Special environment and climate edition. EPA approves Appalachian mountaintop mining permits, U.S. CO2 emissions fall in 2008, ethanol producers unhappy with EPA climate accounting, new model for global ocean currents, restoring Mississippi rapids in the Twin Cities, and tracking water pollutants remotely.

Coleman backers are bad; Cheney, the annoying ex VP; Pawlenty makes it harder to vote; and progressives persuade Obama on Panama free trade.

We don’t like conflict. We try to avoid it instead of learning how to engage in it appropriately and productively, and the end result of our incompetence is horrendous enough to fully reinforce our avoidance.

This is a problem.

Cheney ignores truth; Afghan military force joins war; Obama goes with Bush on Plame Wilson; and Clinton: Benefits to gay partners in foreign service.

Two years ago, I attended my best friend’s wedding. I made the cake. When I got married a year earlier, she was my best man. Last Sunday, a bunch of people were going on and on about my cakes (I make about one every two years but they are very famous and frightfully expensive) and this reminded me of her and the amazing times we’ve had and toilets in Japan.

Let me explain.

Mrs. Peterson took the posters we had made to the various businesses in Hallock to display on their windows and after school my friends and I went around town to find out which store displayed our “artwork.” Mine was put up at Gullander’s Hardware on the window facing the street. I was proud that my artwork was on display, but then I started actually thinking about Memorial Day.

A possible end to the U.S. “war on drugs”; why, yes, the CIA may mislead Congress from time to time; sea-based U.S. missile defense; U.S. burning bibles; and concealed carry in national parks.

Medical advance may give leg up; Pawlenty says no medical marijuana; birds carry grudges; anticipated Iraqi crop failures blamed on Turkey; contextualizing Gabriel García Márquez; and mental illness or the work of God?

Coral Triangle conservation; who wins with the new climate bill; toughening federal mileage standards; Consumer Reports guide to eco-labeling; and climate change severity much worse than estimated.

It’s tempting to pretend that “culture war” is just a colorful turn of phrase. It isn’t. People have died every time our country has been persuaded to recognize the right of another group to be considered full human beings.