Mid-week musings before the shite hits the fan from the DOJ document dump—

March 18, 2003, courtesy of Frank Rich:

Barbara Bush tells Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she will not watch televised coverage of the war: “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it’s going to happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it’s, it’s not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”

Waste your beautiful mind worrying about things like death and suffering. Is it any wonder her son has little conscience for the suffering of others? I am reminded of numerous period pieces and character studies where the idly rich don’t worry about the poor folk, but are caught up in their little worlds of what is neat (Paris “dumber than snot” Hilton comes to mind as a 20^th century equivalent). And fun. And fashionable. And beautiful. And why do people want to emulate them? Oh, that’s right, they have money, people to handle it for them, look good and have fun and don’t have to get dirty. You won’t see them sharing a camera with Mike Rowe. The one thing that self-absorbed people forget is their lives are trivial, but they have good toys. I just don’t understand the lack of compassion.

I came across a link to German green roofs, but lost it. Information on these can be found on the following Canadian report. http://www.urbanag.org.au/Green%20Roof%20Policies.pdf It is quite interesting and I have heard of little or none of this in the United States. Regionally, I live in the Southwest and I have a hard time imagining green roofs in the desert. Here in Denver, there is so little water that wastewater reuse is THE technology of the future. That’s right, drinking reclaimed poo will be the only way there will be enough water. Currently Aurora is going to be taking river water through the gravel aquifer of the Platte River downstream from the Denver Metro Wastewater Plant (and at times because of irrigation canal diversions, the effluent of the plant is THE ONLY FLOW in the river. Yes, that is right, the river flows through downtown Denver and then gets diverted to farmland around Brighton and if you are a regular bike rider on the bike trail you know the river goes dry two or three times per year until the wastewater plant effluent.) But in Chicago or NYC or Philly where there is water, this would help cool things and work. If you ever have seen John Todd’s work with aquatic farming and living machines, you can see where he has proposed this for years, along with storm drainage ponds and solar aquatic treatment of the same. It does work. His solar aquatic Wastewater Plants work to where there is no need for phosphorus removal. This could work well in the Southwest as WWTP, but would require investors.

But ehis is a digression of what to do with your roof in the Southwest. Here is an alternative. I have contacted the firm the see if it may work for our house.
http://renu.citizenre.com/index.php?c=1168291804 If my wife and I do not move for a year, I would like to sign a lease for photovoltaics on my roof. I would feel better about life.

From Atrios—

“Privatizing profits in good times while socializing losses in bad times is another form of reckless corporate welfare that generates moral hazard while fostering new bubbles.”

These comments ring really true when it comes to corporate welfare. His comments were directed at what happens if the real estate bubble for sub-prime lending does require corporate bail out. It probably will and predictions are that it will be larger than the Bush family saving and loan scandals. There the government bailed out the beleaguered Savings and Loan industry at the cost of well over $30,000,000. And why did I mention the Bush family? Neil’s business acumen was worse than GW’s. Oh, excuse me, Neil received a $50,000 fine for Silverado—while he took home $200,000,000. How does that work? If I am late on a credit card payment, I get a late fee and higher interest rate. He gets a 0.25% fine for $200,000,000 and gets to keep the money.

The sub-prime interest scandal will cost more than the Savings and Loan scandal. It will cause a recession. Merrill Lynch is already predicting a 30% drop in the market this year. 401k kids be ready to eat it yet again. My 401k still has not recovered from 9/11, but I do not spend enough time moving money around. Some of that is my fault. I could be more aggressive and when the market drops like it did three weeks ago, I could buy stocks that drop. And wait. But I don’t. My personal life aside, what I am saying is that we pay for the bail out of the investor class. I know I the big picture, if the banks fail, we are screwed. If industry fails, we are screwed. No middle class, no big screen TVs, no college for your kids, no going to see the Eagles or the Police for $150 a pop (or more—like I can afford that). BUT NEVER LIE TO ME ABOUT FREE MARKET ECONOMY AGAIN!!! Corporate welfare costs us, taxpayers more every year than the mythical welfare queens ever have and that does not include the military industrial complex. Tell me you want to fuck me in the ass so you can have my money. Don’t talk to me about the glories of free market economy. It never works and never has worked unless you are rich to start and can pay off the right people. And have no conscience about living on the life blood of others.

Enough for now—a glorious spring day awaits. Creation is on the move and the flowers are starting to bloom. That is no bullshit. Just remember Barbara Bush’s statement when someone talks to you about compassionate conservatives and laugh in their faces. Hell, send them a link to my blog.

rojo