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My first thoughts were what else has or will Adams lie about? Can we trust Adams to carry out his responsibilities with integrity? Recognizing that people make mistakes I would wait before politically tossing Adams under Max. Let's give Adams a chance to redeem himself if he's done nothing illegal. Let's review the results from an investigation and allow justice to work.

posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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The symbol of Obama's presidency is seen when Obama channels Lincoln and Dr. King. Obama picks up threads that have yet to be woven into the fabric of our "more perfect union". Lincoln helped abolish physical slavery. Dr. King told us ALL people must strive to overcome their mental slavery. Obama says his presidency isn't about himself, it's about us. I believe that.

People the world over expect, need, hope beyond reason that one man, Obama, is going to fix their problems. Balderdash! Each of us shares the responsibility for bringing light into the world.

We can't rely on "leaders", individuals, or the "cult of personality" to fix our self-inflicted problems. I dislike our tendency to place the shining star on a pedestal for 15 minutes before we rip them down and throw them away.

Obama's competency will be diluted by forces of stupidity, ignorance and fear that work against us all. As long as we hang onto "rich get richer, poor get poorer"; as long as we cling to our self-entitled pursuit of the good life no matter the cost; as long as we think ourselves righteous while others are ignorant; we will never overcome the inefficiency built into our way of being.

If we continue to cling to the "rules" established in the past ALL of us will continue to be mental slaves and the "perfection of our union" will remain a dream.

We overcome spiritual and mental slavery by understanding the causes and nature of suffering, and improving the way we interact with each other and everything.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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Whether civil rights have improved depends upon your perception of reality. Those who bump into enlightenment suffer differently from those who are blocked, or block themselves, from experiencing fulfillment.

As long as we continue to allow poverty, suffering and injustice, I will continue to ruminate on George Carlin's acerbic indictment of humanity: "Humans are an evolutionary cul-de-sac...a failed mutation the Earth will shake off like a bad case of fleas."

While it's fun to channel George it's important to remain patient and keep talking about "civil rights", "humaneness", "justice", and how we do or don't relate to each other. We acknowledge there will always be need for improvement.

In some ways we move forward (more interracial couples and less overt racism). In some ways we move backwards (people behave politically correct as they obscure their nefarious agendas.)

I hope Dr. King, my parents, and the ghostly progenitors of our collective enlightenment witness Obama's arrival. Whether Obama is a competent president is almost superceded by the [b]symbol[/b] of his presidency.

Many have stated, "I never thought I'd live to see a minority president." That statement in itself shows us that we have many miles to climb before we reach the mountain top. Let's keep rising together.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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The Invisible hear Herbie Hancock or Miles Davis blow by on the wind as they commune with ghosts of their ancestors revivified. In this music are encoded thousands of years of earth, soul, passion, suffering and ultimately, the unfaltering transcendence toward a complete way of being.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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What is the purpose of higher education?

Are Oregon's public higher education institutions meeting their objectives?

Are graduates receiving the education and skills they need to be successful?

Do graduates feel their degrees are worth what they paid for them?

How about a simple equation for funding education discussion:
1/3 paid by student, 1/3 paid by state, 1/3 paid by corporations.

College education used to be provided free to California residents. Why aren't we imaginative enough to provide free college for everybody who is academically qualified?

Why aren't schools at every level turning out academically capable and curious students?

Do corporations pay their fair share for future employees?

Do universities provide corporations with well-prepared graduates?

Does society receive fair value from graduates?

Are we wasting native talent by sending jobs overseas?

Do we think global competition is more beneficial than global cooperation over the long term? Only when we cooperate are we able to navigate successfully through uncertainty.

I graduated from OSU in 1985. Several of my engineering and computer science instructors returned to private industry to receive better pay and use their skill sets before they became obsolete.

OSU lacked the resources to adequately prepare all the students enrolled in engineering. To gain admittance to the last two years of [b]professional engineering[/b], a student had to meet the GPA criteria of 3.5 or above depending on the discipline.

