Posted inCurrent affairs

Just do it: read Steven Brill’s TIME expose of medical costs

It took me two nights of bathtub reading to get through the 26,000 words of Steven Brill's masterful cover story in TIME magazine: "Why Medical Bills are Killing Us." It was time with TIME well spent. Do it. If you haven't already. Read the story. You'll never look upon the health care system in the same way again. Most likely in this way: If you aren't already convinced that hospitals (both non-profit and for-profit), drug companies, and medical device manufacturers aren't dedicated to screwing over the American public, Brill's expose will make you scream: You bastards!  If you were already convinced,…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

David Withnell omits facts about protest at Dodge dealership

A few days ago I saw some guys holding a banner on the sidewalk in front of Salem's Withnell Dodge dealership on Commercial Street. Couldn't read the banner as I drove past. I figured it was some sort of advertising for the dealership. Nope. It was a protest by the Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters. I learned this via a February 27 letter to the editor in the Statesman Journal from David Withnell. On Jan. 23, 2013, I showed up for work to find three people in front of my Dodge dealership with a 50-foot banner stating, “Shame on Withnell…
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Posted inSalem

Oh, no! Medical care facility planned for Salem’s riverfront.

How many ways can Salem, Oregon depress me? More than this resident of 35 years can imagine, even after all that time.  I'd never imagined that a giant white "Ross Dress for Less" sign would uglify the brickwork on Salem Center, greeting downtown visitors coming across the Center Street bridge with Welcome to Tackiness Land.  Yet what I never imagined has come true. And when plans for the industrial wasteland on the riverfront just south of downtown that used to be a Boise Cascade plant were first revealed, I never imagined that what was billed as a wonderful "mixed use"…
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Posted inEntertainment

Michelle Obama shows off “Evolution of Mom” moves

It's been a good show business week for the First Lady. Last night she announced the Oscar for Best Picture via satellite from the White House. I thought she did a better job than many of the "real" presenters, including a curiously distracted Kristen Stewart. (In Stewart's defense, she arrived on crutches, so probably was in pain while onstage.) Earlier, on Friday, Obama rocked some dance moves with a cross-dressing Jimmy Fallon on his show. I'm sure happy her husband beat Mitt Romney. Could Ann Romney have pulled off what Michelle Obama did?  Watch and marvel at some damn good dancing.…
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Posted inSalem

Ross Dress for Less sign in downtown Salem is an abomination

Usually I shun the word "abomination." Sounds too Old Testament'y. As in fornication outside of wedlock is an abomination.  Not true. But here's a genuine abomination: the Ross Dress for Less sign that was recently installed on Salem Center brickwork.  Walking up Liberty Street, this is the garish sight that meets your eyes as you reach Center Street. A disgusting large white sign that is way larger than the moderately attractive Salem Center sign above it. The sign clashes with everything around it. Including the red brickwork. Approaching downtown Salem from the Center Street bridge, the abomination is doubly abdominable…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Clackamas County’s strange rail phobia

Don't know if this condition is an official psychiatric diagnosis, but lots of people in Clackamas County (Oregon) sure seem to have it: an irrational fear of trains.  Secondary related symptom: an irrational fear of highway transportation congestion caused in part by a lack of trains. Such is the strangeness of thought disorders. This one just happens to have manifested in a majority of those voting in recent Clackamas County elections, along with a majority of county commissioners.  Watching the malady manifest from Salem, a southward rail-lacking point where we'd love to have light rail to Portland and high speed…
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Posted inSalem

Willamette Week reports status of Oregon weed scene

Nice overview in alternative newspaper Willamette Week of how marijuana is getting more and more mainstream in oh-so-green Oregon. (Thanks to Jack Bogdanski for cluing me in to the stories via a blog post, since it's tough to find copies of WW down here in not-cool Salem.) I found "You're Not High in Portland Until... 28 things to do when stoned in Stumptown" particularly entertaining. Someday I hope the reporter will write a similar piece about Salem. Likely it wouldn't take too long. If he or she gets to 3 things to do, I'd be amazed. Ride Riverfront Carousel... stare…
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Posted inHome life

How to check out a possible Craigslist scam

Yesterday my wife was thrilled to get a quick response to our Craigslist "for sale" posting of a UV sterilizer for a pond. When she showed it to me, I thought Scam! I'd seen suspicious responses like this before, when I'd listed my scooter for sale. Hello! let's do like this, actually now I'm not in town for now, I came to visit my son so i wont be able to meet with you but am ok with it and let me know the last price ok, I'll proceed in issuing a Check out to you and when you received the check , I will…
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Posted inSalem

Salem’s riverfront development looking better, but not great

If you're a Salem, Oregon area resident who isn't regularly reading the Breakfast on Bikes blog, you should be! It's not really about bicycling, though it partly is. Many, if not most, of the posts are focused on how our sometimes-fair city needs to improve alternative transportation and mixed use options. Today's blog offering is an excellent overview of what's happening (and what isn't) with the re-development of the old Boise Cascade industrial property along Salem's riverfront: "Proposed Apartments for Boise Site Turn Backs on Park." I agree with the overall conclusion.  It's great news that things are heating up…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

Kaufmann crushes Marquis in KGW marijuana debate

Sure, I'm biased. I want marijuana to be legalized in Oregon. This made good sense before Washington, our neighbor to the north, made pot legal last November. Now, it makes even more sense -- since soon a good share of Oregon's population will be within an hour's driving time of state-sponsored marijuana stores. Recently KGW TV held a "Straight Talk" debate on marijuana legalization between Roy Kaufmann, spokesman for the unsuccessful Measure 80 campaign that would have made pot legal here, and Josh Marquis, Clatsop County district attorney. I liked how both Kaufmann and Marquis were respectful, well-spoken, and generally…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

