Posted inHome life

I become a fearsome (ground squirrel) killer

Hopefully the California ground squirrels who have been driving us nutty have an Internet connection and read my blog. Because if they do, they'll realize that this mild-mannered PETA-applauding animal-loving long-time vegetarian has been driven over the "aren't they cute?" edge into a kill the bastards! dark hole. Squirrels, notice: I am not smiling. This is a photo of a non-natural born killer who has been reluctant to send your furry little souls to squirrel heaven, but was driven to this extreme by all the destructive digging you've been doing around the foundation of our house and garage.Yesterday, thanks to…
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Posted inMiscellany

A good day’s digging in the Internet mother lode

Some days I turn up more interesting Internet riches than others. Today was one of those days.-- San Franciso Chronicle columnist Mark Morford runs hot and cold for me. But his writing style always is entertaining. I loved his tale of visiting a Vegas bar and coming to see lions and lionesses rather than a Dude and his mini-skirted admirers.And there he is, the big male lion, strong and haggard and terrible, watching over his pride of lionesses and sniffing the air for potential adversaries who might dare threaten his leadership position, take his women and gobble up his portion…
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Posted inDogs

Most boring You Tube video ever? Not to chipmunks.

Everyone wants to be known for something. I'm hoping that my new You Tube video, "Dog stalking chipmunk," will become anti-viral. (see video below, after these explanatory remarks) Meaning, anyone with an adorable cat can make a You Tube production that will garner millions of views. To be exact, 4,502,374 (until you click on "adorable cat" and add to the count). But it takes a special dog, and owner, to make a five minute video that, depending on your sensibilities, is either (1) the most boring ever, or (2) a Zen-like exploration of the dynamics of motionlessness. Immediately after uploading…
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Posted inScootering

Riding a scooter or motorcycle is good for your health

Now, so far the title of this blog post doesn't find much support on the Internet, judging from a comprehensive two-minute Google search that I just performed.But I wanted to be one of the first -- heck, maybe the absolute first! -- to point out the undeniable health benefits of riding a scooter or motorcycle. By "undeniable," naturally I mean my personal opinion -- par for the course in the blogging world.I will, however, back up that claim with some solid evidence from a trustworthy source, TIME magazine. Here's what I read in the August 17, 2009 issue, in an…
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Posted inFamily

I have a “what are the chances…” moment

Being philosophically minded, I wonder whether what are the chances... means what we think it does. A few days ago I met someone who made me exclaim, "No way! This is unbelievable."But believe it I did, because I was experiencing it. So what are the chances? Well, after something happens, it is obviously 100%. Before Tuesday, though, I wouldn't have bet that I'd ever have the conversation I did.A couple of guys from the water treatment company we use, Pacific Mist, came out to check the complicated system in our garage: Jeff, plus his 87 year old father, James. They…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregonian front page ad is disgusting!

There are plenty of outrages in the world for me to be incensed about. But today I choose to focus my disgust on Oregon's largest newspaper, the Portland Oregonian -- to which we subscribe, though we live in the wilds of rural south Salem. The past two days I've walked up our driveway to get the paper and have been met with an infuriating sight when I take a look at the front page.What doesn't boil over? I want to know! Now! I'm holding two newspapers in my hands, the Oregonian and the Salem Statesman Journal. I haven't had a…
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Posted inSalem

Marion County sheriff reveals affair. So what?

This doesn't feel right. Like so much else that goes on in the unduly uptight and moralistic United States. Even pleasantly looser Oregon.The Marion County sheriff, Russ Isham, has admitted to an affair. He also has submitted his resignation. Why? The investigation determined that there was substantial evidence to support a charge of misconduct — a misdemeanor — based on the sheriff’s efforts to hide a personal impropriety, Green told the Statesman Journal."If convicted of this misdemeanor, a defendant likely would receive probation with time in jail," Green said. "There is no evidence the sheriff used his position for personal financial…
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Posted inSalem

Salem’s fenced-in 2009 “Summer in the City”

Yesterday I hopped on my beloved Suzuki Burgman scooter and two-wheeled to downtown Salem, wanting to check out the 2009 Summer in the City vibe. I'd read in the paper that Pepe and the Bottle Blondes were playing on one of the pavilion stages at 2 pm. And also that this year it was going to cost $7.50 to get in. But in to what? I was curious.Because this music and wine festival was being held on a couple of blocked-off streets. I guess my progressive politics has a libertarian side, because I wondered how it'd be possible to charge…
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Posted inScootering

I’m proud of my mid-life crisis

Being analytically-minded, before deciding on the title to this post I needed to figure out if "mid-life" defined my crisis, since I'm 60.Ever since I got my Suzuki Burgman 650 Executive scooter, I've been pre-emptively telling people, "Yes, it's an end-of-life crisis purchase. The scooter is either going to bring a lot of joy to my increasingly aged life, or end it prematurely. Could be both, I suppose."However, yesterday my wife said mid-life crisis when, in tidying up the house for a get-together this evening, she picked up an article about surfing on the Oregon coast that I'd torn out…
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Posted inScootering

Clearview shield + Burgman 650 = (more) scooter joy

Good things are worth waiting for. Yesterday the Clearview shield that I'd ordered in June to replace the stock Burgman 650 Executive shield arrived. (Orders have been so heavy, the wait time was long.) Soon I had the old shield off and the Clearview installed. Which testifies to the product's quality and the clarity of the instructions, because in no way can I be called a mechanically proficient guy.I got both of the Burgman 650 Clearview options: light grey tint and adjustable vent. In the photo you can see that the tint is pretty minor -- mild darkening of the…
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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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