Action Alert: Support PERS transparency

Here in Oregon, Public Employees have nearly become the ruling class. Hopefully, you and I can do something about it:

Please take action today to support transparency in the Public Employee Retirement System in Oregon!

It is in public’s interest to ensure fiscal discipline and transparency in how the underfunded PERS system operates with full disclosure of individual retiree information. Courts across America have agreed, as judges have rejected the weak arguments of the unions. Even Oregon Attorney General Kroger agrees and has forced PERS to release information that any taxpayer can access.

Click here to send a message to the House Business and Labor Committee Co-Chairs Reps.

Oregon legislators are proposing to limit the public transparency of the Oregon retirement program in LC 43. If introduced and passed as a bill, citizens would no longer have the capability to review who is receiving taxpayer-funded pensions. Full government transparency is imperative. Taxpayers have the right to track where and how their tax dollars are being spent, so that government can be held accountable for the distribution of those dollars.

While the rest of the Country continues to create more transparency in government, Oregon seems to be willing to limit the ability for citizens to hold our government accountable. Please take action now!

Thank you for taking time to take action.

Sincerely,



Karla Kay Edwards
State Director
AFP Oregon

Dude! Where's my Blog? (and some very good advice for the new year)

I've just been too busy and happy to even bother with this thing!

Anyway, somebody sent this to me and I thought I'd share. Deciding to be responsible for your own self-protection is a mighty fine New Year's resolution:

ADVICE FROM CONCEAL CARRY INSTRUCTORS

A WORD TO THE WISE -
comments and saying from various Conceal Carry Instructors. ....


If you own a gun, you will appreciate this.

If not, you should get one and learn how to use it.

Shooting Advice:

Cops carry guns to protect themselves, not to protect you.

Never let someone or something that threatens you get inside arm's length and never say "I've got a gun". If you feel you need to use deadly force for heaven's sake let the first sound they hear be the safety clicking off, and they shouldn't have time to hear anything after that if you are doing your job.

'The average response time of a 911 call is over 23 minutes, the response time of a 9mm/.357 or .44 magnum is 1400 feet per second.'

"The most important rule in a gunfight is: Always win - and cheat if necessary."

"Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. You may get killed with your own gun, but he'll have to beat you to death with it, cause it's going to be empty."

"If you end up in a gun fight... If you're not shooting', you should be loading'. If you're not loading', you should be moving', if you're not moving', you’re dead."

"In a life and death situation... Do something. It may be wrong, but do something."

"If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous. If you have a gun, what in the hell do you have to be paranoid for?"

"You can say 'stop' or 'alto' or use any other word you think will work, but I've found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone's head is pretty much the universal language."

"You have the rest of your life to solve your problems. How long you live depends on how well you do it."

"You cannot save the planet, but you may be able to save yourself and your
family."

If you believe in the 2nd Amendment, please forward...

Too good to not steal.

Maybe we should all try it?

Thanks, Max.

How Doctors Die

Over the past several years, I've watched a few people slowly waste away, and finally succumb to cancers that used to take you really quickly. Through it all, they were usually exhausted. On the few days that they were feeling strong, they'd come in to chat about old times. After all the chemo, and all the surgery, they died anyway, and quite broke.

I was directed to this very interesting article by Miss Weasel.

Apparently, physicians don't go in for all that treatment, and perhaps, you shouldn't either.

Oakland developer uses shotgun to "discourage" occupiers.

click on title for the rest of the story

Although some businesses have been targeted and vandalized by Occupy Oakland protesters, there is at least one businessman who refuses to be intimidated.

Phil Tagami is a well-known Oakland developer. Late Wednesday night, instead of going over paperwork or brokering deals, he was forced to defend a downtown building where he personally oversaw $50 million worth of renovations.

Happy Birthday, Marie.

Google finally nails one.

Pictures are up.

Missus' first batch of pics are up from her trip to see her niece.

I expected more sweeping vistas.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November...

What are you doing for Guy Fawkes day?

