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When the price of oil reaches $150 a barrel and rising, people will be glad they have dependable rail service. That is, IF they have it.

Rail moves more people and freight per unit of oil than cars or trucks. And rails last longer than asphalt highways.

High Speed Rail is fine, but I think a lot of people would be happy with better "normal" speed, and more passenger lines. Like the train that went up the Gorge on the Oregon side to Salt Lake City, Denver and Chicago. And how about train service to Bend?

Instead of wasting oil in order to save money, we should do the reverse. Make oil our "currency."

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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President Obama said "no workers are more productive than ours."

So why doesn't our pay match our productivity?

Wages haven't gone up since the Seventies. Instead we are encouraged to go into debt.

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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The LA Times article, which they took from Reuters, says that Salem was wearing a recorder when he spoke with the FBI handlers. So it looks like the FBI may not have been truthful when they said they dropped Salem because he wouldn't wear a recorder. Unfortunately this article is from the LA Times archive and you have to pay to get the whole thing.

Why not do a little digging? There is information out there. I have a small file and could send you copies if I had your address.

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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Michael Trigoboff wants a URL for the story on the 1993 WTC bombing. Here's how to find it: Google "Emad Salem" and go to the Wikipedia entry. At the bottom of the story is Bibliography which has a link to the NY Times story, plus several others.

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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Michael Trigoboff asks for a link supporting my assertion regarding the 1993 WTC bombing.  Here it is: New York Times, Oct 27, 1993 Section A, page 1, by Ralph Blumanthal.

One can also find more references in Wikipedia under Emad Salem.

Trigoboff also suggests I read Bin Laden's fatwa, which I did. In it, Bin Laden speaks about the "Crusaders," the US occupation of the Arabian Peninsula and other Arab lands.

Bin Laden has also said elsewhere that he wants the US to bleed itself to death by fighting an endless war. But that's another topic.

Trigoboff also raises the issue of intent. If one drops a bomb, car or aerial, in a crowded neighborhood it's no good to say one didn't intend for innocents to be killed. It's called criminal negligence, if not worse. This issue has also come up in the Woodburn case, where the defendants seemed to be saying that the bomb was not intended to explode and blaming it on the victim.

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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It makes little sense to talk about terrorism without talking about war in general. The US has used terrorists in the past. Bin Laden once worked with the CIA.

Why is a car bomb worse than a bomb dropped from the air? They both kill the innocent.

History didn't begin in 2001, or 1993. It's like coming into a movie halfway through. You see one man shoot another and think he's the bad guy. When you see the beginning of the film, you see the victim kill the bad guy's brother.

During World War One the allies, in the person of Colonel T E Lawrence, promised the Arabs freedom if they defeated the Ottoman empire. After the war, the Brits and the French carved up the Middle East and then the US joined in.

That betrayal is what the jihadists are responding to.

Now the US is killing people with drones, which is a cowardly way to fight. The drone jockey sits at a console in Nevada and kills people on the other side of the world. Then he goes home and has dinner with his family.

Americans may not give this much thought, but you can be sure that people in the rest of the world do.

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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The ringleader of the 1993 WTC attack was an FBI informant named Emad Salem. He rounded up some young men from a Jersey mosque and planned the bombing. At one point he asked his FBI handlers if he could make a dud bomb. They said no, they wanted it to explode.

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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Apparently Frankj doesn't read any better than he spells. I said ONE of the reasons for Rome's collapse was the stranglehold that the rich had on the political process.  Other causes were imperial overstretch and ruined farmland. North Africa was once the Roman breadbasket, but look at it now.

The "stranglehold" reason adds to the others. It means that other problems could not be fixed because the people responsible controlled the politics.

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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One reason why the Roman Empire fell apart was because the groups responsible for its collapse (the rich and the military) had such a stranglehold on politics that it was impossible to make any corrections.

Are we there yet?

posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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Property tax is a lousy tax because it puts people at the mercy of the money flow. If people with money buy houses in your neighborhood it raises the tax on your home, even if your income hasn't increased. You may be forced to sell your home.

