Good News!

All of a sudden, in the midst of this chaos and uncertainty, this occurred: Somebody made a large gift to the Portland Art Museum which will use it to open the Museum, free of entry charge, for four Sundays during the year. The first such opening is to be March 22. When the cost of entering the Museum might be such that many would forego these days, there will be this fine opportunity!

Planning for the Past

The Doser senses great differences between what the citizenry needs and what the citizenry wants. It is a time, for example, when enormous sums of money are being poured out to the auto-manufacturers (masters of the "give them what they want" philosophy.) The auto people are stunned by the suggestion that the government wants to talk about what is needed. Even gives some impression that it wants to talk seriously about what is needed. At the same time, the Portland, Oregon, "give them what they want" bunch has approved a twelve-lane freeway bridge across the Columbia! Those auto folk certainly are "birds of a feather," sticking "together." They don't have a clue that they are certainly birds of the dodo ilk. (If the citizenry gets what it needs.)

Anemic Banks

It is probably true what both the Bush and O'bama administrations have said about the hemorrhaging banks. They doubtless do need the money transfusions. Unless it is shown, however, whether it is a good thing to save them and whether this is a hopeful means of doing it, The Doser wonders if it is a strategy that is not worth our pursuing.

Fat-Cat AER (Army Emergency Relief) is hoarding its receipts rather than expending them for relief. Its counterparts (Navy and Marine relief agencies) spend much higher percentages of their resources for relief than does AER. At least, The Doser says, it is better to piggy-bank the funds than to graft them. (There is no way, with its miserable internet-accessing system, to refer you directly to The Oregonian news item to which this refers. But here is another.)

Not good but short of bayudd.

Portland, Oregon, politics were really bayudd in the Old Days. Terry Shrunk failed the lie detector test on the issue of corruption and went on to become Portland's Mayor. Mayor Carson promised to cut taxes, used violence against longshoreman and remained in office as Mayor. Mayor Ivancie turned loose the enforcers against anti-war students and stayed in office as Mayor. Aspirant Commissioner Riley became Mayor in the face of City Club charges of "wide-open" gambling, prostitution and boot-legging. In 1924 all three commissioners were recalled even though they had heavy Ku Klux Klan support.

We live in such an effete age! All we get nowadays is a buffoon who lied about an affair with a youngster who was in a work position of relative disadvantage to him.

No Greek Fire.

It is without doubt that certain fire and building regulations should be enforced for the sake of the public safety. It is likewise without doubt that the costs of enforcement personnel are not high on the money priority list of the city. But organized vigilantism, a la Randy Leonard, may not be the solution. A carefully controlled process of trained volunteers - who announce their arrivals beforehand and work under close supervision - might work. The selection of enforcement sites fingered by the police doesn't seem quite right, either. Something more random would be needed. The first "visit" should be a recommendation event and the building operator should be told when the "follow up" event will be. There should be an "enforcement bulletin" to building owners reciting the sorts of infractions that are considered serious and why. The Doser can understand how restaurant owners, Ted and Theo Papas, could feel that they were being unjustly targeted.

Bipartisanship Baloney.

By truculence and lack of cooperation, the Republicans have syphoned off more than a third ($280 billion) of the so-called "stimulus package" for their discredited plan involving the reduction of taxes to collect more money.

Particulary Pushing Papas

It is without doubt that certain fire and building regulations should be enforced for the sake of the public safety. It is likewise without doubt that the costs of enforcement personnel are not high on the money priority list of the city. But organized vigilantism, a la Randy Leonard, may not be the solution. A carefully controlled process of trained volunteers - who announce their arrivals beforehand and work under close supervision - might work. The selection of enforcement sites fingered by the police doesn't seem quite right, either. Something more random would be needed. The first "visit" should be a recommendation event and the building operator should be told when the "follow up" event will be. There should be an "enforcement bulletin" to all building owners reciting the sorts of infractions that are considered serious and why. The Doser can understand how restaurant owners, Ted and Theo Papas,could feel that they were being unjustly targeted.

PLAN AHEAD!

The Doser has been reflecting on the future. It doesn't look too good these days! What should The Doser do to give assurance to his future. The answer came easily: sue somebody where the jury is likely to go spatial and give a major award. The two paradigm cases that The Doser brings to mind are the coffee-in-the-groin case (after judgment, the judge reduced the jury’s punitive award from $2.7 million to $640 thousand.) The other is the prevent-the tenant's-child-from-falling-out-the-window case.($560,000.) The Doser mused: What do I have that is so highly merchantable? Then, there was a major break-through. An epiphany, really. Eighty three years ago, an emergency surgery was performed on The Doser. It was near The Doser's belly-button. Now, here's the money-making case: everybody else goes through life with a normal belly-button. They go through life with one of the two normal possibilities: an innie or an outie. Not The Doser! As a result of the conduct of that surgeon, The Doser has the life-diminishing alternative: either an ounie or an ittie. Neither innie nor outie. Different from other people. Humiliated. Stunted in life. Worth a lot. Off to the courthouse.

Where help is needed.

