Current affairs

Two days ago ABC’s Nightline was about the crisis in the central African nation of Niger, where several million people are in danger of starvation—including 800,000 children. I didn’t want to watch the program when it first ran. I didn’t want to see the faces of dying children. Last night I did. I forced myself to watch the recorded episode, which centered on video reports by the BBC’s Hillary Anderson. I saw starving children covered in sores, too weak to move or even drink water. I saw a family cooking a rat, their only meal of the day; the image…

Yesterday, after my Tai Chi class in downtown Salem, I walked a few blocks down Court Street to the Basic Rights Oregon rally on the steps of the Capitol. Laurel came directly from home and caught up with me on the sidewalk, matchingly dressed for the occasion, per usual. I’d told her that pre-rally info had suggested wearing the official SB 1000 t-shirt or other light blue attire. I stuck with basic black, figuring black goes with anything. A basic message at the rally. Who can disagree? Well, apparently the unloving Republican House Speaker Karen Minnis, who is refusing to…

At 4 pm PST (in a few minutes, that is) word is that a Universist representative will be on the (ugh!) national Lars Larson show. I just got an email from the Universists telling me that this appearance has been moved up to today instead of tomorrow because of Bush's forthcoming Supreme Court nominee announcement. More info is on the Universist website, including how to listen to the show on the Internet. Locally, you can listen on KXL 750 (just don't make it a habit--normally I can't stand Lars' right-wing rantings, but I'll be interested to hear him speak with…

Portland’s right-wing talk show host Lars Larson is notorious for spinning half-truths. And that’s on one of his good days. Usually he’s only able to reach the quarter-truth level, or less. Last month I heard Lars railing on about how an Astoria boy supposedly was attacked by a cougar. If those damn tree-hugging, gun-hating, cougar-loving liberals have their way, he frothed, cougars are going to be killing Oregonians like flies. Not likely. As I’ve noted before, a cougar never has attacked a human in Oregon. And I’m pretty confident that no cougar attacked the Astoria boy, Drew Weil, either. The…

As if there ever was any doubt that the Bush White House is composed of 100% pure bullshit, the final proof has arrived. More details can be found here and here.

Early indications are that an al Qaeda group is claiming responsibility for the horrific London bombings. Whoever turns out to be the culprit, I’m willing to bet that it isn’t Saddam Hussein. He’s in jail. Osama bin Laden isn’t. And therein lies the criticism that should be directed today, tomorrow, and the next days at President George W. Bush and his neo-con groupthinkers, whose obsession with overthrowing Saddam Hussein has diverted invaluable resources from pursuing Bin Laden and al Qaeda. Al Qaeda attacked the United States on 9/11. Al Qaeda almost certainly attacked London on 7/7. It’s been proven that…

I didn’t want to start the 4th of July holiday weekend outraged, but the Oregonian’s front page story about Oregon House Majority Leader Wayne Scott’s political shenanigans set off “What a jerk!” fireworks in my mind.

As the story reports, Republican Scott refuses to have the House consider a bill that would upgrade North Bend’s runway and terminal because he wants to punish a freshman Democratic colleague for a school funding vote. The bill passed the Oregon Senate with strong bipartisan support, but Scott is majorly peeved at Rep. Arnie Roblan, a Democrat from Coos Bay.

So Scott, the House bully, wants to teach Roblan, the House new kid, a lesson about who’s boss. Jeez, Rep. Scott looks like he’s out of middle school, but he sure still likes to play childish games. “You dissed me, man! You gonna pay for that, sucka!” What a baby.

The sad thing is, he’s House Majority Leader, for god’s sake. Wayne Scott is the cream of the Republican crop. That’s pitiful. To me he represents the worst of divisive, nasty, my-way-or-the-highway American politics. He’s Oregon’s version of Tom DeLay, which is just about the most insulting thing I could say about Scott.

However, I did my best to come up with other pejorative phrases when I sent Scott a passionate email earlier today. I’m usually much more restrained when I write politicians about an issue. I think that what seriously tweaked me about Wayne Scott is that he blatantly admitted that his tiff with Roblan isn’t about the airport expansion issue. It’s all personal.

