Posted inSalem

City of Salem Facebook commenting policy doesn’t make sense

Who knew? The social media Powers That Be at the City of Salem don't allow external links in Facebook comments. Well, except their own, apparently.  I learned this after leaving a comment on a recent City of Salem post about a City Council work session regarding planning for a new police facility.  Brian Hines Well, after hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on police facility planning over the past six years, this is the third try -- and the second "redo." So I suspect there will be more twists and turns in the saga. As described in my blog post,…
1
Posted inCurrent affairs

Most irritating thing about the Malheur Wildlife Refuge takeover

Like so many other people in Oregon, I've been avidly following developments over in Harney County, where a bunch of wacko right-wing militants have taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for bizarre reasons only their twisted minds have a chance of comprehending. (The Portland Oregonian has extensive coverage of the takeover, now in its 24th day.) Every morning I fire up my laptop and head to the Oregonian's "What you need to know today" page. There's always something newly irritating -- a fresh outrage by Ammon Bundy and his band of no-nothings. As we enter the third week of…
2
Posted inSalem

Des Moines shows how Salem can become cool

Citizens of Salem, Oregon, listen up! I have great news. Our city can become as cool as Des Moines, Iowa! Ah, I sense your lack of enthusiasm. Des Moines? That's our urban model? I'll pass on that. No, wait. Don't hang up on this blog post. You've got to read on. Because today I came across a Politico piece that made me feel way better about Salem's chances of breaking out of its reputation as the drab something-or-other between vibrant Portland and Eugene.  I urge you to read "How America's Dullest City Got Cool" in its entirety.  But if the lengthy…
No Comments
Posted inSalem

“Redo” of Salem police facility planning costing taxpayers $142,000

This morning I went to City Hall and picked up a CD that contained public record documents I'd requested. It was a citizen activist pleasure to pay $24.43 to learn how much the City of Salem is paying the DLR Group for architectural services related to planning for a new police facility.  The answer is... $142,127 for the original contract signed in September 2015. See: Download 145145 Architectural Services for the Salem Police Facility Plus a possible $20,000 additional for analysis of a fourth police facility site (the original contract required analyses of just three sites). This is how much DLR…
2
Posted inSalem

O’Brien site north of downtown is best place for new police facility

Salem Community Vision has analyzed the four sites that were selected by a City Council subcommittee last month as the best possible locations for a new police facility. One by one, they posted "reviews" of each site on the Salem Community Vision Facebook page. Below I've shared the analyses all together -- putting the Clear Winner first.This is the location known as the O'Brien site, where several car dealerships used to be on the east side of Commercial just north of downtown. It was by far the highest ranked site using criteria developed by consultants and approved by the council…
3
Posted inCurrent affairs

Why the Malheur militants aren’t like the Occupy protesters

Being a proud progressive, I'm committed to rationality, fairness, sound arguments, and fealty to facts. (Which makes me much different from most right-wing conservatives these days.) So I've been pondering whether I'm justified in being outraged at what the militants who have taken over the Malheur Wildlife Refuge here in Oregon are doing, given that I was supportive of the Occupy Movement.  After all, both groups took over public property in an attempt to bring attention to their causes. Which basically are transferring federal land to private ownership in the case of the militants, and reducing social/economic inequality in the…
No Comments
Posted inCurrent affairs Home life

Index investing lets me relax in a stock market crash

Nobody likes to peek at their investment portfolio after a day like today: a 390 point drop in the Dow (-2.4%), with the S&P 500 not much better at -2.2%. But even though I toyed with the idea of brewing up a Cheerful Cocktail before I logged in to our Schwab account -- recipe: equal measures of anti-depressants, whiskey, potent marijuana, and caffeine extract -- I realized that our index fund investing approach would leave me feeling fine after I inspected our holdings. Not happy. Not ecstatic. But fine. Why? Because since 2002 I've been a happy passive investor, having…
1
Posted inCurrent affairs

Congressional Republicans refuse to applaud a cure for cancer

Watching Obama's 2016 State of the Union address last night, my wife and I were struck by how rarely Republicans applauded anything Obama said.  The Daily Kos has a partial list of the subjects that left Republicans cold and apathetic in "What did Republican lawmakers hate about President Obama's State of the Union address?" For those keeping score at home, here are just some of the issues that President Obama raised during Tuesday’s State of the Union address that Republican Senators and Congressmen in attendance refused to clap for, let alone get off their asses and cheer: Nearly 15 million new jobs and the…
1
Posted inCurrent affairs

