Posted inBooks Writing/Weblogs

Stephen Hawking and me

Watching the "60 Minutes" piece about Stephen Hawking last Sunday, I came to realize that Stephen and I have a lot in common. To wit, I've read every page of "A Brief History of Time" and so, I must presume, has Stephen. The reporting was that millions and millions of copies of this book have been sold, but only a few dozen have actually been read (a slight exaggeration, perhaps, but not by much). "This is a book," said a minister with a sense of humor, "that you buy and put on the shelf, never to be looked at again,…
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Posted inSustainability

What’s sustainable?

The Buddhist conception is that everything changes, continously. This rings true for me. The earth is changing; society is changing; the people around me are changing; I'm changing. Nothing is sustainable, in the sense of unchanging. The best we can do is flow with change, to manage it as best we can inside and outside of ourselves. So, when I look at the colorful maps of Sustainable Fairview in the master plan, this doesn't look like anything real to me. It's a static picture, not a dynamic unfolding. Those of us responsible for the development of Sustainable Fairview should spend…
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Posted inNeighborhood

Coyote debates

There was some good coyote debating going on at the Spring Lake Estates board meeting at our house last night. Laurel and I appreciated the concerns of the sheep-raisers, but we weren't convinced that shooting coyotes is the solution. Tim Jaskoski correctly pointed out that much research shows that killing coyotes does nada to reduce the coyote population, long-term or even medium-term. Some people have the anthropomorphic attitude that coyotes go up to the body of Joe Coyote, shot by an angry sheepowner, and say, "Ooops. We've got to get out of this neighborhood. Look at what happened to good…
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Posted inNeighborhood

Backhoes are beautiful

Everyone in Spring Lake Estates should extend a huge "thank you!" to Craig Snively and his backhoe. With the help of several neighbors, Craig and company enlarged the "emergency" spillway on the right side of the dam, which currently is pretty much the main spillway--with the trickle tube partially blocked. So far, it looks like the water is flowing out faster than it is flowing in, which is a good thing, obviously. If the reverse happens (water coming in faster than it goes out), grab your shovels! (or, better, Craig's backhoe)
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Posted inEntertainment

13 Conversations About One Thing

We watched this movie on DVD last night, and ended up with the familiar art film feeling of, "Ah, that was interesting, though not particularly pleasant; now we're even more confident that life has no answers, as if we didn't know that before." It is always refreshing, though, to have a movie end with all the loose ends still flapping, rather than tying them up tidily like Hollywood usually does. And the theme, happiness, can't be beat. Who ever gets tired of trying to figure out this happiness thing? Having written a book called "Life is Fair" (published non-commercially in…
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Posted inEntertainment

Synchronicity, surely

One mere minute after posting the "13 Conversations" message below, in which I pondered questions about happiness, I opened up an email from my sister that contains the answers. Well, maybe. Carol Ann thought this column by Mark Morford from SF Gate.com sounded like me, maybe because it is titled, "Resolutions For The Damned For 2003: More veggies, louder orgasms and, of course, defy ShrubCo at every possible turn" Yeah, as a verbose vegetarian liberal I'm in favor of all three, so she's right. Most of the piece will irritate Bush-lovers, but the ending bits of advice hold true for…
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Posted inSustainability

Sustainable Fairview overview

We're looking forward to being part of the progress of Sustainable Fairview in 2003, and beyond. Here's an overview of the project, excerpted from the recently completed draft master plan. If you aren't familiar with Sustainable Fairview, whose name, blessedly, eventually will be changed to something better, it's worth taking a few minutes to read this summary. I (Brian) have never been that much of an environmentalist, even though I'm married to a fanatic recycler, tree-planter, and defender of wildlife. Periodically I manage to take our tin cans, glass, and cardboard to the local drop-off site, but that has just…
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Posted inAbout this site--start here

Welcome to HinesSight

I’m a retired health policy analyst with a lifelong interest in philosophy, spirituality, and politics. I’ve got three blogs: Church of the Churchless, HinesSight, and Salem Political Snark. I live with my wife, Laurel, and Mooka, our Husky mix, on ten acres in rural south Salem, Oregon. The four books I’ve written are shown at the bottom of the right sidebar, the most recent being Break Free of Dogma. My website is https://www.brianhines.com
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