Here's how to help the little guy: A homestead exemption. If you live in your home, you would get, say, $100,000 exempted from property tax. So if your house is worth $200,000 you only get taxed on half of that.

If your house is worth $1 million, you still get the $100,000 exemption but get taxed on 90 percent of its value.

posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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Has any candidate, from either party, said anything about the wars that are draining America and destroying people abroad?

Has any candidate said anything about the prospect of $100 oil, with higher prices to follow?

I don't think either party has a clue about where this country is going.

One reason the Roman Empire collapsed was that the people who were responsible (the rich and the military) had such a stranglehold on the political system, that no one was allowed to correct it.

Are we there yet?

posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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When I was three years old I got hit over the head with a hammer because I didn't speak English.

I was born in New York City in 1934. When I was one, my family went back to Norway and stayed there for about a year. Then we returned to New York.

In Norway I remember that kids played pretty happily together. Not so in New York. Speaking only Norwegian, I tried to join some older kids  and got hit with a hammer.

It seemed to me then that America was a violent place, and I still think so.

Every big boy was once a small boy who maybe got bullied. Then they take it out on others.

Why is America so violent? I think the main reason is Americans came to this part of the world as conquerors, and they still think like conquerors. It's like the air they breathe.

posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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Several years ago I went to the liquor store to buy my favorite brand of rum. I was told that OLCC no longer offers it. I was surprised to learn that OLCC does the buying for every liquor store in the whole state. What a dumb idea! If I wanted my brand of rum I'd have to get it on special order and add to the cost -- an even dumber idea.

posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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There used to be a vibrant neighborhood in Northeast Portland, but then the urban planners destroyed it in order to expand Emanuel Hospital and build the Coliseum. What they got was a dead zone, not too different from the one that now exists in South Portland.

Now the planners propose to bring the old neighborhood back to life. I'm thinking that maybe they are not capable of doing this.

The Hawthorne, Alberta and Mississippi neighborhoods are all "unplanned" as it were, the result of many decisions by the many people who live and work there.

So where to we go now? Let's leave the movers and shakers (maybe we should call them the "shovers and makers") out and look to the people for ideas. For a while I thought this was happening, but the movers and shakers said no.

They can't even build a minor league ballpark. So how are they going to redesign the Rose Quarter?

posted 2 years, 9 months ago
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Whether Bill Bradbury wins of loses, he raised an important issue -- having a state bank that could float bond measures where the interest would go to the state rather than a commercial bank.

This would save the taxpayers a lot of money.

North Dakota has had a state bank for ninety years, and it works for the people rather than the Wall Street money men.

posted 3 years ago
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Fixing the kicker's a good idea, but let's not stop there.

We need a state bank. North Dakota has had one for 90 years. A state bank can float its own bond measures. It would take deposits and issue loans. Most importantly, the interest would go into the state treasury.

A state bank would save us a lot of money.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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If Obama can't or won't end the wars, he'll go the way of LBJ. We are spending up to a trillion a year on war while the nation goes bankrupt.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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It's easy to judge people --especially people like the Octomom -- but let's look at the global system. The population explosion coincided with the petroleum explosion. Cheap oil allowed industrial farming with artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Now the cheap oil is running out and we're in a mess.

We need to change our way of farming. Get rid of Monsanto with its seed monopoly. Get rid of the IMF which forces debtor nations to cut social programs that might reduce population in a human way.

Let's look at the debt explosion. It can't go on forever, and it allows the rich nations to exploit the poor.

It's the rich people who use up the world's resources.

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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The real reasons for this war are to secure a pipeline route in Helmand Province, and if possible gain a foothold in the Asian heartland.

These wars will eventually destroy the United States. Right now China is letting us bleed, but when andif we get too close to their neighborhood they will pull the plug on our economy.

posted 3 years, 5 months ago
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Having a war budget of $680 billion a year doesn't help California and other states become solvent.

One thing that might help would be a state bank. North Dakota has had a state bank for 90 years. It allows North Dakota to issue its own bonds without having to pay interest to commercial banks.

posted 3 years, 10 months ago
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