Feel like going to Istanbul? Do they still have eunuchs there?
Friday, April 27, 2018
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
The Lessons of the Poo Train
The sordid and smelly story has finally ended - the contents of New York's Poo Train finally went to its ultimate destination. And, after over two months, not too soon!
I hope our dilatory legislature takes heed of this saga and takes steps to ensure that it will not happen again. Seriously, there may be Federal laws regarding the regulation of interstate commerce that prevent Alabama from stopping the transport of human wastes into the state; but the state could pass laws affecting the disposal of hazardous wastes in its confines. Or a least levy heavy deposit fees for their being done. The theory is to make it prohibitively expensive for outside entities to trash Alabama.
There was a successful antilittering campaign in the Lone Star State recently: "Don't mess with Texas." Why not have a similar slogan: "Alabama doesn't take any shit from anyone"?
We need to stop being the doormat for outside interests and effectively take control of our land use and environmental interests. But to do this we have to take concerted effort on the statewide, county, and city (or town) level. The fact is, some states have more stringent environmental policies. Therefore, what possible polluters will do is to follow the path of least resistance: ship their crap to states with less stringent policies.
And even deliberately use social pressure. For example, can religiously-minded people come to view despoiling the environment and making others' lives miserable a sin? And preach sermons to that effect! This might at least make it uncomfortable for local enablers of this kind of practice. And, quite frankly, the costs of our feeble environmental policies are borne especially by poor and largely African-American communities who don't have a lot of political leverage. It's past due time to look after our own.
And marshal whatever slight economic sanctions we might use, including boycotting of products from egregious out-of-state offending locales.
Finally, the state should pass legislation leading to the scaling down or phasing out of hazardous waste disposal sites in our state. Especially the one in Emelle. Now that one is a time bomb that may have severe consequences in the future!
I hope our dilatory legislature takes heed of this saga and takes steps to ensure that it will not happen again. Seriously, there may be Federal laws regarding the regulation of interstate commerce that prevent Alabama from stopping the transport of human wastes into the state; but the state could pass laws affecting the disposal of hazardous wastes in its confines. Or a least levy heavy deposit fees for their being done. The theory is to make it prohibitively expensive for outside entities to trash Alabama.
There was a successful antilittering campaign in the Lone Star State recently: "Don't mess with Texas." Why not have a similar slogan: "Alabama doesn't take any shit from anyone"?
We need to stop being the doormat for outside interests and effectively take control of our land use and environmental interests. But to do this we have to take concerted effort on the statewide, county, and city (or town) level. The fact is, some states have more stringent environmental policies. Therefore, what possible polluters will do is to follow the path of least resistance: ship their crap to states with less stringent policies.
And even deliberately use social pressure. For example, can religiously-minded people come to view despoiling the environment and making others' lives miserable a sin? And preach sermons to that effect! This might at least make it uncomfortable for local enablers of this kind of practice. And, quite frankly, the costs of our feeble environmental policies are borne especially by poor and largely African-American communities who don't have a lot of political leverage. It's past due time to look after our own.
And marshal whatever slight economic sanctions we might use, including boycotting of products from egregious out-of-state offending locales.
Finally, the state should pass legislation leading to the scaling down or phasing out of hazardous waste disposal sites in our state. Especially the one in Emelle. Now that one is a time bomb that may have severe consequences in the future!
Saturday, April 21, 2018
The Most Surreal Sandwich Commercial of All Time
Burger King did a chicken sandwich commercial using Hootie back in 2005:
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Intriguing Book Title
I found this book on line the other day. Are grizzly bears now adopting modesty as a social strategy? Or have squirrel been making fun of their shortcomings?
This is a funny book!
This is a funny book!
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Huntsville Rated #7
According to the U.S. News and World Report, Huntsville is rated as the 7th Best Place to Live in America. The Top 25 list is as follows:
- Austin, Texas
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Denver, Colorado
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Fayetteville, Arkansas
- Portland, Oregon
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Washington, D.C.
- Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
- Seattle, Washington
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina
- San Antonio, Texas
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Madison, Wisconsin
- San Jose, California
- Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
- Phoenix, Arizona
- San Francisco, California
- Lexington/Fayette, Kentucky
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Boise, Idaho
- Asheville, North Carolina
- Boston, Massachuetts
It was so rated because of its affordability to live in and because of its having numerous jobs in science and technology.
Yahoo!
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
A Chart of Possible Media Bias and Quality
There's a lot of utility with this chart from Reddit:
On the other hand, I would rate that piece-of-shit Washington Post as hyper-partisan left and mixed quality (on par with the New York Post.)
AP News is a good middle-of-the-road source.
The Chicago Tribune and the L.A. Times did not make the cut for this chart.
Nor did the Huntsville Times, sad to sad.
Seriously, I'm kidding with the last one.
On the other hand, I would rate that piece-of-shit Washington Post as hyper-partisan left and mixed quality (on par with the New York Post.)
AP News is a good middle-of-the-road source.
The Chicago Tribune and the L.A. Times did not make the cut for this chart.
Nor did the Huntsville Times, sad to sad.
Seriously, I'm kidding with the last one.
Monday, April 2, 2018
. . . . And Down to Two
Well, two weeks ago there were 64 teams in the NCAA Tournament; but we slogged through a lot of alliteration: Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four. Frankly, my bracket sucked.
We had a real sleeper for a while: Loyola at Chicago. Their play was enough to turn me Catholic. Plus they had that cute old lady nun. Seriously, I'm sorry they're not playing tonight. But tonight it's Villanova and Michigan.
I look for (and hope) Villanova will win by at least 10.
Go NOVA!
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