Opinion
Posted inOpinion

Crater Lake Faces Chopper Invasion

Fortunately, Leading Edge Aviation-the Bend company that wants to start offering helicopter tours above Crater Lake National Park-doesn’t propose buzzing the
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The sound of a helicopter has never been described as soothing.
The noise output of a helicopter at a distance of 100 feet has been calculated
at 105 decibels-five decibels higher than a jackhammer. 

Fortunately, Leading Edge Aviation-the Bend company that wants to
start offering helicopter tours above Crater Lake National Park-doesn't propose
buzzing the lake at 100 feet; it says its choppers will fly no lower than 1,000
feet.

But the whumpa-whumpa-whumpa of churning rotor blades, whether at 100
feet or 1,000, is not a sound that belongs at Crater Lake, Oregon's only
national park and a place where people go to see natural beauty and experience
(relative) peace and quiet.

Even at 1,000 feet or more, as anybody who's heard one of the Air
Link helicopters zoom overhead can attest, the sound of a helicopter is
impossible to ignore. Travis Warthen, a vice president for Leading Edge, told
The Oregonian that an RV or (in winter) a snowmobile driving along the rim road
would be louder than one of his 650-hp Bell helicopters. Maybe so, but that
seems like a weak excuse to add another element to the noise mix.

Posted inOpinion

Driven to Distraction: Cambridge cops, Shaq snubbed at White House, Justice for Jacko and more!

“You boorish Paddy! Egress my domicile or shall I berate you further?” That’s my take on what Henry Louis Gates Jr. said to
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The
author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as
America. He is reporting from a ditch outside your home, thanking streaming
video, you, Stu and the High Desert Animal Hospital that Season One is done, on
assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.

The Curious Case of the Professor and Police
"You boorish Paddy! Egress my domicile or shall I berate
you further?" That's my take on what Henry Louis Gates Jr. said to Cambridge
cops last week. First it was Jacko "dying" and now a Harvard professor getting
arrested for disorderly conduct (charges were dropped within two days).Which
African-American will Obama turn to next in order to distract us from the
health care boondoggle (which no longer includes the words "universal" or
"single-payer")? This curious case-the arrest and health care initiative-only
gets more interesting: The 911 tapes have been released, contradicting
arresting officer Sgt. James Crowley's report that caller Lucia Whalen
mentioned "black" men entering the house and that he spoke with her at the
scene. She didn't, on both counts. Sure Gates probably berated the officers
eloquently after being found in his own home with ID and, yes, Gates is an
insufferable intellectual who feigns interest in common folks' problems on PBS.
But he was the wrong guy to arrest.Boston is hardly a beacon of racial harmony,
pity the next non-Harvard professor found snooping around Cambridge. Makes you
really appreciate living in Central Oregon, don't it? Our cops are pretty cool,
and the only minorities to be found are obese people visiting from Houston. One
final note: To repair race relations, Obama has invited both Sgt. Crowley and
Professor Gates for beer at the White House. How they will laugh and laugh!

Posted inOpinion

Modern Day Slavery

The Reagan, Clinton and Bush regimes extinguished the rights of American workers to make a decent living by the imposition of policies that have resurrected
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The Reagan, Clinton and Bush regimes extinguished the
rights of American workers to make a decent living by the imposition of
policies that have resurrected slavery by the outsourcing of most of the good
paying jobs here. Example: The American textile industry outsourced to Mexico
and $2-a-day workers.

Posted inOpinion

Modern Day Slavery

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The Reagan, Clinton and Bush regimes extinguished the
rights of American workers to make a decent living by the imposition of
policies that have resurrected slavery by the outsourcing of most of the good
paying jobs here. Example: The American textile industry outsourced to Mexico
and $2-a-day workers.

Posted inOpinion

Downtowners Didn’t Get A Fair Shake

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Editor's
Note: The article referenced in the following column was not an editorial, but
a recent opinion piece penned by Source
columnist Bruce Miller and represented his opinion, not those of the newspaper.
The Source  has not taken a
position about downtown loitering and panhandling. The Source has
and always will be a major supporter of local, independent businesses and a
vital downtown core.

What does The
Source have against downtown merchants?
I'm writing
in reaction to your latest negative editorial about downtown Bend merchants.
Recently, you derided our complaints about panhandlers downtown, now you've
done the same regarding our problems with "kids." Why are you even writing
about merchant complaints when you deem the complaints so unworthy? Could it be
because you feel you have to stand up for absolutely anything you call
"alternative," even when alternative means hurtful, disrespectful, threatening
or even criminal?

