The Eye doesn't want to appear to be picking on Gordon Smith, but he just seems to be presenting a lot of targets of opportunity this week. The latest: He's come out with a video touting how he's cooperated in the Senate with - get ready for it - Barack Obama.
“Yes I Can Too!” Smith Says
Smith Cancels His Golf Date
Gordon Smith - perhaps stung by Democratic criticism of his penchant for buying ultra-expensive golf clubs and hanging out with fat-cat lobbyists - has canceled his big fundraising golf party planned for next weekend at Bandon Dunes.
The Patterson Hood Interview
Let There Be Rock!We caught up with DBT founder and frontman Patterson Hood at his home in Athen, GA recently to discuss the band, some music history and the ongoing tour. Hood was in a talkative mood and generously gave us almost a half an hour of his time.
Smith Gets Country-Clubbed
It's an old story, but Oregon Democrats are still hoping to score political points with it: Gordon Smith once paid more than a million dollars for four golf clubs.
Taking the Ax to Walden on Timber Payments
The Democratic Party of Oregon has unleashed a brutal video attacking the 2nd District's own Greg Walden for voting against the federal timber payments bill earlier this month.
Intelligent Design is Not Science, At Least Not Yet
In the debate between intelligent design (ID) and evolution there is often an important element that is left out: The scientific method. And while there can be an endless debate on definitions of the word "science," it's important to remember how science is used to arrive at certain conclusions before we use it to conclude that some vague concept of intelligence created the universe.
It's logical to conclude that for something to be "scientific," someone used the scientific method to come to that conclusion. And what is the scientific method? If we remember from elementary school, roughly it is observation, hypothesis, prediction, experimentation, and conclusion. Now, when one says that ID is scientific, he or she is forgetting an important detail, and that's the experimental step of the scientific method. If someone observes that the physical world is extraordinarily complex, makes the hypothesis that there must have been an intelligence that designed everything, predicts that this is the case, and concludes that an intelligence or god or whatever designed it all, an important step was missed, experimentation! So far, there have been no experiments set up that give conclusive evidence that an intelligent being or force designed things.
Not To Beat A Dead Chipmunk…
Seems there's an issue about a feral feline at The High Desert Museum and the effect on the other species sharing its environment. Sound familiar?
Why do we always whine about the glowing ember while ignoring the raging forest fire we created behind us? Which species has destroyed and endangered more fellow creatures than any other, including feral felines? Who is wiping out wolves with helicopters and destroying the habitat, not to mention the polar bear species, of our northern regions? Who has destroyed countless species of plants and potential herbal remedies by clear-cutting rainforests? Who created DDT? Which species wiped out the cod fisheries off the east coast of our country?
Why don't we all just open our eyes, our minds, and put our mouths and pens to more effective, long-term gains than the future of chipmunks?Yep, I know this would require intelligence and maturity, which may be asking too much of the human species, but why not give the kitty some slack and start cleaning up our own (bigger) mess?
One who tries to see the tree from the forest.
ID Theory Is Science
Sooner or later everyone asks the question, "Where do we come from?" The answer carries profound implications. Until this question is answered we cannot solve another fundamental question that is key to ethics, religion and the meaning of life (if any): "Are we here for a purpose?"
There are two possible answers: the universe and life and its diversity - natural phenomena - are the product of 1) a combination of only natural laws and chance (the "naturalistic hypothesis;") or 2) a combination of law, chance and design - the activity of a mind or some sort of intelligence that has the power to manipulate matter and energy (the "design hypothesis.") The latter produces purpose, the former does not.
The naturalistic hypothesis is supported by theories of chemical evolution (with respect to the origin of the universe and life) and by Darwinian evolution (with the respect to the origin of the diversity of life.) The design hypothesis is supported by the purposeful characteristics of exceedingly complex natural systems that are frequently described as "fine tuned." Each hypothesis is densely laden with philosophical and religious baggage, and clear thinking is required in order to separate the science for the philosophy, the evidence from the implications and reality from imagination.
Sisters Rode-Ode
Sisters Rode-Ode
By Brad Lockwood
The "biggest little" rodeo is in town
"The Greatest Show on Dirt!"
According to JJ the Clown.
Imported princesses, Fort Dalles,
Umatilla, Jefferson…
Peer and praise until they're done.
Denim on denim, top to toe.
Wrangler pleats like rails,
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co.
Washed Ashore: Netherland offers an outsiders perspective on the Big Apple
Outlegged by news networks that never sleep, outsold by the juggernaut of visual entertainment, the novel doesn't bring us the news as it once did. Or it's easy to think so until you read a book like Joseph O'Neill's splendid, "Netherland." This wholly unexpected novel turns the city once known as Nueve Amsterdam inside out with the tale of a Dutch banker clinging to his crumbling marriage and family in the aftermath of September 11th. It is a fabulous, deeply enjoyable New York story about the fantasies that prop up daily reality - in other words, a deeply New York novel about that deeply New York penchant: new beginnings.
The man we're rooting for - and it's impossible not to cheer him on - is Hans van den Broek, a six-foot five, 40-something equity analyst. He spends a good deal of this novel holed up at the Chelsea Hotel, the bohemian landmark where Arthur Miller wrote some of his best known work and Andy Warhol once called home. Something essential has jostled free from Hans' marriage, sending his ex-pat wife back to England with their son, Jake. Hans stays behind, and pours his restless, misbegotten self into a cricket league out on Staten Island, where he meets - and befriends - a Trinidadian entrepreneur of sorts, Chuck Ramkissoon. It is Chuck's dream to build a world-class cricket arena - he doesn't like the word stadium - in Brooklyn.

