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Today is tax day. I feel happy. Giving, like they say, is better than receiving. Well, at least equal.Each year, paying our taxes is the biggest gift that my wife and I offer to other people. We help elderly and poor people get health care through Medicare and Medicaid. We help make public education available to every child in America. We help support international assistance programs that feed, clothe, and otherwise assist fellow human beings in need.Close to home, today our local newspaper here in Oregon ran a story, "Thousands more may get jobless benefits." Women with children. Young people…

Once in a while I hear Glenn Beck on the radio, or see him on cable news. One of his catchwords these days is how "taxation without representation" supposedly is going on in the United States.Huh? We just had an election in 2008. Barack Obama was freely and fairly elected President. The Democratic Party freely and fairly enlarged its majorities in the House and Senate. I don't get this "without representation" stuff.Beck is plugging tea parties as part of his 9/12 Project (nine principles and twelve values he came up with that are supposed to take us back to the…

Wow! The times really are a'changing. Obama has been president-elect for just two days, and already I've heard sentiments that I agree with on conservative talk radio.Namely, that Obama-haters need to act like patriotic Americans and get behind their new president. (Not so they can push him off a cliff -- to support him.)Way to go, Glenn Beck. Driving home this evening I heard your show on a Portland radio station. When I channel surf in your direction usually I tune you out quickly, because I can't stand your right-wing political views.But today you gave it good to a guy,…

OK, that's sort of harsh. I really shouldn't call these dancers "klutzes." Especially since they're my wife and me, and I need as much self-esteem as I can manufacture for myself. But every time we go out to practice at the RJ Dance Studio Tuesday "hit the floor" open dances, I realize both how much we've forgotten of what we've learned, and how distant we are from the Dancing with the Stars standard (aside from a few stars who are as klutzy as we are, notwithstanding their professional partner). Here's the thing about ballroom dancing though: even when you think…

Maybe it's the luck of the Irish, getting married on St. Patrick's Day way back in 1990. Whatever, here Laurel and I are, celebrating our 18th anniversary. Which is many years more than Dr. Laura Schlessinger would have predicted our marriage would last. As I observed in my earlier take that, Dr. Laura! post, she doesn't believe that someone can make sound decisions about a new relationship for at least a year after getting divorced. That's ridiculous. Laurel and I met in July 1989. I proposed to her in October. We got married the next March. There aren't any rules…

Well, just as newspapers reprint the "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" piece every year, I'll start my own agnostic tradition and link back to my 2006 post, "An agnostic Taoist on Christmas Eve." Not much has changed. We're still heading to a vegetarian buffet at Salem's Marco Polo restaurant tomorrow. We're still irritated by Salvation Army bell ringers, Christmas music in stores, and the prevailing cultural sentiment that if you don't believe in Jesus, somehow you're impoverished during the holiday season. That's ridiculous. We feel overwhelmingly grateful that unlike the vast majority of people in the world, we…

Ah, how marvelous became my blog's hall of mirrors after TypePad, the hosting service, had the not-so-bright idea to juice up its spam comment filter. Absolutely legitimate comments got unceremoniously moved into a spam folder, unbeknownst to me and countless other bloggers. Until the unbeknownst became knowst when I heard from an upset visitor to my other blog asking why I was censoring several of his recent comments. I had no idea what he was talking about. But then I logged onto TypePad and saw a mention of how they were thanking people for letting them know that their comment…

I'm a mild mannered vegetarian, but after spending most of the morning fixing bookmark problems caused by Firefox's latest update (2.0.0.11), I'd like to have a fox hunt and shoot this increasingly buggy web browser. I dutifully download new Firefox updates when I'm told to. In the past they've installed smoothly, aside from occasionally having to fuss with getting an update to an incompatible extension. But today Firefox started up in its new 2.0.0.11 incarnation having lost my bookmarks and RoboForm logins. Not a good way to start off the day. Because it took me a couple of hours to…

Comments are often the best part of a blog post. This is how blog visitors get to communicate with other visitors and the author of the post. Recently TypePad, which hosts this blog, added some new comment features. Here's the best one: you now can subscribe to a comment feed. If you're not familiar with Internet feeds, here's an overview. Basically they're a way of keeping up on what's happening with a web site or blog without actually visiting the site/blog. The comment section of every HinesSight post now begins with: "You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the…

