Posted inCurrent affairs Entertainment

West Point dean condemns “24” torture scenes

Even though I'm a progressive, I love "24." Torture away, Jack, I'll say to myself as my man, counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer, shoots a bad guy in the knee and screams Talk! But now I'm looking at the show in a new light. The dean of West Point says that "24" isn't just entertainment. It's taken as real by our soldiers around the world. And that's hurting the American military. In a fascinating The New Yorker article, "Whatever it takes, Jane Mayer writes: This past November, U.S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, the dean of the United States Military Academy…
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Posted inScience

George Taylor is a loser, not a winner

I couldn't agree more with a beautifully written and thoughtfully argued letter in today's Salem Statesman Journal, "Climate theory not a winner." The fact that I wrote it just adds self-centered luster to this shining rebuttal of the newspaper's ill-considered awarding of a Weekly Winner prize to an OSU climatologist, George Taylor. In my first three sentences, I establish the foundation for demolishing this editorial travesty: On Friday, Feb. 9, George Taylor was a Statesman Journal "winner" for challenging the conventional science about global warming. I assume the editorial board will next applaud those who still believe the Earth is…
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Posted inNeighborhood

The sorrow of sowing invasive deer food

Laurel likes deer. She also dislikes barren slopes filled with dead, decaying blackberry vines. So last year this combined like and dislike led her to sow deer food on part of our property. Fortunately, not a large part. Big enough, though, for us to spend much of yesterday and today pulling up the damn stuff. Laurel thought that it would only come up once. Since this vegetation, a "deer greens" blend of brassica and purple top turnip, isn't very attractive, that was the hope when it sprouted and grew rapidly. The deer liked it. We didn't, so hoped that it'd…
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Posted inScience

Climate models undermine global warming skeptics

Along with the usual blather I hear on right-wing talk shows, there's a fresh falsity being spread over the airwaves: computer climate models are unsophisticated attempts to mirror changes in the Earth's weather and shouldn't be trusted. This isn't true. So don't believe global warming skeptics like George Taylor, who isn't Oregon's state climatologist but likes to pretend that he is. I heard Taylor spout his uninformed criticisms of climate models on KPAM's Victoria Taft show. Since those models show both that global climate change is going to be an increasingly serious problem, and that humans are responsible for a…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

OSU stiffs Kulongoski on “state climatologist” title request

A week ago Oregon's governor, Ted Kulongoski, made a reasonable request of Oregon State University: stop calling George Taylor the state climatologist, since no such position exists. Taylor uses that title because he took over many of the duties the actual state climatologist used to perform before the position was abolished. That's like saying you're married to a divorced woman because you're living with her and otherwise filling the role of the spouse she used to have. Legally, you're not. In the eyes of the world, you're not. But OSU won't relinquish the fiction that George Taylor speaks for the…
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Posted inWriting/Weblogs

Bloggers, you’ll love Word 2007

Oh, my god, I'm in love. At first blog post. I just installed Word 2007, which I bought at Amazon for a reasonable $90 (upgrade price). Right away I wanted to see if the blog publishing feature worked as promised. It did. Appropriately, my first Word 2007 post was about Shakira's "Hips don't lie" Grammy performance last night. She's beautiful. So is Word's new blogging capability. I write my posts in Word. I don't like to use TypePad's online editor. One glitch and all your writing can disappear. Plus, I like to have a backup of posts on my laptop.…
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Posted inUncategorized

Shakira shakes at 2007 Grammys

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.
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Relax, right-wingers: George Taylor isn’t being fired

When the person who calls himself the Oregon state climatologist is compared to Galileo, it’s obvious that right-wing paranoia has gone over the edge. The headline of today’s Oregonian story (“To governor, Oregon has no ‘climatologist’”) might lead conservative conspiracy theorists to believe that Gov. Kulongoski has ordered George Taylor to disappear into the dungeon where he keeps state employees who disagree with his policy on global warming. Actually, the truth is much milder. Kulongoski wants Taylor to stop using the title of “state climatologist” because there is no such position in state government. That’s a fact. George Taylor isn’t…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Facts about George Taylor and the “state climatologist”

Here, finally, are some solid facts about the Oregon state climatologist position that supposedly is occupied by George Taylor, who minimizes both global warming and the impact humans are having on global climate change. For well over a week I’ve been waiting for answers from the Oregon State University (OSU) News and Communication Office to my questions about Taylor and the “state climatologist” title that he holds. Patience pays off. I just got a couple of emails from Mark Floyd. At the end of this post you’ll find, verbatim, the first message he sent me. After I read it, I…
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Posted inMeasure 37

Measure 37 shouldn’t be a guarantee to get rich

It’s often said that Measure 37 pits neighbor against neighbor. True. But this ill-considered effort to trash Oregon’s land use laws also pits testifier against testifier. I learned that yesterday afternoon as I fought my way through a crowd of people trying to sign up to speak before the Joint Committee on Land Use Fairness. Fortunately, I found myself standing behind a diminutive friend, Frances Chapple, who makes up in assertiveness what she lacks in stature. She helped clear the way for me to the sign up sheet. I got on the first page and waited for my two minutes…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Leave God out of the Super Bowl

