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rethomas's comments:
on Rebirth of Local Journalism
I tried an experiment ~5yrs ago... I stopped taking print news media and stopped watching all local/national news on TV (including CNN, etc.)... just to see if I'd miss it.
I've never looked back, I realized that I was tired of having someone else decide what was the news and finding it personally irrelevant. So I dropped out and picked two european, one asian and one american online sources of information... much better and free.
The only thing that I want to know locally are: Laws that are either up for a vote or a review, development, a laundry list of things to do (no reviews, I'll find out for myself) and a crime-map... something like a topo or isobaric map of where crime is occuring and what kinds.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Bike Plan 2030
I'd like to see BP'30 linked to a required increase in ridership. If it doesn't generate a significant increase in riders, benefitting the environment as well as car-commuters, there's no benefit in doing it.
If ridership doesn't increase sufficiently to offset the additional carbon-load generated by building BP'30, then it's a net negative environmentally and we need to walk away.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Stuff
Check ur math... 90 billion :-)
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Stuff
So the point is that we should reduce consumption... that's cool, then the people we buy stuff from wouldn't have any way to make a living at all and they could starve to death faster?
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Stuff
Buying less? Avoiding more stuff? Yes, but that's more a response to recent tax increases than anything else.
What my stuff says about us? Hmmm... my wife hoards then purges print materials at regular intervals and I tend to hoard books worth re-reading and wood/metal materials in my shop... never know when you'll need a small piece of wood to patch the squirrel house. We both hoard family/friends/travel photographs on storage media.
Do we think about how it fits into the bigger social/ecological picture? No.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Family Finances
:-) I felt the same way until I realized that money represented hours and days of my life... and that not understanding it, not respecting it, not putting it to work for me was disrespecting the work I put in to earn it in the first place.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Family Finances
I'm fortunate in that I had parents who knew how to save (and had money to save), they taught us by example how to use money as a tool to get what you want or to make more money.
So how do you explain the importance of debt mangement to your broke 20-something? You do it long before they are a broke 20-something.
My wife and I agreed to continue that tradition. Now that the kids have mastered basic math and under the agreement that family finances are kept strictly within the family, we have bi-monthly family budget meetings and open the books.
Showing them where the money goes (taxes, mortgage, credit cards, utilities, food, etc.) has prompted some interesting discussions on the basic concepts of things like taxes, loans and how to best spend whatever is left (e.g., short vs. long term gratification). It's not perfect, some concepts I take for granted are bloody hard to explain and we don't always leave the table in agreement, but the kids generally like having their interests heard and considered.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on An Hour With Al Gore
I'd like to ask the ex-Vice President why I should take any climate change solutions seriously when the issue at the core of the problem is not addressed... too many people!
As politically uncomfortable as it is, I don't see a long-term solution without a plan to first stabilize and then reduce our numbers. A sustainable plan for a 6B-person planet is untenable for a 9B-person planet. We can talk "green" all we want, until we offer incentives to put the planet above our personal biological imperitives, it means little if anything.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Race and Representation
I pay about as much attention to their ethnic/racial/gender/sexual background as to what they say while campaigning... which is nothing.
I'm not a herd animal... What's important to me is how a person thinks, acts and whether or not they deliver results.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on Future of Public Higher Ed
Take it another step... buy a piece of Johnny's future as a venture capitalist. Would be interesting to see the statistics in what degree's people would prefer funding. :-)
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on Future of Public Higher Ed
The original purpose of a university education is irrelevant today... well-rounded people who are on the gov't teat are boat-anchors to the rest of us. It IS about getting a job and holding up your end, whether that be health care costs, paying down the debt, social services and, yes, University subsidies.
Yes there are people with liberal art's degree's that are successful... more that are not.
Off-Topic: Might want to exercise care in characterizing the mass of people without degree's as racist or sexist, makes a person appear to be one of those elite closet bigots that is all for equality, but wouldn't want an uneducated minority as a neighbor... really weakens your position and has nothing to do with the topic.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on Future of Public Higher Ed
A university education is not a right... I wouldn't support any new funding for universities until:
- Extracurricular activities (e.g., all sports programs, stadiums, pools, gyms and any other programs not directly related to a degree program) are fully self-supporting.
- Curricula breadth are right-sized to those skills society needs most: Technical skills, the Sciences and Teaching.
It's easy to say that we should raise property taxes and drive retiree's out of their homes, or put a sales tax in place (yes, I'll buy less) or increase income taxes (I'll buy even less).
I see the universities with their hand out, what I don't see is an effort to make them more relevant to today's society... stuck in the 60's just like General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were (until recently). The largesse of egalitarianism is dead, it's not affordable, let's get over it and move on.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on Tax Referrals
I was approached by the signature gatheres and I signed... and I'll vote to repeal the tax increases. I'm tired of expansive programs being put in place during good times that require income tax increases during difficult times (that don't expire, so it sets the cycle up to repeat itself).
Cut them or find a tax with a net positive incentive... I'd vote for a $0.50/gal gas tax increase in a heartbeat.
In the meantime, my wife and I decided that for every $1 taxes go up in the future, we're going to cut back local spending $3 and are encouraging friends/neighbors to do the same. We've already dropped our yard maintenance service as a result of the property tax increases this year.
As we are in the minority the income tax targets, we see a progressive boycott of Oregon businesses as the only way to be heard above the cacophony crying for their services.
posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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