Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today environmentalists got some good news from a Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, which ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency broke the law by allowing utilities to install new equipment without installing new pollution control equipment at the same time, a clear violation of the Clean Air Act. (The change had been stayed sinceContinue reading “Appeals Court Refers EPA to Webster’s (and Other Good News)”

In today’s LATimes, Hal Clifford writes very amusingly about a not-so-funny possibility: That our way of life as we know it will soon collapse, leaving us as vulnerable as a hairless chihuahua in the woods. I live a comfortable, conventional life that is at odds with what I know intellectually. A life that I amContinue reading “Am I a Hairless Chihauhau?”

"A party of great vested interests banded together in a formidable configuration: corruption at home, aggression to cover it up abroad, sentiment by the bucket-full, patriotism by the imperial pint, the open hand at the public exchequer, the open door at the public house, dear food for the millions, cheap labor for the millionaire." WinstonContinue reading “Quote of the Week”

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

President Bush caught in a cover-up lie about Katrina…again. Will this be his "I am not a crook" moment? The AP reports–with leaked government videos–that Bush and other top officials in the Bush administration, including Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, were thoroughly briefed before the storm about the hazards posed by Hurricane Katrina, including collapsingContinue reading “Idiocy Inaction”

Last week in Science two researchers reported on the Greenland ice sheet, which is melting about twice as fast as expected ten years ago. American’s leading climatologist, James Hansen, wrote in the UK’s Independent (archived here) about what this means for us in the temperate zone: Today’s forecasts of sea-level rise use climate models ofContinue reading “Models of Ice Sheets Useless–A Thousand Years Too Early?”

Another example of the Bush administration quashing scientists, or another example of the Bush administration raping the land? You decide. Crucial quote: The BLM’s pace of issuing new permits to drill in Wyoming and across the West has continued to increase, even though the oil and gas industry — which is chronically short of drillingContinue reading “BLM Won’t Let Biologists Outside”

Speaking of hunting…the remarkably unpredictable Andrew Sullivan links to a first-rate 2004 op-ed piece by Matthew Scully, author of the excoriating "Dominion," on the brutality required of our politicians: Groveling in word is no longer enough, however, to convince sport hunters you’re one of them. And so we now have the dreary ritual in whichContinue reading “The Sportsman Hunts in Jest, but the Creature Dies in Earnest”

Dick "Last Throes" Cheney, who is already believed to be a liar by most of the American public, on Saturday managed to shoot a fellow hunter in his party while out on a quail slaughter. Lots of good commentary on this on the web, but here’s the best reaction I’ve seen to date, off theContinue reading “Cheney’s Latest Screw-Up”

A wonderful writer and distant friend named Gayle Brandeis passes on an idea on how we can reach out to kidnapped reporter Jill Carroll: Hi.  A few of us at readerville.com are initiating a gesture of support for Jill Carroll.  We don’t harbor any illusions that by doing this we will effect her release….but weContinue reading “We Interrupt This Blog for Jill Carroll”