Equal and Opposite Reaction.

The Doser wonders if we are really doing well in defending against the attacks of persons who hate us. What seems to be going on is that they make an attack using air-planes and we respond by putting all our energies into protecting air-planes. The use of the terrorist's underwear has caused us to respond by installing elaborate body-sensors. Too late, in both responses. Now it does seem that the persons who hate us are planning ahead on how next to damage us. We've been saying: "By golly they got us that time, we'll stop that gap in our defenses." What it seems to The Doser we should be saying is "What are they likely to be planning next and let's attempt to prepare for that eventuality." They seem to be acting and we seem to be re-acting.

Are We losing?

"They" are willing to die for what they believe in. "We" don't seem willing even to live for what we believe in.

The War is the Demon

Four states, including our neighbor Washington, are going forward with steps to legalize marijuana - and, by making those steps, are moving toward the termination of our preposterous "Drug War"

Not surprisingly at least one of the officials that benefit by the irrational "Drug War" puts forth a negative reaction: "There's no upside to it in any manner other than for those people who want to smoke pot," said Travis Kuykendall, head of the West Texas High Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area office in El Paso, Texas. "There's nothing for society in it, there's nothing good for the country in it, there's nothing for the good to the economy in it."

This person who benefits from the "Drug War" fails to note the human and financial costs, the devastating enforcement structure we've built, the way we have overwhelmed our judicial and penal systems with users and the way we have trashed our neighbors to the south with our efforts. He also fails to take into account two other realities: Marijuana has not been shown to be more dangerous than tobacco, which we subsidize, or coffee in which we are drowning ourselves. This is not even to take note of the fact that the "Drug War" has been a dismal, totally unpromising, failure.

Downing is easier than upping.

Even Doonesbury is dissing O'Bama. The Doser worries that, when we pull the country together, it will not be easy to recover our feelings of approbation for the President.

No Change for that Amount of Change.

So Citibank and Wells-Fargo have paid back much of the money that we gave them to "bail them out." The message is clear - "We didn't need your money - just took because it was lying around loose. We're not willing to pay back with the modified behavior you expected just for a few measly billion dollars."

Time for Adamantine Party Lines.

It is difficult for The Doser to understand the solid, unanimous, forty-person Republican opposition to the Health Care Reform impetus. It appears that every single one of those people can't find the need for Health Care Reform to be more important than their individual grouse on the package? That is what is going on. It certainly sends a clear report to O'Bama: You're a woos to believe in bi-partisan action on important issues. The Doser's model for what is going on was developed in Greece. The "in" group that runs the government in Greece has nothing but routine, total, opposition, on every issue, from the "out" group. The result is that New Democracy and Pasok alternate their ineffective regimes.

Body of Slain Girl "Misplaced."

It does seem to The Doser that somebody should be a tad chagrined about losing the physical evidence of a murder under investigation. Were not receipts given and taken for evidence in the dark ages of 1985? Wasn't some agency wondering why they had a left over piece of evidence? Didn't some policeman say,"Where's the evidence of the crime that I'm investigating?"

High Price Hide and Seek.

It does seem that, every year, some people put themselves in such a position on Mt. Hood that massive efforts are expended to get them down.

The Doser lacks any understanding of why three people would venture -
on a dangerous avalanche-prone slope
in mid-winter
with a heavy storm in the immediate offing
without sufficient means to weather a storm and
without any of the inexpensive signal devices.

Who pays for attempts to save such persons? Have those who have made those attempts ever lost their lives in the process? (Other than the one helicopter pilot who died trying to get the whining John Day off Denali a few years ago.)

The Doser has acquired one, incomprehensible, explanation for the lack of signal devices: they are not required because carrying one would make the adventurer overly-confident and, thus, cause him to do what his good sense tells him not to do.

Old style lynching rare nowadays.

The Doser just read Lynching Photographs by Dora Apel and Shawn Michelle Smith. The authors point out that American lynchings
were composed of almost stereotypical parts. They were:

One or more African American men were identified as the candidates. It was broadcast that they raped a white woman. A mob formed. No investigation was made of the rape claim. The police did not do anything to disburse the mob. The lynching occurred. Photographs of the lynched persons were taken. Sometimes a special purpose photograph was posed. The photographs were widely disseminated. The police will did nothing to stop the lynching or reduce the public display that followed. The murderers were not brought to justice. Part of the press reported the event with approval; part of the press did not report the incident; part of the press viewed the event with disapproval.

Here is what the process told African Americans.
1. It could be you, since being selected is arbitrary.
2. It matters if white women are raped; it doesn't matter if African American women are raped.
3. The weapon of resolution is a mob - meaning an insensitive, out-of-control group drawn from the immediate area.You are isolated among persons any of whom may be hostile.
4. The police are not going to help you.
5. The photographs affirm to interested people that the matters of white superiority, sanctity of white women, necessary abasement have been taken care of.
6. It is a lynching offense to be an African American; it is not an offense to lynch an African American.
7. The media is not to be regarded as helpful.
8. Essentially, you are very vulnerable. You'd better keep in your place.



Does some of this action and reaction seem reminiscent of the events at Abu Ghraib?

Still not pretty pictures

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=718
On the above site there are shown several photos that deal with the Little Rock, Arkansas, school desegregation. Several, taken just 52 years ago, demonstrate the intensity of the feelings against desegregation and the isolation of the persons against whom the feelings were directed. A couple of 2007 pictures are added to show that all is forgiven and forgotten. The Doser says: Whooee. I'm sure glad racial discrimination is a thing of the past because it wasn't nice at all.

Let me count the ways.

The Oregon ballot initiative gad-fly, Bill Sizemore, has been charged with tax evasion for failure to file income tax returns for three years. The new problem that he has raised is that he has told the trial judge that he wants to act as his own lawyer. The judge doubtless received that absurd revelation with a shudder! Does the judge fret about this? Let me count the ways.

1. Facing a calendar back-log, the judge doesn't want to take on a trial that will take three times what it would take if a lawyer were involved. 2. He will have step repeatedly out of the judicial role to tell the defendant what to do and how to do it. 3. He will have to help the defendant introduce evidence and then have to rule on its admission. 4. Trials under self-defense conditions are rife with reversal possibilities and judges do not like to be reversed. 5. Judges like their court-rooms to be orderly and judicial and the self-defender usually turns the process into a farce. 6. Even young law school graduates are not adept at participating in trials in their early days. 7. If the defendant wants to have a jury, the above reasons should be multiplied on the messiness scale by a factor of at least three.

They allow THEM to have boats?

The US Corps of Army Engineers added another deficiency to their ineptitude list! They had been issued some boats and they let them sink.

A Bygone Saved is a Bygone Earned.

The Doser notes that we are scarcely startled by the reality that we have transferred our willingness to lynch black people into the willingness to torture Islaamic people. In fact, it would seem, that we are so anxious to suppress our comprehension in this regard that we call our attention to our shame only in somewhat remote publications. One of them is: Art Journal in its Summer 2005 edition. In that Journal, Dora Apel reminds us of what we seem so determined to forget.

The main-line journals that we read have commented calmly upon our torturing of prisoners. Some got out on a limb to speculate if it might be illegal or, somehow, not permitted. We even engaged in a national colloquy on the subject of whether drowning a person just short of killing him was actually "torture." Our media has not viewed with alarm or followed up on the implications.... Nor have we....

The author of the article in Art Journal doesn't do that. She lays it right out. We've been following our national bent to humiliate, denigrate, mutilate and lynch black people - and we've done it again. We've been humiliating, denigrating, mutilating Islaamic people. Bush and his minions told us it was OK and we did it and accepted it - and, now, we are willing to let bygones be bygones.

Well, that takes care of that.

It seems to The Doser that this sort of thing is happening with dismaying frequency these days. It goes something like this: The whole elaborate process around the study of Global Warming is discredited because one remote research-group fudged on their findings. Well, Okay. No believable Global Warming issue anymore.

Cry Big Bad Wolf!

It's easy setting up a black-white situation - one side settles on "yes" and the other side settles on "no." It seems to The Doser that the black-white scenario is in danger of being enacted in Eastern Oregon. The issue is the wanted/unwanted presence of wild wolves. The conservationists say that there should be wild wolves in the area. The ranchers say they are paying a price for the plan in slaughtered livestock. Here is The Doser in Portland supporting the wild-wolf plan. There is a rancher in Joseph who is having to finance the plan - at least in part.

How would it be if the State of Oregon controlled the sport killing of deer so that the wolves could have their natural prey and, then, reimbursed the ranchers for stock proved to have been slain by wolves.

Well, you say, that's a compromise for which the deer-hunters must pay. (It is their fee support, and legislative support, which is vital to the Oregon Wildlife programs.) Okay, we need a reasonable compromise for that one!

President Acts on Afghanistan Issue.

President O'Bama has decided to send more troops to Iraq after a lengthy period of consideration. The President appears to have sent messages to all but one of the participants in that Slough of Despond that is Afghanistan 2009. To the military, he said: none of you is the Commander in Chief of the US military. I hold that role. To Kharzai, he said: we want you to find a positive function for yourself contrary to all of your history and inclination. To our soldiers, he said; we now have goals that you are asked to achieve.To the people of he world, he said: This is a major mess that we need your help to clean up. He failed to send a clear message to the people of the United States who are giving monetary support to our Afghani opponents. That message should have been: What are you going to do to solve your drug purchase problem?

