Lubbock Left

Where do we put millions of tons of toxic mud? Why, West Texas of course!

New York’s Hudson River is full of carcinogenic waste in the form of now-illegal PCBs dumped into the river by industry, and it’s coming our way in the form of choo choo trains full of oversize toxic burritos:

Tom W. Jones III, a vice president of Waste Control Specialists, said the Hudson River sludge would be wrapped in heavy plastic, like a burrito, loaded onto open railcars and shipped to the landfill in trains at least 80 cars long. By the third year of the five-year plan, which has been approved by the E.P.A., two to three trains a week will arrive.

Waste like this has to go somewhere, I guess. Certainly it’s better off in the middle of nowhere than in the Hudson river. My biggest concern is that the site is too close to the Ogallala Aquifer (wikipedia entry). Contaminating our only source of water is probably the worst thing that could happen to West Texas.

Just as West Texas is poised to be the wind and solar energy capital of the world, we are also becoming America’s dumping ground for toxic sludge, radioactive waste, and who knows what else on down the line. And hey, while in Texas, why not mine some uranium, inject waste water into oil wells, or build a few more coal-fired plants? Ugh.

You can learn more and get involved over at the Lone Star Sierra Club.

In case you weren’t aware, the Lubbock City Council has appointed a citizen panel to solicit ideas for civic improvements that would go before the voters as bond issues this November. The deadline to submit ideas for civic projects online is one week from now — June 10.

To submit an idea for a civic project, go to mylubbock.us and click on the Citizen Advisory Commission link on the right side of the screen (and then click on suggest a project to submit your idea).

I think the City of Lubbock would benefit the most from improvements to 34th Street, Library improvements (we did just lose an entire branch library after all), and reasonable improvements to downtown (such as improvements to our civic center).

I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting to mention some worthwhile potential projects, but that’s what the comments are for…

I’m back from vacation. It was nice to have a blogging break for a while.

So, I’m catching up on news today, and everyone seems to be talking about the murder (Sunday, in church) of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

I didn’t know much about Dr. Tiller before today. Predictably, however, I find that the usual right-wing pundits have been dehumanizing Dr. Tiller (for years now) or making excuses for his murder. Examples:

Billo, in 2006
More Billo
Tucker Carlson, now

I think it’s ironic in a sad way that — after a recent Department of Homeland Security memo warning of right-wing terrorism in the U.S. — we have exactly that. I doubt right-wing pundits who were critical of the memo will offer an apology or an acknowledgment that the DHS memo was a serious piece of law enforcement rather than a partisan thing.

We shouldn’t glorify terrorists, foreign or domestic. That seems pretty straightforward to me. Whether we’re talking about Bin Laden or McVeigh or whoever shot Dr. Tiller, we shouldn’t be making apologies for them.

Anyway, I’m back and looking forward to blogging about happier topics throughout the week.