Jerry Brown is Not Pusillanimous
2015-01-08 - by
At 76, the California governor is still young at heart, bold of vision and quick of wit.
Brown was sworn into his fourth term this week, and he’s off with a bang. He wants to attack global warming by reducing California’s energy consumption over the next 15 years, slashing gas consumption by cars and trucks by as much as 50 percent and having 50 percent of California’s electricity come from renewable sources.
Then he got up a head of steam about his proposed 520-mile high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles (price tag: $67 billion).
To critics and skeptics, he said: “People do get pusillanimous. I wanted to use that word because that’s the adjective I’m going to affix to all the critics. You can look it up on your cellphone right now. Pusillanimous. It means weak of spirit.”
He gave the best argument ever for trains “There’s no anti-texting rule on the trains. You can use your iPhone. And you can have a martini or whatever you people drink.”
Also, “There’s also a really big barrier that puts a limit on how many cars—that’s called congestion. You can only have so many lanes. You can’t keep paving over prime agricultural land. You can’t take property off the tax rolls any more than you have to.”
The SF-LA line wouldn’t be running until 2030, but Brown is not pusillanimous about that, either: “I’ll be 92 in 2030. I’m working and pumping iron and eating vegetables. I want to be around.”
Posted in General, National Democrats
Jerry Brown is Not Pusillanimous
2015-01-08/
At 76, the California governor is still young at heart, bold of vision and quick of wit.
Brown was sworn into his fourth term this week, and he’s off with a bang. He wants to attack global warming by reducing California’s energy consumption over the next 15 years, slashing gas consumption by cars and trucks by as much as 50 percent and having 50 percent of California’s electricity come from renewable sources.
Then he got up a head of steam about his proposed 520-mile high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles (price tag: $67 billion).
To critics and skeptics, he said: “People do get pusillanimous. I wanted to use that word because that’s the adjective I’m going to affix to all the critics. You can look it up on your cellphone right now. Pusillanimous. It means weak of spirit.”
He gave the best argument ever for trains “There’s no anti-texting rule on the trains. You can use your iPhone. And you can have a martini or whatever you people drink.”
Also, “There’s also a really big barrier that puts a limit on how many cars—that’s called congestion. You can only have so many lanes. You can’t keep paving over prime agricultural land. You can’t take property off the tax rolls any more than you have to.”
The SF-LA line wouldn’t be running until 2030, but Brown is not pusillanimous about that, either: “I’ll be 92 in 2030. I’m working and pumping iron and eating vegetables. I want to be around.”
Posted in General, National Democrats