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airprakken's comments:
on Foot Traffic
What about bicycles riding on sidewalks? That is the most danger I feel as a pedestrian today. And it's much worse when I have my 80 yr old Mother with me. One 'mistake' by the bicyclist could end her life.
posted 1 year, 6 months ago
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on Candidate Conversation: 5th District
I'm a 5th district Independent who voted for Gordon Smith in the last election.
The Republicans have clearly done their best to stop everything -- no matter what was best for the country. I am extremely tired of that attitude of partisanship above all things.
I am far from pleased with some of the things the Democrats have done. However, Schrader is clearly the kind of classic Oregon moderate we need in Washington.
posted 1 year, 7 months ago
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on Having Fun in the Forest
I'm a hiker and birder now but have ridden motorcycles.
I very much enjoy driving my car (Subaru) on logging roads but those are increasingly being shut off to all outside access. As we get older this will be the only way we can get to some parts of the forest. Allowing access to licensed vehicles should be considered as part of any forest plan.
posted 1 year, 8 months ago
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on Nuclear Northwest
As the President says, no power source is perfect. We will need every low-carbon power source we can develop. Wind and solar must be pushed to the max but likely cannot be ramped up fast enough. We cannot do without nuclear for at least the next 50 years.
Waste and the requirement for breeder reactors (when we do enough of it) are the issues. I believe, however, that modern technology can make it sufficiently safe. Nothing can be perfectly safe and arguments to that effect are pointless.
Re waste: The Trojan site is small and demonstrably can be kept safe. Try looking at the coal strip mine near Centralia -- it's a huge desolate waste land. Waste disposal issues are purely political and knee-jerk opponents like Greg Kafoury and Ralph Nader are very much a part of that problem.
Greg Kafoury is all sound bites with little understanding of real issues:
- 3 mile island was not a core meltdown! I just heard him imply that it was. It really wasn't much of anything.
- Chernobyl started when they deliberately turned off all safety and control systems as part of a stupid test.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paying Per Mile
posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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on Paying Per Mile
It is GOOD for our country's security and for the world if people use less gas. People who use more gas should pay more. The gas tax does that directly. Moreover, the gas tax should be raised $.25 per year until the price of gas here is comparable to Europe. Some of that should be used to help poor people get to their jobs, some should go to reduce income or other taxes and some should go to energy R&D and subsidies. The effect would be dramatic. People in other parts of the world find that much smaller cars work fine and that would happen here. Our national security is hugely at risk by sending this much money to people who don't like us -- we must do something now.
Using GPS is not very smart. I could easily design a box to spoof or jam a GPS tracker. And I would do that rather than allow anyone to know where I was driving.
posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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