I can't get over the my body my choice while the father has no choice. I guess the father's wallet is a much a container as a woman's uterus. Billy T brings up a point that I don't hear discussed much. Supposedly NPR had a call in about women who had abortions and moderator was blown away by all the women who regretted it. I personally think in a 100 years it won't matter. I hope that embryo transfers like what we do with horses will work and maybe some artificial womb will work for later weeks. Only then will it truly be an issue of killing a child because there will be an alternative to her "burden" and the father's wallet "burden."

That cartoon reminds me of some OPB Plus shows. A bunch of people are naively working with environmentalists to make sure everyone's interests are represented in bringing forest service interest to some wildlife areas. All I'm thinking, let's see how many years before motorized, then horses and lastly people are banned from the area. Lars often jokes that someday we will only be allowed in the forest while wearing clean suits and I can't find any examples that disagree with him. The restrictions always ratchet up, never down.

TomKenWorth, Great link, I hope it continues. Non-profit driven stuff like the public schools need some motivation, otherwise they all turn into DMV like places. I remember my high school math teacher that proudly displayed her math books from college. Turns out that she had no more math than available at our local community college.

Cracks me up that progressives never notice that wages eventually rise in offshoring countries and they become less competitive. Wages may have been flat, but total compensation hasn't over the last 30 years. http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/new-economy/2012/0510/As-Chinese-wages-rise-US-manufacturers-head-back-home

Steven, everyone is for the environment. I don't think you'd find many people in favor of polluting a river. The difference is that the left will put you out of business for trace amounts, while the right won't.

Surprising there are any rich left. Looks like they were bailing to Belgium in 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/15/AR2006071501010.html

I wish the Buffett rule was voluntary, that way all those really generous rich folks can opt to pay more easily. I think that Massachusetts had something like that.

That makes a certain amount of sense. That might explain the obsession with oil profits, but an inability to process the concept of profit margin. I once joked to myself that every dollar is sacred, turns out I wasn't too far off. They see money and they see victims, but nothing in the middle. You really have to be cautious with giving money to beggars, if you truly care, an alcoholic needs to hit bottom. All the ones I see seem to eat take out, yet for much less they could eat sandwiches all day while with their beer. We let a homeless family stay for free at one of our properties and they broke a cabinet door. If I remember right, the father had anger management issues. He was a welder, yet they could never make ends meet. Yet a coworker ended up with a lot of kids that were not their own. Can't remember the details, but they made ends meet with beans and rice. I cannot shake the idea that a lot of people are not victims, but talented at repeatedly making bad decisions and our policies merely encourage them.

I love your idea. That is kind of how the wonderful computer certifications work. You can take the training and the test from the same person or you can just self study and take the test for $100 a pop. The test is nasty in that if you show weakness, it wants to test that even more. One guy passed because he had some experience in the software and didn't bother to study. Then you hear the horror stories of people passing without really knowing anything which you get with any education it seams.

Interesting how the simulation of Yucca Mountain is suspect, but not a world wide climate model. http://motherjones.com/politics/2001/09/yucca-mountain-nuclear-roulette