Environmentalists do not struggle to reconcile the fate of the environment with that of human needs. We understand full well that humans have to dial the whole "dominion over the natural world" way back if there is any hope at all for said, natural world. I for one, do not thank this crop of GOP hopefuls for anything but six months of blathering about issues that were settled almost 50 years ago. If anyone in the GOP would like to have an adult conversation about how our sacred American system has forced us all into an economic situation where every family has to have both mommy and daddy going off to work everyday just to make ends meet or how everyone is essentially put into indentured servitude because of fear of losing healthcare benefits then I'm all ears. No proposed solutions, just more fluff, hypocrisy, patronizing, pandering and pro big-business propaganda.

What is this perverse fascination liberals have about contraception? I thought that the main issues raised by Republicans in their primary battle were: Tax reform, suffocating government regulation, Big Government morphing into Morbidly Obese Government, Energy costs, Obama's appeasement policy, his unsustainable Obamacare, Iran's regional hegemony, Israel's increasing vulnerability, and the monstrous debt crisis. Contraception has been raised by liberals, such as George Stephanopoulos, and other media useful idiots to marginalize worthy candidates. It's only valid presence in the race, was in response to the oppressive Obama administration's running roughshod over religious and faith based institutions, to pay for contraception, sterilization and abortifacients, on behalf of their employees and in diametric opposition to their religious beliefs, not to mention the First Amendment. Other than that, the issues have steered clear of Darwin, the Catholic Church, and contraception. Good grief, James, what newspapers do you read?.

Actually Mr. Carroll does have his finger on a pulse just the wrong one. The public is indeed apprehensive as the world and the culture around them changes. However, this sense of unease goes beyond birth control. It strikes at the technological changes, the moral changes, the changes in values and in hopes and in aspirations. Liberals have not found an answer but the only answer conservatives have found is a pointless retreat to the past. Let us ignore science, let us ignore change, let us remake the world as it was. Sadly for conservatives you can never step into the same river a second time. The past is gone and the sooner both liberals and conservatives seek something new the better off the nation will be.

Oh, it's the liberals who have the perverse fascination with contraception? Really?

That is basically nonsense and you know it. You must be saying it for dramatic effect, like your alleged reflexive laughter (as endearing a trait as that is)! Publicly referring to any woman in the manner that Mr Maher did in the episode that you allude to is offensive in the extreme.