Thanks for the show. We as a society can penalize for waste and harm-- for too long we have allowed the creative capitalists to get away with murder. We have not adequately funded for proper oversight. The FDA, EPA and other governmental departments responsible for consumer protection have been compromised. We have allowed lobbying and conflict of interest to make a travesty of their roles.
As discussed on your show today, we can also reward more prudent energy use-- we are not doing enough of this, in my opinion. For example, I don't know of any utility company which rewards consumers monetarily for using less. By paying more for clean energy, we can sleep better knowing that we are not causing emphysema,asthma and cancer to our generation and many generations down the line. However, I think that there should be more of a motivation to act conscientiously. Like Weisman's "Gaviotas: a Village to Reinvent the World," can't we think of some way for people to immediately see some of the benefits to a green lifestyle?
To me, one of the quickest, clearest success stories is publicly-owned utilities. What do you think?

When I think of "shovel ready" wasteful stimulus projects that we definitely don't need, my first thought is the Grand Parkway boondoggle which is getting a lot of attention this week since some legislators and environmentalists pitched a fit. No matter how "shovel ready," we don't need to waste stimulus money on a road to nowhere, especially a road on which the average person would have to pay a toll! Call your county commissioner and state reps to emphatically say "no" to this craziness and spend the money on mass transit which would help low and middle income, young and old, travel this city.

Caren Grown, economist at American University (Washington, DC) delivered an amazing keynote speech to the Intl. Convocation of Unitarian Universalist and Progressive Women on Sat., Feb. 28th. She mentions the stimulus package and important statistics of women's contribution to economies worldwide. I hope that we will discuss some of her observations.