MaxRedline

Public Indecency

Obviously, the most egregious cases of public indecency have been carried out by the trilateral commission:  Metro, the PDC, and Portland City Council.  Nonetheless, Representative Greg MacPherson of Lake Oswego has apparently decided that it's time to enact yet another law. 

"We wouldn't want a situation where people are doing things that are really in conflict with community standards," he said.  Well gosh! 

If "community standards" set the tone, what happens if you paint the gutters on your house titty pink and the "community" doesn't like your choice of color?  Maybe you've purchased property and have the audacity to light up a cigar, pipe, or ciggie?  Do your "conflicts with the community standards" allow them to dictate to you?

Portland built that stupid aerial tram, and in at least one case, it affords riders a direct view into a homeowner's hot-tub.  So if we're sitting naked in said hot-tub and a tram carrying 75 passengers flies by, who exactly is "conflicting with community standards"?

Stop, Thief!

In their continuing effort to grow urban vegetables, the brain-trust known as Metro is looking at building a "Convention Center Hotel" while continuing to divert your tax dollars to trains.  Metro's brainiacs brought us the Convention Center, which promptly demonstrated all the attributes of a dead fish.  Undeterred, the brain-trust tried to sell voters on the idea that the Convention Center was underbuilt, and that by doubling its size, it would become a money-machine.  Voters took a look at the dead fish, then took a whiff, then voted the expansion down.

Of course, the Metro brain-trust knows knows all, sees all, feels all - and so they put together an end-run around the wishes of the voters and doubled the size of the center anyway.  It's the same approach that they use when it comes to choo-choos:  you vote expansions down, they decide you really have no business being involved in their "process" anyway, and then they do an end-run around you and build the stuff anyway.

Now that Meto's Convention Center expansion has taken us from the dead-fish level to the dead-elephant level (which, coincidentally, is something Metro knows a lot about - they "run" the zoo, and managed to kill four elephants in four years; likely achieving a world record among zoos in this regard), their brain-trust has decided that the problem with the Convention Center is that they need to have a honking-big "Convention Center Hotel" across the street.

It doesn't matter that private companies have looked at it and jumped away, nor that even Homer Williams and his pals at the PDC aren't interested.  Metro's thinking that this may just do it.  They do the same stuff over and over, and apparently expect a different outcome to materialize somewhere along the way.  That's one definition of insanity.

The Latest "Plan": Rent-A-Bike!

Having spent somewhat north of $5 Billion so far - with more on the way - the latest and greatest plan to waste your highway tax dollars coming from the fertile braincells of Portland city commish Sam "the tram" Adams is: rent-a-bike "stations" scattered around the city.  He's already got "transportation engineers" looking to find several dozen locations to host as many as 500 rental bikes.  Of course, this being Portland, the epicenter of cultural responsibility, we can be certain that unlike the infamous "Yellow Bike" program, the rental bikes won't simply disappear.

Filling in a few potholes?  Not on the radar.  Road taxes are better used for trains and bicycles.  If you just ride a bicycle, a few thousand potholes in the city's roads are easy to navigate around.

The Nanny And The Road To Serfdom

When do we have enough laws?  Apparently, never.  Your politicians, having solved all other problems, are busily proposing and in many cases passing laws to regulate smoking, cell-phone use, MP3 player use, baseball bats, what sort of containers your fast food can be packaged in, and of course, what you eat.  Not content with these constraints upon your freedom leftist "intellectuals", "Human Resources" bureaucrats, and yet more politicians are engaged in the criminalization of free speech.  Their view is that your intent is irrelevant; all that matters is the "perception" of the recipient.  Thus, they are establishing a climate wherein you can - and will - be punished for expressing an opinion that is contrary to the prevailing dogma.

Increasingly, America is no longer the Land of the Free.

All The News Not Fit To Print

Western Iraq: In the past several months, major battles have occurred between Al-Qaeda and local Al-Anbar tribes, with dozens of fatalities on both sides and a concommitant weakening of Al-Qaeda in these sectors. Al-Qaeda accuses anyone helping to maintain stability in the area of being agents of the occupation, and their targeting of such individuals has led to a marked decline in popularity of the terrorist organization. As Shi'ites and Sunnis have both been attacked by Al-Qaeda, some 25 tribes in the region have collectively recruited an estimated 8500-man set of forces which are now engaged in offensive moves against the terrorists; some 80 of whom have been apprehended and are presently housed in Al-Ramadi prison.

