San Francisco is going to have a ballot measure to determine whether to name a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush. I don’t know about this. I understand the sentiment, that it would associate Bush’s name with sewage, but sewage treatment plants are good things that take filth coming in and puts clean and pure out. Bush does the opposite.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
How come those latte-sipping elitists always come up with the best ideas? Not being a resident, I can’t vote, darnit.
Wow, you’re prolific in the early morning. I’m never up this early, but the new Batman got me so jazzed up I didn’t sleep, and I have Vehicle Dynamics class in about 2 hours, so I figured I’d just stay up and read. Your blog is one of the best parts of my day PZ!
I guess on reflection that it is not quite as early in MN as it is in Tucson, AZ. :-P
Here are my thoughts on The Dark Knight for anyone who is interested, as well.
Name the main intake pipe after him. That way it is perfectly clear what end of the sewage treatment President Bush is responsible for.
Maybe they should name a landfill after Bush. Nothing but gas and stench comes out of that.
Is anyone else reminded of Hunter S. Thompson’s wonderful eulogy for Richard M. Nixon, in which Thompson says (approximating from memory):
How about naming a smoke stack after him? Or perhaps re-naming Chernobyl. What about one of those giant trash barges that are always surrounded by a million seagulls?
Name it shuB .W egroeG instead,.
I’ve got it. The sewage represents equality, society together as one mix, the good in with the bad, but existing, and smelling just the same. Then in comes the divider, separating the good to be treated as useful, and taking the bad, and burning them, or turning them into fertilizer. When the good get mixed in with the bad again, he quickly strips them away to begin the cycle all over again.
Considering how much I hate San Francisco… Screw them and their hippie elitist-wannabe thoughts.
This is totally unfair to the workers doing their useful job by working hard in that sewage plant. They will feel ridiculed and humiliated.
Perhaps they could call it the Hsub (Holistic Sewage Unification Base) sewage treatment plant? (Hsub being Bush spelled backwards – implying that it does exactly the opposite of what GWB does)
Or perhaps the BWG? (Big Whining Garbage)?
Why not just call the sewage treatment plant “Allah”, “Jehovah”, or “Yahweh”?
I saw that article in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning, but I’ve been aware of the proposal for a while due to news coverage of the petition circulation. I’m sure I would vote for it, even though I think waste treatment plants are useful and important. The intent is just too obvious to miss and the initiative has California Republicans gnashing their teeth and crying foul. Foul. Ha!
Well, I am from San Francisco (Michelle why do you hate this wonderful city?) and will be voting for this ballot initiative for 2 specific reasons: Shrub deserves the insult, and the chairperson of the local Republican Party has vowed to fight this with “all means available to him.” Pardon the double negative, but there is no way I could not vote for this.
Yeah, that’s a big no for me. Sewage treatment plants are some of the most important public facilities in any city.
I want Bush’s name to disappear from the history book unless it is being brought up as the prime example of bumbling incompetence and willful destruction of some of your countries foundations.
So maybe the name should be: Bush W. George.
Ok, Maybe naming one of the catch ponds after him would be justified.
Name the human digestive track after him.
Food (good stuff) goes is, and feces comes out in the end…
The anus itself can be known as the “Cheney” or “Rove”.
Here in Ottawa, our wastewater/sewage system is combined, and if we get a heavy rain raw sewage overflows into the river. Recently we learnt about an outflow valve get stuck open, and for several weeks raw sewage CONSTANTLY spewed into the river, forcing the closure of several popular swimming spots. Even better, after the fact was discovered, no-one bothered to even TELL anyone about it.
Naming a broken sewer overflow valve (which I’m sure could be found somewhere in the USA too) after that Dubya would seem to be appropriate.
Colin
Maybe she’s really Michelle Malkin?
The SF=hippie-elitist-wannabe meme put me in mind of this little video I did a while back. (As an aside, Rachel Maddow rules!)
Finally Bush will have an environmental legacy he can be proud of,
but we are left with the putrid sewage excreted by his administration.
Llewelly, #6
That reminds me: it is – or, at least, it would have been – Hunter S Thompson’s birthday today.
We need another HST, pronto. Another mad, brilliant, drug-crazed, gun-toting writer who’d get out there and tell it like it is.
Hi Michelle
Allow me to assure you that San Francisco ain’t in your fan club either.