I'll be moping, probably. Missus is in New Zealand, and it's no fun without her.

Boing-boing has a neat old comic up concerning the Guy Fawkes conspiracy.

Dude! Where's my money? -The reprise

Sinc e I last observed about General Cannabis, they've halved their market cap yet again.

Maybe they're burning the wrong green stuff?

Let's keep bagging the bag ban.

Dreary little socialists from OSPIRIG have collected 500 signatures, and will petitionEugene City Council to ban plastic grocery bags in the city limits.

FROM MY COLD DEAD HAND, LEFTY!

One of the bright-eyed cadres even trotted out that meme about the gigantic island of bags and bottles that' supposedly floating around the Pacific. It's now twice the size of Texas, apparently.

Don't you find it odd that nobody's ever seen this island? If it's really that big, shouldn't somebody try to develop it?

Just say no. -To excellence!

Oregon City school district walks away from a $2.5 million grant to reward superior teachers.

The new normal.

Words fail.

Comment moderation

Now that Chinese porn guy has stopped bothering Missus and me, I've shut off moderation.

Don't make me regret it.

Please tell me this is a joke!

I've got relatives in Crown Point. Maybe I should send them some ammo?

The all-day breakfast (light version)

Two poached duck eggs, a sallet of young mixed greens, fresh veggies, and toast.

No sausage, no gravy, but this one will hold you 'til nightfall.

Ozymandias, farewell!

It looks like the American domination of the Nobel prizes is about to end, and The Red-Guardian could not be happier!

I have to wonder if it's possibly related to a trend I've noticed:

1. Go to any good science or engineering university.

2. Go to any department that actually matters.

3. Try and find a department head that isn't a useless little socialist who's got his priorities backwards.

I promise you, they're mighty rare.

INVESTIGATION MAY HAVE CAUGHT MICHAEL MOORE MAKING UP ASSAULTS IN LATEST BOOK

Credibility? He never had any.

It could signal end of filmmaker's credibility.

AN INVESTIGATION by journalist and filmmaker Phelim McAleer has uncovered serious questions and credibility issues in Michael Moore's just published book Here Comes Trouble.

Mr McAleer says his investigation suggests Mr Moore either invented or seriously exaggerated the alleged attacks on him which he claims were from right-wingers angry at the political content of his documentaries.

In the book, Mr Moore details three serious assaults by political opponents which involved an attempted knife attack and an actual stabbing and second degree burns inflicted on his ex-Navy Seal bodyguards.

However an investigation by McAleer has revealed no police or public record of these dramatic attacks in the New York, Nashville and Fort Lauderdale where Moore says they occurred.

The alleged Nashville assault involved a man armed with a knife rushing the stage at a public event. According to Mr Moore the assailant was repelled so violently that his blood had to be "mopped up" afterward. But there is no police report or mention of the incident in the media or blogs. There are no photos of the struggle with the assailant or the blood left behind.

Similarly the New York incident is completely unreported even though it allegedly involved an actual stabbing and occurred at a press conference.

There are also no police or media reports of the Fort Lauderdale incident even though the ex-Navy Seal bodyguard received second degree burns and had to be hospitalized.

Thanks to Not evil, just wrong.

More Union charm

I used to be union-neutral.

Then a few teamsters reps encouraged me to slow down. Then a few others tried to frame my dad for murder.



President Om-bama wants us all to join a union!

Won't that be wonderful!

Thanks to Ten Mile Island

A frightening chart -Obama recession the worst since WW II

From Business insider

Dude! Where's my money?

Only a month after I reported on General Cannabis, They've lost another fifty-million in market cap.

I could say something snarky, but I wont.

I do not have a position in that particular stock, as if you had to ask.

Things one should not forget...

I'm not sure if this is a comfort, or an embarassment:

If anybody in our neighborhood is going to be shrieking obscenities at 06:00, there's a 94% probability that it'll be me.

I'm not sure why that hornet was taking a nap in my garden clog, but we both had a pretty bad day.

Always shake out your shoes before putting them on.

