tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14438897.post112905255788381659..comments2023-11-02T02:45:39.259-06:00Comments on Hydrogen & Stupidity: Rocky Mountain HighCantankerous Bitchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08353178783999591681noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14438897.post-1129141786854011842005-10-12T12:29:00.000-06:002005-10-12T12:29:00.000-06:00I'll take much of the above as rhetorical, but add...I'll take much of the above as rhetorical, but add that according to my memory and what I've read through the years, the Denver/Boulder folks (and the surrounding burbs) actually do seem to give a damn about their surroundings. Boulder, in particular, if I recall correctly, votes regularly to maintain and/or increase local taxes to support conservation measures. And as much as I appreciate the fury you describe, at the end of the day, I do have to think a little is better than nothing. A little here, a little there, with additions to those efforts made each year can mean that at the end of a decade, there's a respectable collection of laws, regulations and practices that reflect an eco-conscious community. No, they're not banning, outright, the presence of polluting industries, but they're also not trashing their surroundings with abandon either. This is to say nothing, of course, of the massive chunk of the state taken up by the Rockies, the majority of which are still wild and quite pristine...Cantankerous Bitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08353178783999591681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14438897.post-1129132326521966272005-10-12T09:52:00.000-06:002005-10-12T09:52:00.000-06:00Well sure there are planning trends toward incorpo...Well sure there are planning trends toward incorporating green 'spaces" and I suppose its a 'better then nothing' issue. Isn't that the REAL TREND? Hasn't environmentalism been reduced to crumb chasing? Give us a park, but run a fucking pipeline through it? Give us some open space but in exchange lets let polluters off the hook in the spirit of comprimise? Somehow I find it hard to imagine animals making their homes in contrived 'spaces' with people milling about holding their Starbucks and Coach bags. "Look kids! A bird!" on the way to Olive Garden... "Lets get back to nature- we'll drive our rugged terrain 4x4's to...the mall! We'll take in a quarter mile hike! Better wear your Timberlands too!"<BR/> But I digress..<BR/> What I want to rage against is the damn redundancy of capitalism and the fact that the global market has infused our culture with a loss of community and stability (via the shopping for favorable labor markets and tax benefits practices) No matter how you decorate your community with little emblems and eagles, no matter how "hippie chic' you make a coffee house or bistro- you are still offering a thousand "low paying what benefits?" jobs to the community with no real incentive to roll up one's sleeves and get entrenched in local matters. <BR/> Do we need Target next to WalMart next to KMart next to a zillion other things? We call it choice and competition, we say redundancy brings prices down and dammit don't we need low prices to furnish our plots of land with shoddy goods...after all, hasn't wal mart made happiness more affordable? I used to think the great soul liberator was the printing press... nope. Silly hippies! Its the ability to buy sheets that match our bedspreads for just $7.99!!!! And who cares if they look like shit after their second washing- we all have ample closets now in our 5,000 square foot homes we heat...we can put them away until we sell them at a garage sale and buy new ones next week...and so on. yes, blessed be the Denverites.Lilyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16689786323490572915noreply@blogger.com