Schreiner’s Media Landscape

LOL. In what can only be described as a dramatic turnaround and/or admission of stupidity, the BLM has magically lifted the moratorium it imposed on proposed solar energy projects on federal land after one month. In defense of the feds, they found out quickly from reading and listening to the reaction to their premature and ignorant act that- oops, we did it again. Now, all we need to do is get them to react similarly to their mistakes in Iraq, China, the housing and gasoline crises, Social Security, homeland security, and virtually everything else they’ve “accomplished” in the last seven regressive years.

Speaking of that: Happy Independence Day! I hope we all appreciate it more this year as we enjoy less and less of it thanks to our championship Cheneyesque chumps.

“If the women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”

The immortal words of Canadian TV icon Red Green (actor/writer Steve Smith) echoed through my head as I stood aghast over my favorite chair. I’d just sat down in it to read like I do every day when the entire support fabric ripped and caused the cushion to fall through. As luck would have it, my wife was sitting right there when it happened. “That old thing- let’s just get rid of it” she said or something like that. Was it the truth- or a challenge to my manhood? At first, I agreed. But stupidly, I instantly squandered the perfect opportunity to buy a beautiful, new recliner by replying with those six dreaded words: “No, wait. I can fix it.”

I went to the workshop and gathered a retractable strap I use to hold the swamp cooler cover on during the winter. That was not adjustable enough to tighten sufficiently. Then Red Green spoke to me again: “if it ain’t broke, you’re not trying hard enough.” He was right. The answer was the same one Red had to every do-it-yourself sketch in the show’s history from 1991 to 2006: duct tape.

I quickly got my current roll (every real man has at least two in the house) and started rolling. About five minutes later, the job was done, complete with new velcro applied to reconnect the head rest. I’m not sure if my wife was impressed but I was. More than just proving it could be done or being cheap or whatever, I felt good because I didn’t throw the chair out. Besides the backing, the chair’s in perfectly fine shape and now it’s better than ever. It will probably last another ten years. One less blotch on the environment too.

Thanks, Red for the advice and all the great years on TV in both the U.S. and Canada. And, yes- I will keep my stick on the ice.

The controversy over the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to stop taking applications for solar projects on federal land and take no action on the ones they have will not go away. Treehugger, a great eco-blog, is spurring on the discussion as the Bush Regimists take their final, extended summer vacations before going back to work under a new president who might actually care about America. Bottom line: no matter who takes over from Bush, the moratorium will be lifted because solar makes sense. It’s the Bush Administration and its relentless and unjustifiable protection of the oil, gas and coal industries that don’t.

It was only a matter of time before the federal government’s new  policy of fighting forest fires wherever and whenever they broke out would break down. That’s what’s happened in California where there are too many fires to fight, not enough people, money or time to fight them all. But the redirection of nearly the entire national park management budget into fighting fires to protect the zillion-dollar luxury homes ill-advisedly built right next to our national parks now appears a clearly expensive, unsustainable and destructive policy. But we can’t blame Bush for it. We can just blame him for not doing anything about it when he had the chance.

What we need is a federal law that says if you build your fantasy home next to a national park, YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE for protecting your home, not Uncle Sam. Why did the US Forest Service become the national fire department?

There’s not much doubt that ethanol is a disastrous economic, energy and political policy. No wonder Bush embraced it like a sick baby raccoon. Sad though that McCain was against ethanol for years though for competitive reasons linked to the oil industry, not environmental, independence or the other reasonable reasons. Then he abruptly changed his position in 2006 to con Iowa voters into choosing him during the caucuses. It worked. Now Iowa may be the only state he wins.

McCain’s stuck as an ethanol supporter (though Obama is too). Another missed opportunity. But I wasn’t going to vote for him anyway.

Here’s the drill: China reopens talks with Tibet to give everyone hope. Tibetans and freedom-loving people all over the world get excited that something might actually change. Then, China abruptly breaks off the talks after making no concessions on anything but blames the Dalai Lama.