The election is over. Oregonians voted for Measure 49 overwhelmingly, just as I predicted. But the lies keep on coming from Oregonians in Action (OIA). These are the folks who gave us Measure 37 in 2004, the confusingly-written, poorly thought-out trashing of Oregon's land use laws. OIA said that Measure 37 would let little old ladies like Dorothy English build a house or two on their land. Instead, the reality turned out to be way different. Such as large subdivisions on groundwater limited farmland. OIA surely knew that this time Oregonians would vote to preserve what makes our state so…

Our neighborhood's fight against a Measure 37 subdivision that threatens wells and springs often is like a soap opera – lots of drama. But then there are moments more akin to a Laurel and Hardy show. Their catch phrase was, "Well, there's another fine mess you've gotten me into." The Measure 37 claimants who are trying to convert 125 acres of vineyard-ready farmland into an asphaltized subdivision also are like drunken cowboys: they keep shooting themselves in the foot. The most recent self-imposed injury happened yesterday, when the Oregon DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) revoked their erosion control, or 1200-C,…

Oh, man. Not good news – the GW fire in central Oregon forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people from Black Butte Ranch (a large destination resort, for those unfamiliar with the area). The Sisters Nugget has up to date coverage of the evacuation and steadily growing fire. The Oregonian said the fire was at 5,400 acres, but that's probably old news. As partial owners of a cabin in nearby Camp Sherman, and frequent visitors to Black Butte Ranch, we're suffering with the locals all the way from Champaign, Illinois. I'm not a praying person. But tonight I'll make an…

If you live in Salem, Oregon and you need to have a seed removed from your ear after 8 pm, I recommend that you put on a dog suit and learn how to whine convincingly. Because after hours emergency medical care for canines is much superior to that for humans. Not to mention medical care during regular hours. I'm not the first to wonder why in this not-always-so-great United States animals fare better than people when they get sick or have an injury. Sharon Glassman wondered, "Why is my dog's health care better than mine?" Excellent question, Sharon. I hope…

First, a Santiam Pass June 5 weather report: freaking cold! It was in the high 70s when we drove over from Salem last Saturday. The car thermometer read "36 degrees" early this evening. Some snowflakes were mixed with the rain. Which will fall to the ground. And become a river, teaching us all sorts of stuff that books can't. Nonetheless, today I visited one of my favorite bookstores, Paulina Springs Books in Sisters. My first stop was the Nature table. I spent quite a bit of time thumbing through David James Duncan's "My Story as told by Water." I loved…

Just because we're on Maui doesn't mean we're not having troubles. So those of you still back in moist, cool Oregon (or anywhere else other than Napili Bay), don't be envious of us. Consider what we're putting up with. --Sweating through the Hawaiian Airlines luggage weigh in. Well, this applied to Laurel, not me. She always pushes the 50 pound limit, both coming and going. I have to travel lighter, because I know that when it comes time to pack for our trip home I'm going to be handed a bunch of women's t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other assorted clothing items…

Ah, a great way to renew the day. If, like me, you missed last night's Grammy Awards show, and saw mention of Shakira performing "Hips don't lie" in the newspaper, and thought damn, I wish I'd seen her, there's no need to fret. Thanks to Lelo in Nopo, I found a video of her singing and hip-shaking at ShakiraMedia. Enjoy. I sure did.

Finally! No more naked wrists for me. I’ve found some rubber wristbands that spout a message I can get behind. I just ordered them and can hardly wait to share an honest philosophy of life with the world. Others can wear what they like. I’m declaring my allegiance to the curmudgeon side in the battle of the bands.

South Salem, Oregon. 11/28/04. 17:51 hours. Report by Col. B. Hines (no snickering if you read the name out loud—I had enough of that in high school gym class). Commanding officer, also sole soldier: Hinesland Anti-blackberry Special Forces. Good progress has been made in freeing Hinesland from the invader who crossed our borders many years ago—Himalayan Blackberry. May Luther Burbank rot in his grave for unleashing this despicable vegetation upon our defenseless natives. The values of Himalayan Blackberry are beneath contempt, as the above-referenced intelligence analysis describes: “It is capable of sexual and various types of asexual reproduction.” Various types,…