Brains among the Ruins of a Once Great Nation

There is just a ton of really ugly crap in the news today, so let's start with something that makes me happy:

Water found on Mars! Wo0o0o0o0o0ot!

( And more wo0t! )

We are in the hands of corrupt men.

( Aiding and abetting an imperial presidency. )

Greenwald goes postal on Congress!

( Say goodbye to our once great republic. )

"I refuse to be lectured on national security by people who are responsible for the most disastrous set of foreign policy decisions in the recent history of the United States."

( What he said! )

Niccolo Obama

( The whole Chicago package. )

If you're gonna hold a press conference to claim you had cocaine-fueled gay sex with Obama...

( ... you'd better not have active warrants for your arrest. )

2 cents. 7 years.

( That's what we'll save, and how long it'll take to see the benefits, of ruining ANWR. )

Five reasons to love $4 gas

( I like the shorter commutes. )

The Neocons attempt to rewrite history

( The most stupid fucking man in the world. )

"We didn't go to war because we wanted to bring democracy to the Iraqi people."

( Straight from the most stupid fucking man's mouth. )

Ackerman: Pentagon saves one girl. Ruins the lives of 5,000,000 others.

( One heartwarming press release. One Stalinesque tragedy. )

16-year-old boy from faith healing family dies.

( Dead of a urinary tract infection. )

Answers In Genesis's Ken Ham leads prayer breakfast at Pentagon

( The real world isn't real, and you guys are well-armed. )

John Scalzi on the perfect frame for the California Marriage Protection Act.

( It will be necessary to destroy some marriages to save others. )

The 'C'-bomb of politics!

Two days ago, George W. Bush went on national television to implore Congress to open up more US territory to drilling interests, claiming that that would help lower gas prices. As has been pointed out, increased drilling will only immanentize the day when we have to find some other way of manufacturing plastics because we've burned all our hydrocarbons in our gas tanks and won't save you and I a whole lot of money in the process.

Yesterday, John McCain unveiled part of his plan to put a nuclear power plant in every state in the union. The Cato institute wonderfully calls this the Sim City Energy Plan, although I think Mr. Taylor fails to account for the regulatory burden placed on nuclear power since Three Mile Island. The regulations don't account for modern reactor designs like the pebble bed reactor, and create significantly highter costs.

But neither Bush nor McCain used the one word that would really have made a difference: conservation. What happened to it? Why don't the candidates talk about higher CAFE standards, or better public transit, or more appropriate virtual office requirements?

Virtual offices and replacing your lightbulbs with flourescents aren't exactly goverment initiatives (at least, they ought not to be). But our President can lead the way, by example and by exhortation. Our candidates can encourage those of us who haven't figured out what we can do to reduce our gas and electricity usage. But nobody's talking about conservation yet. (Well, okay, FOX News is, but only to remind us that smaller cars kill so you should keep driving your gas-guzzling SUV!)

Why aren't politicans talking about conservation yet?