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MichaelTrigoboff's comments:
on Islam in the Northwest
It seems to me good old-fashion casual racism has been part of a proper "post-9/11 mind set"
It seems to me that you are too quick to accuse anti-jihadists of "racism." That's a pretty serious charge. It's perfectly possible to be anti-jihadist without being racist.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Islam in the Northwest
I'm "Michael from Tigard," today's first caller.
"Islamophobia" literally means "fear of Islam." Who's afraid of Islam? A few years ago, Yale University published a book about the Danish Cartoon Incident. The book did not contain the actual cartoons. Why not? The publishers were afraid they'd be murdered the way that Theo van Gogh was for making a movie that some Muslims objected to. That's fear of Islam.
To call those of us who are determined to continue the fight against jihadism "Islamophobic" is fundamentally mistaken. We are not "afraid of Islam," we are angry at the jihadists. Calling us "phobic" is either inaccurate thinking or an act of propaganda.
Our country is under threat from jihadism. Not all Muslims are jihadists. But jihadism emanates from within Islam. We are under no obligation to be stupid about defending ourselves by ignoring the source that jihadism springs from.
We remember watching thousands of Americans faced with a choice between a raging inferno behind them and 100 stories of empty space in front of them. We remember a big hole in the wall of the Pentagon. We remember the heroes of Flight 93. We remember.
We live in the world of 9/12, not in the world of 9/10. I choose to think clearly about jihadism. That's more important to me than worrying about whether someone might decide to (inaccurately) call me "Islamophobic."
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Bomb Plot in Portland
As you can see though, when it comes to actually preventing horrors like Oklahoma City, 9/11, Wells Fargo, the Marine Base shooting... ... law enforcement is impotent. They have no power to predict and/or prevent mass destruction by determined individuals or groups.
There hasn't been an act of mass terrorism like 9/11 in this country since 9/11. Your claim that we can't prevent acts like this is belied by the actual facts.
One technique we are obviously using is to "flood the zone" with fake terrorists, so that any real terrorist is more likely to run into one of our agents as opposed to another real terrorist.
I totally support this strategy and whatever else it takes to defeat the jihadist terrorists who want to kill so many of us.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Bomb Plot in Portland
If the purpose is to prevent terrorism then the logical action would be to talk someone OUT of planting a bomb.
Someone who needs to be "talked out" of committing an act of mass murder is a sociopath with, perhaps, a weak will. If you talk him out of it this time, maybe next time we won't be so lucky.
I prefer to see Mohamed Mohamud permanently disabled. Even if someone "talks him into" committing act of terrorism, he won't be able to do it from inside a jail cell.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Public Transit
I've got a suggestion for TriMet. How about if they take the money they were going to waste on their next rail-based boondoggle and use it for buses instead? Buses (and perhaps busways like what they've built in Curitiba, Brazil) are a lot more cost-effective than anything on rails. I would bet that disappointment with the cost/benefit ratio of WES (high cost, low ridership) was a significant factor in the defeat of the TriMet bond measure.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Multnomah County Elections
I just voted against the TriMet bond. Why? Because of all the money they've wasted over the years on light rail. If they had not done that, we could've had one of the best bus systems in the world.
But ... noooooo! They didn't spend the money on buses, they spent it on light rail, a primitive technology whose origin was the time before there were paved roads. Buses can go anywhere. Truck breaks down in bus lane, bus drives around it. Try that with light rail.
Express buses used to come into downtown from all over Washington County. Once Westside Max went in, they changed the bus routes to go to Max instead. So now all those people have to make a transfer. More Expensive! Less Efficient! You'll LOVE It!!!
Rail-based vechicles are incredibly expensive compared to buses. So why did TriMet get so heavily into light rail? FASHION! Buses just aren't sexy. You can't host a convention called "Bus-volution."
As long as TriMet's in thrall to the trendy vision of light rail, I'm not sending them my money.
posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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on Coming out of Copenhagen
Oh, the virtues of the 'free-market.'...
All I'm saying is that it is not politically possible to change this country away from the free market.
My larger point is that it's a distraction from thinking about things that might actually be effective. You want to do something about global warming and significantly alter (or eliminate?) the free market? It's ambitious, I'll grant you, but I don't see any force developing that could accomplish even one of those, to say nothing of both.
posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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on Coming out of Copenhagen
There never has been a "Free Market", ...
I don't agree. But let's leave that aside.
I'm saying that convincing America to turn away from free market capitalism is politically impossible. It's not going to happen.
posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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on Coming out of Copenhagen
I suspect that the "Climategate" leak had a significant impact on the Copenhagen conference.
posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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on Coming out of Copenhagen
The "Free Market" created the problem and it is definitely not the answer to fix the problem.
If you think that the "free market" is not the answer, what's your proposal? Do you think that this country is likely to agree to run its economy in some other way?
It seems to me that you're adding an insoluble political problem on top of figuring out what to do with regard to global warming.
posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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on Coming out of Copenhagen
It seems clear to me that the project of getting the world to reduce its carbon emissions is somewhere between extremely difficult and hopeless.
But what about the other side of the carbon cycle? What about increasing the rate at which CO2 is taken out of the atmosphere? What about things like fertilizing parts of the ocean with soluble iron? Doing that vastly increases the rate of plankton growth, and plankton pull CO2 out of the ocean and sequester it in their calcium carbonate skeletons
Why aren't we researching things like this as fast as we can?
posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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