Hellas go bragh!

The Doser is a Greece-lover. And he's over-looked a lot of feckless Greek conduct to love Greece practically without reservation. But a small point must be made: Greece has very limited resources to make a living for itself. Young Greeks, facing that, have gone abroad to make their way since Classical times. It is a resource-exhausted country. Yes, worn out by its own self-indulgences, but worn out. What Greece does have is the fortunate circumstance that the rest of the world admires its history, its antiquities, its scenery and beaches, the mystique it's created, and its gracious, generous people.

The Doser says:
Knock off this crazy bitching about the reality that you've constructed and get back to keeping your country attractive to visitors.

The Drug War.

If any other boondoggle were shown to have cost $1 trillion (12 zeros), and to have provided no demonstrable benefit after 40 years, there would have been a major hue and cry. The AP published just such a report on the failed US drug war. The Oregonian reported the AP story (on its fourth page of its May 16,2010.) It handled the story about the way the other publications did: at a cost of $1 trillion over a 40 year period the drug war has not reached any of its goals, the US drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske states : ".....it has not been successful." It was reported in about the same way in other papers (see some sites below.)

The Prohibition-style increase of disrespect for the government; what we've done to Mexico and Columbia with this program; the lives shattered by imprisonment for a conduct not widely considered to be criminal; the murders that are occurring along the trafficking borders - are all factors(in addition to cost and failure) to be considered in viewing the debacle.

http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/05/14/1050763/ap-impact-report-on-failed-drug.html


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100513/ap_on_re_us/failed_drug_war


http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/632/associated_press_AP_declares_drug_war_failure


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9079021


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/13/ap-impact-years-trillion-war-drugs-failed-meet-goals/

Begin to Create a Healthy Oregon

Okay! The Doser is going to give you some quick-fix actions that the State of Oregon should undertake at this time. At this time means NOW. Other dosages will come as adjustment is made to these.

First: The laws are to be changed so that it is no longer a crime to be a prostitute BUT "johns" should be prosecuted aggressively for a new crime that makes it clear that sexual exploitation of a human being is wrong.

Second: There are no more proscribed drugs that we are destroying ourselves to destroy. The sale of all those "street drugs" should be controlled and taxed by the State.

Third: All firearms are to be registered with the State immediately.

Four: Walking police patrolmen should be on the "beat" in all the "neighborhoods." Not where the houses are but where the neighborhood shops and gathering places are. AND the patrolman walking with that cop is to be a volunteer from the neighborhood.

Five: Withdraw immediately from all programs of supposed "federal aid" to schools and our penal system. These aren't "aid," they are the purchase price of the right to tell us what to do.

Six: Limit the expense for campaigns for Oregon political offices to not more than one-tenth of the salary to be taken for the job.

How is this to be done? What you do with the healthful doses is your problem.

Dumbest of All

Athletes are noted for many acts of stupidity. A short list includes taking excessive risks, getting adulterous with success, taking bribes, point-spread fixing, taking steroids, over-exercising, faking injuries, fouling other players etc. The Doser believes that the dumbest thing they do, however, is to trot on concrete side-walks.

Time to Move On

The Doser:
1. Liked the passage of the Health Care Reform.
2. Worries about the solid (176-0)Republican mind-set.
3. Heartily approves of the import of the O'Bama-Biden moment of rapport. (The front page of The Oregonian is characteristically unavailable so The Doser hopes you saw the picture.)
4. Wonders, like everybody who listened to the spate of horror stories about "socialized medicine" operation, how much therapy-delivery will be curtailed.

Armaguestton ?

Israel put a spike in our peace efforts in the Mid-east with its direct In-Your-Face intransigence. It gives us reason to re-consider the US carte blanche to Israel. The Doser, however, urges caution because, on our watch, Israel has developed the power to incinerate the world - and demonstrates the unicity of purpose to use it.

The Economy of Un-needed Consumption

The Doser finds it beyond absurd for the Census Bureau to send a letter telling us that we are going to get a census form! Even more expensive, if that is the aim of this conspicuous consumption, would have been to launch a three posting alert program: Get ready! (it's coming) Get set! (it's coming soon) GO!!! (it's in the mail.)

