I'm one of those reflexive anti-war guys, the type with one answer for everything. Stop the war. Bring the troops home from Iraq. Right now. Bring'em home from Afghanistan, too, and if you ask me, it's high time that the US ends its brutal occupation of North America, as well. When confronted with the notion that the immediate departure of all US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan could lead to chaos, I'll respond that whatever happens next couldn't be any worse than if we remain. What if the various sides in Iraq start going at it? Doesn't America bear some responsibility? 'Yes,' I say, but the single solution is to bring home all troops.
Shortsighted Solutions
Posted inNews
Muddying The Waters: Mirror Pond sedimentation offers no easy solutions
Before event organizers moved the Pole Pedal Paddle
upstream to the Old Mill in 2004 it wasn't unusual to spot
frustrated canoeists and kayakers trying to free their boats from the muck that had gathered just inches underneath the surface of Mirror Pond. Today boaters know better than to venture out of the narrow channel when they paddle Mirror Pond, if they paddle at all.
The iconic feature that has framed many a postcard and just happens to adorn the label of Bend's flagship beer is being choked to death by sediment. But fixing the problem involves more than just scooping out a few shovelfuls of dirt.
Initial estimates to dredge the pond run between $2 million and $5 million at a time when the city of Bend doesn't have cash to support basic services like buses and road maintenance. And while the city has taken the lead on solutions for our disappearing pond, officials now say they aren't going to foot the bill or subsidize a solution with staff time.
Posted inOpinion
“Green” Developers’ Scorched-Earth Tactics
To hear the developers of the Metolian tell it, they're the greenest, tree-huggingest, Earth-lovingest guys who ever walked the planet.
But the tactics the developers and their supporters have been employing look more like a scorched-earth policy. They seem to have adopted William Tecumseh Sherman as their role model instead of John Muir.
A little background: The Metolian is the smaller of two destination resorts originally proposed for development within the Metolius Basin. Responding to the pleas of thousands of lovers of this irreplaceable scenic, recreational and ecological resource, Gov. Ted Kulongoski asked the state Land Conservation and Development Commission to draw up a plan for its protection.
The LCDC plan would allow limited development of both resorts within the basin in exchange for the rights to put larger resorts outside it. Ponderosa Land and Cattle Co., the owner of the land where the bigger resort was supposed to go, apparently feels it can live with that deal. But Dutch Pacific Resources LLC, which wants to develop the Metolian, is fighting the plan because it would be able to build only two residences in the basin if a site can be found elsewhere for its "eco-resort."
Posted inOpinion
Take A Memo: Our favorite interrogations, Chavez’s handshake, Cletus, and more
The author has been sent on the road to discover a lost country formerly known as America. He is reporting from a garbage dump, after cleaning up cigarette butts, patchouli packaging, and signage from recent "Earth Day" events statewide, on assignment for Or-Bust.com and The Source Weekly.
Waterboarded, How Many Times?
"If you look at what this really comprises, if you look at the documents that have been made public, it says 'top secret' at the top. The definition of top secret is information which, if revealed, would cause grave harm to U.S. security." offered former CIA top-snoop-chief Michael Hayden, when informed that the Obama Administration has released details of top secret (i.e. over-the-top) interrogation (= torture) techniques. Among the memos released was the disturbing acknowledgement that two top al Qaeda suspects were waterboarded at least 266 times. 266 - one was drowned (all in jest) for over 30 seconds at a time. Good thing Bush reassured us that "America does not torture." While releasing the memos, Obama staffers noted that those involved in the actual techniques should not be prosecuted yet deftly did not include immunity for those who drafted the techniques, like Hayden, John Yoo, and others in the Bush-Cheney junta all too eager to cite "security" and "terror" as reasons why BDSM at the CIA should go undisclosed.
Posted inOpinion
Leaving Downtown: Contemplating the end of an era and a dream
Mid-morning. Spring. A low gray sky. Snowflakes dive-bomb my windshield. I turn into the Mirror Pond parking lot. I pull into a slot on the south-end and turn off the ignition. Sitting under the park's white arbor are two punks in soiled white hooded sweatshirts, hoods up, shoulders hunched. One is smoking. Both are on their cell phones. Swell. Something about the irony of so much white. The punks are part of the daily dealing and scoring scene back here on Brooks Street.
I grab my purse and brown bag lunch. The countdown has begun. One week. Six days. Santee Alley the store my store closes. Empty. Gone from this very downtown. I am part of a battalion of Bend boutiques, retail businesses and restaurants morphing into ghosts of commerce. There's no solace though in the "strength in numbers while heading into war" theory. This war is like a Chinese proverb, both understood and not, all at the same time. I lock the car and look around knowing the weather will keep "Parking Nazi" from patrolling. No need to pay for a parking voucher today. Sweet. Another seven dollars not spent.
Posted inNews
But What Have You Done for Us Lately?
The Crooks and Liars website somehow has gotten its hands on what appear to be the scripts for five ads being produced by the Oregon Republican Party, and The Eye couldn't believe our eyes when we read them.
Posted inNews
Tea Partiers vs. Earth Lovers: Who Won?
Downtown merchant and blogger Duncan McGeary compared Wednesay's Tax Day Tea Party with Saturday's Earth Day Procession of the Species and decided the latter came up short.
Posted inNews
Celebrate Record Store Day
Tomorrow is the third Saturday in April, which means, of course, that it's Record Store Day. This holiday, which began in 2007, is a national celebration of independent record stores - a medium that has been slowly going the way of the buffalo in the past decade, as evidenced by the fact that we only have one independent store left in Bend.
Posted inNews
Making Criminals Out of Butt-Droppers
This truly was a momentous week in history: On Wednesday, The Wandering Eye attended a right-wing political rally, and today we find ourselves agreeing with Lars Larson.