Posted inCurrent affairs

Obama brings sanity to health care craziness

I'm not a believer, but I still thought "thank God we have a president who's so sane and intelligent" after watching Obama's town hall meeting on health care today. My laptop brought me every live moment. Like a LA Times blogger, I was disappointed that some right-wing wacko didn't ask one of the WTF questions based on an insane belief that have been so common at other town hall meetings. And in Sarah Palin's highly deluded mind. She claims that "Obama wants to kill my baby through his death panels," which is bat-shit crazy. How anyone thinks Palin is qualified…
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Posted inUncategorized

Crazed commenters disrupt my blog

Every blogger has to decide how to handle comments on his or her posts. In my case, I've opted for as much openness as possible. But now that I've gotten a rash of crazed commenters on my other blog, I'm having to rethink my approach.Given that the blog is called Church of the Churchless, it isn't surprising that I attract quite a few religious true believers who are out to challenge my skepticism. That's fine with me. I enjoy debating metaphysics and philosophy with fundamentalists, in large part because it is so easy to undercut their arguments. (One of their favorites:…
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Posted inEntertainment

“Down and dirty” hurt my dancing man, Evan

My wife and I love "So You Think You Can Dance." It was sad to see the current show come to an end last night with Jeanine's triumph. (How does someone 18 dance so well? Partial answer: she started when she was three.) Being philosophically minded, I enjoy the more profound sub-texts of the show as much as the overt dancing. Now, having just written "profound sub-texts," I guess I've got to come up with some -- since like most bloggers I tend to write first and think afterwards. Wednesday night, for the first time I voted for a couple…
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Posted inHealth

Wow! A warm and fuzzy health insurance moment.

It's hard to believe, given my antipathy toward health insurance companies, but yesterday I actually felt warm and fuzzy toward one -- for a few moments.I've been arguing with Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon about its denial of my application to change from an individual Plus plan to the Premier plan. I fell into the dreaded pre-existing condition black hole, even though I'm an unusually healthy 60-year-old guy.After sending the Regence underwriting department records of my last two physical exams, I got a phone call from a manager. She told me that the denial was being reversed, as the two…
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Posted inScootering

Sartre, scootering, and sensuality

I didn't realize until today -- while happily riding around on my Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter, naturally -- that I had an overwhelming desire to use "Sartre" and "scootering" together in a blog post title.Well, why not? I've been re-reading John Paul Sartre's "Being and Nothingness." And I ride a  scooter. There's got to be a connection between existentialist philosophy and the joy I feel zipping around on two motorized wheels.To me, it is sensuality. Which is why that word earned a place in the title also.Since I got my Burgman in June, I've been leaving our Toyota Prius and…
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Posted inUncategorized

Why nobody likes health insurance companies

President Obama has started saying "health insurance reform" instead of "health care reform." Smart move. My post title is slightly inaccurate. A few people in the United States like health insurance companies. Namely, people who are employed by them. As for the rest of us, when's the last (or first) time you had a wonderful customer service experience interacting with a provider of health insurance? They seem to have replaced lawyers as the most maligned profession in America.Yesterday I went into my doctor's office to get copies from the "chart," now electronic, of my last two physical exams. As related…
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Posted inEntertainment

Happy dancing videos bring summer smiles

Hey, it's almost August. And the Northwest's record-breaking heat wave is about over. Time to celebrate by sitting on our finally-cool deck and sharing some viral dance videos that brought smiles to the sweaty brows of my wife and me yesterday. Like this title of this video says, this has got to be The Best Wedding Entrance Dance Ever. For sure. Then there's this guy -- who must have watched Beyonce's video of Single Ladies a million times to get his copied moves down so perfectly. To check his work, here's Beyonce's version. Actually, I think the guy is a…
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Posted inRecreation

Panoramic Metolius River photos

It got up to 103 degrees here in rural south Salem today, so this is a good time to dig out some photos I took recently at what was a much cooler spot in Oregon -- the Metolius River.I'm still learning how to make my new Sony DSC-HX1 do its camera tricks. I hadn't played around much with the Sweep Panorama mode, so decided to give it more of a try. Here's a description:World's first digital camera with Sweep Panorama. Equipped with Sweep Panorama mode, the HX1 reaches beyond the limits of wide angle lenses and makes it easy to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Facts about health care reform

Ooh, that's a scary word for lots of people nowadays: facts. They prefer the truthiness of Stephen Colbert:Truthiness is what you want the facts to be, as opposed to what the facts are. What feels like the right answer as opposed to what reality will support.Like most progressives, I like policy-making to be based on reality that is as real as possible. Things just go better when they're founded on facts rather than falsehoods. Sure, you're free to drive a car assuming that a red light means "go," and a green light means "stop" -- what right does society have…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Letting children die isn’t a valid religious belief

It's a warm Oregon day, but I'm still frosted over a jury deciding that child sacrifice in the name of Jesus deserves no more than a legal slap on the hand: the father was found guilty of criminal mistreatment, a misdemeanor; the mother got off entirely.Over on my Church of the Churchless blog, I said "Child sacrifice gets a yellow light in Oregon." That post has generated a lot of comments, many of which mystify me.Disturbingly, they seem to reflect the misguided sentiments of the jurors who voted to absolve Carl and Raylene Worthington of the most serious charges. Believing…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Obama, take my health insurance company — please

Yeah, this blog post title is based on an old joke. But the fact that I remember it, because I'm old, is related to my increasing anxiety over whether President Obama is going to pull off the health care reform that this country in general -- plus my 60'ish wife and I in particular -- sorely need.I want Obama to save us from the clutches of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon. Recently a Twitter Tweet popped into my head: I'd love to have government come between me and my health insurance company, just as I want a policeman to come…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

Marijuana is getting high attention — legalization near?