Translation of Stone Wall Jargon Provided,

The Vatican is responding to numerous reports of stone-walled sex abuse charges in Bavaria. It gave its explanation of its handling of those charges. The explanation needs some translating into English. The statements of the Vatican and the translations follow:

Since it is too difficult to recover the story itself from The Oregonian, The Doser will quote portions of the article.)

Local European churches...addressed the issue with "timely and decisive action."

Translation: These are old cases; let's keep them swept under our carpet.

"... the (Vatican spokesperson)cautioned against limiting concerns about child sexual abuse to Roman Catholic institutions, noting that the problem also affects the broader society."

Translation: We are blameless because others did it also.

Batzinger, on whose watch the current rash of claims was presumably aired originally, describes how he is more unsettled by the fact that, before corporal punishment was forbidden in Bavarian schools: "......I, too, slapped people in the face but I always had a bad conscience about it."

Translation: I've suffered enough. Let's get past all this. Follow this red herring that I've provided."

Growing Marijuana More Egregious than Killing.

The Beigley's who let their son die and were criminally convicted of negligent homicide were sentenced to 16 months in prison for their crime. (It's just too time-consuming to dig this report out of The Oregonian, but it was reported as a story yesterday or the day before.) A man from Medford was sentenced to 22 years in prison for operating a marijuana farm.(It's just too time-consuming to dig this report out of The Oregonian, but it was reported as a story in The Oregonian dated March 10, 2010.) The Doser asks this question: Is it any wonder that people think our legal system is running amok?

A Friend's a Friend for a' a that.

The Doser wonders what level of respect Israel would show the United States if it weren't the only friend Israel has in the world.

Any gain in that mess is welcome.

The Doser, except for one new friendship, has found very little to approve about US involvement in the current Iraqi War. The valiant voting of the Iraqis in the face of murderous opposition seems to add a positive hemisemidemiquaver to our record of involvement in Iraq.

Politics.

It seems to The Doser that Pres. O'Bama has begun to think of wagering the ranch on this health care program. If he really believes that he is right - to the degree of assurance that he could take political risks even - he might consider the following plan. First: it is virtually impossible for any Republican to say "yes" to the President nowadays. Second: the Democrats will be distancing themselves from him more and more because they think that supporting him will cost them their re-elections. Third: unless the country encounters a series of miraculous recoveries, Pres. O'Bama will be a one-term president. Fourth: Here's the plan: 1. force the Health Care thing through, 2. just hunker down when the Republicans take over the Congress and hope that they will so clearly mess up being in power that the Democrats will survive to fight another day.

Sochi

For those of you who, like The Doser, didn't know where Sochi, Russia, is,(but didn't look it up, like The Doser did,) this information is provided: Sochi is a sea port city at the eastern end of the Black Sea. It is just a few miles from the Georgian north border. It has an airport.

Late Fracturing News

There has been a very large earth-quake that has hit Chile. It is said to have been 8.8 on the Richter scale. It was at the foci of the movements of three tectonic plates: the Nazca Plate and the Antarctic Plate pushing against the South American plate and South American Plate pushing back. We have a "situation" in our area that could well clobber us: The Pacific Plate is heading north and the North American Plate is heading south - with the small Juan de Fuca plate, in the Western Oregon area, trying to make a way for itself in the squeeze from the other two. The Doser views with alarm!

March of the Seasons

The Doser wonders if we'll have a March summertime now that we've had a February springtime.

Cheap Shot?

Right-minded people all over Oregon will heartily approve the anti-bigotry community action in Grant County, Oregon. The Doser, additionally,gives thought to the owner of the targeted property in economically-stressed John Day, Oregon. Is it a shot from sanctuary for people simply to bring community opinion to stand up for what they think to be right? Note the approval among urban dwellers of the increasing numbers of wolves; note the multi-nation pressure to stop the forest-burning in the Amazon basin; note the mountain of disapprobation we pile on erring political or sports figures. Note that on this Grant County event, we right-minded Portlanders can have a rewarding expression of our high-minded opinions free of charge.

Free enterprise down to basics.

A Portland merchant has raised competitive purchase of clothing to a new level. The Doser now understands how many people that he sees select their costumes.

