New Frames

Jet Skis on Crater Lake?

That's right!  Get your Jet Ski ready to rip up some waves on Oregon's Crater Lake, the state's only national park.  When you're done, stop by the gift shop in the park's lodge and buy yourself a crucifix and bible!  Oh and forget about those boring educational forums given by the park's rangers that tell you about the geological and biological evolution of the area because evolution doesn't exist!

You think I'm joking right?  Five years ago, I would have thought I was joking too, but times have changed and this is not a joke.  The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees has gotten its hands on leaked documents, which are revisions of "purpose" of America's National Parks, from the Interior Department, and things don't look good.  Since the inception of the national park system the purpose of the parks has been to give visitors the experience of protected areas and to pass those protected areas on to our posterity, but Paul Hoffman, a deputy assistant secretary to the Interior and Bush appointee, sees things differently. 

Hoffman is the author of the proposed park management changes.  By the way, he has absolutely no experience or background in the national park system.  Despite this lack of experience, Hoffman has been appointed to propose policy changes that will have a profound impact on our treasured parks.  In Hoffman's world, which doesn't include input from anyone in the National Park Service, the purpose of the parks is not about protection, rather the supposed accommodation of activities that don't cause "irreversible impact", as noted in today's New York Times editorial:

Mr. Hoffman's rewrite would open up nearly every park in the nation to off-road vehicles, snowmobiles and Jet Skis. According to his revision, the use of such vehicles would become one of the parks' purposes. To accommodate such activities, he redefines impairment to mean an irreversible impact. To prove that an activity is impairing the parks, under Mr. Hoffman's rules, you would have to prove that it is doing so irreversibly - a very high standard of proof. This would have a genuinely erosive effect on the standards used to protect the national parks.
(emphasis mine)

That means Jet Skis on Crater Lake.

Along with changing the mission of the national parks, Hoffman attacks science in his proposed revisions by striking out all references to evolution and evolutionary processes in the policy documents.  If you've spent time in a visitors' center at a national park learning about the parks natural history, you're aware that it's all about science.  Not only does Hoffman want to neuter science in the parks, he's clearing the way for religious kitch to be sold in the parks' gift shops, which currently sell national park specific items such as postcards, t-shirts, books, posters and other artifacts.  You won't find a poster of Jesus blasting out of Old Faithful or Moses standing above the Grand Canyon with open arms.

For park lovers, Hoffman's proposals are indeed a bitter pill.  I spent my college summers working in Grand Teton National Park where I made several jaunts up to Yellowstone to go fishing and camping.  The husband and I spent our honeymoon trekking around the parks in southern Utah, and well, I love our national parks the way the way they are, have been and should always be.  The assault on our public land is criminal, but I always believed our national parks would remain off limits.   

The O pulls opinion writer out of its arse

Did anyone else out there choke on their cereal on Sunday morning when they read the front page of the O's commentary section?  Perhaps the O is just too embarrassed to provide the link to the worst front page commentary they've ever had, or it's their useless website, but there is no link I can provide you with to Urban sprawl? There's plenty of room, by Christopher J. Falvey.  Falvey is the editor of a rightwing hack website that does everything from justifying religion in government to attacking environmentalism.

In Urban sprawl? Falvey assumes himself an expert on the issue of sprawl due to the vantage point he has while sitting in the window seat on airplanes.  He claims "there's plenty of room" for cities to grow.  Last I checked a window seat in a civilian airplane did not qualify as a scientific observation point, but then again, that's par for the course from a rightwing hack who is trying to muddle sound scientific research with unscientific observations. 

Falvey's mission in this so-called commentary piece that was unfit to print is to try to debunk a recent UN report that puts a focus on the hazards of urban sprawl.  Without providing any references to any kind of scientific data that would support his arguments, he simply states that humans are taking up "only a minuscule part of the world" and that we could multiply the space we take up "by 5, 10, 15 and it still [would] remain[s] basically infinitesimal."  And, yes, the earth is flat because when I was at the coast yesterday looking out at the great expanse of the ocean, I observed that it was flat.  Therefore the earth is flat.

Falvey simply sites the UN report, but fails to point out the fact that there are hundreds of scientific studies that have been done on the negative impact of urban sprawl.  All he needs to do is go to Google Scholar and do a search on "urban sprawl scientific studies" and he'll get more information than he knows what to do with, but then again the Falveys of the world don't do science.

Most importantly, why did the editorial board at the O print this garbage?  When it comes to scientific research and environmental impact, don't the editors have a journalistic duty to fulfill?  If that duty is to provide a dissenting opinion that has nothing but lame observations to back it up, then the editors are truly in a sorry state.

Note: Land Use Watch has also posted on this sad piece of commentary.

Congo, war, computer chips and a 30 mile run

An acquaintance of mine, Lisa Shannon, is losing her toenails, sweating, enduring muscle aches and pains to raise awareness and money for women in the Democratic Republic of Congo who suffer much more than any of us could ever imagine due to war and famine.  On September 10th, Lisa will run the 30.16 mile stretch of Portland's Wildwood Trail and when she finishes she hopes to hand over a bundle of money to Women for Women International, a group that is involved in helping Congolese women along with women and children all over the world.

