The belief that, "twenty-first-century Western societies express an unprecedented degree of respect for human life", may be true but it applies to such a limited portion of the world's population, i.e., the Western societies, as not to be a realistic point of argument.

Certainly some western societies spare no expense to save a child who, by all reason, should have been left to die. Granted some survive to lead relatively normal lives while others go on to live what might be considered lives of misery for the next 50 years. Not to mention what these heroic efforts cost the society over these 50 years. Can you imagine how many ordinary children could be helped for the cost of saving one of these children?

All the while the Western societies are saving these children we paid no attention to the hundreds of millions of that have been maimed and slaughtered in the name of every imaginary cause around the world. The 'West' took no notice of every genocide from Armenia to Rwanda, from Tibet to Congo, from the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan to the Central African Republic, and, of course, the ever popular Dafar. Where is our charity and humanity?

I must say that when it comes to these types of countries we don't have much charity because, aside from Armenia, the rest of these people are, dare I say it, little brown and black guys from countries with no natural or strategic resources worth our while. While Bush Sr. was bombing the crap out of Iraq to try and rid the place of an American installed dictator waring tribes in Rwanda were cutting off the hands or killing millions of their own people. Where was America's effort to bring democracy to the unwashed?

Granted there are always the Christian do-gooders who do bring charity to some of these people, but, it comes at a price. Like bums living on the streets, before you get your free meal and a bed you must first listen to the ranting of some Christian hypocrite tell you that if you don't give up your god of 4,000 years and adopt their latter model you are destined to go to hell. I've got news for you Christians, these folks are already in hell and there is little you god can do to help them.

"Today, many green-leaning writers and activists argue that population control is the best solution to the problems we face". I can't help but think that if people in these third world countries, and many in some of our ghettos, would keep their pants buttoned and there legs together we might not have many of the problems we have today.

Look at the AIDS epidemic in Africa, starvation in the Sahal, the slums of Rio, India, Nigeria, and, yes, even America. When you have African Americans who have 4 kids by 4 different fathers by the time they are 20 you can't tell me that some sort of population control might be worth the effort.

The argument that over population might be one of the causes of Islamic terrorism can not be overlooked. Millions of young, unemployed Muslim males who have become disgruntled and militant because there are not enough jobs make easy fodder for radical Islamist teachers.

What is the answer? Who can say? Unfortunately we will not know until we are too far down the slippery slope to recover.