Al-Qaeda's stated view that anyone who insists on fighting with "the Crusaders against the Muslims" (meaning Al-Qaeda) must be killed, whether Sunni or Shi'ite has further eroded support in the region. Indeed, the exposure of Al-Zarqawi and his subsequent death has been traced directly to Al-Qaeda's loss of support and standing among Sunnis.

It's curious that the New York Times has never reported any of these developments, don't you think?

Giving Porn The Boot

Oddly enough, it is Utah that steps up to the plate on the issue of internet porn.  Their approach is pretty straightforward: forget "filters" and instead ban porn sites from port 80 access entirely.  The downside, according to critics, is that it amounts to installation of a censorship board to determine what content is permissible at 80.  Such criticism is fundamentally stupid, as porn material would simply be redirected to another port.  The content would still be available; just a bit harder to find.

Port 80 is the access point that most people use to surf the net, but if porn is routed to another port, then perverts can adjust their browsers to go there.  The Utah proposal of port redirection would help to address one basic issue regarding parental reticence when it comes to allowing their kids to use the internet - and it's a huge issue.  While the proposal is by no means a solution that would allow children to access the 'Net with impunity, it is nonetheless a giant step in the right direction.

Ready For Prime-Time?

You won't see this ad on national tv, in all likelihood - but it's on the 'Net now.  The Obama campaign denies any involvement....

Kulongoski Backs Real I.D.

Just kidding.  He hates it.  Despite his concerns about cost (you know Governor Ted - he just hates to have to spend money) and identity theft (in a state flooded with illegal aliens who can purchase Social Security cards on the streets of Woodburn for as little as $30 a pop), our always forward-thinking Governor is allegedly "urging" our stalwart "lawmakers" to get cracking on a fast-track toward compliance with the tougher federal standards.  Needless to say, this idea is provoking serious debate in Salem; some strays from the fold are saying that it's high time Oregon stopped giving away drivers' licenses to illegal aliens, while the more faithful hew to the Lorna Young Book Of Psalms, which says that all people are entitled to drive.  The latter are calling for establishment of a "drive-only" license; apparently unaware of the fact that that is precisely what Oregon has offered for years - which is precisely why an ODL is not accepted as proof of identification in the basically unimportant parts of the USA (like Florida).

Governor Ted's concerns are real, however.  Absent any actual move toward some degree of compliance, restrictions regarding the use of ODL as valid identification for federal purposes could start implementing in as little as the next couple of months.  Bad enough if Ted and his pals can't use their ODL as identification in a couple of states, but way worse if they can't even board a plane to go on an important "fact-finding mission".  Oh, make that a "trade-development mission".  Or whatever.  The thing to remember, here, is that if somebody doesn't take action pretty darn quick, the repercussions might well jeopardize his whole iteinerary.

Freeze The Death Penalty

Um, wait - isn't it already frozen?  It's been a decade since the last such penalty was actually carried out, and there are around three dozen convicted dirtbags still living on our dime - yet Democrat "lawmakers" in Oregon are pushing to "freeze the death penalty" so that a "task force" can look into it.  The goal of the "task force" has already been defined: to determine whether it "is consistent with evolving standards of decency."

Right.  Folks on death row have been concerned all their lives about that "evolving standard of decency" thing.  This is nothing more than a hugely transparent attempt to once again make it clear to voters that they're too stupid to grasp the intricate details involved in the Big Picture.  Even long time Democrats such as the Clatsop County District Attorney see it for what it is: nothing more than an "end-run attempt to abolish the death penalty."

Is the death penalty a deterrent?  In many ways it is not, though in one very critical way, it is.  When it's carried out, we know for sure that that individual isn't going to kill anybody else, and he won't cost us another dime.  To the extent that it is not carried out and instead allows a murderer to continue living for another quarter of a century or so, it clearly loses deterrence impact.  In order to restore the deterrence factor, it is in the best interest of all to see that justice, once meted, is swiftly carried out.

The Inconvenient Environmentalist

"Do as I say, not as I do" guru AlGore has reportedly received over half a million dollars in royalties from zinc mining operations on his land in Tennessee.  The sites, closed for the past three years, spewed thousands of pounds of toxins into the surrounding environment and are slated to re-open later this year.  State officials say that the overall environmental record of the mines is good; order naysayers to squeal like a pig.  It ain't easy, being green.