Rinse… repeat.

It’s no surprise the Pentagon is refusing to follow the EPA’s order to clean up three toxic waste dumps. The Bush Reich has been telling the EPA to ignore facts since Day One and let polluters do what they want. When the EPA does try to act, the White House rewrites their orders to make them conform to the Way of the Destroyers. Additionally, Cheney et al have been working behind the scenes all that time in direct opposition to all existing environmental laws making the EPA’s effort even more laughable- in a very sad way.

With the military being Bush/Cheney Inc.’s favorite client, you think the Pentagon is going to do anything the EPA says? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…

That’s not funny.

The Bush Regime is famous for ignoring facts, creating fake ones and using those to justify their decisions. There was lots of evidence showing that ethanol is not a good answer to America’s renewable energy troubles: high gas prices, dwindling supplies, air pollution and greenhouse gases. The only thing it was sure to do was exactly what the Regime has fought during its endlessly destructive reign: make wealthy, government subsidized farmers even more government subsidized and wealthier. But the irony doesn’t end there.

Bush’s ethanol policy has created a number of different problems without solving the one it was supposed to. Corn prices shot up causing food prices to do the same, corn was taken out of the food supply to make fuel causing food shortages, and it’s making our air dirtier while doing nothing to ease gas prices or shortages. Now, with floods drowning much of the midwestern corn crop, it will make matters even worse.

If we could only get our president and his minions to just stop doing anything it will be easier to reverse the damage. But like Iowa’s floodwaters, it’s going to take a long time. And we won’t see all the damage until Bush, Cheney and these masters of disaster have receded entirely.

Anguish ripples through NASCAR’s burgeoning bleachers as fans ponder the possibility of a Brazilian-Belgian megacorporation buying out iconic Budweiser and a bunch of others under the Anheuser-Busch banner. Even barley growers are nervous that the sale will mean an end of a free lunch (isn’t Bud made from rice?). Not having consciously drunk a Bud for nearly 25 years (deliberately- it sucks), I could care less if A-B is devoured by a bigger fish. In fact, I think it would give Americans incentive to drink something other than Bud, Coors, or other corporate swill. Good for the taste buds, good for the economy.

One of my great memories as a kid was watching my Uncle Fooney (who recently passed on) and Grandpa Wagner make beer at the Superfine Brewery in Marathon, Wisconsin back in the early 1960s. I remember them working around the big copper kettles and the smell of fresh hops cooking. A few years later, the brewery was shuttered, bought out or driven out of business like most locally-owned Wisconsin breweries by the bigger, corporate brewers like Budweiser, Miller, Heileman, etc. Fooney and Grandpa never mentioned it or, if they did, I was too young to understand why such a great, little brewery had to go away.

Of course, I was right. The Superfine brewery didn’t have to go away and shouldn’t have. In fact, little breweries are popping up all over the country again after fifty years of lousy, overpriced beer like Budweiser and the pointless, destructive elimination of local jobs, local business and local pride. American microbreweries produce some of the best beer in the world now. Even with Bud still selling 50% of the beer in America (!), they apparently don’t make enough money to stave off the buyout predators. They’re not making enough money and their beer still sucks. Sound like good business to you?

So sell the whole darn thing off, I say. There are so many good and affordable beers in America, this will only mean good things for the American economy, NASCAR fans (drink American!) and most important, beer itself. Americans need something new to smile about and be proud of. And better beer made by hard-working, entrepreneurial Americans living in our own communities is the best way to start.

The review of new solar projects for federal facilities is just another pathetic attempt by the Bush Reich to stave off the inevitable and give the dying fossil fuel industry a chance to pollute and price-gouge yet another day. But like ending renewable energy tax incentives, blocking federal subsidies for alternative energy development and doing nothing to stop Big Oil’s rape of America, this latest Regime tactic is just going to backfire by placing the U.S. even farther behind the world in renewable energy and producing an explosive effort to catch up as soon as the current idiots leave Washington. Not soon enough.