There was this annoyingly triumphant song we used to sing in school about what a keen place Oregon was back in 1915 or so, and even as a kid I thought it was weird. The chorus ended with, “Forward on and on… Hail to thee, land of heroes, my O-re-gon.” Never mind that the lyricist [...]
I recently read a ridiculous “analysis” of the 2012 election that stated, not entirely incorrectly, that it amounted to a contest not of political philosophies but of purchasing preferences: Cracker Barrel vs. Whole Foods. Great swaths of data were trotted out about the voting habits of those residing near one or the other of these [...]
The jaw-dropping lack of accountability prevalent among our elites, no matter how enormous and damaging their quite public failures, has led seemingly reasonable people who ought to know better to, virtually en masse, unintentionally embrace the ludicrous farce that in my family we call the Gravy Boat Theory. Only with them, it’s a lot less [...]
Whenever I’m working out of town, it’s always a treat to listen to a different lefty talk station; when I was in Napa over Thanksgiving I tuned in daily to Green 960, a San Francisco-based Clear Channel station which, though lacking any local programming, has a good mix of national shows I don’t generally hear [...]
Here’s a Portland picture I found at Digby, and it’s my old bank branch, where they used to retroactively explain their many fees to me. Nice to know somebody’s got their back.
They’re everywhere – these little men. No tendentious description of the phenomenon is required, nor is a detailed and boring historical context necessary, since they (like the poor) “have always been with us.” But the sudden “surge” of poseurs, fakers, demagogues, deadbeats, and crooks stands out right now, as our vaunted world economy teeter-totters, [...]
In the aftermath of the of the rout of OccupyPortland yesterday afternoon, I decided to take a look at the oft-touted “damage” to the parks. Peering through the hastily installed cyclone fences at a crew of city workers, who had doffed the ever-so-telegenic masks worn by the earlier invaders, all I saw was what any [...]
Lots of people don’t realize that the little town of Lewiston, Idaho, is a seaport, partly because it seems impossible that a spot hundreds of miles inland that no one’s ever heard of could be so. Such skepticism is entirely warranted; Lewiston wasn’t, in fact a port until the completion of four taxpayer-funded dams on [...]
Back in 1928 the Supreme Court, in Olmstead v. United States, upheld a decision that was not only a boneheaded travesty at the time, but has some pretty horrifying implications for today, in a time of social unrest against a corrupted and lawless government. In his sadly prescient dissenting opinion, Justice Brandeis wrote: (emphases mine) [...]
Well, if this whole 99% thing has accomplished anything worthwhile, it’s shown the world that Republicans are, truly, only on the side of the 1%, and they’re no longer the least bit shy about saying so. Gone are they days of sending $200 checks to the hoi polloi to soften the blow of such wanton [...]