I turned on the radio the other day and some British guy - you know how well informed Brits are - was saying that the polar bears are doing just fine. Up (or down) in some frozen tundra somewhere, the ice pack is strong, and the bears are resilient and all is hunky dory. He wasn't saying there isn't climate change, but he was saying that we don't seem to be as good at destroying the planet as we thought. Then I switched stations and heard that recent polls of self identified 'liberals' indicate a shift in their attitudes about drilling in Alaska since the advent of the $5 gallon of gas (by the way, people in Europe have been paying that and more for years, smiling gently and nodding in that smug 'just you wait' kind of way). Left leaning polar bear lovers have begun to ponder that maybe drilling in ANWR could be accomplished without too much damage. Go back to being a one Subaru family? Use a bike? With all the shopping bags from Whole Foods? Buy a smaller house? Hmmm. I guess it's easy to talk about conservation when you can still fill your oversized SubZero with organic vegetables shipped from everywhere but here, still drive your kids to yoga and still buy cheap goods from China. Conservation is about something else somewhere over the rainbow, but not in Berkeley's backyard.
California is in a drought, the levees are breaking in the Midwest, we're already seeing weather changes which should make your head spin - more tornados, hurricanes, and storms. Weather patterns which used to rotate every hundred years are coming around every twenty; corn is being traded on the futures market like oil; rivers are polluted, drinking water is not drinkable in many parts of the the nation (I admit I am a bottled water drinker - and yes, I know how many millions of gallons of oil it takes to produce the plastic bottles). Virtually every ad on radio stations - even the friggin' 'progressive' Green 960 in SF, is a financial service ad - how to reduce your credit card debt, how to pay back just pennies on what you owe, how to take advantage of someone else's misfortune by buying a foreclosed house.
Please. Don't buy a freakin' foreclosed house.
A woman falls off her chair in a hospital waiting room, writhes around on the floor for half an hour and dies and no-one lifts a proverbial finger. A man is knocked over by a vehicle, the driver speeds away and the passers-by stay on the sidewalk while he lies semi-conscious on the roadway, cars slow down but do not stop. And because increasingly everything we do is captured on film, we can all watch ourselves becoming indifferent on YouTube.
Liberals are gushing over Barack but are already in a state of severe rationalising - his vote on FISA, his enthusiasm for Bush's faith based initiatives, his petulant whiny 'don't pick on me' reactions to McCain, are telling us he is just another freakin' politician. This is not news to me. But I said it before - he is sounding curiously John Kerry like, and if the Republicans hadn't fallen asleep at the wheel and nominated an electable candidate....
John McCain and his beer heiress wife are the weakest presidential team in living memory. McCain took bribes in the last major banking scandal in US history, Cindy McCain is a lobbyist for the alcohol industry. They are losers - very rich losers. Ancient Johnny can't be bothered to pay property taxes. Cindy Mac lobbied against Mothers Against Drunk Drivers who wanted to have alcohol content listed on beer containers. This is going to be the easiest (and only) Democrat victory since Billy knocked down the World War II veteran. In fact the only thing Ancient McCain has going for him is that Bob Dole was 2 years older, at 73, when nominated by the Republicans. Ohmigod - is that the only way Dems can get to the White House - by running against old men injured in battle? Good to know.
So where is this rant going? Nowhere. But I've been altogether too sweet and nice lately.
Jill, calm down, now. Berkeley's aging EX-liberals will be driving electric Subarus and Volvos within 3 years, and recycling all plastic before long because it will be the law.
ANWR will be left alone because we will be told and we will hear for a change, that it would be too little and too late. The San Juoquin Delta will be all brackish water after the next Big One.
Some smart guy will figure out how to use osmosis to make fresh water out of ocean water, so Angelinos and valley farmers won't need to steel our water.
Which reminds me that P.I.G. & E. and SoCal Edison can start tearing down their damned dams and Salmon will again be plentiful.
Oh yeah, and in 7 months the McCoys and the Bush family will be herstory, and bad memories.
Well, I can dream can't I?
Posted by: Barry in SF | July 06, 2008 at 01:13 AM