Let's consider the evidence for a man (let's call him Brian, for lack of a less realistic name) being addicted to riding his oh-so-beloved Suzuki Burgman scooter.
It's December 5 in western Oregon. The temperature is forty degrees, and falling. He's sitting in a south Salem coffee house, enjoying a [...]
Talk about un-compassionate conservatism.
A front-page story in today's Salem Statesman Journal reports that the group opposing modest increases in taxes on Oregon corporations and high-income individuals is blissfully unconcerned about...
Prisoners being released, teachers being fired, in-home care for seniors being slashed, newly hired state troopers being laid off, [...]
Guys, if you need a reason to take ballroom dance lessons, here it is: the woman has to do what you want. You lead. The woman follows. End of story.
Until you get off the dance floor.
Then your relationship goes back to normal. But as our instructor likes to say, [...]
It looks like the stolen emails from a climate research center at the University of East Anglia are a classic example of "the dog didn't bark."
That is, the big news from this peek into the private professional correspondence of climate scientists is that there is no big [...]
You'd think that members of the Portland (Oregon) police force would be embarrassed that several of their brethren weren't able to handle a combative 12 year old girl.
An officer shot her at close-range with a beanbag gun, even though several men had her down on the ground and were [...]
Quack!
That's the sound of an offended Oregon Duck football fan, who's turned off by the Rose Bowl buzz kill inflicted by the university when it demanded that a great student-made video be removed from the Internets.
Of course, this heavy-handed attempt at censorship didn't succeed. I just watched the video [...]
What good is a blog if you can't rant on it? Hearing no reply from the cosmos except a no good at all! from inside my head, I shall rant on.
Tuesday. It's grocery shopping day. I have a hyper-organized shopping list system. It soothes my left-brain soul to get [...]
It was a win-win night at the Crag Law Center "Wild Shots" benefit auction in Portland. With the purchase of only one -- count 'em, one -- raffle ticket (albeit for $25), I scored a beautiful Mark Gamba photograph.
And Crag ended up raising quite a bit of [...]
Last night I listened to a couple of Oregon physicians nail what this country needs to do to solve our health care problems. In short: a single payer system, Medicare for all.
They convinced me that in many ways the health care reform bills being considered by Congress are going [...]
Last month I bought myself a birthday present: front row center seats for Champions of the Dance, which we saw last night at the Hult Center in Eugene.
Excellent ticket-buying decision.
There's a time to be at least a few rows back in a large auditorium, so you can get [...]
Ridiculous.
The health care reform bill passed by the House last weekend doesn't allow an abortion to be part of a benefit package bought by anyone who gets a government tax credit to help pay for the insurance.
Put another way:
Abortion would not be paid for in plans offered [...]
Time keeps marching on. When I wrote my previous blog post, "How to make time slow down," I was 59. Now, I'm 61.
Obviously I haven't been able to stop chronological time. Every year, on my birthday, my age meter advances a click. But we all know how time seems [...]
Whether or not someone has a philosophical bone in their body, he or she likely will enjoy "This Is It" -- a documentary featuring rehearsal footage of Michael Jackson preparing for a monumental concert tour.
I do have philosophical bones. And they loved this well-reviewed movie as much as [...]
It's another election day, albeit a rather low-key off-year one. I'm getting flashbacks to 2008, when it seemed like everything was going to be just fine now.
With Obama our president for the next four years, wouldn't we get the change that we'd be wanting for the past eight? The [...]
Some would say that nothing is less fun than pondering the question, "What is fun?" However, I'm the sort of person who enjoys ponders, and fun is about enjoyment, so I'll press on.
I got to thinking about fun recently by -- no big surprise -- having fun!
This year [...]
What could CNN be thinking?
It's in last place among cable news networks. Yet CNN changes the look of its web site to make it painful to look at and almost impossible to find any real news on.
I used to spend quite a bit of time on CNN.com. [...]
So, what does a guy do when his wife says, "The kitchen faucet is dripping. Can you fix it?"
I took a look at it. Yup. It was dripping, no matter how I turned the Kohler single handle faucet.
I vaguely remembered that the faucet used a cartridge. And that the [...]
Wrong, wrong, wrong. That mantra kept being repeated in my increasingly irritated mind as I read Bill Monroe's call to kill more cougars in last Sunday's Oregonian.
Monroe is an outdoors writer. But it's obvious that he doesn't know much about cougars, including their beneficial effect on ecosystems and how [...]