Some of the most challenging courses were taught by graduate students. While the graduate students may have been intellectually and personally top notch, many of them were not skilled educators. I paid a lot for my education and was frustrated that I had to do extra work to get onto the same page as my instructors.

I lament that I learned how to satisfy [b]the system[/b] instead of retaining what I supposedly "learned". I fought hard to pass the tests and graduate instead of obtaining a positive college experience.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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Sorry, I posted this in the wrong place.

How effectively does ODOT use tax dollars to repair highways? I see a lot of ruts and grooves in Oregon's paved roads. How much does highway maintenance and improvement really cost?

Also let's consider that there are a lot of lighter vehicle drivers compared to fewer heavy vehicles, so it seems that a weight and fuel efficiency should be considered in the highway maintenance tax equation.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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Amen!

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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Think mileage tax is a bad idea. What's wrong with gas tax? Why not raise gas tax that's already in place? I'm concerned about loss of personal privacy and being tracked. I don't trust the state to protect or respect our privacy. Worried about the cost of implementing and maintaining GPS based system. Lots of single points of failure: tracking satellite, fuel station equipment, vehicle equipment could fail individually or collectively. What about the cost of replacing obsolete technology? Concerned that mileage tax shifts cost of road repair to individuals who drive lighter, fuel-efficient vehicles from corporations. Register your thoughts on the governor's website:

[url]http://governor.oregon.gov/Gov/contact_us.shtml[/url]

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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The world doesn't evolve around us. Nor does "doing what you're supposed to do" necessarily lead to a life well lived. Let's recognize there are infinite paths for living a fulfilled life. The trick is discovering the most effective path for each individual.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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I don't know how Oregon stacks up with other states. I lived in hilly Hood River for six years and there was more snow there than in Portland. Hood River uses lots of gravel along with plows, but it was imperative to learn how to drive on snow or accept being bound indoors.

I don't think Portland or Oregon should spend more on dealing with snow than we do. I hate the idea of salt which pollutes run-off water, rusts cars. I'd prefer that Oregonians be better prepared for Winter. Have chains, know how to install them. Learn how to drive on snow and ice. When I was in high school I practised driving on snow and ice in empty parking lots. Not only good fun but I learned how the vehicle behaves when it loses traction.

I feel bad for Oregon's highways when people roll on studs from November to April while inclement weather lasts two or three days. This cold weather snap is unusual, not typical.

Unfortunately, it's hard to teach how to drive on snow when it doesn't happen that often here. That's probably our biggest disadvantage to overcome.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Wednesday Ideas:

Dumbing down society. When I go to the store I notice the Oregonian's cover page usually has a big sports picture on the front page. I realize the Oregonian is fighting to stay alive by capturing eyeballs, but I prefer the old journalism standard of putting news on the front page. There is local and world news happening that affects us. Why isn't more news on the Oregonian's front page (and the rest of the paper for that matter)?

Why are there hundreds of channels of cable and satellite television where there is little useful content, and why are we paying to be advertised to? Why don't we rebel against this? Why is cable, satellite and Internet connectivity in Portland so expensive? (Because we're stupid enough to pay for it?) I would prefer being able to buy the channels I want to watch (without commercials). Disclosure: I don't have cable but I surfed through the channels when I stayed at a hotel recently. The dearth of useful content is alarming. Do most people plop down in front of the telly and vege out? I prefer to watch show like [b]Pimp This Old Crib[/b] so I can learn how to rebuild sash windows and what not.

Watched the remake of [b]The Day The Earth Stood Still[/b] and was completely bored too tears by Neo's monotone, but the story carries a great and important message. Why are so many movies today remakes of stories already told? (Hollywood will make money rolling out remakes of old films for new generations.) What was your favourite movie of 2008? Why?

(Why does this blog's spell checker have a British flavour? I love it - please don't change it. I'm not giving up my zees for sesses though. In America we spell it prioritize not prioritise, well, unless the A.P. Style Guide or the Queen dictates otherwise. I'm so confused.)

How are you going to change your life in 2009 to make your life, or the lives of those in your sphere of influence better? I'm not talking about resolutions which won't be fulfilled either.

