ustxtxb_obs_2006_11_17_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

nava International Headquarters Come Visit us for LUNCH! In addition to our organic coffee, pizzas, empanadas, pastries and pies, we now prepare made to order sandwiches, salads, and even black bean gazpacho. 3601 S. Congress off E. Alpine Penn Field under the water tower check our site for monthly calendar it Escape to the hills Great cabins on the beautiful Frio River Seven Bluff Cabins On River Road in Concan, TX frioconcan.com SIP 1.800.360.5260 SPECIAL OFFER for Observer subscribers! Stay 2 nights and get the 3rd night free. Good through Feb. 28 global-warming gases to the atmosphere annually, the equivalent of putting 20 million cars on the road. Texas is already, hold your breath, worst in the nation in contributions to global warming. “People are waking up to health issues, they’re waking up to global warming, cities are waking up to the impact [the plants] will have on their air quality,” said Wendi Hammond, an environmental attorney. Case in point: 21 local governments have joined the Texas Cities for Clean Air Coalition, including such bastions of environmental extremism as Dallas, Houston, Arlington, and El Paso. The coalition wants the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to require power plant companies to use the best available antipollution equipment, which could cut key emissions by 60 to 90 percent. Newer plant designs could also include, or be retrofitted with, devices that capture carbon instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. The coalition is building up a legal fund to intervene in the permitting process. “Skeptics will say that we could be wrong about global warming and that we will waste resources and time trying to correct it,” Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck writes on his Web site. “But that’s actually the best possible outcome because the worst possible outcome-one that science is pointing to more strongly every day-is that global warming is indeed occurring, and if we stick our heads in the sand, we will pass a point at which we cannot correct it. ” BEELZEBUB-MART It’s official: WalMart can now lay claim to the title of World’s Most Hated Retailer. Those on the left have long seen Wal-Mart as evil for its abysmal wages, strident anti-unionism, and mistreatment of female employees. Communities from California to New York have fought the company, the nation’s largest private employer, because it lays waste to mom-and-pop businesses. But now it’s apparently run afoul of God, too. The leader of Dallas-based Operation Save America, Flip Benham, a man who this past summer oversaw the burning of a Koran and a public memorial service for a formaldehyde-soaked fetus in Mississippi, has launched Operation Save Wal-Mart. According to Benham, Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton once “applied biblical principles to run his business,” but now his legacy is under attack from “the radical homosexual agenda.” Proof of this devilish conspiracy can be found in Wal-Mart’s new “partnership” with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. In August, Wal Mart announced that it would join the Chamber of Commerce “in order to strengthen [Wal-Mart’s] commitment to advancing diversity among all of its associate, supplier, and customer bases.” Benham also castigates WalMart for offering Plan B, the contraceptive morning-after pill recently approved for sale. The Evangelical activist is instructing Christians to “come out of the closet” on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, to protest at Wal-Mart stores. In fact, there appears to be an overlap between the right and the left on the issue of Wal-Mart’s Great Satan status. Recently, a group of foreign workers, who toil in the sweatshops that supply Wal-Mart its cheap goods, visited the University of Texas-Austin. The workers said that they are forbidden to unionize, that they are exposed to hazardous chemicals, and that pregnancy is a firing offense. According to Kate Chen, a former Wal-Mart worker from China, this policy leads young women to get back-alley abortions lest they lose their jobs. KINKY TO THE LAST Kinky Friedman bounded to the stage a little after 10 p.m. on election night. His supporters had packed Scholz Beer Garten continued on page 29 NOVEMBER 17, 2006 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5