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If the Police Bureau does not have a deficit in training around race and class issues, would they have gone into the home of a white, middle class federal public defender in the west hills and assumed she died of natural causes rather than treated it as a crime scene, which it was? If that person was an African American woman in N Portland, would the assumption have been the same?

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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Dealing with population control in the U.S. means dealing with religion and taxes. I can't think of any way to do this without hitting us in our pocket books. One child, small tax break, two children, no tax break, three children plus, tax the heck out of them. Make the morning after pill and abortion as available as viagra.  End tax exemption for religion - most of them have a dangerous pro-fetus agenda that they call pro-life, but their protection ends once the fetus becomes a breathing person.

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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Good morning, I can't reply to your comment on my comment re: my child-based tax system so I'll ask here. 

I don't understand what freedom of choice issues it brings up.  Would you please explain (if you have time)? I don't know if I'll ever really make the time to work on it, but I'd want to take everything into consideration if I do. Thanks!

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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First - the person who called in and lives in WA but works in OR.  He likely does this to pay less taxes.  He may pay income tax in OR, but not  in WA, correct?  And please, he's not shopping in WA and paying those sales taxes. That is disingenuous. Also, he is, of course, using OR resources.

Second - we need to increase sin taxes on all booze and tobacco products.  Add fast food and we're on our way to better health.  I do not favor a general sales tax.

Third - I am happy to pay my share of taxes. But as a childfree couple married 10 years, how about something like this, which will also help the environment?  One-two children: tax break. Three-four, none. More than four- you pay taxes on them.  Or, since we are using vastly fewer resources than people who have children, give us a tax break for *not* having children. 

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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Growing up in the Pacific NW, I know that occasionally fishing boats would find themselves going really far, really quickly, as they had snagged a submarine illegally doing exercises in the puget sound.   We should not only be concerned about what we ARE hearing from the Navy, but what we are not.  There will be "unintended consequences" to increased Navy on the coast, and we can be sure their PR machine is in high gear, masking the truth. 

posted 4 years, 2 months ago
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I am a non-theist and tend to have friends of the same faithlessness. Forced Catholic growing up, I finally realized that "faith in God,", which also meant belief in the devil, hell, heaven, etc. was the single most destructive force in my life. This long realization was the best thing that happened to me. I view religious faith, blind faith, as a manipulative, superstitious, post-stone age myth system, and a force that causes unbelievable harm within families and nations

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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