Daily Dosage

Hellas go bragh!

2010-05-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-05-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-12T18:07:00.001-07:00

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

2010-04-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

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 ?

2010-03-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-11T10:09:00.000-08:00

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,

2010-03-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-03-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-03-11T08:38:00.001-08:00

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.

2010-03-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-03-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

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

Cheap Shot?

2010-02-27T07:22:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-02-27T07:16:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-17T07:33:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-14T20:31:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

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."

2010-01-29T06:39:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-24T06:32:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-01-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-01-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-14T09:56:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-11T07:24:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-09T07:25:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-09T07:08:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

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.

Equal and Opposite Reaction.

2009-12-31T09:48:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-12-30T17:55:00.000-08:00

"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

2009-12-28T09:47:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-24T10:14:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-18T19:50:00.000-08:00

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."

2009-12-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-15T12:32:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-10T15:20:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-08T09:29:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-12-08T09:20:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-06T11:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-29T08:21:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-11-24T08:15:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-20T14:45:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-20T14:23:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-20T14:14:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-10T06:38:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-11-10T06:35:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-11-08T11:46:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-11-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

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

What goes around comes around.

2009-10-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-02T07:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-10-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-27T12:05:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-09-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-07T10:32:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-29T16:48:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-08-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

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."

2009-08-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

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