Posted inOpinion

The Public 4, GOBs 3

We won’t go so far as to predict that it’s the start of a trend, but the Bend City Council made a startling move last
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We won't go so far as to predict that it's the start of a trend, but the Bend City Council made a startling move last week: It voted for the public interest over the interest of a few well-connected local businessmen.

The issue was a loophole written into the city's transient room tax law six years ago that allowed hoteliers to take a $10-per-person exemption if they offered complimentary breakfasts to guests. There was no rational reason for the exemption; the argument that it made Bend hotels more competitive was patently ridiculous: The "savings" to a guest was, on average, 90 cents a night - if the guest even got it.
The vote to repeal the exemption should have been 7-0. Instead, it was a squeaker - 4-3. Loyally sticking with the handful of good old hotel owners who wanted the exemption were Councilors Oran Teater, Tom Greene and Jeff Eager. Breaking ranks with the GOB faction was Mayor Kathie Eckman, joined by Councilors Jodie Barram, Jim Clinton and Mark Capell.
Teater, Greene and Eager offered a "compromise": Instead of $10 per person, make the breakfast exemption $10 per room. But even at that rate the loophole would have cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in room tax revenue.

Posted inOpinion

The Popularity Index: Obama chokes, Cronkite croaks and Afghanistan smokes

The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from your sister’s bedroom, swearing
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The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from your sister's bedroom, swearing he's only there for the air conditioning, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.

Popularity Under 60%?…What's a Guy to do?
"If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." said South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint. Obviously, Obama's push for national health care coverage is receiving ample pushback, but to summon Napoleon's last defeat, then immediately quote Rocky IV? National polls show that only 49% of Americans approve of Obama's handling of the health care initiative, and that his own stellar popularity is also suffering, dipping below 60% for the first time since taking office. Still Obama seems unfazed and focused: "This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses, and breaking America's economy." Dream for a moment of universal health care, folks. Of being able to go into any hospital and receiving treatment. Ahhhh - Feels good, doesn't it? Now imagine being a Senator (from any party, they're all bought and sold) and having millions in re-election bribes (err, donations) from HMOs and doctors and lawyers and big pharma disappearing – Rather unnerving, huh? See why both sides are scared and delaying?

Posted inOpinion

Deschutes County’s Growth and Prosperity: What might have been

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of columns about Central Oregon’s economy. See the first two installments of series at tsweekly.com under
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Editor's note: This is the third in a series of columns about Central Oregon's economy. See the first two installments of series at tsweekly.com under the opinion tab by clicking Guest Commentary.
"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been!'

-John Greenleaf Whittier

On Thursday July 23, the Board of Deschutes County Commissioners and the County Planning Commission are scheduled to meet to discuss what the agenda lists as "Destination Resorts." On Thursday, August 27 the County Planning Commission will hold a work session on the County's Comprehensive Plan Update. Economics, as we hope all the commissioners know, pervades both topics.
Imagine two paths of economic growth for Deschutes County. One-the Better Path-has more and better-paying jobs than the other-the Worse Path. Based on its current plan and policies and especially its record of applying and interpreting them, we think the County has chosen the Worse Path.

Posted inOpinion

Six Reasons We Don’t Need 10

Just when I thought it was dead and buried, the cut and thrust of left/right argument on your website “10 Commandments and God”
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Just when I thought it was dead and buried, the cut and
thrust of left/right argument on your website (letters page) brought this old
claim up again - bringing the "10 Commandments and God" back into our schools
would solve so many of our social problems.   

1.

Posted inOpinion

Put Your Name On It

With reference to “The stain on Farrah’s name”, July 16 issue, I was amused by “Jeff.” He referred to the writer of the Upfront piece on Farrah Fawcett (July 2) as “
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With reference to "The stain on Farrah's name",  July 16 issue, I was amused by "Jeff."
He referred to the writer of the Upfront piece on Farrah Fawcett (July 2) as
"Junior High-ish" while condemning "whoever did pen the Opinion column" with "keep
your private, sick thoughts, in your puny, disabled brain!"

Sounds a little "Grammar School-ish," don't you think?

"Jeff" writes a gutsy piece but ends with a gutless
signature.

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