Portland, Oregon, a place that has never been as pure as it thinks of itself as being, has had another "resurgence" of gang violence. No reasonable person places all the blame on the parent for the child who makes very bad choices and gets himself on a self-destructive path. We all know that, after a certain quite early age, the influence of the parent over a child diminishes as the influences available outside the parental home increase in importance. The matter of Rashad Banks, the young gangster who was shot recently in Portland, Oregon, is a case in point. Though a parent loses the "control" over the child that she once had, the parent that fails to perform the parental role in the situation must be understood to be part of the equation. A parent has to see what is to be seen regarding the child's style of life. A parent has to make reasonable evaluations about what that conduct must be understood to mean. A parent must perform the parental role of protecting the child - from himself, if necessary. Deficient parents aren't able to do these things. They should be the prime object of the community's efforts to control gangs. The principal "avenue of approach to the problem," to-date, is a man named Brown who is a contact person acting out of his own gangster background. This "approach" is working some good results but the community must provide a parental-assistance program.

Not the Soundest Investment.

The Doser finds the whole lottery process sad. To begin with, though one hasn't heard of any studies on the subject, it seems probable that the larger number of people purchasing lottery "chances" are people who don't really have many dollars to throw away. It's sad too, because the lottery-users have to be reminded that they shouldn't think of the lottery as an investment. Yes, there is an advertising bill-board that reminds them of that fact. The Oregon Lottery just sold its first raffle game in a bit less than eleven and a half days (a very fast clearance!) And that's sad because it speaks of the financial desperation that people are experiencing and trying to relieve with an utterly desperate measure. We just sold out, in Oregon, a big lottery. There were 250,000 raffle tickets sold at $10 per ticket. The pay-out will be $1,300.00. But the last sad thing is that the reward involved is deceptively attractive. The reality is that the chances of winning anything at all are 1 to 1011. (There are one thousand and eleven winning tickets.) That's very sad odds!

Win some, lose some.

A juxtaposition of two articles in The Oregonian this morning contrives to illustrate the severity of the tensions in the Near East. In Iran, moderate cleric, Mahammed Khetani has gained some ground against fire-brand Mahmoud Ahmadinijad. In Israel, radical nationalist Avigdor Lieberman appears to be gathering major player support.

Rank hath its privileges - if very rank.

A lot of people consider an annual salary of $648 thousand dollars to be inordinate. It is, after all, $248 thousand per year larger than the salary given President O'bama. The Doser considers it egregious to give such a salary to the CEO of a seriously debilitated assisted living facility chain. But, there's more: in this case it appears that it was his mismanagement that sent the company down. That, however,is what the operators of Sunwest Management have done. They have awarded discredited CEO Jon Harder $54 thousand dollars a month! If Sunwest Management were a casualty of the "current down-turn," the operators could believe, in analogy to the bank bail-out program, that it will help us out of the problem to reward inability and venality. The situation seems to be, however, that he had caused the problem before the "down turn." (Some of us are not even strong in believing that applying money for such a bail-out is useful in any case.)

Merkley report with technical difficulty

Our new US Senator, Jeff Merkley,
(1) Has been assigned space in the Senate office building - see address below.
(2) Was opposed to the bank bail-out before his election. Has registered support for the President's stimulus package;
(3) Has received four highly respectable committee assignments and - see assignments below.
(4) Has opened an office in Portland - see address below.
(5) Has established an e-mail address for use in contacting him directly - see address below.
(6) Doesn't post his FaceBook often enough. The Doser, and other supporters, want to know more about him personally. Has he found a residence in DC?What are early impressions of what life will be like there? How are his children liking their new school?

1.
SDB-40B Dirksen Senate Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3753

2.
To be posted.

3.
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley committee assignments:
Banking Committee
Budget Committee
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Environment and Public Works Committee.

4.
One World Trade Center
121 SW Salmon St. Suite 1250
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 326-3386

5.
senator@merkley.senate.gov

6.
To be posted.

The memory lingers on.

Remember FEMA's inept handling of the New Orleans crisis? Now, we see two more scandalous examples of laxity in operation: the SEC and the FDA. The (bush) administration either couldn't, or didn't want to, run the primary function of the government(i.e. protecting the people.) What other dangerous mis-handlings are lurking just below our horizon as legacies from that botched regime?

Apology for what?

There are two questions that I regret should be asked of President O'bama: Did you know, when you appointed those three cheats, that they were cheats? If you did not know before you appointed them, did you learn that they were cheats before you put on pressure for their approval by Congress?

O'bama is correct to move forward on his program of pump-priming. That's what we elected him for - to do what we couldn't do for ourselves. Whether this program is the best for the nation is not yet clear. He is also correct to try to work in a bi-partisan way with the Reps. Doing that means giving up parts of the desired program or it would not be bi-partisan. Certainly cooperation is needed in a dire situation. But the deal is not to let the tail wag the dog.

Yeah, but my ox is being gored.

One of the descriptors of a culture is its principles. That is, the directives that guide the conduct of decent people because they believe that the principles are right. The principles teach us that they, themselves, are really more important than other things like residences, automobiles, trips to the coast, Starbucks Coffee, selling a liability property. But in bad times, when other "things" are being taken, marginally decent people let their principles go with the other "things." Principles like staying responsible for the people reliant upon us; sticking to the rules agreed upon with the people relying upon us; not favoring the position of new people who can give us a better deal. If The Doser were a cynic, he would probably suspect that all of us are marginally decent depending on the exigence of the circumstances.

What gall!

The Doser, like all right-minded people, tears off and throws away the advertising appendage attached to the Sunday Comic Page - making sure not to read it.

Here, this'll make you feel better.

Poor, beleagured economists! They feel they have to say hopeful things about the future of our economy because, not to do so, would fuel the angst and uncertainty which must be overcome. They, and we, resent the statements of Paul Krugman who is telling what he believes: that we will have several years of depression, at the minimum.Thank goodness The Doser is keeping a clear head in all this!