Posted inCurrent affairs Entertainment

Bristol Palin boosted by Tea Party vote fraud

Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin's daughter, is a mediocre dancer. I've watched every episode of Dancing With the Stars this season, so I can testify to that. She's been in the bottom two many times, saved only by viewer votes -- not the judge's scores. Last night Bristol made it into next week's final (top three will compete) by beating out Brandy, a far superior dancer. Brandy got 57 points from the judges on Monday, the competition night, including perfect 10's for her Tango, while Bristol got 53. What bugs me -- a lot -- about the viewer voting is that…
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Posted inPhilosophy Science

When mind wanders, happiness departs

I used to work with a highly creative and socially conscious guy who told me once that he was always thinking about something. Driving his car, brushing his teeth, eating his dinner -- most of the time his mind was occupied in pondering how to make the world better while his body was doing something else. This probably made him more productive, but not more happy. Such is the conclusion of research I came across today in the New York Times: "When the Mind Wanders, Happiness Also Strays." Whatever people were doing, whether it was having sex or reading or…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Ice sheet melting brings oceanfront dream closer

I've always wanted to live on a beach. According to a New York Times story, if I live to be about 150 -- to the end of this century -- that dream will be at least three vertical feet closer to our current elevation of 440 feet, and possibly a lot more. Scary, especially for those who already live in low-lying coastal areas, and for young people (plus those yet to be born) who will bear the brunt of global warming effects -- including sea level rise. Reading "As Glaciers Melt, Science Seeks Data on Rising Seas" added to my…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Home life

Me to Federal Reserve: “Higher interest rates, please”

The U.S. Federal Reserve is supposed to be an independent guardian of our banking system, immune from pleas to do this or that from either politicans or regular citizens. But since Sarah Palin felt free to critique the Fed's recent monetary policy actions (though many, including me, were surprised she even knew what the Fed did), I figured I might as well throw in my own request: Higher interest rates, please. Higher inflation also, if that goes along with higher interest. I'll confess to being minimally economically literate. But I know how to balance my checkbook (except when I can't).…
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Posted inHome life

The Tao of leaf raking

I don't know why I gave this blog post the title I did. But that's how the Tao works: mysteriously. Anyway, I like feeling special, and so far Google tells me that the Internet is bereft of Taoist (or in this case, pseudo-Taoist) musings about how raking leaves leads one to recognize his or her oneness with the cosmos. By "one," of course, I mean me. So forget the "her" in the rest of this blog post, because in our home, contrary to our species' evolutionary history, the male is both the hunter and gatherer of leaves. A few days…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science Sustainability

Climate scientists challenge global warming deniers

Great news: climate scientists have decided they no longer will tolerate truth-besmirching, anti-science, fossil fuel industry-supported global warming deniers. Unfortunately, the campaign to bring more facts and less irrationality into policy debates isn't quite as aggressive as the LA Times story said (which was reprinted in the Portland Oregonian, where I read it this morning). Faced with rising political attacks, hundreds of climate scientists are joining a broad campaign to push back against congressional conservatives who have threatened prominent researchers with investigations and vowed to kill regulations to rein in man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The still-evolving efforts reveal a shift…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Kitzhaber needs to make Oregon #1 in health care

John Kitzhaber, a Democrat who recently was elected Oregon's governor, is a physician. He's already helped to heal my progressive depression over the national midterm election results. But I can tell that Republican craziness in Congress, now that they control the House, is going to upset my psyche almost as much as Kitzhaber's win (and Jon Stewart's rally) restored sanity to my political soul. Today I read that the GOP plans to try to starve health care reform enactment by cutting off funding. This is chicken-shit and stupid, as almost everything Congressional Republicans do these days is. For example, they…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Kitzhaber’s win restores my progressive enthusiasm

Ah, it was just what the doctor ordered, a fitting phrase since John Kitzhaber is a physician. Yesterday afternoon I learned that he'd earned a late-breaking victory and will become Oregon's governor...again (he served two terms from 1995-2003). As I predicted a few days ago before the national election returns started to come in, by midnight Tuesday my state of mind was hovering in the "depressed" zone. My wife wasn't helping with her the country is doomed mutterings. When we went to bed Kitzhaber was about 13,000 votes behind. Waking up on Wednesday, I rushed to my laptop to see…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Last election blog before inebriation sets in

It's not even 3:00 pm here in Oregon. But I need to write about today's midterm elections now, before I'm mentally unable to make sense. After all, soon the polls will start closing in the east. Super-political-commentator Nate Silver will start live blogging on FiveThirtyEight in a few minutes. I'll do my best to resist, yet won't be able to stop obsessively watching online and on TV for early signs of what is to come. I'm planning to start my late afternoon/evening in a caffeinated state. This is normal for me. However, I may need to jolt my brain into…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

How the Rally to Restore Sanity changed me

I'm notorious for making resolutions that don't last, whether around New Year's or yesterday -- when my wife and I, along with some progressive friends, watched the Rally to Restore Sanity in its entirety thanks to CSPAN. But after being immersed for three hours in Jon Stewart's and Stephen Colbert's inimical brand of political humor/satire, I think they may have permanently changed the way I look upon those with whom I strongly disagree. Meaning: Tea Party folks, right-wing Republicans, religious fundamentalists, dogmatic moralists, climate change deniers, and other anti-science types who try to found social policies on feelings rather than…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

iPhone 4 begs to be kept naked

I had my annual physical today. When my family doctor asked her obligatory mental health question, something like "How happy are you?," I heard myself saying: "I feel great. After all, I have an iPhone 4." She typed something into her notebook computer. Probably I now have a diagnosis of excessive attachment to technology disorder. (Hey, that's fine. And entirely accurate.) Here's what I've learned about my best electronic friend: she wants to be naked when she's touched by me. I wasn't sure about this for a while, so experimented with dressing her in various outfits. Apple sent me a…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

