Right-wing Christians have never been comfortable with secularization of Christmas. Nor have they liked the answer that schools and the rest of society came up with in rolling all the Jewish, Christian and secular holidays together and coming up with the more generic and inclusive, a.k.a. The Holiday Season. We have a brother-in-law, for instance, who after a religious transformation refuses to let his two children read write or watch anything that deals with the story of Santa Claus because of such concerns.
Glenn Beck's Sideshow
Posted inOpinion
Whatever happened to Rahm Emanuel?
As the election of Barack Obama appeared almost certain even before November 4, 2008 leaks about a proposed cabinet began to appear in the press and blogs everywhere. The name of former Congressman Rahm Emanuel, known in the halls of Congress as the foul mouth, “get-it-done” operative, rose to the must-have Chief of Staff for Obama, mostly to counterbalance the “above the fray” cool and collected young Democrat, about to be elected.
Cheers went up from all corners of the Democratic intelligentsia and loud criticism from Republicans and the rabid extreme right, all indications that the president-to-be was on the right track. The chief of staff, in addition to being the gatekeeper of the Oval Office is also the guy who navigates the corridors of power in the Capitol to let legislators know who is in charge and remind recalcitrants of the power that the one in charge really has.
Posted inOpinion
Full of Goose Poop
The Bulletin, our ignominious daily newspaper that litters Central Oregon with its classified ads stuffed in plastic bags, now has the audacity to compare the pestiferous, disease-carrying, and destructive alien European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), with our beautiful native Canada goose, (Branta canadensis).
In a recent editorial written by someone who apparently has absolutely no knowledge of alien or native birds, there is a stupid suggestion that it's just fine to kill geese; why not? Starlings are “controlled” the same way.
Comparing alien starlings to Canada geese is preposterous. European starlings compete with our native birds for nesting substrate and food. Starlings carry diseases that can affect man and beast. Starlings are not protected by law, and considered one of the worst nuisance species in North America, where it's estimated more than 200 million of the foul creatures reside, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage every year.
Posted inNews
Oregon Lottery’s Addict Problem
The Oregon Lottery cleaned up its act, eliminating its NFL Sports Action pick ‘em ballot four years ago to appease the NCAA when the state was trying to land an NCAA men’s hoops regional tournament bracket, which it ultimately did. However, the Oregon Lottery, despite its problem gambling PSAs, continues to rake in a huge amount of revenue by exploiting gambling addicts, according a recent piece by The Oregonian.
Posted inNews
Pumped to be Here: Eek-a-Mouse in Bend
Two things to know about Eek-a-Mouse. He’s the reggae legend playing in Bend on Wednesday night at the Domino Room and he is super buff.
Posted inNews
Walden Demonstrations Prove to be a Dud
The anticipated big showdown Friday over Congressman Greg Walden’s vote on health care reform turned out to be a bit of a fizzle: Instead of encountering each other at Walden’s office, the Walden supporters stood on one corner of Greenwood and Wall and the opponents stood on the opposite corner, holding signs, shouting slogans and getting honks and waves from passing cars.
Walden was the only member of Oregon’s five-member congressional delegation to cast a vote against the health care reform package last week, and also to vote for the Stupka-Pitts anti-abortion amendment that was tacked onto the bill.
Posted inNews
Bits and Pieces: news from the great outdoors
A couple of blogs ago I wrote about the problems of renegade/bootleg trail building on public lands. It’s a growing problem and one that both the U.
Posted inNews
Friday Night Music: The Lonely H
This spring, I wrote about a little-known Seattle-area band that was expressly, explicitly, not a classic rock band. The band is called The Lonely H, they rock quite classically (but again, are not classic rock band) and wear all the great denim and leather ensembles that you probably thought were left behind in 1974.
Posted inCulture
Vandal Art: Learning the non-criminal version of graffiti
The first time I encountered the anonymous graffiti artist named Banksy was last summer in my then neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He had graffitied a two-story-high piece on the side of a brick building, depicting a man using a remote control to force a giraffe to paint the word “VANDAL.” This piece, like so many of Banksys' and other famous graffiti artists' pieces, became a source of neighborhood pride. The image still remains today.
Here in Central Oregon, graffiti often evokes a much different reaction from the community. Graffiti artists are seen as nuisances as well as, well, vandals. Indeed, graffiti causes thousands of dollars of damage to public property every year in Bend. The most popular targets are rail cars, bridges and public buildings.
Posted inNews
Let the Good Real Estate Times Roll! (Yawn.)
Happy days are here again in the local real estate market, if you go by the headline in yesterday’s Bulletin.
“Housing inventory plummets in Bend,” the headline said.