The XX Factor: What women really think.

Defending Dave Lindorff

Rachael, I agree that Dave Lindorff's joke is off-color—I certainly don't think the prospect of Red America wiped out by flood or drought due to global warming is a good thing! And yet I find myself wanting to defend the guy ...

First, Lindorff's revenge fantasy isn't so different from conservative preachers waxing poetic about the apocalypse, when pro-choicers will get what's coming to them (i.e., an eternity of suffering).

Second, beneath the nasty rhetoric, there's a kernel of truth: red staters have already gotten a taste of how poor environmental leadership could affect their everyday lives (the Georgia drought, for example), and yet they drag their feet.