Good Works

The Doser supposes that all cities, like Portland, are gratified when gad-fly Jesse Jackson comes in to polarize them on a problem.

Generation Gap

The Doser had two major generation-gap experiences in the last few days. One went well as an exchange of how the recent technology has altered the way we live. With the other, it was perceived as an admonitory remark. In both cases, the younger person (everybody is younger than the Doser) had returned from a trip and the Doser asked about the trip. In both cases the response was: "I have a CD with all the pictures of the trip." Well, okay, that means we can all crouch around my computer monitor and look at the photos. The Doser commented: "That certainly exemplifies the way technology has effected us. In my day, the returned traveler would describe the trip orally." One saw the point and described her trip orally. The other felt dragooned into describing her trip orally. Which shows that it pays to keep one's mouth shut only fifty per-cent of the time.

Best Defense: Choice of Stupidity or Naivete

It appears now that the Baby Borrowing Baptists dealt with a representative that resembles an international human trafficker. (The Oregonian has an article on it this morning.) What all their conduct looks like is absolutely not to be believed as what the Haitian government is investigating them for! All of the clandestine, criminal, manipulative, unsolicited acts that they have involved themselves in are surely what they claim them to be: religiosity untempered by common sense. The Doser urges you to figure it out for yourself: can you really believe that a mixed bag of Baptists from Meridian, Idaho, would go all the way to tormented Haiti to steal children for slavery?

Out of this World

That bunch of Utah Baptists that ripped off, illegally, 33 Haitian kids do not look like child-traffickers. They look to The Doser like a bunch of clue-less fundies.

"I didn't believe he was going to die."

Faith-healing "mom" confessed on the stand to the crime charged . Just like the old Perry Mason days! She said: "I didn't believe he was going to die." She knew he was sick enough that she should be feeling some concern about whether he was going to die or not and she didn't believe he was going to die. She's not defending her conduct, as The Oregonian interpreted her statement. She was confessing that she believed that God would heal her son. That's the point of the criminal trial.

Success on parole.

The Doser has been critical of the penal system in the past but maybe unjustly. Note with what success Martha Stewart has made her way on the outside, even though she is an ex-con.

Post it before it's too late.

Well, it's early in the morning when a person is not protected by the comfy rationales the later hours provide. The Doser is willing therefore to ask a question that is going to show how dumb he is. The idea came out of the news that explains that corporations can now buy government benefits and personnel without restraint. (Something about assuring the corporations the Constitutional rights of human citizens. ) The urge to get a comforting rationale in place is already cutting in! It has been sixty years since The Doser took a course in accounting. (Incidentally, accounting was a course that he didn't understand very well.) If the Dosage is not blurted out soon, full common sense about not saying it at all will kick in. Here goes;

What if corporations were required to buy governmental favors with money taken only from net-profits-available-for-dividend-and-bonus-distribution rather than as a cost-of-doing-business?

Reason Sarah Sought More Remunerative Employment?

Bristol Palin has asked $1750 per month child support from her former fiance for the support of their child. Levi Johnston, age 19, Bristol's former fiance, is not mentioned as being employed. He has had a substantial income in the past - giving interviews criticizing the Palins. The Doser calculates that boy is being asked to pay $20,000 per year child support. He'd better get a paper route, or something. Though, of course, it is easy enough to criticize the Palins, Levi has probably sold all that he is likely to learn about them. The Oregonian points out that Bristol, doubtless also unemployed, has heretofore provided almost 100% of the child's income.










'

High-tone hijab?

A posh country club in a posh part of the Portland, Oregon, area is unwilling to let guests wear jeans on the premises. The Doser would like to know what other code restrictions the Oswego Lake Country Club has. Kitzhaber probably wears jeans to claim an association with blue-collar people. Does one assume that the kitchen workers, grounds-keepers and caddies at this fastidious club are not permitted to wear jeans also? So they have old-timey rules. The Doser wonders if they also have prudish rules and maybe even bigotry rules.

Manners and respect.

Manners is a widely accepted set of conducts proper at this time. It is a behavior that takes into account the other persons around. Respect is another matter. It is time-related too, but it applies the manners expectations of the other person. Thus, for a person who is twenty-five, it is currently mannerly to address a contemporary by first name immediately. It shows lack of respect, however, to address a person fifty-five years one's senior by first name immediately.

