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Today’s Chron contains a roundup of Recall humor: Hey, did you hear the one about the California recall election? My two favorites are:

Larry Flynt, running for governor of California. His goal — change our state bird to the spread eagle.   — Craig Kilborn

It’s been reported that some of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s opponents have been circulating naked pictures of Arnold on the Internet. In a related story, Arnold is leading the other candidates by four inches.  — Conan O’Brien

Pictured is the least “green” thing I’ve done all year: I had the driveway paved. As I was composing this article, I pondered color metaphors for being unmindful of the environment, eco-hostile, non-conservationalist… essentially, not-green. The best color word I came up with: “asphalt.”

When we bought the house, the driveway was gravel. Whoever had most recently worked on it had carefully scraped away any semblance of a crown, creating a tremendous drainage problem. In the heavy rains of last winter, water coursed down the driveway in line with the tire tracks and carved foot-deep ruts into the surface.

On my motorbike, this was particularly challenging to traverse. It felt a lot like riding a slalom course. On gravel. Bikes and gravel do not go well together. Bikes and gravel and riders inexpert at both go especially poorly together; in fact, they’re a recipe for road rash.

That’s not the real reason we paved it, though. One more rainy season would make the road impassable. We had to either regrade and re-gravel it, a process that might need to be repeated yearly, or pave it. I’ve never liked quick fixes — seems to me we’d end up spending more money and, worse, more time dealing with it if we tried to take the “cheap” way out. Fortunately, the neighbor (with whom we share this road) was willing, so we split the costs of a more-permanent solution.

Here’s what it looks like at sunset.

Adbusters’ Corporate America Flag campaign proclaims:

Corporate America is revelling in a Golden Age. A shrinking number of the planet’s biggest businesses — AOL Time Warner, Shell, Nike, Microsoft, McDonald’s — are the money behind presidents, the power that drives global trade rules, the voice of authority on how we live and the way we think. Corporations have all the rights of we, the people, but thousands of times more money to make the system work for them.

We call this system “democracy.” But today it looks a lot like corporate rule.

Click the flag to read more, or to see the full-size “brands and bands” version of the “stars and stripes.” It’s art, and it’s subversive. Sometimes that’s a good combination.

Quiz for the day: how many logos can you name? I recognized 83.5% (25 of 30). If you watch television, you’ll probably recognize more than I did.

The Adbusters site offers a high-res PDF version of the image, so you can print your own. Or, order a 5'' x 3'' polyester flag, suitable for flying in the face of corporate america.

Here’s a trio of eco-disasters taken from one day’s headlines. President Bush appears to be determined to poison as many of us as he can. I’m not real sure what the benefit is, to him or anyone. Maybe that’s why politics make me ill.

Coal-fired power plants’ upgrade provision to die; Utilities expected to save billions on anti-pollution devices

The Bush administration has decided to allow thousands of the nation’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants and refineries to upgrade their facilities without having to install costly anti-pollution equipment, as they now must do.

Bush official rallies support for logging legislation at Sonora summit

President Bush’s agriculture undersecretary came to California timber country Friday to rally support for legislation that would ease logging restrictions in the name of fire protection and forest health.

EPA misled public on 9/11 pollution; White House ordered false assurances on air quality, report says

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available…
[S]ome of the [EPA]’s news releases in the weeks after the attack were softened before being released to the public: Reassuring information was added, while cautionary information was deleted.

Or, in short, Bush is saying: you’ll have dirtier air, fewer trees to clean it, and we’ll lie to you about how sick you’ll get as a result.

We’re live on the new server. Argh. We’re working out the kinks, slowly.