I’m fed up with news being replaced by guesses about what might be

News and political junkie that I am, the presets on my car's satellite radio prominently feature the POTUS (Politics of the United States), MSNBC, CNN, and NPR channels.  Usually I listen to them. But today I kept channel surfing -- listening for a short while, then mentally blurting out a profanity and clicking on either my Chill or Classic Rock music channels.  My willingness to hear blather about what might be, what could occur, what the future possibly could bring, it's sunk to a low level.  I've been gradually heading in this direction for quite a while. Today, though, I…
No Comments
Posted inStrange Up Salem

The good side of “strange,” as in… Strange Up Salem

Several years ago I realized that I wanted to strange up Salem. It just seemed so right. I didn't spend a lot of time -- well, actually not any time -- pondering what "strange" meant before I dived into writing a Strange Up Salem column for our city's alternative paper, Salem Weekly, from 2013 to 2015.  I'm still strangeing away on a Strange Up Salem Facebook page. (Give it a like! I love likes!)  Yesterday someone left a visitor post that simply said, No, let's not. That shocked me. How could anyone be opposed to strangeness? It's obviously so wonderful! But…
5
Posted inCurrent affairs

Trans-Pacific Partnership not looking good to me after Salem City Club talk

I've been on the fence about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). On the whole, free trade makes sense to me. But opponents of this proposed agreement between the United States and eleven other Pacific Rim countries have made some good arguments against it.  So I went into today's Salem City Club talk, "The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Look at the TPP Through an Oregon Lens," with an open mind.  I'm good friends with Russ Beaton, who gave the talk. Russ is a retired economics professor at Willamette University. He's heavy into sustainability, progressive politics, organic gardening, and other Good Stuff.  I don't…
1
Posted inSalem

Progressive Salem is all about positive change

Hard to believe. But I believe it. Because this fits with what I know about Salem Mayor Anna Peterson and her right-wing city council majority. Last night I attended a Progressive Salem meeting where someone said, "The Mayor thinks that people don't want change. They're happy with Salem as it is." Wow. This shows how out-of-touch with reality the folks currently in charge at City Hall are.  Ask homeless people if Salem is fine as it is.Ask people needing to ride a bus on weekends and evenings if Salem is fine as it is.Ask relatives of the eight pedestrians killed…
No Comments
Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Malheur Refuge militants ignore reality of “welfare ranching”

Anti-government militants' takeover of buildings at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge here in Oregon has a lot of absurd aspects.  For example, the ranchers (convicted of federal crimes) they supposedly are supporting have disavowed the militants. Seemingly most of the people in Harney County, where the refuge is located, want the outsiders to leave. Also, the militants claim to be defending the Constitution. But the founders of this country set up a method to decide how the Constitution is to be defended. It's called the Supreme Court. Until that court rules federal ownership of land is unconstitutional, those who say otherwise have…
1
Posted inStrange Up Salem

Here’s all of my Strange Up Salem columns

A couple of days into the New Year, today I felt a strong desire to complete an undone resolution -- get all of my Salem Weekly Strange Up Salem columns uploaded into one freaking long blog post.But it's "just" 4,400 words. The 49 columns total almost 25,000 words, being 500 words each. Each one is perfect bathroom reading! (depending on your toilet habits) For each column below you'll find a title, download link, and an excerpt that gives a feel for what the column is about.  I enjoyed digging up the columns -- OK, not literally -- and recalling what…
No Comments
Posted inHome life

How two old folks spent New Years Eve 2016

Youngsters, maybe you've been wondering what New Year's Eve will be like when you reach the ancient age of 67.  Well, wonder no more. I'm exactly that age! So I'm perfectly qualified to reveal fascinating details about the Not-so-Secret Lives of Senior Citizens on the evening of December 31. Based on a sample of two -- me and my wife. This year, like most years, we didn't sit on our butts at home. No, indeedy. Far from it.  First we sat on our butts in our Chevy Volt as we drove to the 6 pm showing of "Youth" at Salem…
3