Comments on: Dams: A Perspective on Temporary Prosperity

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:04:55 +0000

To wax philosophical: it’s about humanity’s inability to comprehend the immensities of geological time. We KNOW viscerally that we can’t comprehend them, but MUST. Just as we know we can’t comprehend the immensities of space, and the immmensities of man’s inumanities to man. But We Must.

Quite a downer, self-confidence-wise.

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:59:00 +0000

Glad you enjoyed it, cg. Vidal is an American national treasure, whether in America or Italy. I wouldn’t suggest that his craggy visage replace Abe’s on Mount Rushmore, but isn’t Teddy’s about due for a facelift….?

Thanks for the comment, HR. The capitalists always have had the jump on anti-capitalists. Something about control (and creation) of information. But I won’t even try to imagine the “coverage” of 2008′s Peripheral Canal issue by that oracle of monied, celebrity-centered idocy, the Los Angeles Times.

By: cg

cg — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:17:37 +0000

Lloyd, your review of Uncle Gore’s “The Last Empire” is on “Lew Rockwell.com” today. I enjoyed it.

By: bill rowe

bill rowe — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:41:57 +0000

i think damming everything ,everywhere, it is economically worthwhile is far and away our best option

By: HR

HR — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:09:32 +0000

Lloyd, the infrastructure situation described in your excerpt is what happens in states where tax increases, and annual budgets, can be blocked by a minority of one third.

Personally, I value free-running streams far more than I ever did L.A. I am a (northern) California native who left after 52 years because I just got sick of all the water development and other habitat destruction there, all done despite the much-decried California Environmental Quality Act (enacted in the 70s). Now CA is back to serious consideration of a Peripheral Canal (defeated by voters in 1982) to divert even more taxpayer-subsidized water to already subsidized San Joaquin Valley agribusiness. This water will come from the long-dammed and diverted Sacramento and Trinity rivers … so these welfare kings and queens can grow more cotton and other water-intensive crops in a desert. What a sorry “state” of affairs.

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:43:54 +0000

I read this article and my mind kept returning to Cadallic Desert, and what seemed fifteen years ago to be the bottom line question: How do you compare the value of a Los Angeles to the cost of silted-up dams all over the state of California?

Now, how quickly the time-line itself has changed. Just yesterday, I read a few lines by a Los Angelino:

“Los Angeles, once the very definition of urban modernity, has fallen woefully behind. I am working on a piece about this very subject. It is disgraceful how neglected the nation’s second largest city (aka the nation’s most populous county) is. Roads, schools, tech infrastructure in L.A. have all been stuck where they were 10 years ago, and what upgrades have been made have been cosmetic.” – A Comment in OpEdNews by Michael Fox, on Tuesday, September 16, 2008.

And re-reading those lines today, I almost wept.