Can the war on terrorism actually be won? Is it possible to get rid of our nuclear weapons without being blown to smithereens? I think it is possible. I think the U.S. should rid itself of nuclear weapons in 2009. A naive gamble? Probably. But let's get serious about dealing with this problem. Let's take a bold leap forward to borrow a concept from our Chinese cousins. Nukes can't really be used or all life on the planet is forfeit. Might as well nip the problem before it occurs. The longer we have nukes the more probable their use. Our good change of behaviour might positively affect the behaviour of our neighbours. Hell, I can dream can't I?

How about boogers as biofuel? Never mind.

Oh, oh, oh, Ohhhhh! (Sam Kinnison) Can we live without cell phones? Are cell phones the most fundamental invention since the auto? Do people need to wear their blinking LED Borg ear phones in theatres? I saw a guy backing up his Hummer on a sheet of ice last night whilst jabbering to his trophy "grillfiend" on his mobile. (Idiot!) I felt deficient as a human for not being able to multi-task and be as successful as that dood.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Employers lay off people due to fear and greed. Executives shed employees when the bottom lines of their spreadsheets sets off alarms. Executives want to hold onto cash. Executives lay off employees and still receive their executive pay and perks.

Employees suffer a decrease in morale and security. The spectre of being fired makes it harder to focus on work when fear and instability permeate the work place. It's hard to consider buying a house or other big-ticket items when there is fear that you can lose your job and not be able to easily get another with similar or better pay.

I speculate that many saw house prices rising faster than their ability to pay for them, so they bought houses with a "damn the torpedos" mindset and "hoped" for good fortune, a stroke from a rabbit's foot, and a touch of fairy dust. They didn't read or understand the mortgage contracts they affixed their signatures to. Couple this with Wall Street's shenanigans and we've added the straw the breaks the economy's back. We create our insecurity.

Few companies save for rainy days such that they could keep their employees for two or three years without resorting to firings or layoffs.

Make a distinction between being laid off which implies that employees can get their jobs back, and being fired which means employees will not be rehired. Let's rid ourselves of euphemisms like "pink slip" or "redundancy" and face the consequences of our actions.

Our society's boom and bust mentality creates corporations who scale depending on the urgency of the moment. Most businesses are not designed for slower sustainable growth due to threats from competition and economic climate.

It is proven that businesses must get their ideas or products sold to consumers before copy cats pile on and dilute the profit base. People generally create businesses to make money hand over fist. Business owners decide the balance between maximizing profit and treating employees like humans instead of interchangeable widgets.

I dislike that people have become easily disposable factors of production. I've never seen compelling evidence that our "trickle down" economy works to the benefit of the majority over the long term.

We create insecurity, inefficiency and the inability to effectively sustain ourselves due to short-sighted and poorly thought out plans. This life we choose is [b]Koyaanisqatsi[/b].

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi[/url]

We want everything and we want it now. We have chosen instant gratification over the slower, less stressful, more sustainable, "save for what you want instead of buying it with credit cards" ethos. This is one factor contributing to our economy's collapse.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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We can throw all the recyclable materials and their pallets into the ocean until we fill them up. Turn the oceans into "land" so we can build 5,000 square foot condos for everybody, golf courses, gated communities, and Respectable Street....

I've written many times about the need to conserve, or not buy stuff in the first place. We must drill into ourselves the necessity of producing less waste in the first place. Recession will help me cut back on everything quite nicely.

We must change our diets so we have fewer packaging materials to recycle or toss. Yams and green beans come in their own nature-made packaging materials - how nice. Big Macs come with sacks, napkins and wrappers - lots of waste.

Reuse plastic and paper bags over and over and over and over. Used plastic bags and old socks today to cover water faucets before the upcoming, end of the world, big freeze, super storm this weekend.

Do almost everything on line so about all I get is junk mail. But even the junk mailers are having to cut back due to the faltering economy. You can quash receiving physical phone books by following this link:

[url]http://www.amandafritz.com/node/1614[/url]

Recently got my rolley bins which make me all warm, fuzzy and verklempt....