Bean-bag Brouhaha

The Doser fears that the Portland decision to suspend Police Officer Christopher Humphreys is so riddled with James Chasse politics that the officer would have been suspended had he been caught spitting on the side-walk. Such a shooting-from-the-hip decision process clouds the whole more important issue of what force may properly be used by police officers.

Too hot to handle.

The recent spurt in growth of the venerable bristlecone pines raises questions about warming. Of course it is not denied that such evidences of global warming tend to show that there is global warming going on. The diminution of polar ice and the advance of conifer forests into the tundra, and a number of other processes, show that there is global warming. The sticking point for the objectors is their view that it is not emergency-type global warming of which we are the cause but just a run-of-the-mill natural cycle of warming. When we are causing an atmospheric effect that results in global warming, when global warming has occurred at an increased rate recently, it seems to The Doser that we must curtail that conduct whether it is causing the global warming or exacerbating it.

Bull-facting.

When the stock market makes a move, it is often reported with all the assumptions of a statement of fact that "......the Dow dropped 24 points today on news that Consolidated Dog Food had reported lower than expected third quarter earnings." The Doser finds it just too precious that they can bring themselves to say such a dumb thing publicly and even more precious that they would do so apparently assuming that we will believe them.

Wanting not to believe.

The WW II story about the Nazi use of corpses to get fat for soap has been quite authoritatively questioned. The memory of this horror has now been aroused. There appears to be another claim that human fat is being collected from murdered Peruvian victims and sold for cosmetic purposes. It is to be hoped that the Peruvian story is also not correct. The Doser finds it difficult to think of human beings falling to such evil practices.

They have scheduled the trial of the ones who claim they arranged the destruction of the twin towers. The trial is set in a court house quite near the scene of the tragedy. That there probably won't be many jurors called who actually dwell in that area only reduces "the problem." The problem will be to get an unbiased jury. The questioning of jurors will proceed along two lines: (1) Do you know about the event that took out the twin towers on 9/11? and (2) Do you think you can be an unbiased juror? The jury will be made up of those who answer "yes" to the second question. The defense won't have enough perremptory challenges to clean that mess up! Think! If the answer is "no" to the first question, is that really believable ? And - if "yes" to the second question, is that really believable?

Only a Rat testifies.

When The Doser was a child, the person who was a tattle tale was not highly regarded. That, you will remember, was the whiner that constantly ran to the "Mom" with: "Johnnie just took my doll...etc." Even "Mom" was inclined to discourage tattle-taling.

But, "Mom" was right on the cusp of the problem: she wanted the girl to come and tell her if her brother was stuck up a tree. She just did not want to be included in the way brother and sister learned to deal with each other. The message, however, was: "Don't be a tattle-tale." Since the investment the "teller" had in telling was slight, it was still possible for "Mom" to give some dimension to the prohibition.

It's like The Doser's grand-children who were told not to speak with strangers. The children learned the lesson that they should not speak to their infrequently-visiting grand-parents. What seems to be needed is a training message that says: Don't do this - but - do that.

Later in life, when peers began to be more important and the parental regulations-structure more burdensome, the person who went to authority with a report on what was going on was called a "rat." The Doser understands that this term is used on those who "rat" on their criminal associates. Even the "informer," without whom most crimes would remain unsolved, is not a noble figure - even to the police who rely upon him. By this time, the "costs of telling" have gone up. Payment and protections are sometimes provided for the person who tells.

The US Navy used to have a well-embedded "us-them" demarcation which did not encourage enlisted men to "tell" on other enlisted men. The Doser's guess is that it is still pretty much the same, generally, in all armed forces. Probably based camaraderie and the fear of retaliation. However, The Doser's friend Rob, says that there are Army mechanisms to protect a person who is picked on, hazed, violated and the like. It does turn on going to authority to complain. It would be a long walk to the Lieutenant's office past the Sergeant's desk! And an even longer walk back to the berthing area.

Those of us old enough to remember the Nazi era remember how horrified we were that neighbors were encouraged to "tell" on neighbors. That is: they were encouraged to tell the authorities about infractions of the law. Further, to show how despicable the Nazis were, we were led to understand that they encouraged children to tell on their parents.

The Doser was thinking about the boy who brought the gun to school the other day. Apparently, his backing among the student body for bringing a weapon to school was not large because some students told some teachers about the gun. Even at this remove, one wonders if the plural of "students" and "teachers" was not used to protect a single person that told.

It is not hard to imagine that there are situations where the ones who would want to tattle-tale or "rat" on the school gunsel would certainly not do that: for example, if there were mean streets between the school and their homes and the gunsel was a member of a gang. The costs of telling could be very high.

Anyone that has ever attended an automobile accident or witnessed a crime in a crowded place knows very well that, "I don't want to get involved," decides who saw anything. Thus, even to uphold rules that we all rely upon, we can't bring ourselves easily to tell authorities what happened. Here, the "don't tell" rule applies even though the costs of telling are as low as giving a statement or appearing in court.

What we seem to have is a well-settled ambivalence about telling authority that somebody did something wrong? Those feelings come out of a culture that fully supports that reluctance. Though it works to the disadvantage of the underdog, the violated person, it appears to The Doser that it may be too embedded to be cured.

Even after jettisoning abortion payment.

The thirty-nine US Representatives that voted against the health care reform - for your information:

1. Adler, John (N.J.)
2. Altmire, Jason (Penn.)
3. Baird, Brian (Wash.)
4. Barrow, John (Ga.)
5. Boccieri, John (Ohio)
6. Boren, Dan (Okla.)
7. Boucher, Rick (Va.)
8. Boyd, Allen (Fla.)
9. Bright, Bobby (Ala.)
10. Chandler, Ben (Ky.)
11. Childers, Travis (Miss.)
12. Davis, Artur (Ala.)
13. Davis, Lincoln (Tenn.)
14. Edwards, Chet (Tex.)
15. Gordon, Bart (Tenn.)
16. Griffith, Parker (Ala.)
17. Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (S.D.)
18. Holden, Tim (Penn.)
19. Kissell, Larry (N.C.)
20. Kosmas, Suzanne (Fla.)
21. Kratovil, Frank (Md.)
22. Kucinich, Dennis (Ohio)
23. Markey, Betsy (Colo.)
24. Marshall, Jim (Ga.)
25. Massa, Eric (N.Y.)
26. Matheson, Jim (Utah)
27. McIntyre, Mike (N.C.)
28. McMahon, Mike (N.Y.)
29. Melancon, Charlie (La.)
30. Minnick, Walt (Idaho)
31. Murphy, Scott (N.Y.)
32. Nye, Glenn (Va.)
33. Peterson, Collin (Minn.)
34. Ross, Mike (Ark.)
35. Shuler, Heath (N.C.)
36. Skelton, Ike (Mo.)
37. Tanner, John (Tenn.)
38. Taylor, Gene (Miss.)
39. Teague, Harry (N.M.)

Reasonableness at last.

Oregon appears to have adopted a sensible evaluating program for schools. Schools will be graded "by how well they move students ahead from where they start the year."

My opinion more important than your health.

If abortion opinions were as correct as they are over-bearing, the next reasonable step would be to legalize slaying abortion clinic workers.

Citizen of the Flies?

The Oregonian ran an informative article on the issue of run-away teens.

Let's assume that there is a group of youths that think they are adults and leave their parental homes because they want to be liberated from the parental situation. The Doser wonders: What about having adult-sponsored youth living enclaves? These would be designated civic entities where they are free to act as adults: they can earn a wage that sustains them, they must live by the laws of the state and will, presumably, need to adhere to the rules of the mores section into which they gravitate. They can drink, dope, shirk, fornicate, form partnerships, espouse causes, act out and work as much as they want to - with the same consequences that older adults experience when they do those things. They would have an opportunity to live as an adult with an adult's consequences. The deal would be that all youths that want to "run away from home" could enroll.

Sort of a combination of CCC and Lord of the Flies?

Now you see it, now you don't.

The Fed. has held the short term interest rate at close to zero. We say "Wow! The good ol' Fed. taking good care of us!" NO. The Doser points out that the low rate of interest is the rate by which big banks borrow money from the Fed. They are still charging us ruinous rates of interest using their almost free money.

As The Doser looks around Afghanistan, as President O'bama must be doing, He wonders if the USA has any friends there. He wonders whether the number of troops will make any difference in the country. What, exactly, will an increased deployment accomplish there?. Will it win any friends in the Muslim world? Is the whole Western world hoping we'll commit to military action there? Do we have any rational reason to believe that, if we storm those formidable mountains, we will find Osama bin Ladin or the al queda big-wigs? Really, is there any reason why we are wasting our lives there? The Doser trusts that President O'bama reaches the conclusion: "pull 'em out."

A Third Possibility.

The circumstances appear to have presented President O'bama with a simple decision: Send in more troops - if so, how many? - OR - Withdraw all the troops - if so, when? The Doser believes that straightforward scenario ignores a possible third course that might even be acceptable to the Pastun. The thing to do would be: 1. Withdraw all of our troops, and 2. Deploy a suicide brigade made up of civilian engineers, physicians, educators and agronomists. We should tell the whole world what we're doing - and do it. They will stand there unarmed, exposed, seriously in harm's way, facing the full spectrum of Afghanis that range from patriots to near-savages all of whom hate us. If they die, the plan fails; if they live, both Afghanistan and the world could benefit.

