Leave it to people from outside the West to decide how best to view its utility.  The author of the article on concentrated solar power (CSP) doesn't even consider the impacts that so many mirrors - not to mention the infrastructure and traffic - would have on those fragile desert environments.  A footprint on some desert soils causes damage that lasts a century.

CSP makes use of the most abundant and free fuel there is, sunlight, and key countries have a vast resource. Solar thermal plants covering the equivalent of a 92-by-92-mile square grid in the Southwest could generate electricity for the entire United States.

But, of course, the desert West is a wasteland - as it has been since the days of Stephen Long - explorer and giver of titles such as "Great American Desert".  So we flood canyons with reservoirs to provide electricity to L.A., we test nuclear weapons to hold off the Soviets, and we build a facility to hold nuclear waste for eternity - - all in the West.  It's a wasteland, after all.

every woman seeking an abortion gets an ultrasound anyway (to determine how many weeks pregnant she is) and meets with a counselor to discuss options. Some women then decide not to show up at their follow-up appointment for the abortion. Most do.

It amazes me how the anti-choice crowd really believes that no one would make a truly informed decision to have an abortion.

The Afghan government says the British are reviving colonial-era practices in Afghanistan.

Abeit the fact that Colonial rule didn't have the best "fairness" doctrine in place, I can't help but think that many of the former "native" colonies that had a hard split from the U.K. have suffered economically and from a logistics point of view in a way that they didn't under British rule, and that they are largely suffering the typical fate of the surrounding struggling nations, or worse.

Freedom isn't much good if you're not free to buy food or decent shelter, let alone decent paved roads or schools.