All the recycling in one bin instead of having to meticulously sort. The rollies are large which prompt me to recycle more but I don't move the recycling to curb but once a month now.

I'm painfully conscious that I still produce too much waste by eating fast food and not using my cloth bags instead of the stores' plastic and paper bags. Bad, trurl9, bad!

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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I was born in Portland, OR. and consider myself a "stalled resident". What that means is there are lots of unnecessary glass ceilings, walls and floors to crash through. I visualize America fulfilling it's potential. We will judge people based on their character instead of their ideology, religion, sexuality, race, etc. We will take care of people rather than throwing them away. We will take care of this planet. We will end our marriage to the illusory and elusive "American Dream". Let's replace the American Dream with the American Reality and make it available to everyone, equitably and ethically.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Why do we feel the need that we have to protect ourselves? Can our society be fixed such that owning guns for personal security becomes irrelevant?

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Isn't part of the reason to carry a concealed gun deterrence? Deterrence from the standpoint that bad apples might think twice before accosting people or property because they don't know who is defending themselves and who isn't. The bad guys don't register their weapons or apply for concealed gun permits generally so why should the good apples be penalized for playing by the rules? It's my business whether I have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The public doesn't need to know this. No publicizing concealed weapons licenses. Our privacy is being eroded too much in general.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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What is the status of development for making nuclear waste safer to handle? I heard about "expensive glass log" processing years ago but I haven't heard anything since. Did the Bush administration and Congress cut Hanford clean-up funding?

[url]http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/248373_hanford15.html[/url]

If Congress is considering bailing out auto makers with $25 billion or more, isn't there $5 or $10 billion to finish cleaning up Hanford? What are the correct priorities?

Come to think of it, why isn't there a list of priority projects, their costs, and their estimated time-to-completion on a government web site?

I praise Gregoire and McKenna for again taking action to attempt to motivate the federal government to do its job. A lawsuit might motivate Obama's administration to set Hanford cleanup at the highest priority. Squeaky chew-toy politicians might get some needed grease. This suit will hopefully be settled out of court quickly, and the clean up will continue.

I would like nuclear energy and weapons banned from this planet. I say this from the perspective of one who briefly studied nuclear engineering in college and who has operated a small nuclear research reactor.

Nuclear energy is a neat way to boil water but its risks far outweigh its short-term benefits. There are no long-term benefits. Nuclear plants sit as targets for extremists and militarists. It's really neat when nuclear plants are built over geologic faults which make them susceptible to being damaged by earthquakes. Aren't we expecting a "big one" earthquake in the future?

Over time the probability of nuclear accidents increase. Human error is a factor that can never be fully eliminated. Once a nuclear accident spreads beyond the confines of a facility the damage is near impossible to repair. Chernobyl comes to mind.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster[/url]

There should not be a class of people called "down winders" living near Hanford. Human-made radioactivity should not be present in the Columbia River. Our government is failing in its obligation to protect people.

As long as nuclear weapons exist the probability that they will be used again increases. We simply must find a safer way to provide ourselves energy and we must change our way of being to eliminate war. Humans will not survive if they do not address these issues immediately.

Having lived and windsurfed in Hood River the health of the Columbia River and all that it affects will remain active in my conscience.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Is it possible to amend the rules so that "earthquake" and "flood" insurance actually covers all the damage incurred? Most insurance policies have heaps of tiny print which describes what is [b]NOT[/b] covered. The devil is in the details.

Insurance companies should be required to provide to customers plain-language policies which clearly state, "If your property is damaged by a flood or earthquake we will pay for the repair or replacement of the property in full." Of course the property's value has to be accurately assessed and appropriately covered, etceteras, etceteras.

My concern is that insurance consumers will not be treated fairly if a region suffers a Katrina, San Andreas, Cascadia, or Godzilla versus New York type of catastrophe.

Consider that several insurance companies have invested insurance premiums in the stock market. You might want to check your insurance company's financial ratings and news. Take the ratings with a grain of salt because they probably refer to statutory minimums, not stress-tested real-life ability to respond to severe losses.