Feel free to insert eyerolling and use of the word ‘sweetie’ where appropriate.
I would feel bad for the employees that have to work there. Maybe they could just rename the sludge that accumulates over time and has to be hauled off in his honer.
Phrew! That’s a tough call. On the one hand; PZ has a more than valid point. On the other hand, sfatheist calls to our attention the fact that the local Republican machine is dead against it.
Perhaps a compromise is in order. But then, what kind of compromise? The traditional kind or the Democratic Congress kind?
It’s a conundrum.
Well, his namesake would be doing something useful even if he never has. I’m for it and hope the idea spreads through the country like bean-fueled methane through Vespers.
doov
Some might have also argued that naming a mixture of fecal matter and anal lube after Rick Santorum was demeaning to mixtures of fecal matter and anal lube, but I think it worked pretty well. Onward with the dedication brave San Franciscans.
Name the sewage system for W, but then remember, for the love of the Wafer God, don’t ever flush a pretzel in the toilet! Imagine the disaster if the whole sewage chokes…
You’re mis-parsing the proposed name. Allow me to make it clearer: The “George W. Bush Sewage” Plant.
The plant will intake great quantities of “George W. Bush Sewage” and treat it in order that it will no longer be “George W. Bush Sewage” any more.
They should go ahead and name it after him. The objective point about the usefulness of a sewage treatment plant will be forever subsumed to the hideous, hilarious connotations.
Yes, it may seem harsh to the workers who do a good job there, but consider: In the same manner that water always finds its own level, we can count on those workers to construct an even pithier tribute to #43.
To the extent that both are full of shit, the name is apt.
BushWar, Bushcession, Bushflation, BushSluts, Bushcest, Bushtism, Bush Deficit Disorder, Bush National Monument,
I think the effete snobs of SanFran should use some of that expensive education. This in on the level of plastering stickies on Washington National Airport.
Now I like your take on it, BT. Eradication of GW shrubco sewage is a very valuable service.
Of course, anything that ticks off the pompous right is a Good Thing (TM).
When I first read this, I thought it said “I understand the sediment…..” It actually still makes sense if you make the change……
“The SF=hippie-elitist-wannabe meme put me in mind of this little video I did a while back. (As an aside, Rachel Maddow rules!)”
Bill @21..thanks for the video link. I just looked at it and it’s wonderful. BTW: have you noticed how much air time Rachel is now getting on MSNBC? She is great!
Maybe it has an anaerobic reactor that stinks a lot, that would be a good name, perfect choice IMO.
For that matter even an aerobic reactor smells like shit anyway!
Glad to see that San Francisco has all their other problems solved, like the rampant homelessness, or that bugger of a crime issue, oh what they do not.
It just comes off as simply childish and petty and paints those on the left as such, because honestly it smacks of little more then what you would find with Internet trolls.
“I think the effete snobs of SanFran should use some of that expensive education. This in on the level of plastering stickies on Washington National Airport.”
Mold @33…you are now quoting alliterations from a disgraced Republican Vice President who resigned over 30 years ago? Surely you can do better than that! Or then again, maybe not.
As a San Franciscan, I’ll probably vote yes on this little jab. It seems so incredibly minor compared to the abuses of power we have been subjected to under this regime. A war of choice, torture, corporate pandering to unimaginable sums.
However, as much as I like and smile at the issue, I consider it divisive rather than cohesive. I would hope that the Dems would not copy the Reps with this type of divisive behavior during a time of ascendency.
Hmmmm. Sorta like when they named SR 90 here after Richard Nixon. It’s a very short piece of freeway that is seldom traveled because it really doesn’t connect anything interesting. The joke at the time was that, like Nixon, it “came from nowhere and goes nowhere.”
Personally, I think that naming the facility after GWB is silly and unproductive.
@10
“Considering how much I hate San Francisco… Screw them and their hippie elitist-wannabe thoughts.”
How looks like someone didn’t leave their hearts in San Francisco…
Just wanted to say San Francisco was, is and always will be one of my very favourite places to be. I miss it from way out here on the other coast. Michelle can go screw herself.
JC
How can someone hate San Fran? Do you have a problem with hills? With good food? With great views, incredible architecture, interesting history, diverse cultu….
AHH that’s got to be it. Diverse cultures.
