Think of the Children
Reason's Ronald Bailey does a nice take down of this book and this review about the ever-coming fuel shortages that we should be expecting. Here is a quote from the review of the book in the NYT:

I hope Goodstein is wrong. I wish we could dismiss him as an addled environmentalist, too much in love with his windmill to know which way the wind is blowing. On the strength of the evidence, and his argument, however, we can't. If he's right, I'm sorry for my kids. And I'm especially sorry for theirs.

This little saying "sorry for my kids" is a pet peeve of mine. I am never, ever going to feel sorry for my kids, grandkids or anyone else's for the world that we leave them. These little ones will grow up in a word with hundreds of channels, never have a TV that isn't an HDTV and probably never have a screen smaller than 42" unless it is the one they carry with them. They will never have to wait for something to download or for a program to load. They will never ride in a car that doesn't have airbag or a phone, they will probably even see a car that flies (well maybe not that). The boys will never go bald and the girls will never gain weight or get wrinkles. So spare me.

The phrase "I feel sorry for my children and grandchildren" is just a code for "I don't want other people to have/not have or do/not do something today."

For example: "Our poor children will be saddled with all this debt from George Bush's evil tax cuts". This really means, "Those rich people are rich enough, can't I have some of their money today?"

Or "There will be no gas left for our poor children if we keep driving like this." really means: "There are too many big cars on the road and with all the traffic, I can't get to my yoga class."