Standard and Poor's Insurance Company Ratings link:

[url]http://www2.standardandpoors.com/portal/site/sp/en/us/page.topic/ratings_fs_ins/2,1,5,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.html[/url]

If the Northwest were struck by the Big One, would insurance companies be able to fulfil their policy obligations? A Cascadia earthquake might cause several trillion in damages in the Northwest.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Let's eliminate the department of revenue by revamping the tax code to a simpler and fairer system for everyone.

Let's make sure tax dollars are spent effectively as possible. I'm not impressed that we pay 54% for an education system that produces half-educated children or worse. It's not the education system's fault though.

Our society is in decline or failure.

Our society would require fewer "safety nets" if resources were more equitably distributed. Virtually all the money is in the hands of the rich while the unwashed mass fights for rotting scraps.

Provide people jobs that pay wages that allow them to effectively live here.

It's hard to pay your mortgage when you are made redundant several times in a row.

If you look at the balance sheets of many corporations you can see they're hoarding cash. At the first hints of trouble corporations lay off people.

People have become disposable as trash and I don't think that bodes well for our society over the long term.

Have fun talking about your special interest pork and your budget cuts. In my opinion you're spitting into the wind and not solving society's unresolved base problems.

Militarism and the military industrial complex must be retired. It is a system that leads to failure, totalitarianism and suffering.

Fundamentalist [religiousity] must give way to compassion and intelligence.

Television and mass media must be allowed to go out of business. Stop watching and listening to sources that charge you for advertising. Don't buy advertised stuff that is bogus.

When are we going to stop being stupid? We enthusiastically accelerate our demise.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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Doesn't "sustainable" mean sustainable? I don't think we should change the definition to meet our needs. Call electric cars something other than sustainable because they aren't. That's okay. You have truth when you call a thing what it really is.

Don't get too scared by the fear mongering of scientists and the media who are woefully short of being informed of the entire truth. Yes, we should reduce our carbon footprint, but we've got to do many things at once to get there.

Electric cars are relatively unimportant given that we haven't addressed the issue that we Americans use too much energy. Many of the new digital televisions consume more energy than what they replace. In February 2009 a lot of people are going to replace perfectly working analog televisions with digital counterparts and we'll throw away or recycle a lot of valuable resources that we shouldn't be spending the energy to convert in the first place.

Michael Pollan in [b]Defense of Food[/b] describes that people are getting less healthy and mentally sicker because we have taken to bad eating from the health, spirit and social perspectives. We eat in our cars as we hurry to get somewhere we've convinced ourselves we need to be. We eat processed foods. We eat things our great grandmothers wouldn't know as food.

Michael suggests we go through the hard work of growing our food or become better informed consumers of food so that we can appreciate what effort is truly required to maintain our personal infrastructures. Basically Michael is saying we need to reconnect to the Earth that nurtures us instead of paving it over to meet our perceived convenience.

What I'm saying is there is a lot we can do before we laud electric cars or any other new technologies as the way out of our energy dilemma. I'm surprised when I realize how many products I can unplug. I don't need the stereo. I don't need the television. If I want to conserve energy and reduce my carbon footprint I need to get serious about it.

There are lots of things I can do without new technology to reduce my footprint in this planet's back side. How much carbon would we remove if we didn't eat so much red meat? Deep down I know I don't need to eat meat to survive. Over time meat has become a convenience more than a necessity. If I want to get serious about being sustainable on this planet I need to make better decisions. I need to replace my lazy action and thinking with a more holistic, mindful and sensitive approach.

Humans must become more sensitive of their impact on Earth and on each other. We can't continue doing what we [i]want[/i] to do because our selfish interests have consequences beyond our immediate fulfilment.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti technology, I am anti stupidity. Let's stop reacting and knee jerking by implementing poorly thought out solutions. Let's take a moment and re-evaluate what is really beneficial versus what is not. There is a lot we can do without re-inventing the wheel.

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
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