Posted inCurrent affairs

Burn the American flag. Why not?

Thank god. Yesterday the Senate rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to ban desecration of the American flag. This has to be one of the stupidest ideas Congress has come up with recently. And that’s saying something. What tempers my enthusiasm for this rare display of congressional common sense is that the amendment failed by only one vote. Sixty-six Senators voted for it, thirty-four voted against it. That’s a disturbing indication of how symbolism is trumping substance in the political arena. If you’re married, take a look at the ring on your left hand. Do you love your wedding ring? Would…
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Posted inSalem

Belly dancing on a hot day

Beautiful girl with a sword: a great combination. God, I love to watch belly dancing. Even on a hot day. Here are some other photos taken yesterday during the Americanistan peformance at the Salem World Beat Festival. I went back to the Festival around noon on Sunday, hoping that I’d find it more upbeat than the desultory late Saturday afternoon vibe. It was. A few degrees of coolness seemed to make a lot of difference to both attendees and performers. These Samoan dancers were wonderfully colorful and enthusiastic. Audience members had just gone out and thrown dollar bills around, which…
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Posted inSalem

Salem World Beat Festival ’06: hot!

This blog reporter can sum up the first day of the 2006 Salem World Beat Festival in one word: hot! I’ll add some additional verbiage, but will let my photos do most of the talking. Longest line was at this booth. Not surprising. By contrast, this booth was deserted. Truthfulness, benevolence, and forebearance isn’t a big draw compared to shave ice. The spinning bunny is at the festival every year. I like his (or her) mellow attitude. Sadly for the main stage performers, Oregonians weenie out when it hits the mid 90s. Colores del Alma played some nice World Beat…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Democrats underwhelm me again

Like I’ve said before, “Politics, my dear, the thrill is gone.” The Democratic and Republican parties are equally skilled at squashing my enthusiasm. I’m much more left-leaning than right. But when the Dems don’t take a stand, how can I line up with them? Today’s vote in the Senate on Democratic proposals for withdrawal from Iraq was a farce. Per usual. Even with Bush’s approval ratings so low, it’s becoming more and more evident that once again the Dems will find a way to snatch defeat from victory in November. The conventional wisdom is that the Democratic Party is indecisive…
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Posted inRecreation

Spring on the Metolius

Yes, it’s one day away from being summer. But spring is in full bloom on the Metolius River in central Oregon, since warm weather arrives later in these parts. Here are some photos I took on a late afternoon walk along the Metolius’ upper stretches today. For some reason I never get bored walking the dog while we’re in Camp Sherman. Here’s a natural bridge over untroubled waters. The wild roses look just like those at our Salem home, though in bloom much later. Lounging on the Metolius, TV not needed. Abstract wood sculpture. Artist: Nature. Water pump and the…
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Posted inFamily

A fabulous Father’s Day present

It was worth being woken up from my Sunday nap to get a terrific Father’s Day present: a phone call from my daughter, Celeste. Our connection was all the way from urban hip Hollywood, California to rural laidback Camp Sherman, Oregon. Today I felt that I’d earned a nap after rousing myself enough to take my bike into Sisters and get a flat tire fixed. After talking with Celeste I felt like I needed another nap. Listening to her passionate 34-year old plans for the future with my lethargic 57-year old psyche was a vicarious energy drain. And also, hugely…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Humor

Panexa. Ask your doctor for a reason to take it.

I’ve got to get me a prescription for Panexa. It should only be taken by patients experiencing one of the following disorders: metabolism, binocular vision, digestion (solid and liquid), circulation, menstruation, cognition, osculation, extremes of emotion. I qualify! And I’m not going to worry about the small percentage of squirrels who take Panexa and suffer from Excessively Floppy Tail Syndrome (EFTS). On the human front, the Panexa web site reassures me about the drug’s side effects: Most patients (2%) tolerate treatment with PANEXA well, especially when compared with prisoners of war of comparable size and weight. However, like all drugs,…
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Posted inHumor

Microsoft is my inscrutable Zen master

In a desperate attempt to make lemonade out of the Windows lemon, I’ve decided to look upon Microsoft as my Zen master. Perhaps I will be able to attain satori through my frustrating struggle with the baffling enigmas of Windows XP in much the same fashion as Hui-K’O cut off his left hand in his search for the Way. That is, the psychological maiming that my Microsoft Zen master makes me endure may be the prelude to recognizing the futility of human logic in seeking the ultimate. Which for me, in computer terms, would be to have an operating system…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Presidents of Iran and U.S. both believe in apocalypse

Oh, great. We’re screwed. The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is aiming for apocalypse. And there’s good reason to believe that George Bush has an Armageddon obsession. This confluence of insane Islamic and Christian fundamentalism is going to make for some interesting foreign policy, and, if the crazies are to be believed, even more interesting theological battles. For a recent U.S. News & World Report article says that Ahmadinejad’s “Twelver Shiism” anticipates a Last Days that is quite different from the Christian version: This tradition holds that there were 12 legitimate successors (imams) to the prophet Muhammad, the last of…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Oregon Cougar Plan starts needless killing

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission is hard at work spending taxpayer money on a nonexistent problem. Contract employees using hounds will be used to kill 66 cougars in three areas. These 66 cougars aren’t problem cougars. They’re just plain cougars. They haven’t been caught killing livestock or otherwise causing a nuisance to humans. In its idiocy, the Fish and Wildlife Commission came up with a cougar management plan that doesn’t seek to control problem cougars, but rather kills the animals en masse in areas where cougar complaints and purported cougar predation exceed 1994 levels. Gosh, what a great concept.…
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Posted inSalem

