When southern governors attack... each other

by shamanic

I've neglected blogging duties because of a trip to DC to perform spoken word at the Ganymede Arts Festival, which occasioned a pair of 10-hour drives back and forth.

Today was rainy most of the way, which made 10 hours alone in my car extra-super-awesome, but one thing I noticed was just how terribly depleted the reservoirs in North Carolina were. This one, for instance, which I'm pretty sure is the Neuse River Basin and watershed area that I drove through. You'll notice from the Google Maps picture that in the past it was all full of water and stuff.

No longer. Today, I glanced over to see some good southern wetland and witnessed an emptied lakebed, barely even a marsh. Grass has begun to grow there. It was a shocking sight.

Meanwhile, in a state where our lakes continue to hold (some) water, the governor wants to go nuclear on both the endangered species act and the state next door. I guess addressing the underlying problems (fast growth in the southeast; lack of a regional water plan) isn't on the Sonny-Do list.

Another southerner wins the Nobel Peace Prize

by shamanic

Congratulations to Al Gore, who today shares the Nobel Peace Prize with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I always like it when fellow southerners are recognized for good works. I'm proud to live in a state that is home to two Nobel laureates, Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King, Jr., and it says a lot about this region that our land lays claim to some of the most terrible pieces of US history but our people produce some of the greatest dreams for America and the world.

To walk back in time with the full list of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, go here.