November 2014

 A good way to deny global warming is to underfund the National Weather Service because, what you don't know can't hurt you, right? A bad weather report might ruin a good congressional prayer breakfast. -- blj
10-30-14
New York Times
Our Failing Weather Infrastructure
By KATHRYN MILES

Kathryn Miles is the author of “Superstorm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy.”

 In a puff piece about Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, leader of the Assembly minority party, Dave Cogdill Sr. had this to say about one of the best laws in the nation for protecting natural resources and the human environment.
 
 

 Not only are fracking economics "dys-economic" (1) but the process -- it can be revealed now for some reason -- is most harmful to the health of its own workers. The great boom in employment promised by all the promoters of this technology, toxic above and below ground, apparently comes at a high price...to the workers.
Note:
(1) "Wells run dry for frackers," Badlands Journal, Nov. 5, 2014
 

 News of the recent extreme snowfall in Buffalo reminded one member of the Badlands editorial board and former resident of Buffalo of an hour in the early 1970's he once spent in a neighborhood tavern near the intersection of Delavan and Delaware avenues in that city.  He related that when he entered the tavern, about 8 p.m., snow was already nearly to the window sills. The group at the bar was talking movies, specifically those of the Swedish director,  Ingmar Bergman. This was not a crowd of university film majors, just ordinary working men in the predominantly Italian neighborhood.