Posted inBooks Current affairs

Reality doesn’t register in the Republican brain

Yesterday Amazon delivered Chris Mooney's new book, "The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science -- and Reality."  I've only read a few pages so far, but I can tell that I'm going to like it. And not just because Mooney agrees with how I see the two major political parties, Republicans being way more reality-denying than Democrats.  I want to understand why Republican science-deniers do what they do. Like all human behavior, they really can't help themselves. Something in their brains causes them to look upon facts in decidedly unfactual ways.  Us liberals will be ineffective in…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

U.S. justice system locks up way too many people

In some areas the United States may truly be exceptional. But our health care and criminal justice systems suck, big time. We should learn from other countries who do a much better job keeping their citizens healthy and safe. In health care, we spend twice as much as other industrialized nations, yet our health status indicators are below average and forty or fifty million Americans are uninsured. Crazy. The Affordable Care Act is a step in the right direction. A single payer health care system, a.k.a. Medicare for All, would be a leap in the right direction. Our criminal justice…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

“Stand Your Ground” laws are absurdly dangerous

The more I read about the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17 year old, by a neighborhood watch volunteer who followed the black boy around his neighborhood, looking for an excuse to play policeman even though he was told by a 911 responder to stay put in his car, the more absurdly dangerous "Stand Your Ground" laws look to me. And many others. Like a former Miami police chief.  Police officers are trained to de-escalate highly charged encounters with aggressive people, using deadly force as a last resort. Citizens, on the other hand, may act from emotion and perceived…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Crazy March weather points to global warming

This morning my wife and I had to cope with five inches of snow on the ground here in rural south Salem (Oregon). It was weird. I've lived in Oregon for forty-one years. Can't remember a time when the blooming daffodils were crushed by so much snow. Because our newspapers couldn't be delivered, over breakfast I read a story about the spring storm in the Oregonian online. Turning to the comments, I saw predictable comments along the lines of "Ha, ha, Al Gore is wrong. Can't be global warming if the Willamette Valley got record-breaking snow for this time of…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Chevy Volt — Rich Lowry is wrong about a great car

My wife and I are seriously considering selling our Nissan Leaf and getting a Chevy Volt. We've got good reasons for doing so, but that's the subject of another post. What I want to talk about now is the trashing of the Volt by conservatives such as Rich Lowry, who wrote an absurd column, "The Sad Plight of Obama's Edsel," that ran in the Portland Oregonian yesterday. There's so much wrong with Lowry's piece, it's tough to know where to start with truth-telling. I guess the title is a good place. The Volt isn't Obama's car. General Motors revealed the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Pared down HB 4095 won’t harm Oregon land use system

I'm feeling better about what I called "land use shenanigans" that popped up at the very end of the Oregon legislature's short 2012 session. After learning more about what the $550,000 appropriated by the joint Ways and Means Committee for a pilot regional land use planning project in Josephine, Jackson, and Douglas counties would do, it looks like Oregon's efforts to protect irreplaceable farm and forest land from unnecessary development aren't much at risk. This is because HB 4095, which was a major threat to Oregon's land use system, died without getting a vote in either the House or Senate.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

We are the 1%! (heart-health wise)

My wife and I have proudly marched in Occupy Salem events, chanting "We are the 99%!" But we're pleased to learn that we're also in the 1% -- the percentage of Americans who met all seven metrics of cardiovascular health. Which are: Not smoking Physical activity (being active) Having blood pressure under control Maintaining healthy blood glucose levels Maintaining healthy blood cholesterol levels Maintaining a healthy body weight Following a healthy and balanced diet I barely made it past the body weight criterion, finding that my six feet tall'ness and 182 pounds of weight'ness gave me a BMI (body mass index) of 24.7,…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Fox News and Krauthammer lie about Chevy Volt safety

We own an electric car, a Nissan Leaf. So while I'm irritated when right-wingers lie about anything, it particularly bugs me when untruths are spread about alternative energy cars -- including the Chevy Volt.  Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer joined the Volt lie parade in his "Obama's Oil Flimflam." In yesterday's Portland Oregonian, I read: Instead, Obama offers what he fancies to be the fuels of the future. You would think that he’d be a tad more modest today about his powers of divination after the Solyndra bankruptcy, the collapse of government-subsidized Ener1 (past makers of the batteries of the future) and GM’s…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Things a conservative mistakenly thinks liberals believe

It gives me great satisfaction to correct conservatives, who, as I said in a previous post, are more fact-challenged than liberals. Someone left a comment on that post, after I noted that Pete Dominick had asked on his radio show: What's the weird unfactual stuff many liberals believe that is equivalent to conservative lunacies like Obama being a Muslim? He offered up ten supposed answers to the question he phrased as, "What's the weird unfactual stuff many liberals believe?" I'm pleased to correct him on each. 1. that killing coyotes means more coyotes (1) Yes, I said this in a blog post,…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Conservatives are more fact-challenged than liberals

Yesterday I heard POTUS's Pete Dominick ask his satellite radio listeners an interesting question: What's the weird unfactual stuff many liberals believe that is equivalent to conservative lunacies like Obama being a Muslim? Dominick observed that a majority of Republican voters in Mississippi think President Obama is Muslim rather than Christian. That's crazy!  So he asked conservatives to call in and give him examples of what lots of liberals/progressives believe that is similarly wildly unfactual. I listened for quite a while as I was driving around. The answer: nothing. A few people cited "Bush was responsible for the 9/11 attacks." But…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregonian editorial page editor dies in illicit sexy fashion

