Doubt I'll make a habit of this, but here's some of today's links... gosh, it's like an actual weblog!
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George Monbiot in the Grauniad on Cormac McCarthy's the Road:

The schedules are crammed with shows urging us to travel further, drive faster, build bigger, buy more, yet none of them are deemed to offend the rules, which really means that they don't offend the interests of business or the pampered sensibilities of the Aga class. The media, driven by fear and advertising, are hopelessly biased towards the consumer economy and against the biosphere.

It seems to me that we are already pushing other people ahead of us down The Road. As the biosphere shrinks, McCarthy describes the collapse of the protagonist's core beliefs. I sense that this might be happening already: that a hardening of interests, a shutting down of concern, is taking place among the people of the rich world. If this is true, we do not need to wait for the forests to burn or food supplies to shrivel before we decide that civilisation is in trouble.
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On the news this morning, the Tories were complaining about the Government's plan to give councils the power to make people 'pay as you throw'. That is, charge people for how much rubbish they want disposing - but not for recycling. The government faces a £180 million fine from the EU if it doesn't stop stuffing its landfills.

Kath, my housemate, pointed out: what are the Tories doing complaining about charging? Its an interesting point. Rubbish removal is a service - aren't price signals the best way to deal with it? Well... no. Its so obviously something that should be 'free' - i.e. payed for by the community. But how to 'incentivise' recycling? A BBC commenter suggested council tax rebates for recycling more. It'd be a bugger to measure, mind.
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Dani Rodrik highlights a monumental data gathering effort:

You want to know how frequently labor protests accompany IMF missions to developing countries? Whether governments announce more new programs before or after elections? How quickly economic or political ideas and fashions travel across countries? A few clicks of your mouse, and you will have your answer to these and a million other questions about recent economic and political history.
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Slashdot wonders whether 'web 2.0 is a bigger threat than outsourcing?' Makes me wonder once again: is Google just a corporate pusher-man, getting us all addicted to wonderful, free APIs and apps - until they're woven into the fabric of our brains, whence they will milk us like money-moo-cow bee-yatches...?
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Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post reports on a conundrum for Bush's hoped-for replacement for Gonzales as Attorney General, Michael B. Mukasey. In his hearings thus far, he's been refusing to admit that waterboarding is torture. The problem is, if he...

... refuses to declare waterboarding expressly illegal, he looks likely to be rejected by the Judiciary committee. On the other hand, if he does declare it illegal, he may be rendering a legal judgment on everyone who authorised waterboarding or used it in interrogation...

... including Bush himself. Wouldn't it be a splendid thing if no-one could get confirmed at all, every candidate becoming stuck in the same dichotomy? Sadly, I suspect, a way will be found...