Category: seriously

Yesterday Multnomah County Residents voted to reject a public takeover of Portland General Electric.

Fools…

Fortunately, PGE and its parent company Enron (yes, Enron), spent $2,000,000 fighting the PUD, airing advertisements that a PUD would raise electric rates. The advertisements didn’t mention that your electric rates will increase to cover the $2,000,000 spent to prevent its takeover. They also didn’t mention that PGE was owned by Enron, and that Enron is bankrupt, and could sell off PGE’s assets to pay its creditors. They also didn’t mention that the Public Employment Retirement System lost a butt-load of state money because Enron is a sham.

I was hopeful that something like this could pass in PDX. I was hopeful that the “green team” of board members I selected would have brought us a bright, clean, and equitable future. I was also hopeful that the PUD would eventually provide internet access as a utility, making it affordable to more people.

But you have to realize, I don’t care about paying more for electricity. I turn out my lights. I only heat my house to 65ºF, I have low energy appliances, I pay extra to use Renewable Energy. And I don’t consider Hydro-electric renewable. Conservation may just be a “personal virtue”, but it didn’t kill anyone this year.

Oakley is no longer with us.

Oakley was a surprise birthday present for my mom. My dad planned a covert camping trip around getting her. After canoeing for the weekend, they stopped by a breeder in Granite Falls. She was the least hyper of the bunch, and was absolutely adorable. She was a wonderful dog, and led a wonderful life. Early on however, there were some bumps. She managed to eek by parvo as a puppy and was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. She managed past those hurdles, and was active up until this, her 14th year.

Anyone who has smelled it can attest that she had the worst gas in the world. Her farts quickly befouled rooms. Changes in diet, carbon pills, even voodoo couldn’t mellow the paint stripping ability of her farts. Funny how something like this becomes endearing.

Oakely loved walks. She’d start dancing when she’d see the red leash, and though she didn’t need it, was comfortable on it. At ease around other dogs, she’d generally mind her own; exploring smells, or fixating on the log pile where there might be mice. She was also gentle. On a trip to Canyonlands, she caught a blue skink. She was just as shocked to catch it as the skink was, and dropped it immediately. The skink lost its tail; a self defense mechanism, but managed away safely. She blended in well in the desert. Red.

As she aged, white patches developed around her happy eyes. Her constant smile showed how friendly she was. She even put up with Barley, the little bastard dog who always wanted to play. We thought Barley might kill her over the month she lived with us in an apartment, but she managed to ignore him, occasionally bark to let him know her feelings.

Dad and I would take her on backpacking trips, and she’d carry her own bags. Even with hip dysplasia, she managed to hike long distances, often many times over as she’d run up and down the trail, often cutting the back of our legs with her backpack.

Oakley was an amazing soul. Such happiness, patience, and love. If only we could all share her disposition.

I’ve posted a small gallery and hope to add to it.

My sister received a call two weeks ago from a family friend. It was the ex-husband who was trying to reach my parents. His former wife was having problems with her chemotherapy, and was getting very sick quickly. She’d had, and known about her melanoma for several years, but had made amazing strides to accomplish something with her time. She’d finished law school after the divorce, raised two children, and has been very active in domestic violence law since.

My parents met her while volunteering at a women’s shelter. They’ve both been active in forwarding domestic violence awareness, and have had a wonderful friendship during that time. Its sad to hear of her death, but warming to know someone who has made the most of her turn, and shed some light into the lives of so many.

Last night I was listening to Fresh Air on the drive home and heard one of the most grotesquely tailored propaganda flings by American’s for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist. He avoided using the word Estate, and simply referred to the “Death” tax over and over. Then he likened the estate tax to the holocaust, including the government “removing the gold from your teeth” when you die. The host, Teri Gross, confronted him on the comparison, but Mr. Norquist stood by his example, then continued by likening the tax to apartheid. When the government selects a small group of people (say, multi-millionaires) to target for something like an estate tax, you’re basically committing ethnocide….

I had to laugh, but then I got scared because this guy has been very important in formulating many of the country’s economic policies. Sure, I make absurd references like this when I drink too much, but they’re always meant to be inflammatory and, well, absurd. This guy is serious about these comparisons. He manages to balance out the Nazi references with some communist references when he likens the estate tax to the ideologies and practices of East Germany in the 1950s. At least we’re getting a full spectrum of bullshit.

If you’d like to taste for yourself, Listen here.

Is America Becoming Fascist? The argument can certainly be made, but the conclusion is unsettling. Yes, it is hard to fight the feeling that government exists for business’ benefit, yes it seems that propoganda is an ever-present force in our lives, and yes it seems that no one notices or cares.

John Stewart of the Daily Show put together a hilarious debate between President Bush of 2003 and Gov. Bush of 2000 on nation building, etc. I’ve been wondering when all his isolationist views of yore would come back, and its finally come:
http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/

Its labeled as the Bush vs. Bush debate.

Portland wants a Major League Baseball team. Portland teachers are working 10 unpaid days this year. Hot Pepper, a cool local design firm has great tie in, and bumpersticker.

Happy Earth Day!

I’ve been reading Rod Nash’s Rights of Nature, which discusses the greening of politics, religion, philosophy and such. Today’s reading included a discussion on the extension of rights to non-humans. We currently extend rights to our citizens, but how about non-citizens, or animals, or plants, or the soil? What rights do these beings have? A right to a clean and safe environment? A right to exist?

The father of Earth Day, Gaylord Nelson tried to ammend the Constitution to guarantee every American “an inalienable right to a decent environment.” Seems like a good start to me. Besides, Nature has a will to exist that supercedes our delegation of rights. We probably won’t be around to see it though.

PATRIOTISM means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him in so far as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth–whether about the President or about any one else–save in the rare cases where this would make known to the enemy information of military value which would otherwise be unknown to him.

The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, volume XIX, The Great Adventure

Thoreau didn’t pay his taxes. Gandhi fasted until the violence ended. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of, and wielded the sword that heals. 20,000+ flood downtown Portland asking for peace.

The greatest leaders affect change without deciding who must die. To deny the natural urge for violent action is something we should strive for. I pray that its is something that we as humans are capable of.