"How is subsidizing wind energy different from subsidizing corn ethanol?"

What the government (the public) should subsidize in our society is a pretty fundamental expression of our values I suppose.  We should ask this question honestly in a broader sense.

We seem to value mobility, in fact we have become dependent on being mobile in order to survive - in this way we are like the nomadic people, except that we return to the same bed every night.  Is it possible that we will every come back to seeing the value in living in place, without he need for so much mobility?  If that happened, I think then the questions over what the public should subsidize would change quite a bit.  

"We seem to value mobility, in fact we have become dependent on being mobile in order to survive - "

Are we dependent on independence?  What a conundrum!

  ('Conundrum' - this could be Canada's Oil Drum!)

As far as valuing mobility.  I don't really dispute that, but it makes me think about how much we seem to strive for 'safe isolation' .. gated communities, soundproof cars, personal entertainment systems, ..  there is a lot of great comradery in our culture, too, but I think of the millions of people sitting together or apart, and all watching TV.  When I was a little kid, I wasn't allowed to watch TV until my folks realized it was all the other kids in the carpool were talking about, and my brother and I were miserable outsiders..

I would change the title to 'Canundrum'.