terra non firma

grandstanding republicans - and its not for schiavo

just watched the treacly sobfest that is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. this week's episode took place in SoCal - santa fe springs to be exact. sure, the family seemed deserving enough (don't they always?) what was interesting about this episode was the plan to build a green home - complete with solar energy. all good news, right? what made this episode somewhat harder to watch than usual wasn't the self-congratulatory designers, nor the obvious product plugs for sears, or even the slight discomfort I feel at the theatricality and exploitation of one family's misery.

what made this difficult to watch was the appearance of Gov Schwarzenegger to inspect the house and its environmentally-friendly design. arguably, no one has done more to popularize the gas-guzzling hummer for ordinary folk, even serving as the inspiration for GM to introduce the H2. so its a little hard to swallow this new, green governor, despite the $100 million he pledged to build hydrogen refueling stations.

for more on schwarzenegger's environmental record (which admittedly, isn't ALL bad), check out the sierra club's analysis of his first year in office.

posted by marissa @ 9:22 PM