You can make a donation and read more about Lisa's run and why she's doing it at her website.  The O also has a front page story in today's Living section (hey Lisa, cute pic, but you're way cuter in person!)

Also, if you think the civil war in the Congo has nothing to do with us and is just "another African country in some tribal conflict," think again.  The computer you're using right now and that cell phone you just made a call on have everything to do with the war.  The material, tantalum/coltan, that is used for making the chips that run our cell phones and computers are mined in the Congo.  Unfortunately the way tantalum is bought and sold in the Congo is worse than the drug trade:

...warring rebel groups - many funded and supplied by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda - are exploiting coltan mining to help finance a bloody civil war now in its third year.  There is a direct link between human rights abuses and the exploitation of resources in areas in the DRC occupied by Rwanda and Uganda.

So, make a donation to Lisa's efforts.

Stop global warming: Make your man feel like a man!

If a car salesman wants to sell a honkin' SUV to a male customer, he only needs to question his customer's masculinity to make the sale.  According to a new study done by researchers at Cornell University, men who feel that their masculinity is threatened are more likely to buy an SUV over other cars in order to overcompensate for their insecurity.

Researchers of the study administered gender identification surveys where one group of men was given feedback that informed the men they exhibited weak male characteristics, while another group was told they demonstrated strong ones.  Rob Willer, the lead researcher, discovered the obvious between the two groups of men:

...if you made men more insecure about their masculinity, they displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq War more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle...

My husband rides a bike to work...

Been workin' at the farm

Aside from keeping up with my small bidness, I've been out helping my mom on her apple farm in Ridgefield, WA.  It's harvest season!  So I haven't been posting much, as you may have noticed.  Instead, I've been pulling weeds, picking basil, planting beets for winter... Perhaps you've had the pleasure of eating produce from my mom's farm if you've ever had a dinner at Ciao Vito's (22nd and Alberta.)  If you haven't eaten there, it's absolutely the best. 

Speaking of farms, there's a new blog in town: Land Use Watch, owned and operated by Peter Bray.  Most of you know I break out in hives when I hear the words Measure 37.  Well, I think Mr. Bray understands.

Speaking of farms again, stop by my mom's booth at the Portland Farmers Market this Saturday:  Old World Apples.  She always starts at the market in August, due to the nature of her crops.  That's why you haven't seen her there this year, but she's on board now.  If you say, "Hey, I love your daughter's blog!" she just might give you an apple ;-)

Somethin' for nothin' quote of the day

Via Daily Kos.  Yup:

America:
"The administration says the American people want tax cuts.  Well, duh. The American people also want drive-through nickel beer night.  The American people want to lose weight by eating ice cream.  The American people love the Home Shopping Network because it's commercial-free."
--Will Durst

Portland's emissions miscalulation. What now?

For those of us who proudly blogged about Portland's success in lowering its emissions to levels lower than what the Kyoto agreement had called for, we need to be eating a little crow right now, but we shouldn't be staring at our feet while doing so.  The local conservative libertarian think tank, the Cascade Policy Institute discovered that the methodology used in calculating Portland's overall emissions was flawed:

...after an inquiry into the source of the numbers by a Portland think tank, a city official spotted a mistake in the report: Instead of a 0.1 percent decrease of emissions compared to 1990, there actually had been a .77 percent increase.

Ouch!  The good news, however, is that the mistake was discovered, which means we're now aware that we are not taking enough action to curb the region's greenhouse gas emissions.  We shouldn't be pulling the wool over our eyes on this because it's too important. 

In an opinion piece in today's O, Richard Page, an associate researcher for the Cascade Policy Institute, claims that the flawed information regarding the city's emissions does a "great disservice" to taxpayers and environmentalists.  He goes on to warn that the world should know the truth before it adopts Portland's global warming strategies.

Sure, it should know the truth, but at the same time Page seems to be saying that the city shouldn't have enacted any of the measures it took to curb emissions and that other cities should ignore Portland's strategies simply because the city didn't meet the standards it was targeting.  What if the city had done nothing?  Is that what Page prefers?  We'd certainly have higher rates of emissions and we'd be sitting around waiting for someone else to come up with solutions.  If Oregon and its largest city are mediocre as some would like to believe, then fine, let's not seek out innovations that might help set national trends and create new opportunities for Oregon's economy.  But is that what we want?

I'm not going to assume what Page thinks about global warming and strategies to curb it, but there's a myth out there that cooling the warming would cool the economy or "wreck" it as George Bush claimed recently.  This myth implies that the American innovative, entrepreneurial spirit is dead, but the new emerging "bioneers" are begging to differ.  On Monday, PBS' The News Hour did a story on Portland's and Seattle's attempts to curb emissions.  John Plaza, a self proclaimed bioneer in Seattle is cashing in on the city's conversion of its transportation fleet to biodiesel:

Our total revenue of sales will be between $8 million and $10 million and we can look at a 15 percent profit margin on that. So we're doing it not because we want to change the energy policy of the United States only, we're doing it because there is an economic benefit for us absolutely.