It's a tough job, being charitable.
Yesterday I had to stand unmoving for a whole four minutes, leaving my vanilla latte unsipped for a while, as I video'd the Artemis Tribal Belly Dancers at a benefit for the Elizabeth Bowers Zambia Education Fund.
Actually, I could have stood there [...]
Damn. I want a Nook, Barnes & Noble's new well-reviewed eBook reader. Just like I wanted Amazon's Kindle.
I love high-tech gadgets. Heck, I just got a computerized (sort of) flashlight, the marvelous Fenix LD 20. It's terrific.
But last February I returned a Kindle 2 [...]
Oh, Bill, I'm so disappointed in you. I love your HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher." But last Friday's episode showed me that you've gone bonkers over your obsession with vaccinations.
Which you said usually aren't needed, and are ineffective. However, you're wrong.
Dangerously wrong, as Michael [...]
Here in western Oregon we don't have afflictions that curse other parts of the country: hurricanes, tornadoes, long bouts of hot humid weather, deep snow, scorching temperatures.
But this time of year the karmic weather account balances out somewhat, because one thing the Willamette Valley does have is leaves.
Billions, trillions, gadzillions [...]
Just when I thought Regence Blue Cross of Oregon couldn't irritate me further -- after many years of double-digit premium increases, after trying to deny my plan-switch application because of two minor preexisting conditions -- they're now part of an effort to scuttle health care reform.
Deeply irritating. I [...]
We were ready to head to central Oregon last weekend. But the weather report showed cold. And Laurel was getting a cold. The sunny, balmier Oregon coast seemed more appealing.
Good choice.
We had our peanut butter sandwich lunch at Neskowin, north of Lincoln City. [...]
My love affair with the iPhone is still passionate, continually renewed by the marvelous apps that I keep discovering and downloading.
MotionX-GPS Drive came into my iPhone life yesterday. We're getting along great. This is a terrific GPS application that cost me $2.99 -- a far cry dollar-wise from [...]
I can't understand all the rabid anti-government sentiment from right-wingers in response to the notion of offering people a publicly-run health insurance option.
That's what Medicare is.
And Medicare recipients rate this government program much more highly than users of private insurance rate their plans. A survey found that [...]
I came to Beer Frisbee late in life -- two days ago, in fact -- but I've been ready for it since intense training during my California college days in the 1960's.
Not by drinking beer, since this substance wasn't cannabis or a psychedelic. Hence...boring!
But by spending countless Flower [...]
Excellent news. And not wholly unexpected.
I've always wondered if the right-wing crazies like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage have anywhere near the political influence that their over-heated egos claim.
New York Times columnist David Brooks says, "No, they don't" in The Wizard of Beck.
So the [...]
I've been envious, and more than a little irritated, at Corvallis since I learned that Trader Joe's chose to open a store there rather than in much larger Salem.
"What does Corvallis have that Salem doesn't?" I'd wonder. And quickly answer, "Major university. More highly educated people. A progressive, creative [...]
Watching the debate in the Senate's Finance Committee (streaming online), it's clear that passing a public option as part of the health insurance reform bill is absolutely essential.
Sen. John Kerry just nailed it.
Private insurance plans spend 25-30% of premiums on administrative costs and making outrageous profits. So [...]
Too many people these days falsely believe that the United States Constitution is all about individual rights, such as freedom of speech, the right to own a gun, and the right to have an abortion.
They forget about "promote the general welfare" in the preamble to the Constitution.
Yesterday I read [...]
Wow, that was fun, listening to the Oregon State-Arizona football game today on my tinny-sounding Radio Shack portable radio.
Since I wanted OSU to win, the game was crappy. And my mood wasn't made better by realizing this morning that DIRECTV has dropped the Versus channel where the game [...]
Last Tuesday Laurel and I journeyed to northwest Portland to be part of September's daily swift watch -- when many thousands of Vaux's Swifts circle the large chimney at Chapman Elementary School before darting down it in a marvelous display of aerial avian acrobatics.
OK, I admit it: I'm addicted to central Oregon's Metolius River basin. Can't get enough of this beautiful slice of Mother Earth. Have to share photos of my lovely every chance I can.
Some headless horses in the "Johnson meadow" near the head of the [...]I was going to use "customizing" in the title of this post, but I like "tricking out" better. When a guy is riding a white Japanese scooter, he needs all the hip street vibe he can muster up.
