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Now perhaps a decade ago my students came home from Portland Public School and informed me that I had to subscribe to the Oregonian because their teacher required it for class.  We strolled across the street to a friend's place and we pulled the days paper out of the recycle pile and I had my student sit and read the paper and write down the date stamp for every story that they recognized.  In every case, simply by accessing the Web and listening to OPB/NPR they were a day, to days, ahead of the Oregonian.  Those students still do not take the paper; that medium was out of date a decade ago. 
My perspective has always been considering the column inches devoted to advertising, the Oregonian should be free.
No the newsprint media is an environmental impact that is easily avoided, and all together unnecessary!

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Since the theory of AGW lately has been shown to be based upon false premises, incomplete and manipulated data.  I expect nothing good to come of the hopefully well intended and misguided manipulations of the politicians.  AGW/CC has become a Feel Good issue designed to divert the public eye.

Clearly, we as a species need to stop defecating on our living room, yet I submit, “follow the money” be the first step today!
IF we as a nation were serious about reducing the carbon (et al) emissions we generate then it would be logical that we would turn to the largest energy user in the nation and we would immediately impose tight regulations upon all emissions.  The United States Military is by far the largest user of Carbon based energy.  There would be economic gain in the private sector if the military were simply ordered to be carbon neutral in 2 years.  There would be no negative economic impact, if Congress fully funded such a project, rather there would be a huge boost to the currently depressed economy virtually nation wide, and the development of Carbon reduction technologies would accelerate thus in the long run reducing the eventual cost to the general public.
In my opinion what the politicians are doing now is misguided, and most often inappropriate.  I have been recycling and living a low impact lifestyle for more then three decades.  I can and will continue to largly ignore Carbon as a primary pollution issue as there are others that pose a far greater risk.  I'd love to stay and talk but I have to go drive across the state.

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Tom I completely agree with you!
While I agree with you assessment of the last POTUS, I have no less, in fact more reservations about the current one!

If the government is using the SN then it can be argued that all of that SN is public domain, regardless of personal privacy settings.  Might it be wise to carefull what you post.

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Just as it is entirely possible to get only news that supports your position on the net, so to it is possible for the politician to retrieve input from only their supporters on a SN.
The question is should a politician or a public institution be using a nonpublic and thus restricted access platform for any public function?  Who owns the content?

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Are the various SN outlets actually useful resources for "News"?
In my opinion the old media outlets are no longer unbiased or current, they are I feel ‘eventually’ accurate, thus I spend no money on them beyond the cost of my ISP.  However, having wandered around the various SN’s observing, I hold the SN sites, and assuredly the various “Blogs” to be LESS reliable, then for example the AP, or NPR or even FOX. 
How are the SN sites policed for standards of accuracy?  What point then in conversation with inaccurate, unverified, perhaps manipulated "official" information?
My opinion is that “Town Hall” meetings on SN sites, serve no real purpose other then that of the SN sites, the stroking of the egos of those involved; which is at the base of it, what the function of the SN sites really is.

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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I am told repeatedly that Canada's health care system is so much better then ours.  Why then is the US Government so hell bent on sticking its citizens?
Why are the educated health care workers I know 'Doctors & Nurses' (across the state) that “have a choice” NOT getting the vaccines and quietly recommending avoiding H1N1 vaccine to friends and family.  What is it about a largely untested vaccine that is bothering these people...

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Now more then 30 years ago I remember asking a planner type at the LCDC, why we would ever allow something as stupid as suburban sprawl to occur on highly productive farm land that then largely ringed the metro areas.
There was no good answer 30 years ago. The UGB that was designed to STOP it just gets moved farther out, there is still no wisdom present in the planning system.
Food production is not important, shopping malls are.
We are so screwed.

But hey... I got mine!

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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This topic I find ironic.
More then 30 years ago the points raised in the document referenced in the first post were well known by the people charged with or searching for skilled workers.

What you are looking at is a rather simple failure of both the red and blue sides of government at every level, and certainly a condemnation of the Public Education System.
Why the public education system is designed to send people to collage when the predominance of the population it serves since its inception, never completes any degree beyond High School, is…

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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The needs of Boys have not changed; they are the same biologically as they always have been.  Unfortunately what society thinks it needs of boys has changed.  Boys will be boys and boys NEED “Men” as roll models in their lives.  Trying to deny this fact is foolish and has doomed many, many boys to being failures as men.  Clearly being ‘Male’ is not the same as being a ‘Man’.

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Is this a “Recession” or a “Depression”!

