Prices for homes are down again, and the decline shows no sign of stopping.  But not all homes are equal in the falling market, and there's a new factor that's helping to determine which areas fail and which areas thrive.

But even in regions that have taken a beating, some neighborhoods remain practically unscathed. And a pattern is emerging as to which neighborhoods those are.  The ones with short commutes are faring better than places with long drives into the city. Some analysts see a pause in what has long been inexorable — urban sprawl.

Think the oil we put in our cars has nothing to do with the obesity epidemic?  Think again.  Instead of burning fatty oils in our bodies while we get around using man power, we burn oil from the Middle East to power our cars and let the natural fats in our bodies build up until they kill us.  Riding a bicycle to school or work is the fastest why to get in shape and it is the most environmentally responsible form of transportation.  Public Transit also forces you to walk and get at least some cardiovascular exercise while having only a minimal effect on the environment.

Blog: Brudaimonia | Link: dKos environmentalists

After taking over Congress in 1994 and the presidency in 2000 through strategic alliances, Machiavellian campaign tactics, Supreme Court imbalances, certainly a lot of hard work by grassroots activists, playing on Americans' fears, and other avenues, today's conservative movement - I don't have to tell any Kossacks - is showing many signs of being in jeopardy, a condition even Bob Novak would accept.

The signs are many: the right's bleak outlook for November, GOP-Joe paying the price for becoming the new Cheney, Bush's disapproval ratings over the last couple years, and many more of which we are all well aware.  Credit is also due to the resurgence of progressives through the netroots movement, which has given us the tools to hold conservatives accountable when the mainstream media shamefully won't do it.  But let me pose another hypothesis: today's conservatism is in danger because, in addition to the reasons mentioned above, it is, to a significant extent, based on the availability of cheap oil, and cheap oil is fast becoming a thing of the past.

Every now and then, I drop in on a few blogs that are home to Republicans, particularly that strand of Republicania known as the white, religious conservative.  

The worldview emanating from these sites is incredibly small and narrow.  These folks seem genuinely shocked and puzzled that Iraqis aren't jumping on the capitalism and democracy bandwagons.  Their comments reflect the thoughts of Generals Abizaid and Pace who, last week, placed the failure of American policy in Iraq squarely on the Iraqis.

When one has an extremely narrow world view, the possibilities for the development of any given situation are quite limited.

Judging from my visits to these sites, I can only guess that their views on the mess that is Iraq must go something like this...

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Hello everybody, I'm excited, psyched, happy and optimstic about the future of the country. Why? Because I have discovered the $7,000 hybrid that gets the cost equivalent of 1,000 miles per gallon that's currently available that can eliminate our foriegn oil dependance very quickly, and make us healthier, happier and sexier all at the same time. That's right, you'll get laid more. Read below to find out how we can save the world, make America a more livable country, and be sexier all at the same time.

I've never been a horse guy (or really any kind of animal guy, really), but my parents both had them when they were young, and of the many observations I was subjected to regarding the basic idiocy of these creatures* was their tendency to denude the landscape they inhabited.  Horses in pens quickly reduce the earth to a bladeless, rootless desert, chomping and stomping down the vegetation well beyond any level of sustainability.

Could be a long, hot summer in suburbia, says James Howard Kunstler:

"The summer driving season officially kicks off Friday with the Memorial Day weekend and, as gasoline prices prompt more families to stay home, a lot of Americans will be stuck in their oppressively boring suburbs wondering about the meaning of it all. The failures and disconnections of the living arrangement most Americans have been induced to choose will at last become manifest."

Clearly Jerome's anti-car-culture tirade (which, for the record, I largely agree with) is not the irresistible force that will get the immovable American public to budge from its perception of cars, gasoline and suburban sprawl as not only desirable but essential. It dawns on me that there is only one logically and politically feasible way to take on this issue, and that is to attack the idea of necessity itself.

In other words: "OK, you're right, you do need these cars. But is it right that you should need them?"

Don't our suburban families deserve transportation choice?

Author James Howard Kunstler will speak at the Institute for Small Town Studies Spring Symposium tomorrow, April 6, at 4 pm, in the Sapp Auditorium of the Univ. of MD School of Architecture in College Park.

I think Kunstler nails it:

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/...

I'd like to quote the whole thing, but go read it if you want more.

[UPDATE:] The post on the DFL listserve followed up on a response, largely quoted here, to an aggressively anti-choice member of the list, in defense of and respect for the fundamental right of individual choice.

I am a member of a listserve of active DFLers in Minnesota (in Minnesota the party is the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party - a whole 'nother diary's worth of info..). As can be expected, there's been a long discussion on the issue of abortion, prevention, pro-Choice, pro-Life, exurbia/rural voters, etc...

Last week, I finally chimed in. I ran for the Minnesota House in 2004, coming within fewer than 1,000 voters of victory (out of 24,500+ votes cast). I was able to begin turning around an increasingly conservative area,  with a great showing, an energized campaign, and lots of volunteers - 450 total, where only 3 or 4 people were attending DFL meetings. Had it not been for my opponent's near-fatal butcher-shop accident 6 weeks before the election, I may be the tie vote in the Minnesota House.

More info below the fold....