In fact, I'm going a [...]Watching the first episode of "Survivor Samoa" last night was bittersweet.
Sweet, because my wife and I are huge Survivor fans. We've seen each episode of every season, so naturally we were looking forward to the fresh drama that plays out as twenty contestants try to outwit, outplay, [...]
Why are so many people in the United States so eager to keep this country mired in mediocrity -- #37 in the world -- when it comes to our underperforming, yet wildly costly, health care non-system?
Beats me.
I just wish each and every one of those opposed to health care [...]
I don't believe in destiny.
But as I was eating a marvelously tasty Southwest Tofu Wrap at Bend's Cafe Yumm in the charming Old Mill District, I gazed at the central Oregon sky from our outside table and thought, "We could easily end up living here someday."
So [...]
It'd been four years since we last visited the beautiful Head of Jack Creek (near Camp Sherman in central Oregon).
We shouldn't have waited so long. After contemplating the spring-fed waters for a few minutes, Laurel said, "I wish I could bottle a vision of this place and drink [...]
Finally...Obama got his mojo back last night.
Like so many others, I was energized by his health care speech. I even sent $50 off to the Organizing for America folks whose email pitches I've been ignoring, because I've been irritated about how Obama was letting Republicans get away [...]
This morning I noticed a Twitter Tweet from Blue Oregon's uber-progressive, Kari Chisholm, which said in part:
GoDaddy CEO is GOP activist. Try Dotster.com, local (Vancouver WA)
For many years I've used GoDaddy for domain name registration and web site hosting. I've been satisfied with the service, but the GoDaddy style [...]
Perusing the Sunday comics this morning, my wife called out to me. "You're going to like Doonesbury today."
Oh, yes, she was so right. I've copied in the strip below.
As he so often does, Garry Trudeau encapsulated the United States' biggest political and cultural problem in just a few cartoon [...]
Anguished artist. Or tortured genius?
I'll go with either one, though if I went full-bore with my inner Tortured Genius there's a risk I'd end up doing a Van Gogh and cutting off my ear.
I did just get a haircut, though, so let's look on that gesture as a [...]
I don't think all Republicans are crazy. But most leaders in the Republican party are, when it comes to fixing this country's health care problems.
The insanity has got to stop. For a while it was sort of amusing to see how bizarre the lies could get.
For some (obvious) reason this Twitter tweet by "rawprincess" caught my eye:
14 things oral sex taught me about blogging
http://762ot.th8.us
Pretty true. Check them out.
I liked an addition suggested by a commenter on this post. A lot of blogs and web sites, not to mention talk [...]
Armed with a free entry pass, because I was going to participate in a Tai Chi demonstration, I headed off to the Oregon State Fair this morning on my Burgman scooter. What I found was pleasing variety and a fresh vibe that coexisted nicely with traditional fair offerings.
Here's the photographic [...]
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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.)
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 [...]
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 [...]
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) [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
No, it isn't a flashback from my '60 days. I've carefully perused the dates on a bunch of marijuana-related stories, and they're all recent.
Something is happening here, particularly in the western reaches of the United States, and I don't know what it is. (To paraphrase an old friend.) But [...]
Salem (Oregon), as I frequently point out, doesn't have a lot going on compared to its much cooler city cousins an I-5 hour drive north and south -- Portland and Eugene.
But we do have the Salem Art Fair, a first class [...]
It's hard to believe, but my gray hair (and driver's license) testifies to the fact: in a bit over a year I'll be 62 and eligible to start getting Social Security benefits.
So a New York Times article caught my eye this morning. Reading "Collect Now or Later? Timing [...]
I never really believed that President Obama would ogle a teenager's butt (though it was undeniably attractive) at a public function.
Now the truth comes out, thanks to a Daily Kos video. No surprise: once again, Fox News purposely spread a falsehood. See for yourself:
[...]Today Laurel and I headed to Veneta for a marvelous counterculture celebration, the 2009 Oregon Country Fair.
I wished we had an old VW bus to drive there, but had to settle for our Hybrid Highlander (less cool, but not nearly so prone to break down).
We hadn't been to [...]
Reading the new issue of TIME magazine last night, I came across an article that says divorce is worse for children than most people believe.
Great.
Here I am, sixty years old, having been raised by my mother, no contact with my father except some phone calls and a [...]
Reason #437,618 why Salem, Oregon's tribute to boring white bread living, sucks big time: Trader Joe's has chosen to open a store in Corvallis rather than here.