Marijuana users can drive just fine — vote yes on Prop 19

I learned many things during my college years (1966-71) at San Jose State University. One was that heavy marijuana users, a.k.a. "stoners," could drive just fine while under the influence. I can personally testify to this. Oh, man, I sure can. This fact is politically relevant since opponents of California's Proposition 19, which would legalize and tax marijuana in Oregon's neighbor to the south, are promulgating ridiculous claims about stoned drivers killing people if Prop 19 passes. On average, a drunk driver kills someone every 45 minutes. Recreational marijuana use in fatal crashes will increase if Prop. 19 passes. It…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

My dismaying post-election forecast

A week ago I was feeling better about the upcoming election. Recently, though, I had an intuitive flash that got me politically down in the dumps again. Here's the thought process that ran through my mind: In 2006 and 2008 the Democrats made big gains in Congress. And, of course, Obama became president. But Washington remained dysfunctional. Gridlock and excessive compromising left every major policy area -- jobs, financial reform, health care, energy policy, immigration -- a shadow of the bright light that should have been cast upon our country. So now the citizenry is pissed. They're angry at the…
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Posted inHome life

My tree house isn’t crazy — it’s a work of art

The line between craziness and great artistry is, of course, exceedingly blurry. Thus when my wife said "You're crazy!" upon hearing of my plans for a treehouse, I anticipated that I was heading in the direction of a wonderful artistic creation. Now, the prophecy has been fulfilled -- mostly due to Jim, a friend who also happens to be our housecleaner. (It's nice to have your home cleaned by someone who also can sharpen your chain saw blade, dig out deep tree roots, and build a tree house). Since Jim has a granddaughter about the age of my own (three),…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Neighborhood

Is Tea Party anger filtering into neighborhood groups?

Until last night I'd thought of Tea Party craziness as being mostly confined to the national and state levels. But after attending a meeting of our rural south Salem (Oregon) neighborhood association last night, I'm wondering if that sort of free-floating irrational anger is making its way into deeply local concerns. I've been the secretary of our association for many years -- almost twenty. In the not-so-good old days, soon after we moved into this area, some of the neighborhood association meetings were so vehement, people would almost come to blows. Then the hotheads departed, or got older and a…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Lars Larson flunks neuroscience and common sense

Revealing that I haven't reached a state of enlightened ego-loss, I'll admit to a reason why I listen to conservative Portland talk show host Lars Larson fairly frequently: I feel superior when I do. Because Larson, like most other right-wing public airwave pundits, is both amazingly ignorant of modern science and deficient in common sense. Case in point -- a discussion he had today with a caller who was trying to equate an innate propensity toward homosexuality with an innate urge to abuse children sexually. Larson believes that gayness is learned, a lifestyle choice, which is ridiculous. Yet he was…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

I’m feeling better about Dem election chances

Do you feel the shift in the political wind? I do. Hopefully it isn't a product of wishful thinking, a desire to escape the hurricane that many pundits say will blow Democrats off of the political landscape on November 2. I don't think it is. Today on Sirius' POTUS I heard the communications director for a Hispanic organization say that the voters she represents are getting more engaged in the election, and are ready to vote against those who are into immigration reform-bashing. And the Daily Kos Senate Snapshot now has Democrats holidng onto 53 Senate seats, up one from…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

“Aquitania” — a great Willamette U theatre production

Until last night I'd never been to a play at Willamette University. After seeing "Aquitania," I'm pretty sure I'll be returning to the university's terrific remodeled theatre. Download Willamette University Theatre story I've bemoaned the lack of support for the arts here in sleepy Salem, Oregon, but I guess I need to do more moaning at the guy I look at in the mirror every day, since my wife and I haven't been taking much advantage of Willamette U's cultural opportunities. For a long time we had season tickets to Pentacle Theatre. Then we gave those up and started going…
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Posted inHome life

How to sell expensive stuff to someone like me

If you're a salesman (oops, salesperson) who deals with spendy items like appliances, autos, computers, or such, here's some advice on how to close a deal with someone like me: Don't act like a used car salesperson. Or even like a new car salesperson. Forget whatever sales techniques you've learned on your own or had drummed into you by your boss. Simply act like a normal human being and treat me the same way. You need to take this advice seriously, because there are a lot of people like me nowadays. We're used to buying stuff over the Internet, where…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Sisters, Oregon divided over real estate development

Since my wife and I are part-owners of a cabin in Camp Sherman, Oregon -- about fifteen minutes from charming Sisters (the town, not siblings) -- we follow the political goings-on in Sisters as best we can. Which mostly is through reading The Nugget, the town's weekly newspaper, though we also get insights from a business owner who we're on chatting-terms with. The Nugget always is an entertaining read. The regular "Sisters sheriff's calls..." column is a favorite of ours. Here's some entries from the October 6, 2010 paper which reflect the laid-back nature of the area. A deer got…
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