Mar 26th, 2009
by The Snark.
Congress is “this close” to passing a bill to restore the Clean Water Act to its pristine glory, cleaning up the mess made by the Bush administration. You see, to please the coal industry, the Bushites passed a rule that it was OK to blast the tops of mountains and dump the resulting millions of tons of coal waste into streams—-even to cover up and block streams entirely.
The result was literally coal black tap water for many residents of Appalachia. And even when it was not black, some of that water was toxic. Oh, and incidentally the destruction of over 1200 miles of streams in (formerly beautiful) Appalachia.
The rule-change was made so that it would be cheaper for coal companies to blow the tops off ancient, forested mountains in Appalachia (hundreds of mountains so far!) and bulldoze the leftover, dirt, stones, trees, and toxic waste into the valleys and streams below.
The problem with that is that it polluted the drinking water (coal black tapwater!) for millions of people downstream.
Mar 11th, 2009
by The Snark.
Just in case you forgot what planet you are on, here is a reminder that Earth Day is coming up on April 22.
All the other planets have had a day each week for thousands of years
Moon Monday
Mars Tuesday
Mercury Wednesday
Jupiter Thursday
Venus Friday
Saturn Saturday
Sun Sunday
Somehow it took us till 1970 to remember to give Earth her own day, and that is just once a year. Well, all the weekdays were already taken.
So in case you have forgotten what the point is of Earth Day, how it started, and how it is still celebrated, watch this video:
Feb 7th, 2009
by The Snark.
American CEOs are paid several times as much on average as CEOs in other developed countries. They are way overpaid. European CEOs of comparable or larger multinational corporations make much, much, much less. Japanese CEOs make even less. We need to limit all CEO salaries to a reasonable multiple of what the lowest paid worker makes—including contract labor.
Jan 27th, 2009
by The Snark.
The Digital Divide is not just about poor kids not being able to do use the Internet to do homework. According to UCLA researchers, searching the Internet actually makes you smarter. Brain scans show that when using the Internet, twice as many parts of the brain are active as when reading a book.
Jan 20th, 2009
by The Snark.
The Inauguration ceremony was surprisingly moving. As the TV anchors on CBS agreed, the real star of the show was the crowd, smiling, laughing, weeping, chanting “Obama”, cheering. Last estimate I heard was 2,000,000 people on the Mall, the largest crowd ever.
Jan 18th, 2009
by The Snark.
A new site lists who gave money to help pass Proposition 8 (which banned gay marriage) in California. The site, http://www.eightmaps.com, uses Google Maps to show where the contributors live.
Jan 14th, 2009
by The Snark.
I love the reassuring voices of BBC World Service. I think of it as “All the News That Is Civilized to Talk About”. So I put a link to their Internet live-streaming broadcast in the right-hand column of this blog.
Jan 5th, 2009
by The Snark.
The state canvassing board has finished recounting all of the ballots. Al Franken leads by 225 votes. The canvassing board is scheduled to certify Franken as the winner today.
Jan 2nd, 2009
by The Snark.
The Young Turks are snarky, but in this case the commentary really adds something to these video clips of Dick Cheney confessing to authorizing torture. Cheney actually admits to a Federal crime (violating the Geneva convention).
Nov 10th, 2008
by The Snark.
Jon Stewart, master of snark remarks, skewers FOX so-called “News” with humor while interviewing Chris Wallace about the 2008 election coverage. Warning: Sarcasm Alert.
I love the part about showing human emotions.
Sphere: Related Content
Jon Stewart Skewers FOX “News”
Jon Stewart, master of snark remarks, skewers FOX so-called “News” with humor while interviewing Chris Wallace about the 2008 election coverage. Warning: Sarcasm Alert.
I love the part about showing human emotions.
Sphere: Related Content