"It's really about the income of the community and the education level of the community. Those two points are really important in Trader [...]I'm approaching the one-month anniversary of getting a Suzuki Burgman 650 Executive scooter. I can predict pretty well how Burgie and I will celebrate: by going for a ride!
As you can tell by the exclamation marks in this blog post title and first paragraph, I'm enjoying my new [...]
On Independence Day 2009, it seemed oh so appropriate to head over to nearby Independence to see how a namesake Oregon small town celebrates the Fourth of July.
I hadn't been to this annual event for a long time. But now that I have a Suzuki Burgman 650 [...]
Three weeks after my first three days on my Suzuki Burgman 650 maxi-scooter, I've still got plenty of smiles on my two-wheeled motoring face.
With plenty of warm and dry weather here in western Oregon (pretty typical for June-September), I've been riding as often as possible. A big part of [...]
The debate over how to fix our country's broken health care system can get pretty darn abstract and complex. But last night my wife and I had a hands-on experience of what's wrong with private medical insurance.
And it made us ever so eager to escape from the clutches of [...]
A great weekend: I've fallen in love with my first high-end point and shoot digital camera, a Sony DSC-HX1 that I got last Friday (a three-month early birthday present from me to me, figuring that if I waited to give myself this gift, I'd miss a lot of summer [...]
Is it possible to get in touch with life's meaning, or the lack thereof, while getting some riding instruction in an outdoor arena? Absolutely.
I've been re-reading Albert Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus." Here's some existential pondering that applies to a couple of hours of horse riding lessons Laurel and [...]
I'm thrilled that the state legislature has passed HB 3298, which will stop destination resorts from ruining the mostly unspoiled Metolius River basin in central Oregon -- which my wife and I visit regularly.
But it's disturbing that misinformation about the basin being designated an Area of Critical State [...]
[Update: I've gotten a quick, and much appreciated, email response from the President/CEO of Black Butte Ranch, Scott Huntsman. Great name for a guy who runs an outdoorsy outfit, by the way. I shared Scott's vegetarian-friendly message in the comments to the post. It's great to hear about plans to [...]
This is a great day for Oregon.
The state House of Representatives just changed course and voted 31-28 to approve HB 3298, which prevents destination resorts from being built in the Metolius River Basin.
Thanks to the courageous legislators who had the guts to vote "yes" rather than "no" after [...]
I don't cry easily. But this morning I teared up while reading a moving piece by the son of Tom McCall, who was a Republican governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975.
Tom W. L. McCall Jr. writes about his father's love for the Metolius River basin, which currently [...]
I will confess to criticizing a Portland right-wing talk show host, Victoria Taft, without listening to much of what she said.
All I needed to hear via my car radio channel surfing were words along the lines of, "The Earth is cooling this decade; so much for global warming."
No, Victoria, you're [...]
I registered as a Democrat to be able to vote for Obama in the 2008 presidential primary. Now it looks like I'll be joining the non-affiliated ranks again.
Because I'm super-ticked off at the Oregon Democratic Party after five Dems, including the House Speaker (Dave Hunt) voted against saving the [...]
Yesterday Laurel and I took a look at three of the 24 properties featured in the 2009 Salem Tour of Homes -- the two most expensive homes, and The Meridian condos.
First stop was the $1,065,000 house built by Kaufman Homes at Sahelee Court, SE. (3,849 sq. ft.). Now, a [...]
Defying those who told me, when I mentioned my upcoming maxi-scooter purchase, "But motorcycles are so dangerous!," I am still alive -- and indeed thriving -- after three days of riding my Suzuki Burgman 650 (Executive version).
Credit goes to me, some great Team Oregon safety/skills training, and a [...]
I just spent fifteen hours learning how to operate a motorcycle safely and skillfully. And enjoying the company of these soon-to-be biker babes, four women who comprised the more attractive side of the ten person class.
The three day Team Oregon Basic Rider [...]
A thumbs-up and a thumbs-down on the land use front this blogging day...
On the positive side, we just got the Spring 2009 "View from the Summit" Crag Law Center newsletter.
Our neighborhood has gotten terrific legal support from Ralph Bloemers and other Crag staff in our fight against a [...]
Here's some photos that I took during a recent visit to our cabin on the beautiful Metolius River in Camp Sherman (central Oregon).
I usually use an Olympus Stylus, which can do all kinds of stuff: zoom, adjust for different photographic conditions, and whatnot.
All of these shots were taken [...]