Those two enormous vortices of floating plastic trash in the Pacific get my vote for presidential naming and the legacy: GHWB and his get, GWB.
I’d like to propose the George W Bush Gross Polluter Memorial.
Actually, I really like this idea in SF. Bush will now always be associated with sewers. Next time I’m in SF, I’ll be happy to crap on Bush. Perfect.
Breaking news: Majority in CA oppose the ban on same-sex marriage:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/18/BA7U11R8T4.DTL&tsp=1
Glad to see it.
I’m already pretty sure how I’ll vote: Obama, no on 8, yes on high-speed rail…
I support this idea if only because it would piss off the honoree.
Presumably, he would be invited to attend the inauguration, I wonder whether he would accept or would he have a “prior engagement”.
I think of the proposed name as an olive branch, a gesture of reconciliation, for once, George W. Bush will be associated with something constructive, of lasting value to society. If you don’t feel so generous, a “Brazilian wax shop” named “Bush administration” is inevitable.
The sentiment comes from the interpretation that it is read as…
George W. Bush Sewage Treatment Plant
not, George W. Bush Sewage Treatment Plant
sfatheist (@36):
Yah… and it terrifies me: The cornerstone of my day is listening to her radio show (podcast, actually); I’m afraid if she gets too successful on the TV Machine, I’ll lose her. If she left for MSNBC full time, I’d be bereft, no matter how happy I was for her. If that happened, it would join Al Franken leaving AAR to run for the Senate in my Hall of Fame of Really Good Things that Nevertheless Totally Bum Me Out™.
And I can’t even hope that Franken would come back to the radio, because Norm Coleman winning that seat would be a Really Bad Thing No Matter How Silver the Lining™.
Rev (@44):
Yeah. “Diverse cultures.” Which is to say, teh gayz. [sigh]
As an effete San Francisco vegetarian with a relatively high fiber diet, I am personally looking forward to sending new Bush appointees to the renamed facility.
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!”
Personally, I hate hills. Give me nice, flat, open spaces any day. Diverse cultures are fine though.
Wassamatta, Michelle, none of the guys hit on you there?
Love the shoutouts to Rachel Maddow. I was watching her on the TV Machine with a friend who was not familiar with her and he turned to me and simply said, “She’s hot!” I am usually attracted to petite girls, but I heartily agreed with him.
The NY Air America affiliate has “lost the plot”, as they say- they replaced Thom Hartmann with Ed Schultz, and have two nuticeutical quacks on from 9-11 AM. Frankly, I think the whole network really blew it when they got rid of Morning Sedition.
Better a sewage treatment plant than a library.
He certainly doesn’t need a whole building to hold a copy of “My Pet Goat”?
Yah, I’ve always thought so, too. She habitually describes herself as “mannish,” which I think must be some combination of (creditable) modesty and a certain amount of self-stereotyping… but I’ve always thought she was a total babe. She’s right up there with Melissa Etheridge on my damn, it’s a shame she’s a lesbian list (which, of course, means nothing, since I’m a boring plain-vanilla middle aged married guy… [sigh]).
I had blogged about this a couple of weeks ago. The people who run the plant are not crazy about the idea:
Meanwhile, the officials at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission note that the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant is an award-winning facility that keeps the ocean clean. “If you are looking for a place to make a negative statement about the Bush administration’s impact on the environment, this would be the last place to do it,” agency spokesman Tony Winnicker said.
Name just the sewage PONDS after Bush.
That way Rove and Cheny can get one too.
As I said, I think the initiative will pass and the Oceanside plant will be named after George W. Bush by decree of the voters. However, I daresay that the workers at the waste treatment plant won’t be in a hurry to replace their signs and people will continue to refer to the plant as “Oceanside.”
As for the people (@38) who recycle the “glad they have all their other problems solved argument,” that has to be one of my least favorite gibes. I trust the folks who trot that one out live in squalor because world peace has yet to be achieved — and working for world peace is way more important than cleaning house, or doing laundry, or tending the yard. Or, god forbid, going for a casual walk or partaking of any other recreation (like insulting the president, a popular West coast activity, now gone nationwide in recent years).
Considering that sanitation is probably the one modern technological advance the saved more lives than all the others combined, shouldn’t being named after a Sewage Treatment Plant be considered among the greatest honours possible?
If we forget about GWB, then in all likelihood his blundering incompetence will be repeated. So I’d prefer if his name is forever remembered, with continuous reminders everywhere.