Fred Meyer’s “Family Friendly” check out lane

Yesterday I noticed that the south Salem Fred Meyer store had added a Family Friendly check out lane. Since I was by myself, and one does not make a family, I passed it by. I’m a stickler for check out rules. Always count the items in my cart before I turn into “Ten Items or Less.” I asked my cashier if what made the Family Friendly lane so FF was the absence of tabloids and magazines like the “National Enquirer” and “Cosmopolitan.” “Yes,” she said. She assured me that I could use the lane even if I didn’t have a…
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Posted inMiscellany

Lenovo’s unfair ThinkPad rebate game

[June 15 update: I just heard from Denise, the Lenovo customer service representative who has been considering my complaint. She agreed to send me $200, the amount of the rebate that I would have gotten if I'd bought my Z60m ThinkPad in June rather than May. That's great. I still believe I'm entitled to $250 but justice has been mostly served. Thank you, Lenovo. I still like the computer a lot. The IBM/Lenovo software and security package is excellent. Driver and other updates happen with a click of a button, and the built-in backup system is transparent and easy to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

As Oregon strawberries go, so the state

Oregon strawberries are special. Research has proven that they’re sweeter, redder, and simply better. But they’re on the decline. Just like our state. Like a canary in a coal mine, the Oregon strawberry reflects the health of our previously vaunted livability. I’ve been doing my best to keep Oregon strawberry growers in business. Almost every day I buy a carton or two from Roth’s Sunnyslope Market in south Salem, which admirably sells quite a bit of local produce. It isn’t hard to decide between the delicious Oregon variety and the tasteless (by comparison) California berries. The latter travel better, so…
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Posted inHome life

I’m busted for bare feet

[Update, June 22: I'm pleased to report that I've received a bare foot pardon from the Courthouse Athletic Club. The River Road location, at least. Gary, the manager, says that it is OK to be shoeless in the corner of the weight room where I like to do my Tai Chi and Yoga thing. Thanks, Gary. I ordered some lightweight kung fu shoes before I got the news, though, and may end up wearing them at the club. Regardless, it's nice to have the bare feet option. I appreciate the support I received via comments from the bare foot community,…
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Posted inSustainability

Treasury secretary nominee favors Kyoto Treaty

George Bush seems to be warming up to the reality of global warming. Henry Paulson, his nominee for Treasury Secretary, is a supporter of the Kyoto Treaty and an avid environmentalist. My head is reeling. Could it really be true that Bush has converted to fact-based, rather than faith-based, policy making? If so, the foundations of my Bush-bashing world will be shaken. I’ll be finding good things to say about a President who, up until now, has blundered along from faulty gut instinct to faulty gut instinct. I worry that this is an aberration though. Physics tells us that the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Bush’s upside down Memorial Day

I’ve never flown the American flag on Memorial Day. I’m certainly not going to start now, because George Bush’s misguided policies have turned this day of remembrance upside down. If I were to fly a flag, it’d have to be flown the same way, just as it was back in the Vietnam War protest days. I used to be proud that American men and women died so we could preserve our freedoms. Now I’m not proud that our freedoms are being taken away so, supposedly, we won’t die. That’s not the American way. That’s the cowardly way. The Bush administration…
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Posted inPhilosophy Tango/Dance

I’m learning to Tango with life

I got sent to remedial Tango class last Monday night. The guest instructor, Carlos Rojas, observed me dancing with my wife for a while. Then he walked over and said, “You’re not letting her finish her steps. You’re going to dance with Jodi now. Every time you interrupt her moves, she’s going to stop.” Jodi is Carlos’ tall, slim, charming, attractive, and highly skilled dance partner. With a teacher like that, I didn’t mind getting some remedial instruction. We started dancing. Then she stopped. We started again. We stopped again. Eventually I began to understand what I was doing wrong.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Bush’s immigration plan is one big photo-op

Here’s why I’m disgusted with George Bush in general, and his immigration reform plan in specific. From the May 1 issue of TIME magazine, in an article about how the White House hopes to hold on to control of Congress by preaching to the right-wing faithful: Deploy guns and badges. This is an unabashed play to members of the conservative base who are worried about illegal immigration. Under the banner of homeland security, the White House plans to seek more funding for an extremely visible enforcement crackdown at the Mexican border, including a beefed up force of agents patrolling on…
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Posted inEntertainment

Toughest Jack, Bauer or Reacher?

It’s a difficult question. Between Jack Bauer and Jack Reacher, who is the toughest tough guy? I’ve been tossing the two of them around in my mind, trying to decide who’d come out on top. The wisest answer would be: it depends. You don’t want to piss either of these guys off. I know, because I’m a huge fan of both the Fox series “24,” where Bauer does whatever the hell he feels like, Counter Terrorism Unit bureaucracy be damned, and the Lee Child novels, where Reacher, an ex-military policeman and drifter, similarly operates both inside and outside the law…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Iraq and self-licking ice cream cones

A few days ago Laurel and I spent an interesting evening with someone who had just come back from a tour of duty in Iraq. He told it like it is: awful. He was asked, “Often it’s said that the media just reports the bad stuff that’s going on in Iraq. Do you think that’s true?” His response: “Actually, the situation is a lot worse than the media is reporting.” He had nothing good to say about the Bush administration’s failed war policies. This is from a guy who had his boots on the ground. He quoted an officer who…
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