So, is there anyone left who still doesn’t recognize the absurd upside-down priorities of government driven by political correctness and environmental extremism? If so, get a gander at this news out of San Franciso (where else?):
(CNSNews.com) – The government spent at least $205,075 in 2010 to ‘translocate’ a single bush in San Francisco that stood in the path of a$1.045-billion highway-renovation project that was partially funded by the economic stimulus legislation President Barack Obama signed in 2009.Yeah, a couple hundred grand of your tax money to move a bush.
“Why?” you might ask.
Here’s the explanation:
“The plant’s location was directly in the footprint of a roadway improvement project designed to upgrade the seismic and structural integrity of the south access to the Golden Gate Bridge. . . Prior to the discovery of this ‘wild’ Franciscan manzanita, the plant had been considered extinct for as long as 62 years. . . “Ah, yes. The old extinction scare. Can’t let a bush go extinct, can we? As economist Thomas Sowell likes to remind, “but at what cost?”
That’s not even the end of this absurdity.It appears that kind of bush is extinct, unless, as CNSNews.com puts it, you don’t count all of them to be found in “people’s yards and botanical gardens.”
It seems the treasured Arctostaphylos franciscana is readily available at your garden variety botanical garden and countless peoples’ yards.You see, this $205,705 uprooting, moving and replanting involved a plant that can be purchased at nurseries for as little as $15.98 per plant.
Your tax dollars at work. Anyone else had enough yet?