Though I must say that for insults for posterity, the English have it. Nothing beats “Ethelred the Unready.”
Has anyone asked the workers at tha plant how they feel? If they are anything like the people I have worked with in my time, they will think it is just as funny as we do. Most working people do not revere their place of employment. My guess would be that the people who work there already have their own unprintable name for the place and will gleefully add “Bush.” E.g. “Where do you work?” “At the Bush S___ Hole.”
Michelle: I left my Troll in San Francisco…
…and a new euphemism is born: “Feeding the preznit.”
DAG (#40) “I would hope that the Dems would not copy the Reps with this type of divisive behavior during a time of ascendency.”
Why not? After so many Democrats copying the Republicans word-for-word in their demonization of Hillary Clinton (the bitch who will stop at nothing to win!) and the presumptive nominee speaking fondly of Ronald Reagan, why stop now?
Unfortunately for women in the United States and people around the world, I’ve seen more capitulation than ascendancy.
Bill, did you pick up a good “science-y” read for the summer?
Zoel #49 I agree
George W Bush Sewage
Treatment Plant
-not-
George W Bush
Sewage Treatment Plant
Haven’t been back to the bookstore since I asked the question; it’s been a busy week at work! I am still in the middle of re-reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, though, and after that I’ll get to work on the suggestions. I may start with the Dawkins Oxford anthology… lately my reading time seems to be coming in smaller and smaller chunks.
Sometime soon — maybe this weekend — I’m going to go through that thread and compile all the suggestions, for future reference.
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!”
Suddenly, in the context of sewage, that statement has a whole ‘nuther meaning. ;-)
They should have an animatronic Bush outside the plant saying that.
While the workers at Oceanside have my sympathies, as Fergie said, just knowing that the whole Bush circle would be aware of the initiative passing, and would understand the message – I’d have to vote for it.
I see no reason to insult a perfectly good sewage treatment facility by naming it after Bush. Naval ships get named after presidents, and sometimes in relevent ways. (Jimmy Carter, a former nuclear propulsion engineer on a sub, got a nuclear sub named after him.)
The proper ship to name after Bush would be one of the new super-secret ADIs. (Axuillary ship, detention and interrogation). It would be a class of four ships: USS Thumbscrew, USS Rack, USS Iron Maiden, and USS George W. Bush.
That man doesn’t deserve to have anything named in his honor (or lack thereof).
Win-win teaching moment IMO… The insult is obvious and deserved enough, and we get to have a public discussion on how important and actually cool a modern wastewater treatment plant is.
I really don’t feel sorry for the people working there… a much larger portion of the population will know the value of the job they do.
BTW: Just in case you don’t know how important a good wastewater treatment plant is. Remember how Boston Harbor was synonymous with horrible pollution? Well, by far the biggest factor was new sewage treatment facilities which started coming online in the mid 80s (the biggest only getting running in ’91). The recovery has been more rapid than pretty much anyone expected, and Boston isn’t the only example by any means.
It used to be that one had to be dead before getting a ship named after them. Now the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush is completing construction.
There are numerous raw sewage outfalls either active or abandoned in the U.S.
One (or all) would be more suitable for his “honoring”.
.
For the sake of the sailors and aviators that will be on board, I sure hope the aircraft carrier USS GWB performs better than its namesake.
If not, whenever there is a need for it to the north, it will sail south. The airplane fuel will cost twice as much as it should. The second gunner will hit a friendly ship with every shot. All the planes it launches will fly to Iraq and will be unable to return for five years.
Let’s not over-complicate this. They want to name the plant after him because the facility and the POTUS are both full of shit.
Well I think it’s a terrible idea. It just gives us honest turds a bad name. As if life wasn’t bad enough… now you have to associate us with THAT miserable, puckered anus!
Please don’t do it, San Francisco; you’re just encouraging Turdism. You’re better than that!
I suggest we rename Yucca Mountain after him:
George Dubya Bush Nucular [sic] Waste Suppository
Radioactive stuff goes in, stays there for a few thousand years before the hitherto-unknown YUCCA VOLCANO spews everything into the atmosphere …
Let us not mix engineering and politics, whatever be the immediate provocation
just think. When the wind blows in the right direction the locals will have a lasting reminder of what a stinker that man is/was.