NWA Overflight

All of the possibilities of reasonable explanations for what happened on that flight deck that caused NWA #188 to abandon radio contact and fly out over 100 miles into the wild blue yonder seem to have been negated. Except one. Sleeping, arguing, playing with their private computers - all - seem to have been eliminated. The Doser wonders if one of the pilots said something very absorbing to the other pilot as their plane was flying west across Wisconsin. It could have been something like "Tim, there's something that I haven't told you. It's so hard to tell you but it's been just one of those unavoidable things.............."

Another amazing recent development.

There's this position called "positive thinking." The first time The Doser heard about it he thought the proponents were talking about belief in voodoo or magic. But, no, they are otherwise rational people who truly believe that positive thinking will cause "it" to occur. Wishing will make it so. They aren't really talking about prayer - they are talking about sending out good vibes and it will occur.

Slam-Dunk in Afghanistan

Kharzai has been induced to re-stage the Afghan presidential elections. We aren't told by what inducements he was induced. "Statesmanship and willingness to abide by the rule of law" don't seem that realistic. If his election de-frauders are a bit less exuberant, it appears to The Doser that he stands a good chance of being re-installed in the presidential seat.

A Tree-hugging Acorn

Andrew Schlafly, son of Phyllis Schlafly, (you know: anti-feminism, anti-ERA, anti-arms limitation,anti-teaching geography in public schools)has entered modifications to the impositions that he believes liberalism has imposed on reference literature and theology. He has published Conservapedia as a corrective to Wikipedia and is working on a new bible that cleans up the liberal tendencies of the existing Bibles.
The Doser learned about these absurdities from Leonard Pitts Jr's column.

To get an impression of the corrections Schlafly makes is in the long ending of Mark's Gospel, which includes the story of the woman caught in adultery. This incident is not found in most of the oldest Greek manuscripts used to translate the Bible. Schlafly says that the adultery story, in which Jesus says, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," should be cut because it portrays Jesus as being soft on sin.
"It's a liberal addition, put in by people who wanted to undermine the reality of hell and judgment," he said.

When gas is $10 a litre.

Designed by the University of NSW solar racing team, the solar car Ivy will be a participant in the 3000 Km. Darwin to Adelaide event. There are several other Australian entries. The race will commence October 25th and there are a number of web-sites of participants that are telling, now, about the last-minute preparations of their teams. The Doser is following the University of Michigan entry.

Just a Delivery Glitsch

Nine decapitated bodies were found in an abandoned truck along a road in Guerrero State, Mexico. Casual explanation: murdered in a drug war in Guerrero. More realistic explanation: murdered to decide which criminal group transports our drugs to us. Basic explanation: our US determination to solve our drug problem by conducting a Drug War has resulted in a few more war casualties. The linchpin of the Drug War is Prohibition of Drugs. Yes, we are clinging, again, to the idea of "Prohibition of a Social Evil." This time, however, the absurdity of such a stance is being played out, additionally, in the bed of a pick up in Guerrero. The Doser.

Double crossers double-dipping.

The AIG big-wigs that led their company, and our country, into this economic mess are now double-dipping! They are providing themselves with additional large bonuses. What they are doing is paying themselves twice for contributing to our mess. Even The Doser, who got fairly calloused to nastiness during the George W. Bush administration, is outraged.

Unrelated events.

It appears the US troops have been experiencing weapon-failures - their own weapons. The Doser is not cynical enough to make the connection between the failure of our weaponry and the request by the military for additional troops.

What we are doing.

In better moments, The Doser is of the opinion that both the government and the military have had aims in Afghanistan/Pakistan. In moments of giddy elation, The Doser is of the opinion that each knew the other's aims. In his most uninhibited imagination state The Doser is of the opinion that they will, soon, share their aims with us folks. If part of that process is achieved, they, and we, will know what we are trying for and what it takes to succeed at it.

Untitled.

US forces in Afghanistan take a very heavy hit. The Doser admonishes: You are NOT to be that cynical.

What goes around comes around.

The ΠΑΣΟΚ party of George Papandreos II was just selected in an election which means he will hold the Greek prime ministry as did his father, Andreas Papandreos I, and grand-father, George Papandreos I. He replaces the scion of the Karamanlis political dynasty, Kostas Karamanlis, whose uncle Konstantine Karamanlis founded the defeated party. ΠΑΣΟΚ back "in" - replacing ΝΔ. Greece seems slow to bring fresh political figures into the arena.

Not obligatory to prove Mr. Bumble correct.

It is illegal in our Western Culture for a 46 year old man to have to do sexually with a 13 year old woman. (The reference being made is to the crime confessed to by Roman Polanski regarding his sexual conduct with Samantha Geimer.) Clearly there were places in the world where the age disparity between them was not considered a matter of illegality. Perhaps,also, her lack of consent was a legal and not an actual circumstance. It is therefore arguable that the act itself may not have been wrong in an abstract, non-legal, sense. "Wrong" is not as cut-and-dried as "illegal." In thinking it over, The Doser thinks it may well have been wrong because of the imposition implicit in the disparity of their social positions at the time. But, now, thirty years have gone by! Add to the passage of time the circumstance that the now-43 year old woman has been asking the authorities to drop the charges against the now-76 year old man. Ignore the make-weight issue that he's a very productive movie-maker. Putting aside the fact that many people do not agree with Mr. Bumble and believe that what is "illegal" is "wrong." The Doser asserts that a wrong is not made right by the passage of time - but, in this case, opines that it has been made ignorable.

Ardi

A new set of humanoid relatives has been found in Ethiopia! They were living there about 4.4 million years ago. The educated people of the world are awed - and exhilarated - by this find. The un-educated will simply add it, facilely, to their accumulation of disbeliefs. Amazing!

That War in Afghanistan

The Oregonian says * that a majority of the Pakistanis are not in favor of giving aid to the US troops fighting the Taliban, Al Quida, and others,in Afghanistan. Coupled with the fact that our expectation for assistance in that program from the Afghanis seems, justifiably, low. Add to that the fact that an understood objective (to catch Osama bin Ladin) is unlikely since he can slip over a mountain pass into a friendly area any time he's threatened. All in all, The Doser opines that it is time that we state more clearly our goals in that eight-year war and decide whether to do what is necessary to achieve our them, or to get out. (* You have to trust The Doser that it says that if you don't have The Oregonian in its concretized paper before you.)

Better way?

The Oregonian reports, this morning, * that bicycle delivery of packages and tools by some businesses is being done. How could this excellent principle be applied to broad-scale delivery of goods and packages? The way it is now, for example, UPS has a large number of heavy trucks with truck-drivers driving and delivering packages to individual addresses. The Doser wonders: What if zones about the size that could be covered (with average daily package transport into that area) by a bicyclist in, say, four or five hours? Trucks would deliver to depots in those zones during the night - when they can get around the city easily - and college student cyclists would deliver them in their local areas during the day. (* It did say that but you need a paper entry to read it for yourself.)

Belief in the unbelievable.

The fact is that the two types of thought on any political issue are needed. Sound political philosophy assures us that both conservative and liberal inputs are needed for us to proceed in worthwhile directions. Both are required to preserve what is good and to go for what's needed. As usual, we are in dire straits and we need the input of both opinion areas.

But, just when we need the conservative intellectual expression, it has disappeared and the right wing has turned itself over to the ranters-and-ravers. The conservatives are not furthering the process of commonweal; they are providing intemperate, disorderly, rude contributions and actually promoting harmful conduct. Comparing President O'bama to Adolph Hitler, saying that the health package contains provision for death committees, saying that President O'bama has no strategy for Afghanistan because he doesn't send immediately the 40,000 troops requested by the military, encouraging people to act out their hatreds.

President O'bama was right, initially, to try to draw some of his program's intellectual adversaries into bi-partisan debate and support but there simply is no intellectual element there any more. The Doser's opinion is that The President realizes there is nothing there and he is now simply trying to get a few votes from the less turbulent ones.

The Doser notes that the long-in-the-tooth are fairly solidly supportive of this madness. Q: How can the elderly put any belief in a group that has the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Joe Wilson, Lou Dobbs, Frank Luntz and Bill O'Reilly as their spokespeople? A: They have come to believe that O'bama's program will cost them some of the program support upon which they have relied and they are so angst-ridden, they are persuaded to believe the unbelievable.

Nam Reprise

If we don't come up with a believable goal for our activity in Afghanistan, we'd better repair to the embassy roof and wait for the helicopters.

Another Viet Nam?

The area now known as Afghanistan has not been a settled,easy plot for many years. Its earliest European contact person was Alexander of Macedon. In its recent history, the Afghani government invited the Soviets to send in troops to bring an end to a civil war between the Afghani government and an insurgency called the Mujahideen. The Mujahideen were supported by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Soviet troops were sent, in December of 1979, and were finally withdrawn in defeat in February of 1989. In 1992, the rebel faction overthrew the government. In 1996, the Taliban assumed control of the Kabul area. By 1998, the Clinton government began efforts to seize Osama bin Ladin whom it believed to be a terrorist leader. A firing of US rockets into Afghani territory failed in its attempt to kill bin Ladin. Other efforts to neutralize Osama bin Ladin failed. The Afghanistan government did not effectively cooperate with these efforts. The US government decided that Osama bin Ladin was the instigator of several terrorist incidents and, finally, of the Twin Tower/Pentagon attacks on September 11, 2001. The US demanded that the Afghani government arrest Osama bin Ladin and turn him over. It did not do that. The US, with a world-wide coaltion of forty two nations, entered the country on October 7, 2001.

The Doser mentions this because the US appears to be at an historical turning point: whether to accept defeat and withdraw from Afghanistan or materially increase the military commitment there.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the US/UN commander in Afghanistan has announced that, without more troops being committed to the Afghanistan war, it will soon be impossible to win the war.