Local estimates are well over 25% unemployed.


Helping each other is happening, but it generates no taxes.

How will Washington pay for the debit it is running up without the taxes from 25% of its normal base?


Me?  I officially don't count any more.  The choice of self employment effectively locks you out of the system you pay taxes in to.  However, I believe this makes my life better, pushes me to succeed to find means outside of the "Normal" system.  Of course, I by normal measures or legal definition have less income and a more flexible and enjoyable life because I do not have to work those hours to support the "Change", LOL!

I wonder how many, once they accept, it are finding the pleasure of a simpler life in their "downward mobility".

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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Have I changed the way I drive?   No, then I do not run red lights if I can avoid it, in 30+ years maybe I have screwed up twice.

I drive defensivly, thus I look on the web, locate the intersections that generate revenue and program them into the GPS, then I do not (if possable) drive through those locations which is also rather often the faster route.

Enforcing this law is a great idea, from a public safety perspective.  This is largly a revenue generator, so be it.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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This is really simple.

If you received money, via a job or handout because of the deficit spending, it is a success.
If you have received nothing then it is a failure.

It would be interesting to know how much the typical tax payer received.

I do not know of anyone that has recieved anything.

My take has been zero.

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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I really do not care where the state and local taxes go.

As I understand it, several localities are going to raise their fuel tax rate. 
The price of fuel usually posted on station reader boards, is easy to see and compare.  Living in the rural three-quarter’s of this state, fuel is necessary, however the price is critical, thus, you when possible plan your purchases. 
Sisters for example as one of those places that is I gather raising their tax rate and has the first gas in many miles headed east, thus a lock on the market.  However if the price rises even a few pennies a gallon over their already generally high price, rather then fill the tank we will only buy enough to get to the nearest “out of the taxed zone” station.  Thus, Sisters will receive less income then they do today, at least from this consumer. 

If the taxes raise the price in one place and I can combine trips to drive around that tax I sure as hell will! 
Economically right now I have no real choice!

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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I have been startled at the overt racism that had been demonstrated since the nomination of this most recent supreme court justice.  The ethnicity or gender of this person is irrelevant to the position.  Further should it ever be a consideration by this Justice in a decision this person (or any) must recues themselves, ethically.
To continually point out that, this person is the first of this gender or that ethnicity is nothing short of racism, UNLESS it has something to do with the job; in this case it does not.

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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Big Brother thy name is "Health Care".

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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LOL! Well played a "Convenient Truth".  I love it!

Having no need to convince, I retire to profiteering.

Scott. Thank you, have a Terrific Day!

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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Scottmill

So close.
Corruption, be it on the right and/or left in the past generated the past policies.
However I can not call the malevolence of the immediate predecessors, naïve. Nor do I excuse same.

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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Scottmill
I nave yet to hear, read, (etc) nonpartisan credible economists agree with current policies; particularly long term.
I am not a fan of naïve following corrupt.  The end result is the same.


Slakr007
Your point is interesting!  Clearly my position makes it difficult to participate in the debit driven consumer economy, thus as much as possible I do not.  For example I have never purchased a new motor vehicle in my life, WHY?  I can build better.
I am sure that I own something that fits your criteria.  I however can not think of anything that I own that comes from a Government “owned” company.

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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GM has spent years producing vehicles that they had to sell at a loss to sell them at all. 
GM the parent company has brought virtually nothing to the table in a decade or more.  Several of the subsidiaries have developed innovations, not enough to justify GM though.

I suspect that soon we will have Fiat a company that offered a product line that the American public rejected (sounds like GM) and the Fed’s running the failed Chrysler, and more then likely today we have achieved “Government Motors”… 

Will we then have the Government leveling the playing field by giving reciprocal support to Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, et-al?  I doubt it!  Is it possible for a non-Government backed company to compete with one that is being “Given” financial resources?

I fear that this is just more of the naïve economic policy, thus far producing negative results, being perpetrated by the current administration/party in power. 
History both predicts and will tell.
The newest car I own is more then 10 years old.  I have ZERO plans to buy ANY new car in the next 10 years.  It is also a certainty that I will be buying NO new vehicles from any government subsidized/owned company; why would I pay for it twice?

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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What a complete tempest in a tea pot!
It seems to me that since we are going down this ludicrous path we should also demand that the ethnic makeup of the players on every team be directly linked by percentages to the community the team is based in.  Not just for collage but for every school and the Pro’s to!
If we want to be ethnically correct then to be just, our teams must reflect their community!!  If they do not, then disband them and quit wasting my tax dollars on them!

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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