Catching Wild Pigs?

Stolen from POX, and doubly important here in Oregon!


There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class.
One day while the class was in the lab, the Prof noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter.

The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist regime.

In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked: “Do you know how to catch wild pigs?”

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said that it was no joke.

“You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground.
The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn.
When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming.

When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence.

They get used to that and start to eat again.
You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.

The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again.

You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom.

They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.

Soon they go back to eating the free corn.
They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.”

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America.

The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.

One should always remember two truths:

1) There is no such thing as a free lunch, someone is paying for it

2) and when you begin to think that having your government
provide for you and make your decisions is ok, realize that you’ve
also given up the freedom that goes with making your own choices.

If you see that all of this wonderful government ‘help’ is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to share this with your friends.

If you think the ‘free ride’ is essential to your way of life, then you will probably ignore this.

But God help you when the gate slams shut!

My irony filter is out of whack.

The P&TO has trademarked some pretty offensive brands over the years, why are these kids having such a problem?

As a Portland-based rock band with a growing fan base and national ambitions, the Slants figured it wouldn't hurt to take care of some business interests. On the advice of their attorney, they decided to register their name through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Protect the brand. It seemed simple enough.

"It didn't occur to us at the time that there would be an issue with the name," says Simon Tam, the band's manager and bass player, who performs under the name Simon Young. As a band of Asian Americans who play to a fan base with a high percentage of Asian Americans why would they anticipate a problem?

Wu flew

Tiresome identity-baiter and rapist David Wu to resign from congress.

I'd be happy, but Portland will fill the seat with someone even more dreadful.

You can't get stuff like this under Communism

General Cannabis? I'm still big on agro-plays, but this one's trading at about half its initial cap. What did they do with the other 250-million, maaan?

General Cannabis began trading today on the OTC market’s prestigious tier, OTCQX U.S. Investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the Company on www.otcqx.com and www.otcmarkets.com.

"Investors prefer the quality-controlled admission process on OTCQX which identifies the segment of OTC companies focused on valuation and transparency," said R. Cromwell Coulson, President and Chief Executive Officer of OTC Markets Group. "We are pleased to welcome General Cannabis to OTCQX."

The Lebrecht Group, APLC will serve as General Cannabis' Designated Advisor for Disclosure ("DAD") on OTCQX, responsible for providing guidance on OTCQX requirements.

How I relax.

More Outrage. -From Washington for a change.

Just when I think we may yet pause our not too terribly slow slide into complete cultural and moral collapse, I get reminded that civil war is just around the corner:

TACOMA, Wash. -- A strange quirk in the law is allowing an accused child rapist to watch child pornography inside the Pierce County Jail.

Marc Gilbert is accused of sexually assaulting young boys and videotaping the abuse.

Under the law, defense attorneys are allowed to review material tied to the case. And because Gilbert has chosen to act as his own attorney, he has had unlimited access to the pornographic footage.

Therefore, the jail says it has no choice but to allow Gilbert to review the footage times over with no limits. Restricting his access would risk a mistrial.

Investigators seized from Gilbert's possession more than 100 DVDs containing 28 hours of pornographic footage. Some of the material was allegedly shot by the former jet pilot, and feature the young boys he's accused of luring to his home and exploiting.

The prosecutor and the sheriff say the results of the legal loophole are sickening in this case, but say the state Supreme Court has ruled in Gilbert's favor.

"Make no mistake -- I don't like it," said Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor. "But it is not my choice whether to do it or not to do it. There's no question that I don't like it. There's no question that this makes me grind my teeth."

"We don't like it. We don't want to do it, but we have to follow the law. The fix here is to change the law," said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.

To make sure no other inmates get a chance to see the pornography, Gilbert is made to review them in a separate room.

Child advocates say allowing the tapes to be viewed further victimizes the victims

Courtesy of KVAL

Questions the President did not answer

I like Iowahawk.

Go fourth and read!

O.F.F. Alert! Legislators want Concealed Carry Permit holders info to be public.