Yep, Some harbingers of success.

A Keizer, Oregon, resident (in The Oregonian, September 20, 2009) points to the "stratospheric meter costs, convoluted driver-biker rules and trains down virtually every street" and says that Portland has become "The City that Most Discourages Auto Use." The Doser says: "Yes, I hadn't heard that complimentary title yet but I hope we can live up to it."

Back at my post.

The Doser explains his temporary abandonment of your therapy on the grounds that he has been enacting a new personal rite of passage. He trusts previous dosages have so strengthened your systems that you have gotten through the period healthfully.

It is incomprehensible to The Doser that even an illiterate, incompetent nincompoop could believe that the President of the United States of America is going to promote his support of gay marriage and abortions rights in his address to the school children of the country.

Black pot; black kettle.

The Oregonian published two articles today that, to The Doser, seem related. The first, a front page blurb headlined: "Booming American business: arms sales." (Double entendre intended?) The US, it was reported, dominated the international arms bazaar by cornering 68.4% of the business in 2008. Its arms sales totaled $37.8 billion. The US for example provided 71% of the arms purchased by "developing countries." The second article was in a squib-collection column on page two under the heading: "Briefly." It reports that Jacques Monsieur, a fugitive arms merchant was arrested in New York. The crime alleged was seeking to buy fighter jet engines for Iran. M. Monsieur is said to be wanted by many countries for "....shipping military supplies to trouble spots around the world...." Putting those two reports together causes The Doser deep stirrings. Patriotism when reflecting on the US providing all those arms only to peace-loving, untroubled, nations. And indignation with regard to that Monsieur scoundrel who provides arms for "troubled" nations.

We must not despair.

Desperate people, as has so often happened, take desperate, unreasonable positions. There are, for example, many hate groups in the United States. They are organized around the fear and hatred of another group, or groups, of people. Familiar hatred objects are gay people, Jews, Catholics, emigres, black people, religionists of other persuasions, intellectuals and others. The trick is to survive the evil that these haters do and curb it if we can WITHOUT acting in illegal, unreasonable ways ourselves. That's what the Bush government did when it resorted to torture and denial of reasonable legal process. In their zeal, they turned their backs on our basic values. The point is that we must not despair and do what the haters do.

Sportsmanship

Omigosh! The hired football thug acted out in the University of Oregon vs. Boise State game. One of the most plaintive wails was: "How can we teach our children sportsmanship when this sort of debacle occurs?" The Doser says: You can teach them about sportsmanship by beginning to act like civilized adults at Little League games. Stop shrieking those vile epithets at the officials at your childrens' games. Tell your children about playing the game rather than about winning at all costs. Help them to throw the ball to their team-mates. Come on!

Thieves work

The Oregon-paid thieves that stole time on their cell-phones for private usage and, in some cases, stole the phones themselves should be prosecuted for theft and fired. There are a lot of people unemployed these days that, if they could get a job, would work hard and honestly to keep it.

Over-charged; under-served.

Well, the US is just not getting much bang for its medical buck! Except for Canada and France (who spend just a tad more than half what the US spends for health care) we spend twice as much as all other G20 countries. And here is the down side: the US ranks just above Hungary for bottom position on countries who did not live up to their predicted life expectancies. The way that works out, The Doser notes, is that the US pays a lot more and it doesn't help its people live better.

(True to form, The Oregonian doesn't have its current newspaper on line yet, so The Doser's reference to the source needs to be the labored one: The above information was reported August 23, 2009, in The Oregonian in a front page story by Andy Dworkin entitled What's so Special about Health Co-ops? The statistics Dworkin uses are from the WHO.)

The Demographics of Peace to War.

The National Geographic magazine in its September 2009 issue has a short article about an interesting, even hope-inducing, program. A way to look at the program is through its published 2009 Failed States Index. The countries of the world are rated on the basis of 12 criteria and the result is extended on a list of which countries are on survival tracks and which are not. Somalia leads the world as enduring the most compete failure. The US is in only "moderately" successful condition. Norway leads the world as a stable, successful government. You might find it interesting to look at the entire results and the program of its sponsor: The Fund for Peace.

A real drug on the fiscal market.

The Doser thinks that we've lost the "Drug War!" To continue fighting it seems much more drastic than simply declaring victory (must save "face") and leaving the field of battle. If there was any benefit resulting from it, which The Doser does not perceive, it would still be wiser (and infinitely cheaper) to abandon it and spend our money caring for the citizens that still want to use dangerous products.

So it's not made of green cheese.

The Doser thinks the earth's moon has only romantic potential. Why undertake another expensive program to look over a lousy piece of real estate?

Not a Legitimate Statement of Opinion.

In the Doser's opinion, the armed NRA thugs that showed up at the appearance of the president in Arizona should have been arrested, hand-cuffed and jailed. Such a clearly-stated threat toward the President, saying as it does that he should be assassinated, is not free speech, it is calling "FIRE" in a crowded theater.

Everything changes; nothing changes.

The Doser notes, with very reserved hopefulness, that the Iranian ex-legislators and the Iranian clerics are suggesting the deposing of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The reason for the very reserved optimism is that Iran has a recent history of deposing themselves out of the frying pan into the fire. Remember the satisfaction we felt when that despot, the Shah, was deposed? We must continue to look to "Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei" to see how things are going.

How may we direct your call?

Please indicate the purpose of your call. This list may be heard again.

Dial 1 for amputation
Dial 2 for angioplasty
Dial 3 for appendectomy
Dial 4 for bilateral cingulotomy
Dial 5 for cholecystectomy
Dial 6 for circumcision
Dial 7 for heart transplantation
Dial 8 for lobotomy
Dial 9 for pancreaticoduodenectomy
Dial 10 for episiotomy
Dial 11 for diverticulectomy

For all other procedures Dial 12.

American "wet backs."

It seems to The Doser that the three persons who wandered, despite a warning, across the Iranian border are likely to be one of three sorts: inept CIA assets; Iranian provocateurs; damn fools. Little reason to let Iran get too much of an leverage over us for them.

To share or not to share, that is the question.

Governor Kulongoski,referring to the reality of fiscal parameters,recently remarked: "We must accept that state government cannot be all things for all men." The Doser observes: "It was ever thus! The issue always is - do I want whatever there is for myself or do I want to share whatever there is with other people?"

Marriage re-visited.

Marriage is a religious exercise - like baptism, faith-healing, confirmation, exorcism, transferring one's sins to a chicken, anointing, divination, wearing church-designed underwear, extreme unction, symbolic human sacrifice and last rites. Marriage was designed for religious couples to make a church-community announcement that they intended to commit to each other and, possibly, raise babies.

Not too long ago, however, it burgeoned mightily: 1. gaining acceptance among non-religious people as a social exercise and 2. invading our civil law at several places, mainly in taxes, finances, inheritance, and land law.

What we now need is a way to honor the relationship of non-religious people who commit themselves to each other and think of, possibly having children.

Let us not be unmindful of the unquestionable reality that the religious/"marriage" people have not done their thing successfully in a lot of recent years. Their failures suggest that they actually ought to be ignored when they claim the power to define how people doing the commitment/family thing are required to do it.

The Doser suggests a first step: let's figure out an honoring way to describe that process or event or state where non-religious people decide to step out into the future as a committed pair of people.

Losing a non-communication link.

No Saturday deliveries of advertisements by U.S. Postal Service! The Doser joins the chorus that says: "Ho hum."

Good news - just short of the best news.

Good news! At least some of the children of the prolific,obsessive Octomom may not have to be supported by the tax-payers. There is being arranged a "reality show," the proceeds of which will go to support them.

Incomprehensible

The Doser is, reluctantly and painfully forced to consider that the Worthington jury did wrong. It cannot be that they believed, on the evidence, that one of the parents that was attending the dying of their child was guilty of breaking a law and that the other, also in attendance, did not break the law. The Doser has not been an exemplary father but it is not comprehensible to him that a parent would not do whatever was necessary to save one's small children. The bumper sticker quote of Mohandas Ghandi came to mind: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Thinking on it, The Doser has difficulty envisioning Jesus telling two parents to let their child die so as to avoid secular physicians. All in all a sad business! Another round follows in, perhaps, January 2010 when the elder Beagleys, same family, same church, let their teen-age child die with a medically curable disease.

The sucker born this minute?

The Santa Monica pigeon net plan at a cost of $107,758 sounds like some sort of elaborate pigeon drop to The Doser.

Don't Watch the Ball.

We are flummoxing ourselves! We are determined not to keep our eye on the ball. Take, for example, Health Care. Rather than do that, we prefer to watch the Gates "issue." Last night, the woman who called in the 911 about the supposed Gates house-breaking was on national news with a featured program segment making her "defense." How does it come about that she needs a nationally-reported "defense?" Tomorrow, The Doser surmises, her aunt in Peoria will report that the person who called in was always trained as a child not to be a bigot. The next day, the aunt's next-door neighbor can come on and tell that the aunt is a highly respected woman in the neighborhood and that she should be believed on the non-bigotry testimonial. The day after that, we'll hear "breaking news" that the neighbor was in the news just three weeks ago saying that a boy from the neighborhood who was convicted of serial rape was "such a good boy." This assertion will be juxtaposed to the statement of the serial rapist's girl-friend who will be featured wondering who the "neighbor" was since the serial rapist never lived in that neighborhood and on.... and on .... and on. Or another example is the interminable procedures surrounding the death of that talented twit. Is some coach telling us: "Don't keep your eye on the ball?"