Roblan is doing his best to represent his constituents. All Scott cares about is shoring up his political power. I realize that quite a few readers of this weblog live in other states and also other countries, but I encourage you to send Rep. Scott an email, letting him know how you feel about this newest Republican outrage. Send a copy of your message to his boss too, House Speaker Karen Minnis.

Here’s what I told Scott. Getting my outrage off of my chest helped bring my mental fireworks down to earth. Now I can concentrate on enjoying the weekend and reflecting on what makes this country great. It sure isn’t Rep. Wayne Scott. (For political junkies, another article about this issue can be read here).

A Reuters article about Iran’s newly-elected “ultra-conservative” President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, got me to thinking about why conservatives are so afraid of other conservatives. The Bush administration is ultra-conservative. Iran’s leader is ultra-conservative. Sharing a similar position on the political spectrum, shouldn’t they get along wonderfully? Imagine (oh God, yes, imagine) that the United States had an ultra-liberal President and Iran had elected an equally liberal head of state. Would there be the same clash between like and like? No. Bush and his cronies can’t stand Ahmadinejad because he is religiously fundamentalist and politically nationalistic. Thus he’s just like them. Except,…

Humor is a great way of revealing the idiocy of bigotry. The next time somebody says to you, “If gays are able to marry, it will destroy the institution of marriage,” respond with “How true. That’s just the point a woman made in ‘How my Marriage was Destroyed by the Homosexual Agenda.’ You should read this revealing essay.” It’s a great piece of satire. Here’s a sample: Constance turned on the radio in the kitchen to the Christian AM station we always listen to, and that's when our family's fate was finally sealed. The Lord's news update was saying that…

“Wildlife Services.” The name of this USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) agency has such a nice ring to it. It conjures up a picture of distressed animals being tended to by kindly government employees. “How may I serve you today?” a needy deer or bear is asked when it gets to the front of the Wildlife Services clinic waiting line. The home page of the agency’s website tries to convey this sort of benign image. The reality is much different, as Laurel and I described on a “Coyotes don’t need killing by USDA Wildlife Services” page that we put up…

Before Laurel and I enter into our mellow yin Memorial Day weekend mood, it was balancing to experience some yang outrage this morning after reading a Statesman Journal story: “GOP sidesteps public on hunting bill.” I’ve got to hand it to the Oregon House Republicans. It isn’t easy to score a triple outrage, but they managed to do it through an amendment to a bill that would let counties overturn statewide voter-approved restrictions on cougar and bear hunting. A House committee approved the bill without advance notice, undoubtedly because if environmental and animal-rights activists had known about this move ahead…

Like my fellow Salem blogger Trey, I too was thrilled beyond words (until now, obviously) when I picked up today’s Statesman-Journal newspaper and saw the front page story: “3rd Wal-Mart fills racks: Salem will have more Wal-Marts than any other city in Oregon.” Recently Laurel and I had been talking about what new businesses we’d like to see in Salem so our quality of life could be improved. We mused, perhaps a Trader Joes? A Whole Foods Market? Or a Middle Eastern restaurant? We were thinking so inside the box. More precisely, inside such a small box. I realized that…

Fox News usually is the news network that I love to hate. I watch it in lieu of aerobic exercise, because the unfair and unbalanced Fox News style does such a good job of getting my heart racing. But today I enjoyed how anchor Shepard Smith handled two stories: the Texas state House’s approval of a bill that bans suggestive cheerleading and a provision in Congress’ Real ID Act that allows the Homeland Security secretary to unilaterally suspend federal laws. It seems that long-awaited cracks are starting to appear in what used to be monolithic Republican support for conservative policies.…

Laurel and I are proud to report that we have committed to the Unitarian Jihad, whose first communiqué has been reported by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jon Carroll. Here’s an excerpt: We are Unitarian Jihad. We will appear in public places and require people to shake hands with each other. (Sister Hand Grenade of Love suggested that we institute a terror regime of mandatory hugging, but her motion was not formally introduced because of lack of a quorum.) We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public. Televangelists will be forced to take jobs…