Posted inCurrent affairs

“Extraordinary” rendition: it sure is

Suppose this happened to you, an American citizen. Your plane lands at the Montreal airport and Canadian officials hold you without charges. They don’t let you talk to a lawyer, then ship you off to another country to be tortured. After ten months you’re released without any charges being filed. Oops. Guess we made a mistake, says Canada. Sorry for all the torture. Hope there’s no hard feelings. Well, there should be. And in Maher Arar’s case, there are. For this is just what happened to him. Except, he holds joint Canadian/Syrian citizenship and it was American officials who seized…
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Posted inEntertainment

“Weeds” is a great Showtime high

We watched the first episode of “Weeds” last night on Showtime. It’s about a suburban mother who sells marijuana in the neighborhood to support herself after her husband died. Weeds is hard to categorize: comedy, drama, dark comedy, light drama? That’s a big part of why I’m confident the show will continue to be so enjoyable. Like other pay cable series such as “The Sopranos” and “Six Feet Under,” “Weeds” takes its own unique creative path apart from the usual boring broadcast crap. I knew I was going to like Weeds as soon as the first bars of a long-forgotten…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregon Democrats need to get tougher

I’m getting tired of reading stories like this: “Most House E-Board picks are from GOP: The ratio is 7 to 2; in Senate, Democrats get 5 of 8 members.” Good lord. Karen Minnis is speaker of the House, where her Republicans comprise 55% of the House members (33/60). Her blatantly lopsided appointments to the Emergency Board, which is a mini-legislature in between Oregon’s biennial sessions, were 78% Republican (7/9). Peter Courtney is president of the Senate, where his Democrats comprise 60% of the Senate members (18/30). His eminently fair appointments to the Emergency Board were 63% Democrat (5/8). So once…
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Posted inDogs Salem

Images of the 2005 Salem Dog Parade

Caution: if your heart palpitates at the sight of cute dogs, do not look at any more of this post without a cardiologist’s permission. But if you’re feeling adventurous, here’s some photos that I took yesterday at downtown Salem’s “Dog Days of Summer” First Wednesday celebration. Our dog, Serena, took part in the dog parade along with lots of other canines. The parade formed on State Street next to Jonathan’s Oyster Bar. These cute puppies got lots of attention from some equally cute girls. This golden retriever, Jake Beebe, got the award for best costume, masquerading as a black cat.…
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Posted inPhilosophy Salem

Faithless Universist group started in Salem

Christians are going too far when they start banning good-hearted atheists, agnostics, and other questioners from coffee houses. That’s outrageous. Why, you’ll have to pry my grande latte from my cold dead hand—and my copy of the Bhagavad Gita from my other one. When I heard about this discrimination against the faithless via a Universist email, I was inspired to sign up today as a Salem (Oregon) sponsor of a Universism discussion group. So far I’m the only member. But I just started the group this afternoon and I’m pretty sure I can talk my wife into joining, which will…
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Posted inMeasure 37

Kulongoski caves in on Measure 37

Laurel and I were appalled to read in yesterday's Oregonian that Gov. Kulongoski is on the side of those who want to completely dismantle our state's pioneering land use laws. Kulongoski has aligned himself with Oregonians in Action, ignoring the advice of 1000 Friends of Oregon that it is better to do nothing about Measure 37 this legislative session rather than making an already bad law worse. Senate Bill 1037 would allow transfers of new development rights when Measure 37 claimants sell their land. Measure 37 was supposedly about letting people build a single home on their beloved acreage, not…
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Posted inHome life

I survive giving blood

I surrendered my blood-giving virginity last Monday at the Courthouse Athletic Club here in Salem. Somehow I’d managed to get well into my fifth decade without donating blood. And I would have kept my record going if it weren’t for a misunderstanding that made me appear to be more selfless than I really am. I was lifting weights on a Nautilus machine when a youthful, attractive, perky female athletic club employee (is there any other kind?) approached me with a clipboard in hand. “Would you be interested in donating to support the Courthouse blood drive?” she asked. My mind zeroed…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Starving children. Who gives a damn?

Two days ago ABC’s Nightline was about the crisis in the central African nation of Niger, where several million people are in danger of starvation—including 800,000 children. I didn’t want to watch the program when it first ran. I didn’t want to see the faces of dying children. Last night I did. I forced myself to watch the recorded episode, which centered on video reports by the BBC’s Hillary Anderson. I saw starving children covered in sores, too weak to move or even drink water. I saw a family cooking a rat, their only meal of the day; the image…
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Posted inFamily

My daughter buys a Hollywood house

If you think that it’s expensive to buy a home in Oregon, particularly in Portland and Bend, take a look at the listing for the Hollywood house that my daughter, Celeste, and her husband are in the process of buying. $849,000. Two bedrooms, two baths. 1300 sf. Built in 1922. Whew! And they’re happy to have found it. As they should be. It’s a cute house, nicely redecorated by the current owners. It’s just hard for me to get my head around the idea that this Hollywood house is selling for quite a bit more than double the assessed value…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Philosophy