Score zero for law; Score one for beliefs.

Did anything positive come out of the camp meeting just concluded in the Clackamas Circuit Court Jury room? It's true that some people don't consider vindication of "faith healing" to be a good thing. The Doser is one of those. Nevertheless, The Doser is able to see the positive things that came out of the trial. One person achieved gratifying epiphanies. Another learned how to live contrary to his convictions in a radically retro community. The judge is unlikely to have a mistrial ruled against him for his televised tantrum. All in all, the big winners are the Worthingtons and their cure-coven. They have come through the fiery furnace just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego! They have been persecuted for their faith and had the imprimatur of God's approval sealed upon it! They are martyrs since they'll have a whomping legal bill! All in all, it was a positive experience for them.

Rose by another name.

The Doser notes a current event of "spin" going on. The Oregonian is running the Bowe Bergdahl story. (The story is about the American soldier who was captured by the Taliban and is being held hostage.) Another "spin" would involve changing "captured" to (walked into their camp)and changing "hostage" to (visitor) and "captors" to (hosts.)

On to Mars!

The Doser does not consider it an established necessity that we "go to Mars," as the current "push" would have us believe. If it becomes an established necessity to do so, it should only be done when we have at hand robots that can do anything on Mars that needs to be done.

Good Cop.

Recently appointed veteran cop, Multnomah County, Oregon, Sheriff, Bob Skipper, is having trouble meeting the entry requirements aimed at selection of young recruits. (The Doser feels, incidentally, on that point, that they should a have a special set of entry requirements for re-tread officers that come into the department to straighten the department out.) Sheriff Skipper is having no trouble functioning, however, like a capable, mature police officer: he spotted a little girl that needed protection and provided it.

Grounds for Appeal

The Doser thinks that Judge Steven Maurer performed a clearly reversible tantrum in the closing part of the Worthington manslaughter case. The newspapers, mercifully, did not report the event - but it appeared on Channel 8 evening news on July 15.

Sonia Sotomayor

The Doser finds little to complain about with regard to the appointment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. However, The Oregonian can't find the targeted article and picture in its records so The Doser will have to describe it to you rather than link you to it. Your attention is called to The Oregonian of July 14,2009, Page A5. There is a picture of Judge Sotomayor standing before the Judiciary Committee. (One need not say anything about the puerile fumblings of the Rep. members of the committee.) What one must observe is: Judge Sotomayor holds her head like a person who has been doing too much studying. She is already getting, or will soon get, the pain her posture will cause. The Doser wants her to stand up straight so as to be comfortable in bringing what she will bring to the Supreme Court.

Council can't compromise with reality

The 39th Avenue brouhaha in Portland reached a sort of "resolution" which demonstrates how unanimous the Portland City Council can be when there is relatively little at stake for them. In this case there were two issues at stake: 1. A group wanted to honor Cesar Chavez 2. A group didn't want to go through the expense and effort of a name-change. Both could have been granted their wishes if the City Council had, simply, named the new Tri-Met, foot traffic bridge across the Willamette: The Cesar Chavez Causeway.

Missed the signals.

There was this family that had a dying baby. They were determined to rely upon God, and not physicians, to heal the child. A grocery checker said to the mother: "I'm sorry your child is so ill, what does the doctor say?" The mother said, "We don't believe in doctors, we know that God will heal our child." The Postman said one day: "I know you must be terribly worried about your sick child, what is the doctor doing for her?" The woman said:
"We don't believe in doctors, we know that God will heal our child." A nosy neighbor looked over the fence one day and said: "I think you ought to change doctors, your child isn't improving at all." And the mother said "We don't believe in doctors, we know that God will heal our child." When the mother got to hell she asked the Devil why she had been sent there. The Devil said, "Because you killed your own child, dummy." The woman said: "But we were convinced that God would save her." The Devil says,"Well, what do you expect, God sent the grocery clerk, the postman and the nosy neighbor."

Twixt a rock and a hard place.

The right-of-the-aisle, sensible Republicans (the ones who think of themselves as 'middle-of-the-road') must be very discouraged nowadays. The front-runners for 2012 are: totally discredited Newt Gingrich and totally uncredited Sarah Palin. PS: The Republican Party is 155 years old today.

Foiled again.

The Doser was reading in The Oregonian about some folks going to a camp in Eastern Oregon in order to watch the stars. (Better viewing, there, out of the city lights and smogs.) For an instant The Doser almost had a grip on the clincher that would awaken anti-evolutionists from their medieval doze. The point was to call attention to how long, at the speed of light, it took the shine from really distant stars to reach earth. It could be, for some, a longer time than the Bishop Usher 6000 years plus 2009 years for the event of creation. But, then, The Doser's hopes were dashed! They can't be convinced that stars are that far away from us....... Something to do with those stars actually being little holes poked in the firmament.

World but a stage.

It has been only 234 years since our country got its act out in front of the world's foot-lights. We have produced many plays - some dismal failures, some of minimal usefulness but a few of worthy, memorable quality. Some of our plays ought to have died in New Haven and, doubtless, some worthy productions did not get a full-enough run. Be that as it may, even the most dissatisfied of us players aren't walking out on the company and it is heartening to have new hopefuls coming in seeking roles all the time. It is a time when the costs for new production are slow in coming, some theaters have gone dark and many actors are out of roles. Yet The Doser is not alone with the certainty that we'll be putting on competent,notable,classics again soon.

Not full health care.

Apparently, Sen. Ron Wyden got his heart before the course. Pres. O'Bama deems universal medical coverage to be too radical. The Doser finds it hard to think of a group of people not worth medical care.

Shades of self

This message,from Elon James White, threw some light on a core ignorance of the Doser. The thesis of White's article is that black people do not have common black-people thoughts and feelings. He ended his revelation with the following statement:

"I hope that my message is clear. After reading this, the next time you talk to a Black person you can feel comfortable in now knowing with every fiber of your being that you have no clue what they think or feel based on their skin color."

The Doser is reading Blackmon Slavery by Another Name - which, The Doser mused, seemed to give a believable explanation to why "black people seem, mysteriously,to be unable to succeed in the American system like other peoples (Asiatics in particular),newcomers who take to our system and succeed quickly in it." (The Doser confesses he actually said such a thing.) Well, that means the Doser just flat-out flunked the awareness test. That means the Doser rates high on the bigotry scale. There isn't, according to White's article, any group of black people. Just like the Doser is not a member of a white people group just so no black person is a member of a black group. With blacks, just as it is absolutely so as it is to whites, there is no way to say, "Every white person seems to........." No, just NO!

So, does this realization further the "cause of the black people?" Well, no, since there are no "black people," so they don't have a "black peoples' cause." How can they even be thought of to have a "cause." It does further the Doser's climb from bigotry, however.

President O'Bama has signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. He has taken come flack from those who note the inconsistency of being a smoker and signing such a bill. No flack from the Doser on that one: it demonstrates, even more persuasively, the horrendous power of tobacco.
This legislation (not to mention the suet that stuck itself to this popular bill) has several effects. Among those that seem the most valuable to the Doser are noted as follows.:Gives FDA power to regulate tobacco; requires manufacturers to reveal the contents of tobacco products; provides for a biennial Health Department inspection; protects nicotine from the zeal of the FDA.The Doser gives this one a hearty Μπραβω! Tobacco products cause the death of 400,000 Americans annually and the killing process is both expensive and painful. It is the number one preventable cause of death in America. "Preventable" because it can be prevented by one or two straightforward actions: 1. Don't start. 2. Just quit. Number one is so easy - number two can be desperately difficult.

Rubbing money on it helps.

A Portland family will become almost millionaires with the settlement, as yet tentative, for the death of their mentally-ill adult son. It is unlikely that any of the settlement relates to the cost of support for people who were reliant upon the deceased. Thus, Portland people will be paying a very large part of that amount for what are expected as punitive damages and costs of litigation if the case goes to court. As one of the commissioners remarks: "... we live in a litigious society." The Doser says that our legal system, in that it allows only money damages for torts, is archaic and dumb. Even dumber in the case of torts against public offices and officers. It is tolerated only because nobody has come up with a more sensible procedure. We exacerbate the problem by believing that somehow blame for every disliked event must be assigned. (For example, people are already lining up a drug-prescribing doctor to take the fall for the death of our talented twit.)

Reason can, actually, prevail.

In Portland, perennially ailing baseball is jettisoned in favor of possibly viable soccer. No expense is needed to build a stadium. The next nit-wit scheme the City of Portland can let go of is the idea that 39th Avenue needs to be re-named. Nobody is saying that Cesar Chavez should not be honored - what many are saying is: "Name a new project after the honoree rather than disrupt a passel of people to do it." The Doser is encouraged.

Fasoli, fasoli yematei sakouli.

The Doser got a cordial note from Michelle O'bama asking him to put some action where his inaugural day resolves were. As a result of technical advances recently made, and as a result of the O'Bama administration facility in using them, one is enabled to respond with action to the Kennedy rhetorical question "ask what you can do for your country" The Doser was pleased to be provided with a well-organized presentation of possible "doings." The Doser's letter from the O'bamas is being sent under separate cover.

God not at fault.

A religious couple are going to trial for manslaughter and criminal mistreatment relating to the death of their 15 month old baby. The doctors say that the child could have been saved with antibiotics. The couple refused medical aid and held to the idea that God would intervene. Most parents would do "anything" to save the life of their child. Few of them would let the child die for an opinion. The Worthingtons did.

