Editorial

What’s the best cure for alcoholism? More martinis!
It sounds crazy, and it is. But it’s no crazier than the garbage being spewed by America’s gun cultists in the wake of last week’s horrific massacre in a Colorado movie theater.
A young man clad in SWAT-team black, his hair dyed a weird shade of orange, walked in when the theater was packed for a midnight premiere of the new Batman movie. He was carrying formidable weaponry: a semi-automatic assault rifle, a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun and a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun.

It’s more than three decades since a blazer-bedecked stick figure of a first lady admonished Americans to “Just Say No.”
Believe it or not Americans have actually been heeding Nancy’s advice as of late. According to some of the recent figures, Americans are using fewer hard drugs than in recent years. Methamphetamine, the scourge of the past decade, and cocaine, the scourge of the ‘80s, have both seen a drop in use over the past several years. Cocaine use is down significantly from 5.8 million users in the mid-1980s (at least among those who acknowledged using the drug in the past month) to roughly 1. 5 million users this year, according to a recent New York Times story about changing drug trends and enforcement.

A core doctrine of classical economics is that competition is a good thing. According to orthodox theory, it produces better products and services, greater efficiency and lower prices.
But things don’t always work out that way, at least in the health care field. Case in point: the crazy air ambulance situation Central Oregonians are stuck with.
Up until this year there was only one air ambulance service based in the region: AirLink, operated by St. Charles Health System, the parent company of St. Charles Medical Center. AirLink had reciprocal arrangements with other air ambulance services around the state so that its subscribers were covered if they had to use those services.

Nothing in life is certain, they say, except death and taxes. Conservatives haven’t found a way to exempt rich people from death yet, but they’re doing their damnedest to make sure they never have to pay taxes.
One of the right-wingers’ favorite targets in this crusade is the estate tax, or “death tax,” as they like to call it. Here in Oregon the current campaign to eliminate the state estate tax is being led by professional ballot initiative promoter Kevin Mannix and his trusty lieutenant, Koch Brothers protégée Tim Knopp, who also is the Republican nominee for the state Senate district including Bend.

Ah, summer in Bend. The mountain biking, the fishing, the hiking, the camping, the float trips down the river. The street festivals. The barbecues. The beer.
Not to mention the roar of the power mowers and leaf blowers, the whine of the chainsaws, the barking of the dogs and the high-decibel blasts of music from outdoor concerts.
Cities have struggled with the problem of noise since the days of ancient Rome, if not longer. Solving the problem is tough, because one person’s noise (“non-harmonious or discordant sound”) is another person’s livelihood – or his entertainment – and what’s tolerable at one time and place can be unbearable in other circumstances. How loud is too loud? How late is too late?