NYT Tesla test drive makes me happy we got a Volt

Since we were not-so-happy owners of an all-electric Nissan Leaf before we sold the car and leased a Chevy Volt (battery powered, with back up gas generator), I"ve been following the fascinating tale of a New York Times automotive reporter's test drive of the $101,000 Tesla Model S sedan with considerable interest. The title of the story wasn't good news for Tesla's marketing efforts: "Stalled Out on Tesla's Electric Highway." Nor was the story itself. John Broder relates the horrors of trying to drive the Tesla, which has an estimated 300 mile range, between charging stations 200 miles apart -- seemingly…
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Posted inSkateboarding

Land paddler reviews LongBoard Larry’s Walkabout

At the age of sixty-three, I took up land paddling on a longboard. This was after I spent a few months doing the push with your foot thing, which I never felt comfortable with. Discovering the Kahuna Big Stick changed my longboarding life. Being a senior citizen land paddler, I figure that I need to evolve my longboarding approach as expeditiously as possible. After all, when you're sixteen you've got a lifetime of skateboarding/ longboarding ahead of you. Same is true at sixty-four, but with a big difference: my remaining time of being alive likely is much less. So in…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Whew! No reason to worry about Rubio being GOP savior.

Last night I watched Marco Rubio's Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address with some trepidation. After all, TIME magazine has just annointed him on its cover as "The Republican Savior."  And I'm a Democrat. I don't want the GOP to be saved. I want it to continue on down its road to ruin. Thankfully, proving that my prayers to Tao, Buddha-nature, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster paid off, Rubio gave a thoroughly mundane speech which, in my oh-so-reasonable opinion, wouldn't sway many (if any) Dem-voters to the Republican side. I tried to picture independently minded swing…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Gun nut or mass shooter? Sure look the same.

Here's a great "comic" by Jen Sorensen that would be funnier if it wasn't so disturbingly true. l've been thinking in much the same way about what would happen if the NRA's wet dream became reality, and the United States was filled with people carrying military-style assault rifles and other guns openly around in public. That'd be great for mass shooters. Blend right in. Start shooting in a mall, kill a few people, then run around a corner with your rifle over your shoulder and start yelling, "Oh, my God! There's a shooter back there! Take cover. I'm going to…
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Posted inHome life Scootering Skateboarding

USA Today story about older motorcycle riders mentions…ME!

Here's what I found most interesting in a USA Today story by Kim Painter, "Older motorcycle riders more likely to get badly hurt" -- the parts that mentioned me. Brian Hines, 64, a writer from Salem, Ore., rode a motorcycle as a younger man, but when he wanted to return to two-wheeled riding in 2009, he took some extra safety steps: He got a motorized scooter instead of a full-sized bike, repeated an optional safety course, bought a highly-visible white helmet and avoided riding at night or in the rain. His precautions paid off and he never had an accident,…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregon should vote on gay marriage AND legal pot in 2014

Let's do it, Oregonians! Catch up to Washington state on "living free." Last year Washington affirmed the legality of gay marriage and legalized marijuana in a groundbreaking election.  While Oregon weenied out on legalizing pot. So now our neighbor state to the north will reap the tax revenues from Oregonians journeying across the border to score some legal weed.  Today I was excited to learn that Basic Rights Oregon has decided to put a measure on the 2014 ballot that would legalize same-sex marriage.  Basic Rights Oregon has been laying the groundwork for a statewide vote on the issue since…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Unfunny humor about gun control

Yesterday a bunch of people brought guns to the Oregon capitol building. They paraded outside showing off their rifles, handguns, shotguns, and other pseudo-macho paraphenalia. Some even brought them inside, since Oregon is one of the few states that allow someone with a concealed handgun permit to carry around a military-style assault rifle in the halls of a Capitol.  Now, news of this sort of event should stimulate a reasonable question: "Who the heck would be so crazy as to carry guns around in public like that for no good reason?" After all, if I was a tourist visiting a state…
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Posted inSkateboarding

My first impression of Brakeboard longboard brakes

At 63 years old, I came late to longboarding (skateboarding on, duh, a long board). But I'm on the early cutting edge of those trying out an innovative way of stopping on a longboard or skateboard: the Brakeboard.  I must be one of the first to order a Brakeboard, which recently started to be sold by Ben Newman, an Australian. They're pricy, including shipping from halfway around the world. However, I was drawn to buy this braking system for a simple reason: Stopping on a longboard is important, yet not easy. Especially at speed. Sliding (either sit-down or stand-up) takes…
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Posted inDogs Home life

Oregon’s First Cats survive Governor’s mansion dog invasion

The state trooper guarding Mahonia Hall, the Oregon Governor's mansion here in Salem, gave me some faulty intelligence. I'm not blaming him; the enemies I asked about are notoriously sly and unpredictable. "Is it OK to bring our dogs in? We'd been told that the First Cats might be running around the mansion." "You're fine," the trooper replied. "They'll be shut away upstairs."  (Martha Russell photo) So began a saga that could have ended in a public relations nightmare for the Willamette Humane Society. Imagine the headline: Oregon's First Cats terrorized by dog pack at lunch won by donors at…
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Posted inHome life

Notice what doesn’t change in your life… and satisfies

I've gotten an insight into how to make life more satisfying. Focus on generally-unnoticed unchanges, what stays the same, rather than obvious alterations.  Here's what I mean. If your life is like mine, and I bet it is, it's full of damn's. For example: each example coming from recent actual My Life experience -- Damn, the water heater is leaking!Damn, a wheel came off of my longboard!Damn, I gained two pounds!Damn, I tweaked my left hip and it feels weird! In his fascinating new book, "Antifragile," Nassim Nicholas Taleb offers an insight into why these sorts of irritating damn's throw…
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