From a religious point of view, what was going on there? Were the couple testing the power of God to heal their child? Or were they testing their opinion that God could be prevailed upon by their beliefs and actions to heal their child? Anybody who believes in God posits God's power to do anything. So, presumably, these parents were not testing the ability of God to heal their child. The test they were making was of their religious opinions - and whether they were sufficiently strong to persuade God to heal the baby. To believe that is not standard religion but belief in magic.

So,then, from a parental,legal point of view, what was going on there? How does depriving their child of needed medicine compare with other parental neglects? Let us say that it comes into the parents' heads that, though they have food, it would be a test of their opinions to leave the provision of food for their baby to God. Or, let's say their child tears out the seat of his trousers at school and comes to his parents to have them mended. Or, if they see their child suspended over an abyss with only a weakening thread preventing his death. Or if the child takes up a dangerous habit like smoking. Or, as a toddler, their child is trying to run out into traffic. Would they also leave these ordinary necessary parental actions to God?

The Doser considers them to be, at least, guilty of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

Ball-park to burgeon burb.

The Doser has difficulty fathoming the rationale for the idea, held by at least part of the Portland City Council, that building an expensive baseball park for, perhaps as many as 3000, idlers to view ball games will bring vitality to the depressed Lents area.

Marijuana, the Demon Cause of Crime.

The O. this morning, June 17,2009, provided an example of the common sort of drug war propaganda which tries to get us to believe that marijuana use explains a lot of criminal conduct. The story was of two teen-agers that went on a spree vandalizing property with fascist symbols. The article gratuitously points out that they had recently used marijuana. (The implication being that one should immediately realize that the cause of such deviant conduct could only be marijuana.)

We'll protect you, little brother.

A de-militarized Palestinian state is not to be considered a valid, sovereign state under the world rules that now prevail. The Doser wonders if a different process may not be used: Could a fang-less Palestine be provided a military assurance, subsidized by the rest of the world, that it could call defense into play in the event Israeli hard-liners do what they like to do?

The fickle finger of blame.

It seems to The Doser that we're more often, these days, trying to fix blame rather than trying to fix the problem. Even "fixing blame" seems to have become a watered-down process: If a scapegoat is designated, the selection of that fall-guy depends on how highly-placed the "actual wrong-doer" was (the farther down the patsy pecking order the scapegoat is depends on how well-empowered the faulty one is.) May one hope that the scrutiny of the possible VA Aids installation will not prove to be another Congressional lime-light grab followed by another janitor's head falling?

Better little than nothing.

Perhaps it is better to have a subsidized medically-operated health care system than none at all. Dem. willingness for "a speedy compromise" health plan means that the Dems. can't marshall a full-plan medical parade.

Hate - Anti-abortion variety

Hatred of other people can be based on many issues. It exists in America in most of its historical brands - and we are an armed populace with protection to encourage action and freedom to act. Bill O'Reilly is an example of a Constitutionally-protected provocateur. He is, by no means, the only one. He is, however, the most highly-paid and most notorious. One of his biases relates to abortion. To air that bias he has, essentially, been saying: "Tiller, the abortionist, is a murderer of children, and he is protected by the government, but you (any one of three and one half million listeners) will be justified in killing him." O'Reilly has no connection (except through his rhetoric) with the crazed hater that went over and shot Tiller. It would be difficult to prove that Scott Roeder ever even listened to the O'Reilly Factor. In a recent Rachel Maddox interview, the dangers of the solitary McVeigh-like actor and the excesses permitted a broad-caster like O'Reilly are discussed. The conclusion is that O'Reilly is protected for saying those inflammatory things and that the ordinary laws (not anti-terrorism approaches) are the only protection from the results of his conduct.
/

Outre outrage.

The Reps have initiated a big so-called "ethics" flap by making "violation of the public trust" accusations against two ingenuous Dems. It seemed the Dems put in writing an "I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you'll-scratch-mine" deal they'd made with a wily Rep. Essentially, the deal was that the Dems would support some measures important to the Rep, if the Rep would support a tax measure the Dems wanted. At last count, The Doser knows of only three naive Oregonians that believe that legislative measures are passed solely on the basis of persuasive oratory. Everybody else believes that they are passed,usually, on the basis of tit-for-tat agreements. Deals like: I will support measures that you are interested in if you will support a measure that I favor.

Change is not always good.

Those of us that remember our joy when "Shah" was over-thrown in Iran would do well to temper our hopefulness regarding the "overthrow" process that may be going on there now.

Recusal refusal.

Every single honest judge in the US, without exception, recuses himself or herself when there exists a possibility of the "appearance of a personal involvement" with a contestant before the court. Justice Scalia did not do that in an appeal relating to a matter in which the Sierra Club was involved. The Supreme Court is now expounding a rule that judges should step out of cases that involve big money contributors to their election. The Supreme Court does not need to make a ruling that judges should avoid the appearance of personal involvement. It is already a hard-and-fast rule that all honest judges follow. By definition, dishonest judges don't follow the rules and can't be expected to follow this one.

No silk purse out of this sow's ear.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., The Doser's second choice for candidate for President in 2008, remarks about the interminable Republican effort to characterize Supreme Court Appointee Sonia Sotomayor as a "racist." The title of the column is to the point: "When lacking facts, try for confusion." The whole frantic effort - largely carried by Tom Tancredo and Rush Limbaugh - was based on a 2001 statement of the appointee. Eight years stale and and certainly of a sort that reasonable minds could say - "....she could say that in my presence and I wouldn't even cut her off my Christmas card list, let alone say I don't want her on the Supreme Court." As Leonard Pitts, Jr. (!Pitts for President in 2016!) concluded: "Based on one foolish quote, we have spent a week asking if Sonia Sotomayor is a racist. I'd call that mission accomplished. And I wish Kutcher would come out already."

The cost of illegal abortions.

This article describes what the anti-abortionists want for our sisters, daughters and wives - and theirs.

Just a pat-on-the-back to the Oregon Department of Standards and Training. It demanded that Multnomah County Sheriff Bob Skipper meet the fitness training rules for Sheriff's employees. Correct! That was the rule that the legislature had provided for the Department's function. When Sheriff Skipper asked for a reasonable, fully warranted, waiver, the Department refused it. Correct! There was no legislative direction to grant a waiver under those circumstances. Correct! When The Oregonian pressed that the Department should rightly grant a waiver, the Department did not act to grant a waiver. Correct! The legislature had not directed the Department to respond to journalistic advices. The legislature changed the law to allow the waiver. The Department granted it. Correct! And, when The Doser thinks about it, he is enormously pleased. The Oregon Department of Standards and Training responds to the legislature that created it and not to other pressures, albeit rational ones.

Plane Crash

The Doser thinks that, since the storm over the Central Atlantic was severe enough to tear the Flight 447 plane apart, it would seem to have been a storm that would have warranted turning a bit easterly across Africa, and then north to France. rather than proceeding directly on the great circle route.

Mistake

The Doser discovers O'Bama mistakes only very reluctantly. The President made a mistake in Saudi Arabia. Setting the stage a bit: President O'Bama is the leader of a country that supports the Arab anathema, Israel. He is the leader of the country that has armies in two Muslim countries. He received the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit and, here's his mistake, he took it off in the presence of the Saudi officials! It is reported that they demurred and he explained that he wanted to put it away for safe-keeping. Mistake! He should be wearing the medal even with his pajamas these days.

Better to be an Innocent Bystander.

The Doser received a transcript of Rush Limbaugh's 2002 broadcasted material on the subject of the wildly different ways the 9-11 victims' families were recompensed as compared with the way our combat-killed soldiers' families were recompensed. Limbaugh's figures were probably accurate in 2002. The benefits have been improved, slightly, since that time. It set The Doser to thinking about this matter.

The families of soldiers killed in combat now receive $100,000 as a death gratuity, certain continuing post privileges, a burial stipend of $1,900. The family will get GI Insurance benefit in the amount for which the soldier paid premiums. The family will get standard social security benefits. The Doser's soldier friend said: "Some states also give benefits; don't enlist until you check them."

The 9-11 victims' families received an average of $3.1 million. (The low being $1.85 million and the high $4.7 million.) They will also get the standard Social Security benefits. There seems to The Doser to be a radically unfair disparity in the handling of these two circumstances. In one, the decedents were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were handsomely recompensed. In the other, the decedents volunteered to fight for their country and were killed doing it and are not recompensed anywhere nearly as well.

To gloss over the inequity,totally ineptly, an urban legend was circulated for a while that the 9-11 victims' families were denied the benefits of their own private insurance under their policies' "war" exclusion.

Delivering does not a Mom make.

It appears that Oregon may have another bridge-tossing mom. Refutation, it seems to The Doser, of the opinion that every woman capable of breeding should be forced to deliver.

Awarding the DMA for May.

A friend in Iraq tells The Doser that some elements in that country are saying that the U.S. is withdrawing from Iraq because we are cowards and are being forced out. The Doser feels that deserves consideration for awarding of a D.M.A. for May. The Doser is re-reading Cheney's speech to make sure the award goes to the most deserving. (D.M.A. is the Dumb Mendacity Award.)

In the face of a storm of criticism, the Oregon legislature has suggested raising gas taxes and auto registration and licensing fees to support road and bridge maintenance. The Doser notes that the argument goes something like this: Why can't the legislature find a tax source among those who do not use the roads and bridges?

Get things right!

