Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Pushy progressive joins coffee shop conversation

I hope it was a sign of the times in the West Salem Starbucks this afternoon. I'm tired of the Democrats in Congress passively putting up with Republican lies. If it's true what Obama said during his campaign, We are the change we have been waiting for, then what interrupted my coffee house debate with a long-time conservative friend is a positive omen.We were avidly discussing the current state of national politics. I'd taken serious exception to my friend calling Obama a socialist. "That's just a word," I said. "What has he done specifically that could be called socialist? I…
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Posted inSustainability

Climate change scientist absolved of email wrongdoing

Ah, it's so satisfying to be proven correct. Especially when it's global warming deniers who are being proven wrong. Back in November I said, based on obvious evidence, that the hacked emails from a climate research center at the University of East Anglia would prove to be a big bunch of nothing.Indeed, an independent examination of the emails showed no fraudulent actions by the researchers. Since global warming is real, this is to be expected. What reason would there be for a researcher to make up fake facts when there are so many true ones?Now, another nail in the coffin…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Portland police kill another unarmed man

If I lived in Portland (Oregon), I'd be extremely wary of calling 911 if a mentally troubled person was causing a disturbance. Recently a policeman shot an unarmed man in the back. Distraught over his younger brother's death, witnesses say Aaron Campbell was complying with police orders, but still was struck by beanbag rounds.Ryan Pannell, who watched the shooting from his second-floor Sandy Terrace apartment, said it appeared that Campbell was cooperating, walking backward toward officers with his hands behind his head. He thinks police made the situation worse. "By his actions, he (Campbell) just did what anybody would have…
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Posted inSalem

Talking to a street person opens my mind

Stereotypes: we're all prone to them. The worst kind are unknown to us, prejudices that aren't obvious because they seem so reasonable. I was looking for a place to park my Burgman scooter in downtown Salem yesterday. Heading for the Beanery, my favorite independent coffee house, I started to pull into a motorcycle parking slot across from the Salem Center Mall.Until I noticed that a guy who looked like a derelict was sitting a few yards away, his back against a building's wall, holding a cardboard sign that asked for help. A distressingly familiar sight these days.I kept going. Circled…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Obama is the grown-up, but will Republican kids behave?

Like I said yesterday, President Obama put on a remarkable performance at the House Republican retreat in Baltimore. I watched the entire Q and A session. (For highlights, go here.)Together with his State of the Union address, which was similarly energized and honest, Obama has gone a long way toward soothing my anxious progressive psyche. I finally recognized the leader who was so appealing during the 2008 campaign, yet has been so blah most of the time since his inauguration. When he spoke with the House Republicans, it was crystal clear who was the adult politician in the room: Obama.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Obama schools Republicans in bipartisanship: must-see video

Wow, President Obama nailed House Republicans at their retreat today in Baltimore, where he met with them in an amazing session -- which thankfully was televised in its entirety. I had a lot of trouble viewing the question and answer part of the meeting on C-SPAN. Probably its web site got overloaded. But Daily Kos TV has a nicely functioning video, plus a transcript. This is terrific political entertainment. Obama makes the House Republicans look immature, obstructionist, and incompetent.Enjoy: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Here's how the Huffington Post characterized the meeting:President Obama…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

I want to love the Apple iPad and iBooks, but…

At 10 am yesterday I was glued to my MacBook Pro, watching Engadget's live-blog feed from the Apple event where the long-awaited iPad tablet was announced.I fell in love immediately. Or, was it just a passing lust?Today I'm trying to figure out whether iPad and me are going to have a long-term relationship, or whether my instant attraction to her was a passing thing. Ms. iPad is unavailable at the moment. Reportedly it's going to be a couple of months before I could bring her home and start feeling her up (the iPad is like an iPod Touch or iPhone…
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Posted inMeasure 37

Measure 37 vesting cases reach Oregon Court of Appeals

It's been a couple of years since Measure 49 was approved by 62% of Oregonians in November 2007, putting the brakes on the Measure 37 train wreck that threatened to demolish the state's pioneering land use system. Most property owners who made a claim under Measure 37 to be exempt from land use laws that applied to everybody else -- to put a bunch of houses on high value farmland, for example -- have taken advantage of a provision in Measure 49 that allows them to have three home sites on six acres of their least productive farm or forest…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Entertainment

Obama needs to channel his warrior “Avatar”

Fresh off of seeing Avatar last night in mind-blowing 3-D, I'm hoping that President Obama will rock my psyche in a different -- but related -- way next Wednesday when he gives his first State of the Union address. Fight for what you believe and take on the freakin' bad guys! This is one of the Avatar good guys, Jake. He was a crippled paraplegic soldier who regained his kick-ass capabilities when his mind was melded with the artificially created body of a Na'vi lookalike. The Na'vi are the indigenous people of Pandora. Slender. Graceful. Intelligent. Attuned to nature. Spiritual.…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