No, it isn't a flashback from my '60 days. I've carefully perused the dates on a bunch of marijuana-related stories, and they're all recent. Something is happening here, particularly in the western reaches of the United States, and I don't know what it is. (To paraphrase an old friend.) But it sure seems like the times they are a-changin'. Evidence... Oregon's Governor is about to sign a bill that will legalize the industrial production of hemp. Oregon is on the verge of becoming the first Western state to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp... Oregon will then become the seventh…
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Posted inUncategorized

Photos of 2009 Salem Art Fair

Salem (Oregon), as I frequently point out, doesn't have a lot going on compared to its much cooler city cousins an I-5 hour drive north and south -- Portland and Eugene. But we do have the Salem Art Fair, a first class event, that's beautifully nestled in the towering trees of Bush Park. In the northwest is there a nicer setting for an art fair? Can't believe there is. This is how the fair looks walking up to it from High Street. And this is a view from the line exiting the vastly popular stand that sells "Moo" shakes of…
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Posted inHome life

Our new well silts up 60 feet. Here’s why.

We're always learning something new about country living. Today, it was that our 440 foot new well, just three months old, can quickly accumulate 60 feet of silt.Who knew? It surprised even our well driller, Troy, who said that in his experience he's only had a couple of ten inch wells manifest this odd behavior. Unfortunately, it was our well and the next one he drilled. Unlucky us. But at least now we know what's going on, and how to fix the problem, thanks to some down-the-well diagnosing with a submersible camera.When Oregon Pump came by a few weeks ago…
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Posted inHome life

When to start getting Social Security benefits? I say, ASAP

It's hard to believe, but my gray hair (and driver's license) testifies to the fact: in a bit over a year I'll be 62 and eligible to start getting Social Security benefits. So a New York Times article caught my eye this morning. Reading "Collect Now or Later? Timing Your Social Security Benefits" I realized that no matter what the experts say, I'm strongly inclined to stick with my current inclination:Give me my freaking benefits As Soon As Possible -- ASAP!Now, I realize that others will decide differently. And that's understandable. I just wanted to share my philosophical take on…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

The truth about Obama’s butt ogling

I never really believed that President Obama would ogle a teenager's butt (though it was undeniably attractive) at a public function.Now the truth comes out, thanks to a Daily Kos video. No surprise: once again, Fox News purposely spread a falsehood. See for yourself:
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Posted inHealth

Health insurers shun people with health problems

Here's a personal story -- a single vignette out of countless others -- that shows why the United States needs to reform our screwed-up health care system, pronto. Earlier I wrote about how we labored to fill out a lengthy on-line Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon application: a request to change our individual coverage from Plus to Premier, since that seemed to fit our needs better.Yesterday my wife and I got individual letters from Regence. Bottom line: denied. Here's how my letter started out.Thank you for your application requesting a change to your current coverage.After carefully reviewing your health application…
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Posted inEntertainment

Oregon Country Fair photos — the ’60s live on

 Today Laurel and I headed to Veneta for a marvelous counterculture celebration, the 2009 Oregon Country Fair. I wished we had an old VW bus to drive there, but had to settle for our Hybrid Highlander (less cool, but not nearly so prone to break down).We hadn't been to the Fair for about fourteen years. It was good to see that the '60's flower power hippie ambience hadn't changed. Except the original flower children, like us, had aged. But as some of my photos show, we're still youthful at heart. Walking to the fair entrance, we encountered some philosophy: "The…
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Posted inFamily

If divorce screws kids up, what’s wrong with that?

Reading the new issue of TIME magazine last night, I came across an article that says divorce is worse for children than most people believe. Great. Here I am, sixty years old, having been raised by my mother, no contact with my father except some phone calls and a one hour visit shortly before he died, and now it seems that I should be even more screwed-up than I've considered myself to be.Caitlin Flanagan, who must be super well-adjusted since her article starts off by mentioning her parents' 50th wedding anniversary, writes:The reason for these appeals to lasting unions is…
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Posted inSalem

Salem sucks: Trader Joe’s coming to Corvallis!

Reason #437,618 why Salem, Oregon's tribute to boring white bread living, sucks big time: Trader Joe's has chosen to open a store in Corvallis rather than here."It's really about the income of the community and the education level of the community. Those two points are really important in Trader Joe's world for analyzing a site," said Martin, who specializes in retail properties. Corvallis ranked a bit higher than Salem on both points, she said.Salem Mayor Janet Tayor has been lobbying hard to get a Trader Joe's in Salem. Great job, Mayor. Somehow her efforts were useless in convincing the company…
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