Wayward Landlubber

There was a theologian in the first half of the 20th Century named Reinhold Niebuhr. He has a pretty good reputation for being a philosopher, as well as theologian, something that separates him from the kind of theology practiced by today's Republicans. Where I became interested in him was when Barack Obama and John McCain both said nice things about him during their presidential run in 2008. Things have changed massively in not yet a generation. Niebuhr said of democracy that it is the "approximate solution to an intractable problem" . He uses the word approximate; not proximate, which gives it a stronger nuance. To approximate, to come close. Intractable, to have difficulty solving. That pretty much describes the way democracy has been practiced for at least the 20th Century in this and other nations where democracy is practiced by people who are interested in governing; not ruling. That quotation hides a lot of turbulence. It is performed in either legislative democrac...

Villainy is afoot! People who follow Islam are coming here by the tens, maybe dozens. Some of them are fleeing theocratic oppression in their own country's. Many of them have advanced science degrees and other talents we could use to rebuild our country from the despotic theocracy that has ruined us. We don't yet know how to distinguish between the Muslem adherents who are devout and those whose connection to Islam is merely cultural. We do not know this distinction because the better-thinking among us believe in that part of Constitutional law that allows for a separation between church and state. The other 35% or so wish to choke us on the version of Christianity that the podcasters in muscle shirts wish to impose. The same podcasters in muscle shirts that are responsible for climate change doubt. Islam, as well as Mormonism and Hindu religions is a mystery to us. We'll hell, the way some of us practice Christianity is a mystery to some of us. What is Sharia? Beats me. I ...

She will be 1 year-old sometime in November, exact date  unknown. Lulu and I are still working things out. Being a cat, that means that Lulu expects me to mind her. Being a male human, I'm mostly confused. She is the first rescue cat I've raised from kittenhood. She's the first cat I've raised that doesn't need me for comfort.  It's not that she ignores me. I believe that she loves me...on her own terms. I try to give her the space she needs. My window stays open most of the time so she can climb trees and come and go  as she wishes. If she can't get out when she wants, she jumps up on my chest and dips her head. But she will not allow me to pull her into my embrace. When she's of a mind, she will jump up next to me and bump my tablet aside to make patty-cakes against my bicep. Soon, as I smooth her fur her nails begin to become annoying. Not painful, but annoying. I move my free-hand between her paws and my arm with the gentle admonishing, "no claw...

I don't know if Data Centers will be the huge mistake many of us believe is inevitable. What I do know is that A I has some serious negatives and no proper oversight. In addition, the corporate entities who are building these spaces are not practicing the necessary courtesies of oversight that a municipality affected by the many dangers concomitant with data centers can anticipate. Among the questionable business practices are non-disclosure agreements: a wonderful opportunity to pull the wool over the public's eyes. Add to that, the unrestricted demand for potable water, which may pollute the watershed with "forever chemicals", the noise, the effects on wildlife in the area, and the not too remote possibility that this could turn out to be a thing which we mere humans cannot control.

I'm an old Boomer. I got a late start in making my parents grandparents, so now I'm looking at 2 sons who are in no hurry to make me a pa-pa. Consequently I have a lot of waking ours to think about inconsequential stuff. In addition there's a good bit of consequential stuff to engage my mind, sometimes my wits. On November 4, or soon after, we will wake up to see the maga Republican con-game in its falling-down-the-basement-steps descent. No political party since Joseph McCarthy, and he was Republican in every sweaty pore,  deserves it more. There will be much that needs to be done that is "regular business" and there will be much to be done to unfuck what maga Republicans have fucked up since 2016. This will, by necessity, take many years to complete. Too many for most of us who don't understand such things, but have an enlivened sense of Republican injustice.  There was a period of 40 years, from 1955 to 1995 when America, through Democratic majorities in th...

When I was just a lad in the 1950s, this time of year we would often hear flocks of Canada Geese flying overhead in a kind of elongated upside-down V pattern; one leg longer than the other. Loud honks moved  unctiously through the lines of geese overhead.  It was a sign of fall. School will be starting soon, dad would be preparing for hunting season. That the area west of Woodburn where I-5 cuts through, used to be a lake. Canada Geese used to drop in to linger for awhile before returning to their migration. Over the years a small population of Canada Geese have become resident in the Salem area. Why not? There's grass seed fields, and  grain fields all over, without the bitter winter cold, and rivers, streams, and lakes, usually. Part of their adopted territory is in SE Salem, in the field where The Data Hyperstorage construction is planned.  I don't know if our resident goose population is ready to turn back to the nicer country from which it is named, it would be ...