The Oregon legislature had the opportunity to pass biofuels legislation in this past session, but Republican leaders in the House failed to see the vision that Oregon farmers, conservationists and new bioneer business interests could have tapped into.  In other words, Salem's House Republicans want to continue the choke hold that fossil fuel based industries have on our state and nation.  Did I hear someone say free markets?  Richard Page was that you?

We can change this, however, by electing leaders who will support and help pave the way toward a bioneering economy.  It's an issue that anyone running for office in this state should have to respond to.  If a candidate supports the "economy vs. environment" myth, then we should make sure he/she has an opponent who supports bioneering.  And we should continue to support Portland's efforts to curb emissions, while demanding flawless reporting on those emission levels.  As a community we need to know what works and how we can be improve through innovations that will stimulate our local economy. 

Olson Online has also blogged about this, specifically on the O reporter who keeps citing libertarian/conservative sources for his articles without including the views of conservation groups who also have an interest in the global warming issue.

Oregon mother of dead soldier speaks wisely

If you haven't read Steve Duin's column today in the O, make sure you do!  He introduces us to two Oregon military mothers who lost their sons in Bush's war.  They're both headed to Crawford, Texas to join Cindy Sheehan.  I can't even begin to imagine what families must go through when they find out a loved one has been killed in this war, but Lynn Bradach, one of the Oregon mothers is quite lucid in her grief:

There is no way our children died in vain, not if we pay attention, not if we learn. I'm proud of my son. I love the Marines. And I'm very much against this war and always have been.

I guess our children went and were sacrificed for us to take a look at what we let happen. We let this war happen. If nothing else, this is a huge lesson. Watch who you vote for. Watch what they're telling you. Don't be so afraid.
(emphasis mine)

These mothers are amazing.

OPB program reminder: "Country Doctors, Rural Medicine"

For those interested in understanding Oregon's urban-rural divide, OPB will be rebroadcasting a program about rural healthcare, Country Doctors, Rural Medicine, this Sunday at 11 am.

My previous post touched upon one of the issues addressed in the show: Medical malpractice insurance rates for rural doctors.

I found the show extremely interesting and sad.  Hope people get a chance to watch it.

How many Dr. Patels are on the loose?

Last night OPB broadcast an interesting program on the issues surrounding rural healthcare in Oregon.  The program, Country Doctors, Rural Medicine, which is part of the Oregon Story series on OPB, covered the challenges, benefits and difficulties facing rural Oregonians and the doctors who treat them.  The issue regarding the burden of medical malpractice insurance and the high rates rural physicians have to pay was touched upon twice during the program. Unfortunately it was framed as being the fault of patients who receive multi-million dollar jury awards due to medical negligence.  One nurse said, "Something has to be done about those jury awards."

First of all, I'm surprised Oregon Story let this assumption stand, unchallenged, on its program.  Secondly, it's strictly an assumption:  Jury awards equal high insurance rates.  What about other considerations such as looking at the insurance companies who are charging these exorbitant rates in order to satisfy their shareholders on Wall Street?  Or what about truly negligent doctors who get away with their disastrous habits because the medical community refuses to police itself until it has become beyond obvious that a doctor is a problem, (see Portland's own, Dr. Jayant Patel.) 

How many patients had to die or suffer at the hands of Dr. Patel while his colleagues hemmed and hawed about what to do with him?  Because there are no public records that document a history of medical negligence by doctors, patients don't have the opportunity to discover if their own doctor is a problem.  Wouldn't the 59 year old Oregon man who lost permanent gastrointestinal function at the hands of Patel liked to have known that three patients prior to him had died as a result of Patel's negligence? 

Let's get something else straight:  The cost of medical malpractice awards to our health care system is negligible, despite what the President and his men tell us.  The non-partisan General Accounting Office and Congressional Budget Office both found the President to be wrong (from FactCheck.org:)

When CBO applied the methods used in the study of Medicare patients hospitalized for two types of heart disease to a broader set of ailments, it found no evidence that restrictions on tort liability reduce medical spending. Moreover, using a different set of data, CBO found no statistically significant difference in per capita health care spending between states with and without limits on malpractice torts.

We need to stop blaming patients who have suffered miserable and irreversible medical injuries under the care of negligent doctors and their negligent colleagues who refuse to take action against them.  Instead we should be examining the medical community itself and find ways to create a healthy system of checks and balances within the community.  There also needs to be a place, similar to the Better Business Bureau, where people can go to find out if their doctor is a Jayant Patel.  Lastly, some kind of alternative medical malpractice insurance system that doesn't have to answer to the likes of Goldman Sachs should be set up, especially for rural practitioners.

There, problem solved.

"Country Doctors, Rural Medicine" will be shown again on OPB this Sunday (8/14) at 11 a.m.  For anyone who wants to bridge the urban-rual divide this is a must see program.  Tape it if you're out.