Bush’s new [tag]press secretary[/tag] [tag]Tony Snow[/tag] is aptly named for the job. Snow is a former FOX News commentator and until now, had his own radio show, where he had this to say last week:

People like Jesse Jackson who have committed themselves to a view that blacks are constantly victims, have succeeded in creating in the United States the most dangerous thing that we’ve encountered in our lifetime; which is, an underclass that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Going on to criticize “the idiotic culture of [tag]hip-hop[/tag]”, he said:

You have people glorifying failure. You have a bunch of gold-toothed hot dogs become millionaires by running around and telling everybody else that they oughtta be miserable failures and if they’re really lucky maybe they can get gunned down in a diner sometime, like Eminem’s old running mate.

(Hear Snow for yourself on Democracy Now!)

I wasn’t sure if Bush could find anyone worse than the perpetually obtuse and obfuscating Scott McClellan, but it sounds like he might have succeeded.

It’s beautiful outside. The trails up the escarpment are muddy but passable and the main ones are packed full of joggers and cyclists.

This post is dedicated to the memory of the bonsai pictured above, given by our dear friends Pink and Sue, which tragically burst into flame one day and perished.

I was killing time and flipped on CNN for want of anything better to watch. “Welcome to the Future” said the CNN headline. “Lydia’s wish: escaping traffic”.

“I get up between 4:45 and 5:00 every day,” complained Lydia, “I have to be at work at 7:15 and I often find myself dashing across the parking lot to make it.”

“Time is such a valuable thing,” she continued as backdrops of congested highways flashed behind her. “I spend 3 hours of my life a day in my car and that’s a huge amount of my life wasted.”

Amazing, I thought. CNN was about to examine Raise the Hammer’s favourite issues: urban sprawl, inefficient [tag]public transportation[/tag], and society’s addiction to cars. Cue Miles O’Brien:

It is really painful when you add up all the time we spend in our cars, grinding our teeth as we drive our way through traffic. But what if we could commute through the wild blue yonder, breezing past the gridlock below?

Say what, Miles? Did you say “wild blue yonder”? Yes indeed: CNN’s featured solution to traffic congestion is the Air Scooter, your very own personal helicopter.

“Due to hit the market later this year with a price tag of fifty thousand dollars,” O’brien intones, “[it’s inventor] says the [tag]Air Scooter[/tag] could make rush hours a thing of the past.”

Welcome to the future: where rich people soar above the traffic below, occasionally descending in their noisy craft into specially marked parking spaces whose signage you ignore at the risk of stiff fines or decapitation, only to rise again above the masses like petrol-sucking dragonflies, designer label bags in tow. Someone ought to give this company a subsidy!

You can watch the clip yourself, but don’t blame me for CNN’s appalling website, which is likely to bombard you with popups.

I had a moment to spend on updating the site so I did. I have upgraded it to WordPress 2.02, which will probably be entirely transparent to all of you, but which gives me a very nice back-end administration area.

I have also added a couple of plugins. [tag]Simpletags[/tag] is a plugin that lets you easily add [tag]Technorati[/tag] tags to your posts, a feature that is meaningless for those of you that don’t use Technorati. You’ll see the new tags at the bottom of posts regardless.

I’ve also added a plugin that lets users easily submit to some of the more popular social bookmarking sites out there, like del.icio.us and Reddit, two of my favourites. Del.icio.us is especially great if you are a habitual link packrat. This plugin will only display when you click through to the post.

I also reorganized the sidebar a little bit and improved the search.  Hopefully it’s a little easier to navigate now.

Thanks for sticking through the extended dry spell, I seem to have a little more time for writing lately so I plan on doing so.

The hammer has been raised yet again. This issue includes the 5th installment of Digital Kayak, where I connect poor gastrointestinal health to climate change.