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.










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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.