My review of The Weather Makers is now up on The Quarterly Conversation.

This is the book that many are calling The Silent Spring of our generation. I’m not sure I’d go that far — it doesn’t really offer the poetry of that work (though not for lack of trying — Flannery, great writer that he is, doesn’t have Carson’s lyricism or grace).

This is more of a pound-you-over-the-head-with-evidence book. It’s a numbing read, with chapter after chapter of reasons why global warming is the problem of the new millennium. Go read the review; then read the book.

I’m having quite a debate with “Deep Thought” in the comments about some of the finer points of abortion. I don’t want to pick on Deep Thought in particular, but I have noticed a few things. Pro-lifers like to think in analogies: Abortion is like pushing someone off a roof when they’re hanging on with one hand. Just letting them fall may be negligent, but it’s not like abortion.

Frankly, I’m having a hard time figuring out what either of these analogies has to do with abortion. The only way it works for me is if you start with the idea that abortion is murder. Then, yes, a different type of murder is also like abortion. But if you actually consider what an abortion is, then the analogy falls completely apart. Is the woman the roof? Or is she the one hanging from the cliff? Or is she the pusher? Maybe the father is the roof. I guess the fetus must be the guy hanging from the roof, since it’s the thing that “dies.” But what if you don’t believe the fetus is alive? The analogy is of no use in determining whether abortion is actually murder.

Second, pro-lifers don’t like statistics. You can tell them that there’s a one in a million chance that someone on the Pill will somehow produce an egg that gets fertilized but doesn’t implant (actually the chance is probably lower — there’s no evidence the Pill, even the “day after pill,” prevents implantation), and they’ll go on a crusade from here to Kathmandu to protect that one “potential life,” no matter how many other lives they ruin in the process. That one in a million fertilized egg is worth more to them than the millions of women who die in childbirth around the world.

Third, they will deny until hell freezes over that their opposition to sex education has anything to do with their opposition to abortion. They’re two completely separate issues that almost all pro-lifers happen to be in agreement on. It’s just a complete coincidence that people who don’t like abortion also don’t like sex. Education. I mean it’s a coincidence they don’t like sex education.

Fourth, it’s all a slippery slope to them. Except when it’s not. For example, if you’re willing to abort a four-week fetus, you might be willing to murder a toddler with autism. Yessir, a slippery slope. But it’s invalid to suggest that since many pro-lifers and all pro-life organizations are either opposed to contraception or unwilling to support contraception, that the ultimate goal of the pro-life movement is to ban not only abortion, but also contraception. Nosirree, no slippery slope there.

Got this from Doug Hoffman

9 lasts:
last cigarette: With my stepsister, in the second grade. Took one puff, my one and only, ever.
last beverage: I’m alternating right now between water and half-caf Last alcoholic beverage: Yellowtail Shiraz
last kiss: I kissed my daughter Nora good night last night.
last movie seen: I hate to admit it, but it was The Dukes of Hazzard. Great car chases, lousy movie.
last phone call: God, I don’t know. Probably something kid/summer camp related.
last cd played: CD? It’s been a long, long time. I honestly can’t say. The last song I played was a Beethoven violin trio, via iTunes.
last bubble bath: Don’t remember.
last time you cried: Didn’t exactly cry, but I teared up this morning when I heard about Kirby Puckett’s death.

8 have you evers:
have you ever dated one of your best friends: Yep. And married her, too.
have you ever skinny dipped: No.
have you ever kissed somebody and regretted it: I don’t think so.
have you ever fallen in love: See three lines up.
have you ever lost someone you loved: You mean like a lover? I don’t think so. But aunts, uncles, grandparents, my stepsister, absolutely.
have you ever been depressed: Sure.
have you ever been drunk and thrown up: Oh, yeah. Can you say “Southern Comfort”?

7 states you’ve been to:
1. California
2. New York
3. Nevada
4. Utah
5. Arizona
6. Washington
7. Louisiana

(Same as Doug’s list, too lazy to come up with others)

6 things you’ve done today:
1. Went for a run.
2. Argued with a pro-lifer.
3. Finished writing a book chapter.
4. Tried (and failed — so far) to import old posts into the new CogDaily
5. The dishes.
6. Folded laundry.

5 favorite things in no order:
1. Skiing
2. Hiking
3. Writing
4. Cooking
5. Greta

4 people you can tell [almost] anything to:
1. Greta
2. …
3. …
4. …

I’m like Doug here. There’s really no one else

3 wishes:
1. Becoming a famous writer, making lots of money, yadda yadda
2. World peace, end to global warming, yadda yadda
3. Health and happiness for friends and family, yadda yadda

2 things you want to do before you die:
1. Spend a year in a foreign country
2. See my happy, grown-up kids raise my grandkids

1 thing you regret:
1. I think I wish I gave law school a chance. But only if I could be retired from law by now and doing exactly what I’m doing this moment.