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With This Ping, I Thee Dead

Judge temporarily restricts Navy’s sonar use to protect whales The U.S. Navy is temporarily forbidden to use high-intensity sonar in war-game exercises off the coast of Hawaii, a federal judge declared on Monday. She ruled that environmental groups had provided “considerable convincing scientific evidence that the Navy’s use of … sonar can kill, injure, and […]

Happy Independence Day, only without the happy part

(Obviously, this post was meant to be up yesterday.)

The obligation to deliver an uplifting message of hope about the real meaning of Independence Day hovers. But I just don't have it in me.

I said last Thanksgiving, "I am acutely conscious of the blessings I enjoy, my privileged place in a shrinking world." Every holiday my awareness grows more acute, as those blessings stand in starker and starker contrast to the disaster taking place on the world stage.

Two situations are reaching a crisis point.

Assault on the free press: a parable

To illustrate a point, let me tell a quick story:

On June 23 , The New York Times ran a story on SWIFT, the Bush Treasury Department's terror finance tracking program. Most of the information had been revealed in other publications, and insiders knew that the program was no longer producing much. The Wall Street Journal and the L.A. Times also ran stories on SWIFT.

Nonetheless, needing to change the headlines, Bush and his agents attacked the NYT. The official rhetoric was merely stern, citing unspecified damage to our national security. But Bush's most popular and enthusiastic defenders were not so circumspect. Charges of "treason" bounced around the conservative cable tv and blog circuit (again). You mean treason, like the high crime punishable by death? Says radio talk show host Melanie Morgan: "I would have no problem with [NYT editor Bill Keller] being sent to the gas chamber."

So, the NYT was accused of deliberately helping terrorists. Freaky enough. Then things took a turn for the Super Freaky.

Hood Games: Stop clearcutting the youth

Over at Treehugger TV, there is a new video about Comet Skateboards (a green 'board manufacturing company) and their community event, Hood Games:

In addition to raising funds and for a sustainably designed skate park in downtown Oakland CA, Comet has collaborated with others to put on Hood Games. Hood Games 4 took place in Oakland, and brought together a truly remarkable gathering of the skateboarders, parents, and friends for a full day of music, art, and of course -- ecofriendly skateboarding!

For more information about Comet Skateboards, check out this InterActivist and this Current TV video. And of course, their website.

Our ongoing environmental and economic setbacks are the successes of the current administration’s co

Anyone who's been following the systematic dismantling of environmental protection occurring in this country knows that the Bush administration is anything but incompetent. The people in power have very specific goals, and a lack of competence wouldn't have gotten them as far as they are today. Over on AlterNet, George Lakoff explains the philosophy that has brought about our recent failures and setbacks:

The conservative vision for government is to shrink it - to "starve the beast" in Conservative Grover Norquist's words. The conservative tagline for this rationale is that "you can spend your money better than the government can." Social programs are considered unnecessary or "discretionary" since the primary role of government is to defend the country's border and police its interior. Stewardship of the commons, such as allocation of healthcare or energy policy, is left to people's own initiative within the free market. Where profits cannot be made -- conservation, healthcare for the poor -- charity is meant to replace justice and the government should not be involved.

So the federal response to Katrina was actually a success:

Enviros and Navy square off on whales

If you think the World Cup is exciting, try keeping up with the current legal battle between the Navy and the environmental community. On June 28, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups filed a temporary restraining order against the Navy's use of sonar testing.

Speaking of EVs

I've picked up a copy of The Car That Could by Michael Shnayerson, the 1996 book about the birth of the EV1. This quote really summed up the whole sorry tale, and it appears early in the book (p. 24, emphasis mine):

Electric cars: Don’t call it a comeback

Though the snark against Who Killed the Electric Car? ("Who cares? It's history!") is bizarre and unwarranted, Joel Makower's post on the revival of electric cars and plug-in hybrids nonetheless contains a wealth of interesting information. I knew some efforts were underway to produce and market all-electric vehicles, but I didn't know how many.

It seems to me the only stumbling block is the development of light, economical, reliable lithium-ion batteries, and given that lithium-driven scooters are already on the market, I can't imagine they're too far away.

I predict the market will judge the Big Three American automakers' new push for flex-fuel vehicles harshly. Electric is the future, no matter how many subsidies the feds pump in other directions.

Gay sex and global warming

"If only gay sex caused global warming" is not only the most humorously titled, but one of the most psychologically and sociologically astute analyses of global warming I've ever seen in the confines of a newspaper op-ed.

‘Tis the Season (for strawberry shortcake)

Ah, June. Roses are in bloom, weddings and graduation exercises occupy the weekends, and it's time to head to the beach. Summer in full swing! Summer at last!

So why am I making Thanksgiving dinner on what is, to date, the hottest day of the year?

Welcome, dear reader, to the topsy-turvy world of the food writer. Like fashion models who don heavy mink coats in July and itsy-bitsy bikinis in December in order to accommodate magazine production schedules, foodwriters are always working many months into the future. This leads to a rarefied category of Seasonal Affective Disorder: Seasonal Displacement Disorder -- a syndrome in which the patient is unreasonably preoccupied with the events and sentiments normally reserved for a season approximately six months into the future.