Posted inFamily

My “Merry Christmas” video: will it take me to Hollywood?

Wow, the video I sent off to Hollywood just a few days ago already has gotten rave reviews. The person I was trying to impress with my 20 minute masterpiece liked it so much, she immediately watched it twice. OK, I'll admit this wasn't a studio executive -- not yet, at least. It was my three year old granddaughter, Evelyn. But, hey, she truly does live in Hollywood. And I bet she knows some kids who have some parents who know some people who know some big-time movie types. Yes! I'm on my way to Hollywood! Which I already knew…
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Posted inEntertainment

The meaning of “Black Swan” — perfection is a bitch

My wife and I watched "Black Swan" at Salem Cinema a few days ago. Most movies fade from my mind in much less time, but this engrossing flick has stuck with me as I ponder the question that often pops into my mind as the closing credits of an artsy film start to roll: What the fuck was that all about? Now, I considered substituting "#@$!*&" or "f__k" for the fully expressed word, but this would be at odds with the main meaning Black Swan left with me. In short... Questing for perfection ultimately leads to a decidedly imperfect life.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Obama and me are email buddies again

What a difference sixteen days can make. Back on December 6, I was super-irked at President Obama and urged people to do what I'd just done: unsubscribe from Organizing for America email alerts to tell his online presence extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy doesn't cut it with us once-fervent Obama supporters. Today I re-registered my email address with OFA. I'm back on (indirect) speaking terms with Obama, because his handling of the lame duck Congress after November's crushing Democratic setback in the midterm election was masterful. Or, amazingly lucky. Maybe a bit of both. Regardless, getting the…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

Don’t buy iLife ’11 — read the bad reviews

Whew! I just saved myself $49 and possibly a whole lot of aggravation, judging from the reviews of iLife '11 that I read on Apple's web site. If you're thinking of upgrading to new versions of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand, check out the largely dismal reactions of those who made the mistake of moving from iLife '09 (which I'm using on my MacBook Pro). I love iPhoto and iMovie. So I figured that iLife '11 would have new and improved versions of these great programs. Unfortunately, iPhoto '11 and iMovie '11 appear to be inferior. I sure hope Apple gets…
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Posted inMeasure 37

Oregon Court of Appeals rules on more Measure 37 vesting cases

I must have turned into a major land use geek. Why else would my retired body find itself in a courtroom at 9 am on a perfectly good relax and drink coffee at home December morning, watching attorneys argue another Measure 37 vested rights case before the Oregon Court of Appeals? I wanted to attend the hearing because Sean Malone and Ralph Bloemers were representing Friends of Polk County and some neighbors of a mixed use (residential and commercial) Measure 37 development that had been stopped by passage of Measure 49 in 2007. Sean and Ralph also have been the…
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Posted inScience

Yay! Sun has started to set later.

Great news from nature for us late afternoon dog walkers: a few days ago the sun started to set later, even though the days are still getting shorter. Here's why. You may wonder how days can still be getting shorter through the winter solstice, which occurs on Dec. 21 this year, if the sun is starting to set later in the day. That is because the sun also rises later in the mornings through the winter solstice, and the rate at which sunrise times are becoming later is higher than the rate at which sunset times are becoming later. The…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Republicans responsible for “Lie of the Year”

No big surprise: Republicans conjured up PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: A government takeover of health care. By selecting "government takeover' as Lie of the Year, PolitiFact is not making a judgment on whether the health care law is good policy.The phrase is simply not true. ..."Government takeover" conjures a European approach where the government owns the hospitals and the doctors are public employees. But the law Congress passed, parts of which have already gone into effect, relies largely on the free market:• Employers will continue to provide health insurance to the majority of Americans through private insurance companies.• Contrary…
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Posted inMeasure 37 Neighborhood

Successful south Salem subdivision fight makes the news

A few days ago the Portland Oregonian ran a story about a judge's ruling that said "no way" to a 43-lot, 217 acre subdivision that threatened water supplies in our neighborhood. A Marion County judge has ruled that property owners who started building a South Salem subdivision before voters limited such development didn't meet the legal guidelines that would allow them to finish the project. The ruling reverses a decision by the Marion County Board of Commissioners, who in July 2009 voted 2-1 that Leroy and Jean Laack and five associates had a "vested right" to continue building a 42-unit…
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Posted inScience Sustainability

There’s more snow storms in warmer years

Here's another arrow that's been lost from the unscientific quiver of climate change deniers: It's snowing hard! Global warming isn't happening! Untrue. The anti-science crowd has been doing a killer job pushing the myth that the big recent snowstorms somehow undercut our understanding of human-caused global warming.  But aside from the fact the precipitation isn’t temperature, it turns out that the “common wisdom” the disinformers are preying on — lots of snow means we must be in a cold season — isn’t even true.Let’s look at the results of an actual, detailed study of “the relationships of the storm frequencies…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Health

“Obamacare” isn’t dead — most courts have affirmed it

Today one judge, in one federal court, ruled that the health care reform bill's mandate that most Americans buy insurance was unconstitutional. Before opponents of "Obamacare" (I don't like that term, since he didn't write the legislation, but will reluctantly use it) get all excited, they need to keep in mind this fact: Fourteen other judges have "either dismissed cases against the law's constitutionality or ruled against those cases." The mandate remains in effect as Judge Henry Hudson's ruling is appealed. It will take a couple of years before the constitutionality of Obamacare is decided by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile,…
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Posted inMeasure 37 Neighborhood