Here's the sort of goof-up The Oregonian does. In its May 20,2009, edition, it front-paged the "news" that the Portland Development Commission is producing poorly (a stale, widely-known, fact) and it buried on the fifth page of the second section the dazzling, important news that the ED drugs do their job. Now, The Doser asks you!

Premature opening of the barn door.

The Senate refused to withhold funding for Guantanamo closure. (Notice the frantic anti-O'bama impress of the RepPress outlet as exemplified by Andrew Breitbart.) Actually, it seems to The Doser,also, that the Administration got the heart before the course - asking the Senate to withhold funding to close the torture facility before plans for its inmates were made. (The Oregonian reported the story on page A2 of the May 20, 2009, edition but, of course its web connection is so flaccid.)

The Grand Old Party

The new leaders of the Republican party appear to be Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. (Not as active as it is expected she will be when her "memoirs" are completed.)Cheney and Limbaugh tried to tar and feather Arlen Specter when he did "the unthinkable." They bad-mouthed David Souter who had failed to live up to party expectations. And, now, the leaders of the Republican party purge, have landed on Colin Powell. Powell is quoted in The Oregonian, May 15, 2009, saying: " I think that what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without." Cheney landed fully on the Limbaugh side - he is quoted as saying "I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn't know he was still a Republican." The Doser notes that the "recently outed political party" often feels withdrawal symptoms but these are quite acute.

It is absolutely no rational objection to say of our penal system that we shouldn't try other systems because ours is working so well. Thus, even one that comes out of left field may be considered. This one is out of left field.

So, what about this?

1. Sentence every convicted offender to the maximum penalty provided under the law.

2. Make a determination whether this offender is intractable or dangerous. If either is the case - off to the pokey. ("Intractable" is an easy call: this program is explained fully to him and if he refuses to be involved in it, he's intractable. "Dangerous" is a much more difficult concept and initially would be determined in a hearing beyond conviction like the one available now.)

3. If the offender is not intractable or dangerous, he is given an exhaustively thorough life-examination. An elaborate schedule that reflects how the offender would live if he did not commit criminal acts would be devised. A set of rules rather like a very-detailed probation program would be designed for him.

4. The offender would then be presented with the schedule/behavior program. If he refuses to be bound that way - off to the pokey.

5. If the offender accepts the schedule/behavior program, he is fitted with a "short leash" device.

6. The schedule and behavior program is frequently and regularly monitored.

7. If the offender gets off the schedule/behavior program, he is called to give account. If he can't give reasonable account for his failure - off to the pokey.

The Chavez Clashing

The City has become involved in the brouhaha over naming an existing street after Cesar Chavez. The Doser believes that the contention is largely the result of the expense and effort connected with changing the name of the street where you live or where your business is. The Doser suggests a reasonable alternative: name the expected Tri-Met bridge over the Willamette: THE CHAVEZ CROSSING.

Not unmixed good news.

The Oregonian reports an OTP&E* program statistic this morning. Cigarette sales had fallen to their lowest levels by June 2008 (the date of the report.) The Doser ventures to suggest that they will have fallen even further in the last year since many users are observably using "depression" alternatives: rolling one's own, cadging cigarettes on the streets and cadging butts from the street. *Oregon Tobacco Prevention and Education.

Needed repairs.

The current manned NASA mission to fix the Hubbel is dangerous in the extreme. The Doser considers that the expected returns on the effort are valuable but hopes that the cost of those returns is not large.

Small step forward.

The Doser considers the Afganistan/Pakistan conference with President O'Bama to be a fine first step on a long, long march. At least these two key figures are less alienated socially. To proceed to cooperation on a program upon which they both agree seems unlikely. It is the prestige of our President that brought about this first step. The darkest immediate cloud on the horizon, however, is still the darkest immediate cloud on the horizon.

Banking on banks.

The Doser regrets that he did not have a pen at hand to record exactly the inane remark that Timothy Geitner,Secretary of the Treasury,made in his testimony before Congress. It was reported by KGW yesterday. The gist of what he said was that, by our further infusion of cash, we would achieve an unprecedented transparency of their banking function! Could that be what we're buying from them: additional information about what the blighters are up to? Even the WSJ seems to have missed the remark.

Doin' what comes naturally.

There are three legitimate interests faced off in the Oregon back country: the ranchers want to shoot marauding wolves, the city folk want to protect and increase the wolf population and the wolves want to slay sheep and cattle. The Doser thinks that a reasonable compromise of the legitimate interests would require that the State of Oregon pay the rancher for their sheep or cattle that are killed or damaged by wolves.

Blunder pays off.

The Doser was just blundering around trying to find some others who think The Drug War is dumb and ran across LEAP. The Doser hopes you will let Leap speak for itself. Particularly are the remarks of Sen. Jim Webb reasonable.

Less than effective measures.

Killing pigs to ward off the "swine flu," even if you bow east as you do it, seems to The Doser to be like refusing to speak Spanish in order to ward off the Spanish flu. After urging us all to wear masks, the governments are now announcing that masks are useless since the virus is so small that it can easily pass through the mask. All just shows how ready we are to try superstition when we are facing difficulties of unknown dimension.

Appeasement sometimes doesn't work

The Pakistan government essentially bought its peace with the Taliban by ceding their administrative province of SWAT to the Talibani. The math escapes The Doser but the area involved appears to be about the same as if Canada had taken over Ohio to Maine. More recently, they worked out a deal for granting a cease fire but this time had to agree to impose Islaami law in order to purchase "peace for our time,*" as it could, reminiscently, have been termed. Pakistan has not appeared to have the heart to defend its own territory. The US wants Pakistan to run the Talibani back across the border into Afghanistan. (As though we didn't have enough trouble there with the Talibani already.) The Doser thinks we ought to take several careful looks at our involvement in that area. Is the control of that part of the world valuable enough to take on the Jihadists virtually single-handedly for it? The Oregonian today published the pictures of some of the 2600 Oregon men and women being deployed to Afghanistan. (In keeping with The O's customary inept dealing with the Web, one will have to wait until tomorrow to see the pictures at Oregonlive.com)



* As some remember: "The phrase 'peace for our time' was spoken on 30 September 1938 by British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, in his speech concerning the Munich Agreement....... The Munich Agreement gave the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler in an attempt to satisfy his desire for ..... 'living space' for Germany. The German occupation of the Sudetenland began on the next day, 1 October. One year after the agreement, following continued aggression from Germany and its invasion of Poland, Europe was plunged into World War II." (Wikipedia)

Less than newsworthy

We are so susceptiable to being media-ed. We seem to jump from hype to hype. The Doser, too, more's the pity.

Well, it just goes to show how much better it is to be a seller than a buyer of petroleum. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, scraped together enough to spend $1 billion on race-horses. He was also able to eke out a bit more and purchase a 747 airplane to transport them to the Kentucky Derby. A Portland retired high school coach could only afford $15 thousand for his entry.

Giving in to Pirates.

Captain Richard Phillips, erstwhile master of the Maersk Alabama, has come out in opposition to the "pay-the-pirates" received wisdom from the insured ship-owners. The Doser hopes he will be able to get another command. The Doser also hopes we start arming the vessels.

Advanced Drug War Technology

The Doser has a friend that, speaking of protecting the US from drugs, made the following comment: "If we built a 25 foot wall all the way around the US, a cottage industry would immediately spring up all along the outside constructing 30 foot ladders." The recent article in the April 26, 2009, NYT Magazine reminded The Doser of his friend's remark. The article points out that our "enemy" in "The Drug War" is delivering tons of cocaine in almost submersible home-made boats. They are fabricated by unskilled workers in the jungles of Columbia. Successes against each new technical improvement on illicit drug delivery are heart-warming to Drug War aficionados but they are relatively insignificant compared to the failures: Only an estimated 14% of these semi-submersibles is detected. Seventy of them were constructed last year. Each one carries 10 metric tons of cocaine, or any other cargo. A little math reveals that they are able to deliver a probable 650 tons of coke annually.

The Drug War

The Doser asks his readers to consider their reasons for supporting The Drug War for such a long time and so generously. Let's look at it this way:
(1) Do I think that the drug war has stopped a lot of people from taking drugs in the first place?
(2) Do I believe that a lot of people that were committed to using drugs have been stopped from using them by the War?
(3) Do I believe that a lot of people have been protected, by the "War" effort, from being looted or killed by the drug traffic?
(4) Do I believe that fewer people are using drugs now than when the "War" started?
(5) Do I think that we are "winning" the drug war?
(6) Do I think we are holding our own in the drug war?
(7) Do I think we have not yet lost The Drug War?
(8) When President O'Bama talks about programs justifying their existence to get funding, do I think The Drug War will justify its existence by pointing to its progress and victories?
(9) Do I think that drug suppliers are the criminals and that users are just sick people?
(10) Do I think that, if we increased our allotment or changed our War strategy, we'd bring the matter to victory?
(11) Do I think The Drug War makes a strong moral statement about the US?
(12) Do I think that conducting The Drug War is better than not conducting it?


If you answered any of the above questions with a "Yes, I do," don't bother to read on. You have a good thing going for you. Why fix it?

If you did not answer any of the questions with a "Yes, I do," here are some references to help you apply focus on your dissatisfaction:

"The Drug War" is the almost 40 year old Crusade that now costs the Federal and State governments of the United States close to $15 billion each quarter-annum. The cost mounts at the rate of $600 per second. You might watch the costs click the clock up on the ongoing costs.

The Doser says: The Drug War is a euphemism for: Stop other people from providing our people with the drugs they want."

