Bob Morris who has the great Politics in the Zeros blog (but no permalinks!) reviews two great books: Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, and Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West.
I’ve read Cadillac Desert, and recommend it incredibly highly to anyone who wants to understand the history of the West.
We’re an irrigation empire; and the folks who control the water are the hidden emperors.

In this column, Arianna Huffington…gosh, it’s amazing how she’s transformed herself…actually nails the ethical issues in modern corporate finance.
I actually need to dig into her stuff a bit and try and see what happened. Maybe we can make it contagious.
Her transformation into someone who I regularly believe makes lots of sense matches the counter-transformation of Lewis Lapham who has become a babbling idiot.
Is there some kind of Law Of Conservation of Sense?

You’ve already read this, but it’s just so damn nice to get good news once in a while…CNN.com – Trapped miners emerging from Pennsylvania earth – July 28, 2002

…because there are more of us every year, in no small part. Ann Salisbury comments on Steve Lopez’s surprisingly intelligent column in today’s LAT.
I think this is another huge issue which won’t go away. I’m not living in fear of a Reconquista, but the impacts of massive population inflow combined with limited resources to build physical and social infrastructure presents some pretty big problems that need to be addressed.
I’ll try and jump in here a bit later.

Jeff Cooper discovers a truly stupid man in Boston Globe and MSNBC sports ‘columnist’ Rob Borges, who suggests that Lance Armstong isn’t an athlete.
I raced bicycles (a long time ago), and was lucky enough to be a suiveur (one of the guys in the cars) at the ’78 Tour (Hinault won, the riders went on strike, I got to have lunch with Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil). These guys were riding up hills comparable to Sepulveda going north into the San Fernando Valley at over 23mph…
…and this moron thinks they aren’t athletes?

Jeff Goldstein, over at Protein Wisdom fillets the fast-food lawsuits.
I couldn’t say it any better; why bother?

From today’s NY Times

The bill, which has been vigorously opposed by consumer-rights groups, had long been the top legislative priority of credit card companies and some banks, which insist that many debtors abuse the bankruptcy laws to escape debts they should be able to pay. The companies sharply stepped up campaign contributions to members of Congress in recent years as they promoted the legislation.
Among the biggest beneficiaries would be the MBNA Corporation of Delaware, which describes itself as the world’s biggest independent credit card company. Ranked by employee donations, MBNA was the largest corporate contributor to President Bush’s 2000 campaign.
The company has also recently acknowledged that it gave a $447,000 debt-consolidation loan on what critics viewed as highly favorable terms to a crucial House supporter of the bill only four days before he signed on as a lead sponsor of the legislation in 1998. Both MBNA and the lawmaker, Representative James P. Moran Jr., Democrat of Virginia, have denied that there was anything improper about the loan.

I’m too disgusted to comment.

God, I love technology…

Alwin Hawkins, over at ViewFromTheHeart (note: no permalinks) responded with a description of the German health insurance system (his disclaimers: it was from an old class, he’s not a health care economist, bla bla bla)…it’s a clear explanation of what sounds like a damn sensible system.
I’ll dig in a bit as time allows and try (for once) and comment sensibly.

The process begins…here’s L.A. County’s reaction to the health care fiscal crisisin today’s L.A. Times (obtrusive registration required, or just sign in as “laexaminer”/”laexaminer”).

Los Angeles County supervisors will ask voters to approve a $175-million parcel tax to shore up the county’s fraying network of emergency rooms and trauma centers, officials said Wednesday.