Judge’s final decision on Laack subdivision: the meaning for me

A few days ago Judge Nely Johnson finalized her oral opinion in Marion County (Oregon) Circuit Court that overturned a flawed Board of Commissioners' decision to let a 43-lot, 217-acre subdivision move ahead on high value, groundwater limited farmland. Land use junkies and interested neighbors can read all about it here (4.1 MB PDF file): Download Final decision FOMC v. Marion County (Laack) This has been a long journey for our neighborhood and me. It started in 2005, when plans for this Measure 37 development first surfaced. My wife, Laurel, initially led the fight to protect our area's ground and…
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Posted inHealth

Hexane in veggie burgers is a concern, not a killer

A few days ago my health-conscious wife rushed downstairs from her computer, printed web site pages in hand. "My Boca Chik'n Burgers are made with a neurotoxin," she said, "They're going to kill me." She wasn't 100% serious... about the killing part. But after some initial skeptical mutterings of that can't be from me, my Googling confirmed that hexane is indeed involved in the processing of lots of veggie burgers which contain non-organic soy protein. This isn't new news. We just hadn't come across the hexane scare until now. Back in April of this year, Mother Jones magazine kicked off…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Obama tax deal looks better to me

I'm still deeply disappointed in Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress. They had plenty of opportunities the past two years to fulfill one of Obama's central campaign promises: repeal the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans, and keep the middle class tax cuts. But I wrote my "Send a message to Obama: unsubscribe from OFA" post before all of the details about the deal with Republicans were released. I haven't changed my mind about Obama being a weenie, or the desirability of telling Organizing for American to take an email hike. However, I'm finding more things to like…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Send a message to Obama: unsubscribe from OFA

Like I said a few days ago, the Barack Obama I voted for isn't the same guy who is now President of the United States. I wanted change, optimism, and progressivism. What we're getting is more of the same, malaise, and some sort of amorphous whatever political philosophy. (There's another opinion floating around in the blogosphere -- that the current Obama is the same as the old one, a non-progressive who is kissing up to conservatives and Wall Street because that's who he has loved all along and just fooled us before. Having read his book, my wife doesn't believe…
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Posted inSalem

Real men (and women) don’t always watch sports

Kristen Grainger, a Willamette University vice-president, wrote a terrific editorial for the Salem Statesman Journal. In "Game day is just another day for many" she talked about the Most Important Thing happening in Oregon today: the U of O vs. OSU football game, which determines whether Oregon plays for the national championship. A terrific writer, Grainger managed to entertainingly weave together cooking classes, the history of tamales, sex roles, and misplaced machismo in a paint store. This morning I emailed her, saying I wished she could write all of the Statesman Journal editorials. Have a read. Download Game day is…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

What happened to the Obama I voted for?

Today's email from Organizing for America, the largely irrelevant remnant of the grassroots effort that helped get Obama elected, put another nail into my I'm pissed off at Obama coffin. I voted for him. I contributed quite a bit of money to his campaign. I started off enthused about Obama's presidency following his inauguration. Now just about everything he does irritates me -- especially the fact that he isn't doing much. A recent spate of opinion pieces in the New York Times crystallized my irked mood. They helped me realize that people who are a lot more knowledgeable about political…
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Posted inHome life

I discover comfort shopping

In today's newspaper I read about a new restaurant whose owner described its cuisine as "comfort food." I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I suspect health-minded vegetarians like me wouldn't find much to eat there. Still, I can identify with the concept, because I've been getting into comfort shopping. Not that this is something entirely new for me -- earlier this year I praised the iPhone 4 as the way to perfect happiness. Yes, money can make us happy when it's used to buy the right things. In these tough economic times, the problem is finding the right…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

A cosmic perspective on climate change politics

I can forgive politicans for most of the crap they inflict on us, because that's what I expect from them. Crap. But there's one malfeasance that's unforgivable: Failing to protect the livability of our planet. We can argue about the size and role of government, whether health care should be single payer or privatized, how the education system should operate, what the optimum level of taxation is -- all kinds of questions are open to avid discussion and debate. Except how to preserve Earth in a fashion that will enable future generations to survive, prosper, and engage in their own…
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Posted inUncategorized

How to shorten winter to one month

Since I'm eligible for social security benefits, I've got retired-time now to solve the world's problems. After pondering where to start over several Grande Christmas Blend coffees at Starbucks, here's my choice: Shortening winter to one month. I picked this problem rather than nuclear disarmament, famine, environmental degradation, or Middle East peace for a couple of reasons. One, winter is my least favorite season, so I'm personally motivated to shorten it as much as possible. Two, with sufficient caffeine in my system to stimulate my steadily aging brain, it didn't take me long to figure out a way to make…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Family

My daughter’s bad news for the housing market

Celeste, my daughter, lives in southern California. A middle-class Hollywood neighborhood, to be precise. Recently she gave me an update on the dismal mood of homeowners down there -- an attitude that doesn't bode well for the economy in general, given the importance of the housing market. Celeste and her husband both have good jobs, for which they're thankful. They bought their house, after selling a condo, at close to the top of the housing bubble. Now their home's assessed value approximates their mortgage balance, since values have dropped considerably the past few years and they wisely put 20% down.…
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