We’re all jihadists

Over on the Church of the Churchless today I wrote about how “We all believe in jihad.” I had intended to rant here about how outrageous it is that Karen Minnis and the Oregon House Republicans are hijacking the political process by not allowing important bills like SB 1000 to come up for a vote. I guess I did a bit of that just now: ranting. But just a bit. For when I looked into my Karen Minnis-hating heart and realized how, in my darker moments, my fantasies about what should happen to right-wing ideologues were growing uncomfortably jihadish, I…
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Posted inDogs

Our dog’s play date

Serena didn’t have to find this cute boy Basset Hound through an online service like Dog Play Date. No, she picked Sam up the old-fashioned way while on a walk with Laurel and brought him home. We were pretty sure unattached Sam belonged to a neighbor. But nobody answered the phone when we called them, so Sam and Serena had time to get better acquainted in the dog yard. Laurel and I chaperoned their first date. They started off with some dancing. Then had their first kiss. After that, things started to heat up pretty fast. The sexual tension was…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Images of Basic Rights Oregon SB 1000 rally

Yesterday, after my Tai Chi class in downtown Salem, I walked a few blocks down Court Street to the Basic Rights Oregon rally on the steps of the Capitol. Laurel came directly from home and caught up with me on the sidewalk, matchingly dressed for the occasion, per usual. I’d told her that pre-rally info had suggested wearing the official SB 1000 t-shirt or other light blue attire. I stuck with basic black, figuring black goes with anything. A basic message at the rally. Who can disagree? Well, apparently the unloving Republican House Speaker Karen Minnis, who is refusing to…
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Posted inSustainability

Toyota Highlander Hybrid not so green

Well, let me qualify that statement: the just-out 2006 Highlander Hybrid SUV is plenty green, for you need an awful lot of the green stuff to buy it. I asked for a price quote from the Internet sales force at our local Toyota dealer and got this reply: “A 2006 Toyota Gas/Electric Hybrid Highlander V6 4WD Limited with FE (federal emissions), NV (navigation), CF (floor mats/cargo mat set) and all of the great standard features...Your Capitol Auto Group Internet Price $ 44,049! The Limited Hybrid Highlander can also be ordered without Navigation for $2,000 less.” Stylistically critiquing this message, I…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Universist talks with Lars Larson soon

At 4 pm PST (in a few minutes, that is) word is that a Universist representative will be on the (ugh!) national Lars Larson show. I just got an email from the Universists telling me that this appearance has been moved up to today instead of tomorrow because of Bush's forthcoming Supreme Court nominee announcement. More info is on the Universist website, including how to listen to the show on the Internet. Locally, you can listen on KXL 750 (just don't make it a habit--normally I can't stand Lars' right-wing rantings, but I'll be interested to hear him speak with…
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Posted inEntertainment

Nike’s Tiger Woods golf commercial

Watching the British Open last weekend, I was both transfixed and confused by Nike's golf commercial that shows Tiger Woods as a young boy, winning at St. Andrews. I have to agree with my friend Randy, who says on his blog that this is the best golf commercial ever. Also, the most perplexing--unless you know the secret. How the heck did little Tiger Woods get filmed at St. Andrews? I didn't really believe that he won the British Open at age 5, but the commercial sure makes it seem like he did. The secret to the mystery is revealed by…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

My view of the 2005 Salem Art Fair

Yesterday Laurel and I went to the always-wonderful Salem Art Fair & Festival in Bush Park. It’s fairing through the weekend, closing Sunday at 6, so if you live around here, don’t miss it. Per usual, most of the time my view of the fair looked like this. And, for variety, this. Then, for a real change of scenery, I got to watch Laurel buy a jacket instead of earrings. My artistic goal this year was to buy a coffee cup. I found that there are many more artists who sell earrings and women’s clothes than coffee cups. I finally…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Lars Larson tells half the story (again)

Portland’s right-wing talk show host Lars Larson is notorious for spinning half-truths. And that’s on one of his good days. Usually he’s only able to reach the quarter-truth level, or less. Last month I heard Lars railing on about how an Astoria boy supposedly was attacked by a cougar. If those damn tree-hugging, gun-hating, cougar-loving liberals have their way, he frothed, cougars are going to be killing Oregonians like flies. Not likely. As I’ve noted before, a cougar never has attacked a human in Oregon. And I’m pretty confident that no cougar attacked the Astoria boy, Drew Weil, either. The…
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Posted inDogs

Blow-drying dog paws

You might think that we have reached a new level of pet pampering, given our new habit of blow-drying Serena’s paws several times a day. She does seem to like it. And we do pamper her. But we’re doing this on the advice of her vet, for on three paws she has some sort of bacterial infection —that first appeared to be a fungus among us (ah, it feels good to write those words; I don’t get to use that wonderful term often enough). We’re reluctant to give her antibiotics, so are trying to clear up the problem by reducing…
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