Someone did something senselessly egregious. The person used a gun to destroy some windows and lenses of the historic Cape Meares light house.

The Cape Meares light house is an Oregon heritage location and many people, including The Doser, have surely had life-directional experiences there.

"It's on the end of the continent. It's make it here or throw it in."

"What would it be like to be on tempestuous seas, out there, and come into the recognizable pattern of the Cape Meares light house?"

"That thing's there doing its job no matter how lousy conditions are."

"Wow - this is a bigger world than I thought it was."

"What a majestic, stand-up, useful, historic place with a view all-the-way-to-forever."

"Those lenses were brought all the way from France when France was much farther away than 13 hours."

"Probably the artistry that went into the making of those lenses contributed to the Hubble space-craft."

"Here I am in the face of this distance, this wind, this driving rain, those oppressive clouds, and I'm facing into it all just like that light house."


The candidate for tar and feathering who did that cowardly, destructive, miserable act must not have had any of those experiences.

Old Age Test

The Doser is about to tell you how to find out if you are really old or whether it's all in your mind. You are really old if you always moisten the plastic bristles of your tooth brush as you routinely did when they were natural bristles that had to be moistened.

Major Breakthrough in Ecumenicity

It is The Doser's experience that Christians don't talk much about God but, on the occasions they do, it would be a major ecumenical breakthrough to refer to him as Allah.

Gone Too Far.

The Doser believes that the media have expanded a worthwhile privilege into an unwarranted license. The public has the right to know if a politician has his hand in the cookie jar. The public does not have the right to know about the private life of public figures unless it is shown that their private conduct directly effects their public performance.

And, on that point, every adult knows that telling one lie in one situation does not prove that the person is a liar in every situation. The way, therapeutically, you can check this out is this: Have you ever told a lie? Are you a liar or a person of principal? (If, of course, you tell yourself you've never told a lie, you are a liar.)

The way the media have gotten away with this canard is that we readers are so separated from the people they snoop on that we we have no personal feeling - or knowledge - that they are actually OK in most matters but were over-extended on this one.

We are spending a great deal to maintain convicted criminals and prospective convictees in our jails, penitentiaries and probation and parole programs. We stray around among the peripheral issues ignoring the basic penal issues. The Doser cites some of the meanderings: What rules shall we make regarding prisoner amenities, i.e. provision of televisions, law books, writing facilities, computer access etc.? What rules are okay regarding the handling of inmates that act out. What rules about activities like television and exercise. How about handling of the matter of visitations. Shall inmates be limited to post cards for correspondence with the "outside?" Why should inmates be denied the privilege of voting? And on and on! The basic issues are: What are the purposes of incarceration and how are we doing in achieving any of those purposes?

Battered Boater Endures Storm

A valiant sailor endures serious danger and discomfort because of the failure of the rescue services function. Well! A person with unrevealed boat experience, with a sizable unfamiliar vessel, in presumably unfamiliar waters, presumably without a current chart of the area, presumably ignoring the serious weather indications, single-handed into an expected gale area and ran aground. He suffered difficulties before being hauled out of his situation. The ordinary result of such conduct results: investigation of the conduct of the emergency responders!

Sweet Victory.

We are all in a flap! We are under counter-attack from the enemy! In our own country! It's not called war, when it occurs here, it's called terrorism. The Jihadists know that they can't win against us by killing us all - because they can't kill us all. They are realistic enough to know that, by disrupting our lives and our living process, they have done as much as they can with their counter-attack. On that assessment, they are just beating us to death. We are running around like chickens with our heads cut off - blaming, explaining, modifying everything,burning the President in effigy,vowing to avenge. That's the victory for the Jihad that they could not have hoped for.

Somebody to Blame.

Several young men in their cups were cavorting on a Portland, Oregon, Tri-Met train platform as the train moved into the station. By chance, one of the young men slipped between the rails of the train and, by the most amazing chance, was not injured by the train that passed over him. The television commentator, speaking of the matter, said that "...the Tri-Met driver was not at fault." This clearly demonstrates how desperate we are to find somebody at fault for every untoward event.