Before I write this post, I want to thank the holy Tao for inspiring me. There’s nothing of me in what I’m about to say—it’s all Tao. Without you, the everlasting source of my yin-ness and yang-ness, I wouldn’t have been able to blog about God and the Super Bowl. If you like this sort of praise be! sentimentality, you must have loved how the Indianapolis Colts’ coach and owner brought God into their post-game remarks. Driving around tonight I heard right-wing talk show host John Gibson ranting about the progressives’ distaste for such God talk. Gibson claimed that the…
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Posted inHome life

Death on a power pole

You just never know what the day will bring. Especially if you’re a squirrel. Who must have heard our front door open,and sensed a dog begin to come out. Who made a fatal choice: to run up a power pole instead of an oak tree. Life. Death. Not much separates them. One moment you’re frisky and bushy-tailed. The next instant you’re popping, crackling, and smoking on top of a power pole. Flaming too. Or maybe it was the pole that was briefly on fire. Regardless, it was exciting enough to warrant calling 911. I was told that if a power…
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Posted inScience

Oregon’s state climatologist flunks Climate Change 101

You’d think that someone called the “state climatologist” would understand basic facts about climate. But George Taylor isn’t big on facts. He doesn’t believe that humans are having a significant effect on global climate change, which puts him at odds with the world’s experts who just said otherwise. Of course, I’m sure there are a few biologists here and there who don’t believe in evolution. Hopefully none of them have the title of “state biologist.” If any do, I’m embarrassed for that state. Just as I’m embarrassed that George Taylor has the title of state climatologist in Oregon. Taylor has…
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Posted inMeasure 37 Neighborhood

Measure 37 fight gets us on the 11 o’clock news

Whew. After being relegated five times to the early KATU news programs, our fight against a Measure 37 subdivision finally made the prestigious 11 o’clock program last night. Thank you, Channel 2. Love you. (Though my “Local Portland news focused on fluff and crime” post still holds, notwithstanding the 1:45 devoted to our serious story). Here’s the YouTubed news clip of the Marion County Planning Commission decision on the 217 acre subdivision application. Note my concentrated focus on the camcorder with which I videoed the proceedings. It’s healthy for public officials to know that their deliberations and decisions might appear…
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Posted inScience Sustainability

So-called “climatologist” George Taylor has to go

George Taylor is a embarrassment to Oregon. He passes himself off as the official state climatologist even though Oregon doesn’t have such a position. Today an article in the Oregonian (“Experts square off over climate change”) quoted Governor Kulongoski: "He's not the state climatologist," the governor said. "I never appointed him. I think I would know.” Apparently Oregon State University’s College of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences gave Taylor this title, because the Oregonian story says that the position of state climatologist was dissolved by the legislature in 1989. Regardless, Taylor loves to spout off about how humans really aren’t a…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Local Portland news fixated on fluff and crime

The old adage, “if it bleeds, it leads” sure holds true for local late night television news. On Blue Oregon, Kari Chishom lamented a KOIN (channel 6) focus on crime, fear, misery, and death. Following in Kari’s eyeballs, I analyzed last night’s 11 o’clock news on KATU (channel 2) and found that those thirty-two minutes also were remarkably devoid of substantive stories. Here’s how the program panned out (times are somewhat rough as they were estimated by using my digital video recorder’s 30-second forward and 10-second back buttons): Total 32:00 (thirty two minutes: zero seconds) Ads and ”still to come”…
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Posted inHealth

Avodart reduces my bathroom visits

Here’s one of the crucial questions facing a blogger: “Does anyone besides me care about how often I pee?” Well, how will I know unless I blog about it? And, if you don’t care, stop reading. I suspect, though, that quite a few men of a certain age will find my subject fascinating. For 50% of men over the age of 50 are said to have an enlarged prostate (90% over 80). In my “Female doctors do it better” post I noted that a prostate exam is the only time you don’t want to hear from a female who is…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

George Bush is so irrelevant, he’s not even wrong

Yawn. It’s almost time for Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address. If there isn’t any paint I can watch drying, maybe I’ll turn on the TV for some lesser excitement. Through six years of hard work mastering incompetency, Bush has attained the ultimate irrelevant state: not even wrong. When I look at him now, I don’t feel the indignation, anger, and irritation that used to arise from a contemplation of his visage. He’s become a cartoon character, a “What, me worry?” caricature. Bush is so out of touch with reality there’s little reason to pay attention to anything he…
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Posted inEntertainment

“24” and Jack Bauer more progressive now

What a difference a year makes. On both the national political scene and the hit Fox television series “24,” a progressive-friendly outlook is kicking the neocon ass. Now it’s a lot easier for me to admit my love affair with Jack Bauer (in the finest tough guy heterosexual fashion, naturally). Exactly twelve months ago I felt the need to explain how a compassionate progressive such as myself could be so attracted to a counter-terrorism agent whose interrogation techniques—breaking bones, electric shock, bullet in the knee—wouldn’t pass muster with the ACLU (to put it mildly). But as James Poniewozik pointed out…
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Posted inMeasure 37 Neighborhood

How to fix Measure 37

Measure 37 has made a mess of Oregon’s land use laws. That’s undisputed. My state now has a crazily complex patchwork of land use time zones, each governed by a different set of rules based on when the owner acquired the property. This is no way to run a society. It’s unfair, inefficient, damaging, and divisive. The governor says that we need to fix Measure 37. Legislative leaders say that we need to fix Measure 37. So let’s get ‘er done. Or git-r-done. I don’t care which, so long as it’s done. My wife and I are fully acquainted with…
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