Fabulous fantasy feature set for the Apple tablet

Beautiful! Mark Morford nails his lust list of desirable features for the long-rumored and apparently about-to-be-announced Apple tablet. Bring it on!Here's some of Morford's entirely reasonable wishes (he's speaking directly to the tablet). On the topic of health and happiness, it would be tremendously helpful if I could, say, hold a given food item in front of your gleaming screen and have you instantly reveal, via an intricate array of special sensors, the exact nutrient value, fat quotient, caloric assessment, global carbon footprint, potential colonic damage and overall dietary necessity of said comestible, along with exactly how amped or sluggish,…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Raising Oregon taxes will be good for our state

A couple of new polls suggest that Oregonians are about to raise state taxes on high income citizens and some corporations by passing Measures 66 and 67. Support for the measures may be slipping, though.I hope they pass. Oregon is a low tax state, as I noted several years ago. This recent cartoon from the Eugene Register-Guard demolishes the ridiculous anti-tax argument that people and businesses will shun Oregon if state taxes are hiked slightly.William Yaeger, an Oregon State University economist, did a fine job of pointing out the benefits to the state's economy of passing Measures 66 and 67…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

My “I don’t care” mood should worry Obama

I don't care. That's my core reaction to Republican Scott Brown's win over incompetent campaigner Martha Coakley yesterday.People like me should make Obama and the Democratic leadership very, very worried. I was a hugely enthusiastic Obama supporter in 2008. Gave lots of money. Responded regularly to the frequent emails that came from the slick Obama online cyberspace machine.Now, I take a glance at whatever is sent to me by the group that has inherited Obama's email address list, yawn, and press the delete button. A few times in 2009 I sent in a contribution to support health care reform efforts.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Ukraine’s Yulia Tymoshenko: a hot national leader

I don't usually pay much attention to politics in Ukraine. But when I saw a photo of the country's prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, for some (obvious) reason I became enthralled with her.She's in a runoff to be the next Ukrainian president. I'll be rooting for her. All I need to do is glance at her opponent to tell that Yulia is hugely hotter more qualified.  In contrast with our own female politician hot babe, Sarah Palin, Tymoshenko actually has some brains and competence. Wikipedia tells me that she graduated with an honors degree in economics and was president of United Energy…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregon Measures 66 & 67 elicit anti-tax lies

My wife and I have happily mailed in our "yes" votes on Measures 66 and 67. I love to pay taxes. They're the largest contributions to the general good of society (Oregon, United States, world) that we make each year.These tax measures would slightly increase the amount of money high income Oregonians, and some corporations, pay. If they pass, Oregon still will have one of the most favorable tax burden on businesses. Currently, even with the new taxes, we're #14 among the 50 states. Download State business tax climateSo it's ridiculous for the No on 66/67 crowd to claim that…
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Posted inSustainability

Oregon’s wise land use fights global warming

In some ways my wife and I are good examples of how to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas pollution: we own two hybrid cars, and I ride a 45 mpg scooter as often as possible.But we also live in a rural area about six miles from the Salem city limits. So we do a lot of driving back and forth to town. More driving means more greenhouse gas emissions.Yesterday Laurel and I attended a 1000 Friends of Oregon lunch meeting where this environmental organization's 2010 legislative agenda was discussed. I learned about a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Task Force established in 2009…
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Posted inSustainability

Oregon coyote derby senseless and wrong

If you're offended by a southeastern Oregon coyote derby that offers a prize for bringing in the most sets of ears, you've got good reasons to be.  Coyotes are pack-oriented wild dogs who are part of the balance of nature. They control rodents, which are a nuisance. My wife and I wish there were more coyotes in our neighborhood.Killing coyotes doesn't reduce their numbers; it increases them. When coyotes are killed, more coyotes breed and have larger litters. Coyotes also fill vacated habitat from surrounding areas.Yet Jamie and Angel Roscoe are promoting their coyote derby in Klamath, Lake, Harney, and…
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Posted inHome life

My Ten Commandments of Napping

As the adage goes, "write what you know." I shall obey, because I know a lot about napping. Not academic knowledge -- first-hand, eyes-shut, direct experience. In fact, I just had a nap. That refreshment, combined with a cup of coffee, has stimulated me to share some of the napping wisdom that I've gained over many years.For I am not new to napping. In 1977, a few years out of graduate school, I began my second "real" job with the State Health Planning agency here in Salem, Oregon.I had a private office, being a manager. One of my first executive…
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Posted inScience Sustainability

Cold weather and global warming: perfectly compatible

Last month I heard a conservative radio talk show host proclaim, "Hah! It's snowing in Arizona. Guess this will make John McCain change his mind about global warming." Idiocy must be contagious, because yesterday I heard something similar (on CNN, I believe). The weather person was saying that it was unusually cold in the central and eastern parts of the United States.The anchor responded with something like "Well, that's interesting, since the Copenhagen conference on global warming happened not long ago." Before he could expand upon this illogical train of thought, the weather expert interrupted to save him from further…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Rudy Giuliani forgets 9/11

Unbelievable: Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York City on September 11, 2001, forgets the attacks. Rudy Giuliani claimed Friday that were “no domestic attacks” during George W. Bush’s presidency....“We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama,” he said, forgetting not only Sept. 11  but also the anthrax mailings to congressional offices and media outlets.Giuliani should be ashamed of his idiocy. And apologize to the relatives of those who died on 9/11, which he has forgotten.
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