By God, we’re green
THE League of Conservation Voters today issued its Environmental Score Card for 2009. The good news: The 111th Congress is so far better than the 110th.
The bad? See for yourself, however drink before reading if you don’t believe that attempting the upend the Endangered Species Act, or running a pipeline to the foot of the Great Basin National Park entitles a politician to a perfect score.…
The week that was 2/14-20/2010
“The form works with the function,” Amale Andros, a principal with the architectural design firm WORKac, told the New York Times last week when explaining a whimsical schematic envisioning the Guggenheim Museum as a water park. The drawing is part of "Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum," a publicity stunt celebrating the 50th anniversary of the museum. Click on the water tower to read the short interview with Andros and her WORKac partner Dan Wood.
“America’s biggest drinking problem isn’t alcohol: It’s lawn watering.” — Amy Vickers quoted in “Turf Wars,” Peter Gleick’s City Brights, San Francisco Chronicle, February 20, 2010
“I don’t believe the economic recovery of the state of Washington relies on cigarettes, candy, gum, bottled water and pop.” — Washington Governor Chris Gregoire on suggested tax increases that, among other things, would levy a penny an ounce on bottled water, “Gregoire proposes …
Irritable noun syndrome
Long ago and far away, people who possessed a valuable skill were called artisans. They formed craft guilds that set standards. We owe French bread and English furniture to their traditions. However, the term has gained a new meaning in American English, one that should serve as a cue to hide your cash, put away your checkbook and forget where you put the credit cards. It does not mean that the vendor using it has emerged from a long apprenticeship to become a butcher, baker or candlestick maker. It means that he or she is a pretentious boob. If it’s a cheese they’re selling, read Drop Out Who Bought a Few Goats. If it’s a restaurant name, read Chef Does Coke. If it’s a garden design service, read Socialite Service Charging $50 an Hour to Deadhead Lavender and Paying the Labor a Fraction of That.
The one thing that “artisan” …
Soft on fish
On this the advent of the Year of the Tiger, it is striking in “The week that was” how much a certain senator from California sounds like Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
But last week it was the lady from California who showed the iron fist when Dianne Feinstein threatened to add a rider to a jobs bill in order to open Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumps full throttle to slake powerful corporate farmers on the West Side of the Central Valley.
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The week that was 2/7-13/2010
“The Party and the government will help you overcome the drought disaster and address the difficulties, and ensure you have a happy Spring Festival.” — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, “Premier visits drought-hit Guangxi ahead of New Year,” BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, February 13, 2010, via ProQuest
I am working to develop an Emergency Temporary Water Supply amendment that will simply allow San Joaquin Valley farmers to plant, hire and harvest for two years . . . — statement from US Senator Dianne Feinstein, February 11, 2010
“I will do everything I can to stop it.” — US Senator Dianne Feinstein on the Cadiz, Inc groundwater mining project in the Mojave Desert, “Cadiz study shows enough water in desert for 400,000,” Bloomberg Business Week, February 8, 2010
Feinstein’s rider would …
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