Death isn't a joking matter. Still, I can't resist saying "Way to go, Bob Caldwell."  The Oregonian newspaper reported Monday that Bob Caldwell, the long-time editor of the editorial pages, died in the apartment of a 23-year-old woman after going into cardiac arrest following a sex act. The paper had previously reported that Caldwell was found in his parked car. The paper now says the woman was the one who called 9-1-1 on Saturday to report that Caldwell was unresponsive. According to the correction published in The Oregonian, the woman told deputies she met Caldwell a year ago at Portland…
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Posted inBooks Current affairs

Sam Harris’ “Free Will” says liberals understand role of luck

It's pleasing to my progressive self when modern science confirms one of the foundations of Democratic/liberal political philosophy. Such as, that we humans don't have free will. It's an illusion. Such is the message of Sam Harris' captivating new book, the pleasingly short (66 readable pages) "Free Will." Harris is a neuroscientist whose first book was "The End of Faith," which brought him a lot of well-deserved attention.  I hope "Free Will" reaches even more people. On my other blog I've talked about the dizzying joy of being freed from a belief in free will, and how free will is…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Sneaky land use shenanigans in 2012 Oregon legislature

I don't think I've ever used "shenanigan" in a blog post, but I'm bringing out that word to describe what happened to HB 4095 at the end of the 2012 Oregon legislative session. a devious trick used especially for an underhand purpose tricky or questionable practices or conduct  Yeah, that's what "passing" a bill through hidden backroom budgetary machinations rather than in an open deliberative legislative vote is -- a shenanigan.  HB 4095 was an attempt to begin dismantling Oregon's successful land use system by allowing counties to band together and come up with regional definitions of farm and forest…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Oregon’s environment survives GOP attacks in 2012 session

Whew. That's my one-word environmentalist reaction to the end of Oregon's first ever regular "shorty" legislative session in an even-numbered year. My wife and I were afraid that Republican efforts to undermine our state's land use, endangered species, and forest management laws would succeed in the speeded up craziness of an abbreviated session -- where public hearings often were a sham and last minute deals on important bills were the norm. But overall, I'm happy. My biggest personal concern was HB 4095, a totally unnecessary bill that would have allowed three southern Oregon counties to essentially opt out of the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Religions shouldn’t get unfair business advantages

Reading over some piled-up Oregonian's, I just came across a letter from a Salem resident, James M. Schultz, about the debate over whether religious institutions should have to comply with the same laws and regulations that govern other businesses. Great letter, Mr. Schultz. I hadn't thought about the "competitive advantage" argument -- just how absurdly unworkable it would be if every person or organization could claim an exemption from laws on moral or ethical grounds. Here's the February 25 letter to the editor: Regarding the current debate over religion and insurance coverage for contraceptives, the First Amendment says, in relevant…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Measure 37 Sustainability

James Huffman wrongly attacks Oregon land use system

I'm surprised how badly James Huffman, a dean emeritus of the Lewis and Clark law school, misinterpreted the highly successful Oregon land use system in a misguided opinion piece in today's Oregonian. "Keep the messy politics: rule by government experts is a recipe for tyranny" reflects the overblown rhetoric of the sky is falling! Tea Party types. They see left-wing dangers, conspiracies, and constitutional threats hiding in the shadows everywhere. Only problem is, when you ask them to specifically point them out, providing factual examples of dictatorial, tyrannical government over-reaching, they get tongue-tied. Why? Because their scary hobgoblins exist only in…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Statesman Journal should dig deeper into Courthouse Square

A few days ago I suggested some issues the Salem Statesman Journal should unleash some investigative reporting on. Among them was numero uno: (1) The role of the three current Republican county commissioners in letting construction defects at Courthouse Square go unattended to for so long, until the building was declared unusable. Cracks, settling, and such were evident early on. Whenever this has been noted in stories about Courthouse Square, the questioning of commissioners on this subject isn't pursued by the reporter. Why not? I appreciate how Michael Rose, the SJ reporter who has done some fine work on uncovering…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Oregon cougar hunting bill is dead. Long live cougars!

Great news for those who value wildness, ecological diversity, and sound science (rather than hysterical fearmongering). We just got an email from Predator Defense saying that HB 4119, the bill to repeal the twice-passed citizen initiative which bans cougar hunting with dogs, is dead in the 2012 Oregon legislative session. GREAT NEWS! GOVERNOR KITZHABER HAS INFORMED REP. SPRENGER, THE SPONSOR OF THE BILL HB 4119 TO REPEAL MEASURE 18 AND BRING HOUND HUNTING OF COUGARS BACK, THAT HE HAS NO INTENTION OF SIGNING IT! PLEASE CONTACT THE GOVERNOR AND THANK HIM FOR STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE FOR OREGON VOTERS…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

“Let just one woman speak” (about contraception)

   A 1 1/2 minute video of the Republican effort to squash the voices of women and uncrazy Catholics shows how outrageous G.O.P. attempts to politicize basic preventive health care has become. The photo above shows who Darrell Issa (R-California) believes should command women's birth control decisions. Watch how Democratic Representatives urge the committee to "let one woman speak."  
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Posted inCurrent affairs

House GOP and Schaufler holding Oregon health care bill hostage

This is how politicians drive citizens crazy and get super-low approval ratings. Republicans in the House of Representatives, along with quasi-Democrat Rep. Mike Schaufler, have blocked approval of Oregon's health insurance exchange, seemingly in an attempt to get some crappy bills passed by holding this much-needed bill hostage. The state budget isn't affected by the health care bill. Billions of dollars in federal funding is at stake. Competition between insurance companies, supposedly a GOP priority, will be greatly enhanced.  But since the health care bill is so good for Oregon, Schaufler and his Republican buddies want to make sure that…
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