Posted inNews

The Road Less Traveled: The campaign to protect unroaded forests gets torn apart by a Wyoming judge in 'half-assed retirement'

The campaign to protect unroaded forests gets torn apart by a Wyoming judge in 'half-assed retirement'.

The environmentalists' boogeyman walks with tiny, uncertain steps. He's 87 years old, suffers from an arthritic knee and worries about stumbling and falling down. He's also slowly shrinking – he lost an inch and 24 pounds over the last three years, so now he's only 5 feet 6 and 120 pounds. But today he's looking flashy, spicing up his beige suit with a nicely coordinated daffodil-yellow shirt and an amber-hued bow tie.
The Honorable Clarence Addison Brimmer Jr., federal judge for the district of Wyoming, speaks softly and carefully even when kidding around. Don't call him Clarence, he says. “Guys who are named Clarence always have a nickname. It's just one of those things – a cross I have to bear. … 'Bud' – that's been my nickname for a hundred years, that's what my mother called me.”

Posted inMusic

We Got GWARed!

It was the night before Thanksgiving and the fake bodily fluids were flowing throughout the Midtown, where we sent photographer Ben Murphy to document the almost-annual show from alien shock rockers GWAR. The band arrived on stage, each member in their now-infamous costumes and proceeded to play largely filthy rock and roll music, but most of the fun was to be had in taking in the giant inflatable robot aliens and, again, getting covered in goo. Here are some sights Murphy captured at the show.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for 12/2 – 12/10: Oregon’s Civil War, First Friday Art Walk, Rise, Willy Vlautin

What to do in Central Oregon the week of 12/2 – 12/10/2009.

Civil War
thursday 3
This is a first: The Civil War, the annual football battle between the Ducks and Beavers is being played on a Thursday night. Also, this 113th installation of the game is bigger than ever, with the winner receiving a spot in the Rose Bowl. Several spots in Bend are showing the game on a big screen, including McMenamins Old St. Francis School and the Tower Theatre, but there's even more places to go, so check out our Events Calendar for complete listings. Also, keep an eye on twitter.com/sourceweekly for Anne Pick's live updates from trip to the game. Game kicks off at 6pm on ESPN.

Posted inOpinion

Oregon's Chutzpah Champ

The Source Weekly gives Bill Sizemore THE BOOT.

Up to now, the ultimate example of “chutzpah” has been the guy who murders his parents, then begs the court for mercy on the grounds that he's an orphan. But Bill Sizemore has topped it: “Chutzpah” is a guy who gets convicted of racketeering, spends time in jail for contempt, gets indicted for tax evasion … and runs for governor.
Sizemore, who now resides in Redmond, for about a decade made a living – and a damn good one – by pushing anti-tax and anti-union ballot measures. He was bankrolled largely by a pair of right-wing sugar daddies, Jeld-Wen founder Dick Wendt and eccentric multimillionaire Loren Parks of Nevada.

Posted inOpinion

Holy Huck!: Seattle's cop killer saga, a reality TV rant and the perils of plastic surgery

Seattle's cop killer saga, a reality TV rant and the perils of plastic surgery.

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from the White House, trying to explain to Secret Service how he crashed Malia and Sasha Obama's pajama party, wearing a violet tubetop and Hawaiian grass skirt, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.

Did anyone see a different ending to this? Maurice Clemmons was shot and killed in south Seattle early Tuesday, after walking into a coffee shop and shooting four cops dead on Sunday. Following several standoffs and cops arresting an undisclosed number of people who had “helped” Clemmons (which will surely help relations between locals and cops, and prevent a similar episode in the future), this is how most cop killings end – killed by cops. Yet Clemmons is a special kind of psycho: Reportedly, he forced his relatives to undress, to be “naked for at least five minutes on Sunday” and believed he was Jesus and could fly; in May, Clemmons punched a sheriff's deputy in the face.

Posted inOpinion

All Smoke and No Heat

I really get tired of all the conspiracy theories about the Twin Towers and how some of our government officials somehow blew up the buildings. When I learned about the construction technique used, I wondered how they passed New York city building codes. Then I found out that government buildings don't need to meet city building codes. So some egotistical building architect decided that his building should be completely open with no interior walls. So they used floor trusses. These thing will not support much weight. You have seen in the news where big box store roofs fail when the roof drains get plugged or have a heavy snow load. These trusses are made of tubing with plywood for the floor. When the planes hit the buildings, the load from the plane and the water from the sprinkler system were too much for the trusses to hold. Once one failed, it just compounded the problem. The more weight (that dropped) each floor the faster the whole building collapsed.

Posted inOpinion

Obama's Risky Decision

In a couple of days president Obama will speak to the nation to announce his Afghanistan strategy. Presumably, he will tell us that several thousand more troops will be part of it. With the signing of that authorization of additional soldiers Mr. Obama will have become what we were hoping he would never be: a “war president.”
Little will be known of what went on in those “war council meetings” when military advisers and all sort of other “experts” convened around this young president. I am reminded of imagined accounts of what the truculent military advisers told president Kennedy as he pondered what to do with the Soviet build up in Cuba in 1961 – end-of-the-world scenarios were described in detail to impress JFK and hopefully force him to react with the “only” weapon the Soviets would respect – The Bomb! Kennedy, according to so many accounts, resisted and opted for the naval blockade that eventually remedied the crisis. Maybe President Obama will have the same clarity of mind as he makes his decision.

Posted inCulture

Fever Pitch: Tekken 6 holds its own but holes remain

Tekken 6 holds its own but holes remain

I'm not sure if it's THE flu or H1N1 that I've got, but I'm doing fine now, thank you. I rather liked the term “Swine Flu,” because right now, feeling better, I'm pigging out.
Anyway, it's about as backhanded as a compliment can get, but one of the best things that I can say about Tekken 6 is that it held my attention in the midst of a flame-bright flu while brawling, head-to-head, one of videogaming's greatest icons.

Posted inFood & Drink

Collateral Damage

Cocktailing with The Blacksmith’s Columbine Quillen.

There are few ways that you can attempt not to pay for your drinks. While the bartender has your attention, you can break your neighbor's highball so that she has to clean up ice cubes, slivers of glass, and spilled whiskey and seven. And while her head is turned, you can play Houdini and disappear. Or you can give her a bunk credit card to open a tab. Or you can wad up your money up so tight that it takes so much time to unfold it that when she is aware she has been shorted, you have gone awol. But if that she is me, I will find you and make you pay, Nothing makes me madder than someone trying to pull the wool over my eyes. I have pursued unpaid bar tabs to other bars, I have filed charges against people with stolen or fraudulent credit cards, and I have even hunted down two grown men to find them huddled blocks away in their tiny barren apartment to make them pay me for two Irish Car Bombs.

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