On the eve of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 60th birthday, NWN is
pleased to present what all can agree is the definitive video.
I’m noticing a fair amount of dust in the air, perhaps from China, as Steve Westly pointed out a few weeks ago, and decided to rinse off the car this morning. This occasioned the need to dry it, and air drying, of course, is my preference. But while out on the freeway, I was only able to get the car up to 115 before running into traffic.
This congestion is really an intolerable situation. Undoubtedly due to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s failure to get moving on California’s infrastructure investment deficit in 2005. Or to state Senate Republicans holding up the current budget. Or, yes, to Jerry Brown’s failure as governor to build 20-lane freeways. If we had those freeways, I could have done a proper job of drying off the car at the more appropriate 130 or 140. And it would actually save fuel and be better for the environment. Since the drying goes so much faster than when one is driving 65 or 70 …
Well, enough seriousness for today. Governor Schwarzenegger, whose 60th birthday is tomorrow — and aren’t we sure that he’s thrilled about that? — has another hit on his hands.
No, I’m not referring to his accolades on fighting climate change. Or to the Senate Republican budget stall or the federal judges threatening to release prison inmates or pending referenda against his casino compacts or the threat to California’s voting systems or … No, wait, those aren’t pluses.
Schwarzenegger, incidentally, will work this week on resolving the state budget impasse. Talk about a birthday present. But it will undoubtedly make him feel quite young.
Oh, yes, the big hit. Here it is:
** ANOTHER HIT FOR ARNOLD: THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. Though he appears not as a performer but as a character — more specifically, as “President Arnold Schwarzenegger” — the former action superstar is a current comedy superstar. The Simpsons Movie had a much bigger opening than most Hollywood experts expected, grossing a whopping $71.9 million at the domestic box office from Friday through today. That’s an exhibitors’ estimate, of course. The final numbers will be out tomorrow.
As you can see in the video clip in yesterday’s NWN, Schwarzenegger is played for humor in the movie, not as an action hero. But it’s all in good fun.
Tomorrow, incidentally, I’ll tell you the backstory behind the portrayal of Schwarzenegger. After all, it’s his birthday tomorrow.
** GORDON BROWN TO SUMMIT WITH BUSH. New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is coming to America. The new leader of American’s number one ally in the world, who replaced Tony Blair on June 27th, have dinner tonight with President George W. Bush at Camp David. There they will discuss the various Middle East crises and climate change. Before leaving London, Brown said: “The relationship between an American president and a British prime minister will always be strong.”
Meanwhile, British forces in southern Iraq, centered in and around the key city of Basra, are redeploying. The remaining troops in the middle of Basra will now be quartered not in the city center, but at an air base on the outskirts of Basra. As the move is made, the total number of British troops in Iraq will again diminish, from 5,500 to 5,000. British military sources say the army is getting worn down, and want to focus on securing Afghanistan.
** BOXER IN GREENLAND. With hyperpartisan critics saying “Good, she should stay there” — and how clever is that? — California Senator Barbara Boxer is in Greenland this weekend with several of her fellow senators of both parties looking at the impact of the greenhouse effect. The chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works said: “I think everyone who has seen this is changed. Imagine flying in a helicopter and seeing this massive glacier that’s five miles wide and 500 miles long…following it as it’s crashing into the sea. It’s moving and it’s melting and every single day, 24 hours a day, 20 million tons of ice comes off that glacier and streams into the ocean.”
Arkalo Abelsen, Greeland’s environmental minister, told the senators that when he was a child, the sea ice closed Disco Bay for six months. Now it lasts only a few weeks.
Schwarzenegger will have a lot to talk about at the United Nations in New York on September 24th.
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Okay, that stuns me. Truly does. Thought for sure it had to be him, especially since he has done such a great job as Insurance Commissioner.
Hasn’t he, though?
You lost me.
Poizner is too geeky. He’d never have a chance against Jerry Brown.
I was being facetious.
Beyond a certain point, conservation is not a substitute for production.
But what is that point? We waste energy (and other resources, especially water) on a mind-boggling scale. Reductions in energy use on the order of 80% are entirely within the reach of existing technology, with 90% not all that much a stretch. A lot of these improvements would not even be particularly expensive, once you account for the fact that the capital investment would be paid back by energy savings within a year or two, often less. It costs less to stop wasting things than it does to continue doing what we’re doing. (Again, check out the RMI presentations for numerous case studies; a lot of them show payback periods of a few months.)
Unless you think that in the near future we’re going to need five times as much energy as we produce today, conservation and efficiency upgrades could cover all of our needs, for quite some time.
That’s a very pleasant notion.
Don’t forget the population projections and the need to change out power under greenhouse scenarios.
That’s a very pleasant notion.
Don’t forget the population projections and the need to change out power under greenhouse scenarios.
Dump Denham – a year into his final Senate term. [He has a committee for a statewide race in 2010, but most people don't expect he'll win a statewide primary - low name ID, etc.]
Could they get any less relevant? How about “Stop Schwarzenegger in 2010″ signs?