Current affairs

The incomparable Mark Morford of SFGate.com has an interesting take on election polls in his column today. He asks, who the hell could be undecided between Bush and Kerry, given the stark differences between them? And, whoever they are, how the hell could they be swayed so easily after a superficial slick slogan-filled convention (whether Democratic or Republican)? Morford gets it just right when he says, “These polls are designed solely to mangle your head and confound your synapses and elate you and titillate you and then plunge you into instant despair and then yank you back out at the…

It was nice to enter cyberspace today and find four reasons to smile. (1) Bush’s Convention Bounce. Could be just a modest two percentage points, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. Factor in the margin of error and it could be nothing. I believe a few other post-convention polls found a bigger bounce. Given that most people already seem to have a firm idea about who to vote for, two points sounds more likely to me. Anyway, this is good news for recently down in the dumps Kerry supporters. (2) Lion Tops Tiger. You have to love it when Vijay…

Having CNN on while paying some bills has been a depressing experience. I probably should have been watching the Cartoon Channel, though the talking conservative heads at the Republican Convention certainly are equally amusing. I missed Zell Miller’s speech, but saw enough clips to realize how utterly mean-spirited and misleading he was. One commentator on CNN had a nice line: “With that speech he put ‘zealot’ back in ‘Zell.’” Laurel likes to believe that American voters will be influenced much more by facts than by rhetoric. I disagree. The hard-core voters on each end of the political spectrum clearly already…

Why is it that liberals seem to have the facts on their side, but don’t have a clear majority of voters on their side? Yesterday I came across two persuasive arguments for a simple answer: It’s the language, stupid! Liberals don’t know how to use words effectively. Conservatives do. In the July/August issue of the Sierra Club magazine there’s a fascinating article called “Winning Words” (available online). The author, Katy Butler, says: “It’s not for want of solid facts and rational arguments that the environment has lost ground, says cognitive scientist George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics: How Liberals and…

Well, that’s a gutsy title for a posting. Hopefully we won’t be getting any middle of the night knocks on the door from Homeland Security. Note to Tom Ridge: focus on the word “try” in the subject line and the unlikelihood of a real terrorist openly posting his thoughts on a weblog. Which gets at what I’ve been thinking about—the utter improbability that all of the Homeland Security alerts and efforts, both here and abroad, really are seriously disrupting Al Qaeda’s terror plans. Of course, I’m entirely willing to admit, and I certainly hope (given our upcoming travel plans), that…

After all the disgusting dysfunction, political posturing, and inane ineptitude that gets exhibited here in Salem at the capitol, it was a joy to walk by there yesterday and enjoy great displays of skill, teamwork, and sportsmanship (sportswomanship too). Of course, there wasn’t a legislator or lobbyist in sight. Which is why I saw what I did.

Oh, great. This article was just what I didn't want to read, with some summer airline travel coming up for Laurel and me. However, I did read it, and now will be watching lavatory users with considerable interest. Whether or not you're already nervous or paranoid about flying, your jittery level probably will take an upswing after reading the provocatively titled, "Was an al-Qaeda plot unfolding on Northwest Airlines flight 327?" P.S. a day later: Thanks to the The One True b!X for pointing out in his comment that the above-cited article was overblown, and that the seeming truth of…

This is why C-Span is so great, even though it is so boring much of the time. Once in a while I channel-surf through the Dish network news channels, pause on C-Span, and listen to someone making so much sense I want to bottle what he or she is saying and pour it, forcefully if necessary, into every federal and state legislator’s brain. No, why stop there? Into the brain of every person in the United States. Even the world if I could find enough bottles. Melissa Rogers was testifying today before a Congressional hearing on “Religious Expression in Public…

Things have been sort of boring recently around the Hines household, and we haven’t gotten any visits from the Secret Service for, gosh, ages. So I’m going to live dangerously and not only imagine George Bush’s head on a stick, but also write about it in my weblog. Which I just did. I’ve just committed in narrative form the same sort of horrendous offense against the president that brought a 15 year old high school student to the attention of both the local police and the Secret Service. Except this boy reflected his imaginings in artwork, and I’ve described mine…

Having recently pondered the mystery of how our president can consider that he is doing God’s will by going to war with Iraq, I was pleased to get some insights into Bush’s evangelical mind by reading four mini-essays on Bill Long’s website. Bill is an adjunct professor of law at Willamette University and a friend who participates in a monthly “Salon” discussion group here in Salem that Laurel organized many moons ago. On his home page Bill, well, bills himself as an author, attorney, historian, and biblical scholar in addition to his current professorial persona. In his current events section…

We were pleased to be able to listen, more or less, to Air America on KPOJ (620 AM) while driving from Camp Sherman to Bend today. Central and Eastern Oregon aren’t exactly Air America county, so it was a nice surprise to find that the Portland signal is able to bring some enlightened perspectives to Republican Country. If anyone, liberal or conservative alike, hasn’t given Air America a try, do it now. Especially you conservatives. I’ve put in many grit-my-teeth radio hours listening to talk-show hosts (Lars Larson, ugh, Michael Savage, double or triple ugh) who I disagree with, so…

For the benefit of local residents who didn’t notice my letter to the editor that was printed in the Statesman-Journal today way down there at the very bottom of the second page of the “Opinion” section, here’s a link to my profound musings about the economic benefits to Oregon of making this state a “heaven” for homosexual marriage (in case that link disappears from the S-J web site, here’s the letter as I submitted it.) Perhaps the humble placement of my letter was karmically produced, since I stole Laurel’s ideas, wrote them up, and signed my name to them. Late…

OK, “subjector” isn’t really Latin, but I wanted to add a P.S. to my last posting about subjectivity, and “let the subjective person beware” sounds so much more profound in pseudo-Latin. I’ve been thinking that my Howard Dean-like cry, “scream your subjectivity to the sky!” needs a qualifier: make sure you allow everyone else to do their own screaming along with you. This, it dawned on me as I did my deep thinking while driving around today, is what makes the difference between irritating ranting and raving (per conservative talk radio) and interesting dialogue and discussion (per public broadcasting). A…

I’m all for free speech, but that doesn’t mean I have to listen to, or read, all the hateful crap that conservative cranks, um, crank out. As I’ve observed before, conservative “talk” radio really doesn’t involve much talking between two people. Rather, the talking is almost entirely one-sided, with the cranky host using the public airwaves to rant and rave about his or her personal feelings, and having the power to shut off the voice of any caller who doesn’t adhere to the Republican party line. Wednesday afternoon, while driving around in our Toyota Prius, I allowed KXL’s Lars Larson…