The Following Legislators Have Voted For Or Worked To Make Private Personal Information On Concealed Handgun License Holders Public. We Assume They Won't Mind Us Sharing Their Info.

(By the way, I don't mind telling you that I'm usually never more than 10 feet from something that kills. -except at work, of course.)

Onward to John Day!

I just hope you'll endure another picture of my beloved wife as "Agent Felicity Wang"

Those are nuclear jet engines. The man, (me) is provided for prospective.

They were extensivly tested for thrust reliabiliy, and they were flown around on the back of a B-36 for numerous test flights. They were never used to propel a manned aircraft, as far as I can determine.

Probably no way to load enough shielding on an aircraft. High-energy neutrons fry electronics about as well as they fry people, so the entire reactor and thrust assembly would have to be encased in shielding.

The Soviets gave up on the idea about the same time we did.

The snow was lovely, but we had quite a bit of trouble in one of these passes. There was ice on the road, and we barely made 10 mph.

Finally , to a place that Missus found especially interesting. Kam Wah Chung & CO.

It was the undertaking of two Cantonese Immigrants; Lung On, a merchant of considerable mettle, and Ing Hay, a Physician of traditional Chinese medicine.

"Doc Hay" was sought out by whites as frequently as chinese. His patients came from as far as Seattle and San Francisco. A United States Senator brought his "consumptive" child to see the Doctor all the way from D.C!

The family remained patients of the good Doctor for many decades.

I've been to a few proper chinese apothecaries. This one will do.

U.S. law was very harsh to the immigrant chinese. While the workmen were quite welcome, they weren't allowed to bring their wives or families. There were other shameful restriction as well.

I don't know if the above is a watercolor of a sweetheart, or an ad for soap. I do know that it's the only pretty chinese girl either of those men saw for many, many years.


Lung On was a very treasured patron of the First National Bank of Portland. He was also quite the ladies' man.

While he was in Portland to look after his business, banking, and his lady friends, he saw the very first automobile for sale in the town. He waited in line to talk to the salesman.

People asked all sorts of questions, Lung only wanted to know how much it cost.

The salesman told him, and Lung peeled the required number of bills off his money roll.

He taught himself to drive it on the way home.

A bit later he bought a dealership for the brand.

John Day's perfect little hospital. (Missus and I would be so useless there.)

Idaho Falls and NERD RAAAAGE!

The very impressive Idaho Falls temple.




The falls at flood stage, my dear wife, and some very disturbed waterfowl.



A gigantic kittypile of goslings trying to keep warm. There were at least 45 babies in this clutch, the temp was about 43 degrees, and a stern wind.



We encountered a nuclear research facility.

Nothing is happening there. I promise.




One of my own holy shrines. The world's first generating breeder reactor.



My middle school was much larger than this unassuming building.






The core and fertile blanket wasn't even two feet wide. It produced 500 KW/h for quite some years.

By the way, I'm standing on the containment vessel!!!!



Approximatley 100 pounds of vitamin U-238. A whole bunch of these made up the the target blanket.



Bond girl, Dr. Felicity Wang, finds the button that will undo Professor Chaos' evil plan.

(Does the US government rent this place out after hours?)




The good old days....

More Vacation? Really?

In the vernacular of the locals, I "wrassel a 'bar" for his salmon. Phew!

Missus comforts the beast.

Coming out of the the Yellowstone to the lovely Snake River valley.

Idaho Falls is mighty impressive at flood-stage! We stayed at a hotel right across the street. The steady roar was very soothing.

Back is the US!

It was just over that rise that our Toyota GPS tried to kill us for the third time. I shut it off for good.

Chillin' in Bozeman, home of the only Safeway in Montanna.

We did laundry, resupplied with the medication that keeps my head from exploding, and had the worst Chinese food ever!

Without question, the worst ever. I was merely nonplussed. Missus was horrified.

En route to Yellowstone. I needed coffee, and Missus communed with the wildlife.

(I think the satanic Chinese food might have affected her mind. -Good thing there's lots of clean air to drive through.)

