I think that this article http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html is pertinent.

Not so. My colleague and desk-mate has an Iphone while I had a T-mobile G1 (imported to Canada) and now have the HTC Magic. Almost everyday I do something on my phone that he is jealous of either because he can't do it, or my phone just does it much better. There may be some technical aspects to each that makes the Iphone "better", however, the consumer market doesn't give a crap about that, they care about whether it does this or that at all, and especially better than someone else's.

Hmmm...actually I'm pretty sure that the proponents of Prop 8 worked with in the purview of the constitutional legal system to pass such a law. Maybe we should talk about the rather unconstitutional actions of the opponents and their terrorism against groups who supported Prop 8. Also, what is missing in this entire issue, so far as I can see, is any rational deliberative discourse about rights in general. This word, right, is by far one of the least understood and yet widely used. What is a right, what is the source of it, and how do you reconcile instances where the exercise of YOUR rights infringe on another's ability to exercise THEIR rights (this is clearly that type of issue)?

I always thought it would be great to sneak up at night and steal the plate off of the camera-toting mini-van, then drive through with it on my car. Of course, the fact that I would never know the outcome really makes it not worth my time.

That may be correct if the only problem we are trying to solve is an environmental (specifically emissions) one. It seems to me that this should be the least of our worries. I see electric power from any source as a means of decreasing the economic load generaed by high demand for oil products as well as energy security on the national and personal level. If we run electric cars and we have a problem with getting, say, coal, we can switch our generation method to something we can get. If we are dependent on oil and we can't get any more, how do we run our cars/trucks/trains?