Mixed feelings

Why do people insist on crowding themselves into places where the risk of destruction is as close as the hillside that rhymes with landslide, the shoreline where storms beat, the valley of a volcano, still active?

Our recent dense spate of hurricanes has made it difficult for East Coasters, for example, to obtain, much less afford, insurance. There is discussion of creating a kind of public insurance trust, one that accumulates its unspent premiums, as opposed to spending them and calling it profit. However, it strikes me that the cry of "something must be done" is faulting the insurance providers, with no mention that perhaps as a matter of business and basic common sense, it's logical that providers would want to discourage people from setting up home in such high-risk locations.

No one seems to be getting the message.

Where is the responsibility of the well-endowed island-dweller?

Of course, in the United States, we can make such choices. Residents of Haiti, for example, have no such option.

Anyway, it's summertime, and that means wildfires.

On the one hand, I'm sad acres of forest are dying, and somewhat embarrassed that human error is involved. I will defer the argument about "natural" burn cycles, controlled burns, and the patterns of humankind's interference to your personal research.

This one in Alaska, near Anchorage, is 50,000 acres lost. It started with sparks flying off a shovel being sharpened over dry grass. The iron age was a long time ago, so this may not be a first. Nowadays, always have a bucket handy! Same goes for when you're playing with consumer-grade and homemade/dynamite fireworks. Exit strategies and emergency planning are important in both household affairs and government. Use all of your brain, think ahead a little, show us we've learned from our mistakes. (Give this slug a reason to believe.)

The peninsula is a vacation spot, where one goes to fish, see whales, be granola.

Montana has a 1,000-acre fire at work.

And over in the divorce state: "Near Reno, Nev., firefighters reported progress in their battle against a 150-acre wildfire that had burned within 200 yards of upscale homes Saturday, said Reno city spokesman Chris Good. He said crews hoped to contain the brush fire Sunday."

A much smaller fire. I'm kind of hoping it makes it just a little further.

I am a classist, no denying, and today I'm feeling like a bitter little proletariat.

And granola. America has to stop believing its high consumption code is a laudable and intelligent practice, something to be exported even, and indefinitely sustainable.

Doing the same things will not produce new results.