispanics tend to see themselves in the illegal immigrants, and often vote in their favor. Places with lots of illegal immigrants typically have a lot of legal hispanics as well. I'm guessing that few of their representatives dare to offend what is frankly a pretty substantial voting block.