Back to my blessed high country.

A bison. A real one, and not at all tame.

The keen observer can see the 'hind end a a cute baby bison. Missus tried her best to get a better photo, but momma was having none of it!

I very much regret that we did not buy that hat.

Endless Vacation: The lesser photos.

How's that for cosmopolitian? Afghani takeout right next to our hotel in Regina!

These are saskatoons, or sarvisberries. They grow wild almost everywhere up in SK.

They're very much like blueberries, but a bit milder and less acid.

This is Moosejaw. I've always wanted to see it. I have now seen it.

Check.

Here are two slightly more complementary photos of Moosejaw:

Did Al Capone summer there? I haven't studied his life.

A very nice house.

Pumping my own gas. LIKE A FREE MAN!

Saskatchwanians pump their own gas every day, and they laugh at us Oregon nebbishes!

Upon reflection, crossing the US boarder at Idonwannabeheah MT. might have been a poor choice. It was just a point in an endless prairie. We were probably the only people the hapless customs people had seen all week.

They did stop short of strip and cavity searches, but they certainly did spend alot of time making sure we were who we were supposed to be. They even searched under the car, and poked through our luggage. Still, it was magnitudes quicker than crossing at I5.

The drug sniffing dog must have been sleeping.

"The Future Will Destroy You"

PDX's own Viva Voce's newest album(of the above mentioned title) is available for sale today.

Go fourth to purchase it!

That girl has a rhythm guitar that's bigger than she is. You ought to see her play it.

Yet more vacation

i think I should start by recalling a favorite "go-sleepy" book of mine, Coles' "Heavy Weather Sailing." The center pages are full of pictures of waves that are, one is informed, simply mountainous. Unfortunately, a series of snapshots cannot convey such immensity.

This was the most "Behemoth-y" tractor we encountered. Instead of tires, it had rubber caterpillar treads. It dragged about eighty feet of harrow and drill behind it, and reloaded seed from a semi-trailer.

Saskatoon was a very nice city. It reminded me of Wheeling, WV back when everybody was working.

Not the sort of place one wants to nose around though. Just a good, decent place. A nice place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit.

Especially since, through very poor planning on my part, I was running out of a medication that actually keeps me alive.

With sister safe in her new digs, we left rather abruptly for American soil.

Bobby's vacation, part the third.

The prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan are simply vast. They are the equivalent of eight or so Kansases sewn together quiltwise.

Ponder that as your brain starts melting.

That tractor had twelve wheels, each bigger that our car. The disc harrow and seed drill was sixty feet wide. That yellow thing in back is a seed hopper, and holds five yards of seed.

A slight bend in an otherwise endlessly straight road.

Our Toyota Motor Corporation GPS tried to kill us by sending us on a dirt road, and then it tried to tell us to turn into a cornfield.

No, thank you, computer lady, We'll just stick to the map from now on.

More straight road. We were going through an Indian Reservation.

(You aren't supposed to use the terms "Indian" or "reservation." However, since all the Indians I know refer to themselves as "Indian," I shall continue to do so. I'm not sure what the politically correct Canuckistani term for "reservation" is.)

Anyhow, we were tired of our music by then, and we tuned into the reservation radio station. We heard three songs in a row about how wonderful things were before white people showed up.

One was trance-electronica, one was straight country, and the last was delta-blues. Curious.

Hutterites and Bretheren run spreads that are many thousands of acres. I'm not sure I could control that much property and stay humble.

Bobby's vacation, part the second.

Away from Vancouver, over the mountains, and on to the great prairies! The Canadian Cascades and Rockies are just squished together, so you get all the mountain driving you can handle in just two days.

Mountain driving is very draining for me and I found myself missing my Audi several times. Missus's Prius was sufficiently comfy, however. The average 44.6 mpg wasn't bad either.



Missus and Sister relaxing in Sicamous. I shall have to try the fishing there next year.



Yet more mountains. The photos just don't do them justice.

Next: More flat land than you dare to imagine.