Wayward Landlubber

     When I was a boy we would often go on Sunday drives. I remember once, driving east on I-84, as we passed The Dalles dam, dad pointed out where Celilo falls and village used be, buried as it is beneath several hundred feet of water behind the dam. Dad proudly told of how the village was removed to its present location and I was too young to question his pride in our white nobility.    Fast forward fifty years to March 7, 2007. My son Aidan and I were driving to Celilo for a commemoration of that day so long ago. His brother was with the high school drama club in Ashland and I wanted Aidan to get a taste of Howard Zinn history, a historian whose book, A Peoples History of the United States, Aidan had recently read. The event was put on by the Confederated tribes of Warm Springs and the public was invited. We drove east on I-84 out of Portland on a crisp mid-morning, much like our family drives when I was Aidans age.      There is a state park o...

     Mark Zuckerberg probably had no idea the mess he would cause. To a nerdy college student with mad programming skills, it was merely a means to communicate, to maybe talk to that hot coed. It fulfilled that objective, but at a cost few could have predicted. In the old days of newspapers with opinion pages, a letters-to-the-editor section was featured. People who wished to contribute their opinion alongside noted writers, thinkers or political philosophers were required to keep their commentary to 150 words or less, and were culled from thousands of submissions. An effort was made to present balanced opinions from a large cross-section of readers. But the opinions chosen were required to be concise, free of swearing, exhibiting some degree of reasoning and adherence to long-held cultural norms. They were also featured among a small group of highly educated, award-winning commentators. The editorial team corrected misspellings and awkward word usage. It was not difficul...

     Democrats have long puzzled political observers with their independence from a central organization. The Oklahoma humorist, Will Roger's once said, "I'm  not a member of an organized political party, I'm a Democrat." The party has a broad tent, which is accepting of people of color and sexual minorities. A tent that grew over may decades of internal challenges, and once the Dixicrats abandoned the party to become Republicans. For those who question this internecine struggle, let me stress that this is the definition of the (small 'd') democratic process. During the presidential term of our first president of color, we witnessed the Vice-President publicly accept the reality of gay-marriage at a time when the President would have preferred silence.       There is no longer a similar debate within the Republican fold. Party loyalty is held in higher esteem than independent thought, or thought in general. This has led to an abundance of examples...

     "We scewed up." Charles Koch, along with his brother David was the bette noir of progressive politics for 6 decades. David has now left the stage, Charles may be hearing the footsteps. As a final crie de coeur he has written a book with this startling admission. "We screwed up", in creating a system of hostile partisan politics. There have been recent indications of the last living evil twin having a change of mind. Faint hints in the 2016 presidential election, and more audible indications in the 2020 presidential election. Now, he intends to use his final years to "bridge the political divide". A political chasm (not divide) that he and his brother carved out as surely as glacial ice carved the Grand Canyon, and at the same glacial pace. His first act is a book, written with his partner in rightwing Libertarianism, Brian Hooks. The awkward title: "Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions For a Top-Down world." It must not be forgotten that t...

     The election is over, what a long century it was. Joseph Biden and his running mate Kamela Harris, are president and vice-president- elect (oh how I enjoy the sound of that). Donald J. Trump is now the president de-select, a thought that also pleases me. The Senate that we had so much hope of flipping remains in Republican control, at least until two run-off elections to be held in Georgia next January. While the House remains in Democratic control, Republicans won seven new seats. So while it was not the crushing defeat of trumpism we had wished, it was a defeat of Trump. He has yet to concede.       We were, as usual, given the gift of comedy. Rudy Giuliani, Trumps lawyer (and friend to the Ukranian duo of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman of the eponymous business, Fraud Guarantee) gifted us with a non-concession press conference in front of the garage door of the world famous New Seasons Total Landscaping Company. That was only part of the humor. Boo...

Office of St Peter Celestial Realm Attn. Saint Peter.                                                                                         Office of hypocrisy                                                                                          Liberty University Sir:  I write to request your forgiveness of Jerry Falwell Jr. He feels awful about being caught watching the pool boy shtup his wife. While he feels sorry for Becky, having to find her liaisons in other ways, he has assured me that he will now whack-off watching porn DVDs, there ...

     Those of us of a peculiar persuasion have long espoused verbally, if not by our actions, this simple aphorism. It is an acknowledgement of our place in the world, and an affirmation that money spent in our local community benefits far more than the farm or business, or restaurant where they are spent. This is known by the coldly scientific term, synergy: to work together. The parable of the "loaves and fishes, from the New Testament, is a good example of synergism. The people were hungry, Jesus fed them, and they stayed to marvel at his sermon. But on this subject I am hardly qualified, so I will try some other examples which I may be more qualified to discuss. I will, first focus your attention to the backyard and gradually widen the focus.      There is no greater connection to the web of life than composting. When done right, composting starts with our non-meat kitchen scraps, coffee grounds and eggshells, combined with the dead leaves of autumn, pl...