Though it has been dubbed a "War," it really has never been considered one - since we do not publish our losses, the costs involved or the "body-count" (a Viet Nam War practice.)

There is so much creditable material on The Web that excoriates the so-called Drug Wat that The Doser got lost in attempting to make a decent bibliography. You are asked to browse the topic of The Drug War.

One final note: A good place to get synoptic impressions of The Drug War is on Alternet. Why go to the Alernet rather than the WSJ or the NYT or the Big O? Because the war on The Drug War is not yet being fought by the establishment press.

Drop quiz.

The is a test! The Doser will never know the results, of course, but you will. Here it is: Do you still moisten the bristles of your tooth brush before you brush your teeth? Yes or no - admit it. Your assignment for the next session is to think about "memory" and "habits." Do you have other habits as pernicious as unthinkingly moistening a plastic bristle tooth brush years after natural fiber tooth brushes were long gone?

Earth-sized Neighbor

The Doser has heard the good news that an earth-sized planet has been found in a neighboring solar system. The bad news is that it is 137 trillion miles away.

The mother of the pirate that survived the mishandled piracy of the Maersk Alabama has addressed a plea to President O'Bama: ".... release my son or at least allow me to see him and be with him during the trial." The Doser thinks President O'Bama should be magnanimous and say: "Yes, you may visit your son during regular visiting hours and be present in the court room during his trial." It is even possible, of course, that some knee-jerk may pay her passage over to this country in the event her son has run through his loot from any piracies of other vessels. The Doser just learned that, if our prosecutors are successful, this pirate will be sentenced to life imprisonment - at our expense! Maybe President O'Bama should be merciful and say: "He's on his way home."

Train Travel.

It is a treasured custom for Portlanders to criticize The Oregonian harshly. Today, however, the editorial writer both pleased The Doser with an opinion but also stated it elegantly. On the issue of President Barack O'Bama's plan to build a usable passenger rail system in the US, the writer concluded: "Obama's rail investment is a welcome step. However, as long as the United States insists on being the land of cheap gas and low taxes, it will continue to be the land of congested freeways and plodding passenger trains." Yep. (The Doser's criticism: It will be a day or so before The Oregonian will post its editorial of the morning.)

East Coast of Africa

All the news from Africa's eastern coast is not bad. Ecological gains are being made in the area south of Somalia.

Athletic Supporters Examined

The Doser continues to wonder why some suspended adolescents in government are thinking of new and improved spectator sports and entertainment amenities when the real municipal issues of our area are so pressing. Maybe it's part of some regressive mentality. Did they get picked last in the scrub games in their neighborhood? Are we thinking of Nero - fiddling around while Rome was burning?

Don't Arm the Sitting Bucks - er Ducks.

There is a group that opposes arming the vessels that are, unarmed, the easy prey of the Somali pirates. Could it be the world's arms producers, including those in the US, that are saying: "Don't arm the vessels to resist these expensive incursions!" Who else, The Doser asks, would be saying a dumb thing like that?

The Lost Drug War

NO, it is not Mexico's failure to kill enough of its citizens to prevent drug flow into the US. NO, it is not the Customs people who fail to catch the transporters of money and weapons into Mexico to fight the Drug War there. NO, it is not the fault of our Border Patrol to prevent illicit drugs from coming into the country. NO, it is not our penal system that fails to rehabilitate drug-pushers. NO, it is not the overburdened cops in the US and Mexico that aren't stamping out the traffic in drugs. NO, it is not community failure to provide alternatives for the gangsters that are doing our local drug deliveries. NO, it isn't even the fault of the gangsters who sieze the opportunity to profit from the trade. WELL, asks The Doser: what's the problem here? WE, THE USERS, ARE THE PROBLEM. THE WHOLE PROBLEM.

Good News is Better

The Doser believes that return of confidence to US citizens needs to be part of the turn-around from our current straits. It is necessary for the media to publish the news but it is clearly impossible for any segment of the media to print all of the news. It does seem to The Doser that the media, given that limitation,tends to select from the negative news available. It would be better to present a larger percentage of positive items. They are available. Many of us did not know that there are stirrings of return to civilization in Zimbabwe. The media doesn't have to define good news as reporting that a Boy Scout troop planted a tree. Good news that is big is available. What's going on in Zimbabwe is good and big!

Goal in Iraq

The US has recklessly refused to make a set of goals to base the decision upon when we should withdraw from Iraq. This perennial indecision provides a sort of "goal" that appears to have been settled upon, by default. It is that we will stay in Iraq until we create a stable, westernized, US-favoring government that has stopped its citizens from killing each other. The Doser notes that there is a government established in Iraq and, since that is the case, we are Nosy-Parkers if we don't just step out and let it run its own country.

Palin for President Campaign

Palin pfamily pfounder publicizes his pfornication. Plans to palliate public pfaulty pfiguring that his pfolks are poor, pale pfling-out people. Palin partisans are prodigiously pleased. "Palin has presidential pfiber."

With the "big bank bail-out" the government was doing one of two things: it was deliberately using our future money to reward the ones that clobbered us OR it screwed up. The government either wanted that money to be passed up to the bankers as reward for their conduct OR the government wanted the money to be passed down to ordinary business people. The Doser is not trying to salvage respect for the government. He's just trying to find a way to work with it. The Doser says we need to adopt the "government screwed up" theory and move on.

Pirates

The Doser can't organize for himself a clear picture of why important vessels performing presumably important chores are toadying to a bunch of African pirates. Why, The Doser thinks to himself, don't the servile owners of the important vessels provide their crews with some armament? However, if they just can't bring themselves to harm pirates, why don't they just navigate a craven course farther out in the Indian Ocean?

The Doser is not utterly alone in his support of drug-legalization. Hilary Clinton has acknowledged that the US has some responsibility for the present Drug War fiasco. A junior senator from Virginia (he probably won't be a senator long enough for you to memorize his name) has come out in favor of declaring victory in the Drug War and getting out it.

Expensive absurdity.

The Doser wishes that he could access Portland's Street Roots newspaper to the extent of giving you a link to this opinion piece: Yoo Kanduit's column in the April 1, 2009, issue. You would enjoy it! It gently pokes satirical fun at our response to our, largely unwarranted, national horror of marijuana. He bases his jibes on how we have extended our marijuana concern to interdiction of the use of hemp - which is a fiber source of old and varied usefulness. If The Doser were the sort of person to tell people what to do, he might urge them to read Street Roots.

We must remember that, when a drug addict cannot afford his "fix," there is nothing that he won't do to get the money to secure it. If we legalized drugs and had them governmentally controlled, we would reduce the horrors that Mexico has been experiencing and that we will, more and more, experience. Such evidences of the extent to which addicts will go to supply their habits are becoming more and more apparent. Our "Noble Experiment" should have taught us not to do this drug- war stuff. We are still experiencing the contempt for government that we inherited from the Prohibition experiment. The Doser says: "Enough."

A hopeful dose from Jackson County.

It appears to The Doser that, in the face of an acknowledged "difficult financial situation," the Portland, Oregon, area politicos are playing politics with such non-vital issues as: How many lanes shall the Interstate Bridge have? How can a more powerful position be achieved by trashing Portland's Mayor? How can we get a professional soccer team to Portland? Steve Duin, in The Oregonian this morning, points to Jackson County, Oregon, as a place that has a more viable plan than to run the political mill as usual. The Doser recommends that readers utilize this therapeutic dose from Oregon's banana belt to initiate suggestions to the Multnomah area politicos.

Abortion

Putting aside all that rational business about "freedom of decision" and the "right of women to control their own bodies," what has been won is an open medical procedure performed by a capable person in surgical circumstances. What has been left behind is a filthy place where an untrained person performs a clandestine procedure with a clothes-hanger. The Doser says: "That is sufficient reason never to go the way the Fundies seem to want us to go."

Answer to "What Shall I Read Next?"

The Doser's idol - Leonard Pitts, Jr., has published a list of books about African-American history that he values. It is to be hoped that The Doser is the only person in the world who has not read any of them! How can we understand our history if we don't know anything about what our neighbors consider to be history? Here is the list: "From Slavery to Freedom" (1); "Mirror to America" (1); "Before the Mayflower"(2); "Slavery by Another Name" (3); "This Was Harlem"(4) (4); "Been in the Storm So Long"(5); "Trouble in Mind" (5).

The authors numbered are: (1)John Hope Franklin; (2)Lerone Bennett 3) Douglas Blackmon (4) Jervis Anderson (5) Leon F. Litwak

Solve Our Drug Problems

The "solution" to the drug problem is this: The US should legalize drugs and facilitate their inexpensive distribution. Just that. When the alternatives are ludicrous and expensive and failing, the simplest solution needs to be sought. It is not a "good' solution,for, as with the repeal of prohibition of booze, social problems will follow. It is simply the only solution.

Drug Addiction vs Prevention Addiction

Drug addicts are willing to do whatever is necessary to get the drug they want. The US government has become addicted to the idea that they should not have the drugs they want. Neither stance makes a lot of sense. Why should drug addicts give up whatever is necessary to get their drugs? On the other hand, why should the US government, at such enormous cost, doggedly attempt to stop them from getting their drugs? If you don't have the answer to either of those, you are certainly right on the threshold of a break-through into realism about drugs.

Drug Supply Re-Visited.

The Doser knows that you are thinking about the Drug Problem. Here is the bitter dose: WE are the problem. Just that. All that "ugliness" and a substantial part of our own criminal and penal problems will go away if WE solve the problem that WE present. However in the world is that to be done?