Current affairs

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…

If you don’t live in Oregon, you may not know that our new marketing/branding slogan, or tag line, is now “Oregon, we love dreamers.” Yeah, right. Oregon loves the predictable, the status quo, the uncreative, the simplistic answers to serious problems. Clear evidence for this is tonight’s apparent 60-40% defeat of Measure 30, the 2003 legislature’s hard-fought bipartisan solution to our budget problems that was referred to the voters after an out-of-state anti-tax group stuck its nose into Oregon’s affairs. Because most people are selfish, and don’t bother to inform themselves about complex issues, it looks like 60% of the…

What a nice surprise, to be walking down the driveway after retrieving the Statesman-Journal newspaper this morning, idly glancing at a story on the front page about how the Salem’s new mayor is doing in her first year, and out pops a familiar name: Laurel Hines. I read, “Mayor Taylor seems to be too limited in her vision and too afraid of upsetting a few powerful business interests to lead Salem to a truly healthy future,” southeast Salem resident Laurel Hines said.” This was after the story began with a few positive comments, so Laurel got to lead off the…

Laurel is a big Doonesbury comic fan, as am I. But she was unaware, until I pointed it out to her, that the Doonesbury series about Schwarzenegger’s investigation of himself, seeking to find out whether he truly groped women who didn’t want to be groped, was absolutely based on truth (click on dates before and after the link above to get the full Doonesbury take on the story). The governor of California really is investigating himself, which goes to prove the cliché that truth is stranger than fiction. For additional confirmation, check out this recent CNN story on the subject.…