optimism

From Ignition, just published by Island Press, a quote by Jared Duval, national director of the Sierra Student Coalition:

"Global warming is probably the biggest threat that has ever faced humanity. That is what is most scary about it -- and also what is most exciting. A problem of this scale presents an opportunity for grand solutions: more just and sustainable ways of life that will not only stabilize the climate but also reinvigorate community, restore environmental and human health, and give us a secure world far more hopeful and fulfilling than the one we live in today."

In this spirit, I'll be joining the nationwide Step It Up rallies tomorrow, and hope to see you there!

mother: the job

Here's an interesting website, just forwarded by a friend:

http://www.motherthejob.org/events.html

what rough beasts

If ever I needed justification for my opinion that that horrible Internet phenom, Happy Tree Friends, http://happytreefriends.atomfilms.com/ is a sign of our culture's decline, I've gotten it in the emails that have continued to come two -- count'em -- years after my op-ed in the Washington Post. For some reason, three or four have arrived just this past week, swearing and ranting and threatening me with a fate worse than that of the bloody cartoon bears/rabbits/squirrel victims, in defense of the writers' favored entertainment. I haven't been responding, but here's a blanket answer to these hot-blooded correspondents: the cartoon promotes savagery, ipso facto (look it up.)