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11703. judithathome - 2/9/2016 9:52:48 PM Yes, much better to do as Cruz did...lie about fellow candidates leaving the race and asking for the votes of those supporters.
Really...the moral high ground is fairly low in politics, period. I think there's enough tar in the bucket to use on BOTH sides of the fence. 11704. Trillium - 2/13/2016 5:49:54 AM Back to the Oregon rancher situation, couple of links that are interesting if you have been following this controversy:
"I'm an Oregon rancher, here's what you don't understand about the Bundy standoff"
"It’s not that I don’t care what the environmental community wants. In every part of my business, I try to find a balance between economics, mother nature and our culture. I know that if we don’t treat our land properly, we will go out of business by our own hands. It is of utmost importance for us to be true conservationists if we want to continue producing the most nutritious and safest protein in the world.
"But all too often, I’m not given the autonomy to do so. I’m given rules, not a conversation about how ranchers and government officials and environmentalists might be able to work together. That’s an approach that fails everyone." 11705. Trillium - 2/13/2016 5:56:24 AM The Washington Post article linked above had some interesting comments, including one about the Columbia River Basin and land seizures there.
"on the Columbia River the DC bureaucrats decided to keep the Columbia river gorge scenic so they decided you could not build on either side of the River for 50 miles.. & within 5 miles of the river as the crow flies on either side.. trouble is this was not state or federal land.. it was mostly privet land & mountainous, you could not see beyond 1/4 mile on either side because you hit steep cliffs.. My family owned land involved in the restricted area so I know what happened.. At first the gorge commission allowed building a home if you had X amount of land but they got to tell you where on your land you could build but there was no set standard for why or where since it could not be seen from the river anyway..each year they changed the amount of land you needed.. 5 acres became 10, 10 became 20.. family owned land that had been handed down for generations could no longer be divided to pass on to the children & if it could be you still could not get a permit to build on it.. people were still taxed at full value & taxes kept going up, things became un-affordable people gave up their land to the Fed. Dep. of Fish & wildlife With no reimbursement acres and acres were turned over to include our land.. some people logged their land trying to pay off the taxes but eventually gave in as well.. the dep, of fish & wild life would go in immediately & post signs.Fed. property. no trespassing . They forced us into turning over our lands..."
So I went to check out information about the Columbia River Basin project.
Friends of the Columbia Gorge
I'm of two minds about this. I can recall looking at the Hudson River (below the part where the Rockefellers took over and protected the Palisades), imagining what the beautiful Hudson had looked like before being despoiled.
But... if you are a person being forced off your land and livelihood, the situation looks very different. 11706. iiibbb - 2/13/2016 6:26:52 PM Pretty open and shut "takings" issue... I'm sure a good lawyer and class action case could at least bring tax relief.
Making sense of Malheur. I think about Dune and "plans within plans".
People fundamentally disagree about how the environment should be regulated... it can't be hands off because it only takes a few bad actors to ruin everything. Privatizing public land or getting government out of contentious environmental regulation is on the whole a mistake. There are bigger issues at play like climate change, water quality, habitat preservation, exotic invasives, that half these science-denying fools don't even believe in or have no clue about... despite the myriad of post industrial revolution ecological disasters we can point to illustrating why unfettered and unregulated land use is a bad idea.
Government interferes with all sorts of things beyond land use... it's not like it's a special case. It regulates how I carry guns. It regulates how I raise my kids... it regulates medications I may take... it regulates a myriad of things...
Get used to it.
What the government does for public benefit is far less offensive than what developers do for "public benefit".
That being said, whenever government restricts the type of uses permitted, that constitutes a taking, and they should compensate those landowners with tax relief or otherwise.
The Columbia River gorges is gob-smackingly beautiful... I can only imagine it lined with luxury homes.
The Missoula floods were the largest ever... that entire gorge was filled to the brim with flood water... incredible! 11707. Trillium - 2/16/2016 8:18:16 AM A relative who has spent time in Portland concurs with iiibbb's description of the Columbia River Gorge as "gob-smackingly beautiful".
Another reason to have a 50-mile residence-free zone around the Columbia Gorge: pollution from Hanford 6 Things to Know about Hanford's Nuclear Waste
"This is the most contaminated piece of federal property,” said Wyden. "It adjoins the lifeblood of our region, the Columbia River, and we’ve got to turn this around...”
11708. Trillium - 2/16/2016 8:22:06 AM Thinking about the need for "science-based" solutions...
From the link above:
"RICHLAND, Wash. (KOIN) — It’s something to think about the next time you visit the Columbia Gorge.
"The timeline for officials to clean up the biggest, most toxic nuclear waste site in the Western hemisphere is shrinking.
"The race to clean up 56 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste sitting at the Hanford site, 230 miles east of Portland, becomes more urgent each year.
"With an estimated price tag of $120 billion, and a theoretical deadline of 2047, cleanup efforts are continually stalled by obstacles including time, money, the danger of the task at hand, and the sheer vastness of the site."
Hanford's Nuclear Waste 11709. Ms. No - 2/19/2016 6:05:27 PM Harper Lee has died at 89. 11710. arkymalarky - 2/19/2016 8:05:10 PM We just finished tkam in my ninth grade class. 11711. Ms. No - 2/20/2016 5:19:27 PM I may have asked you this before, but have you read Go Set A Watchman? I haven't and may never, but I was curious what you thought of it. 11712. arkymalarky - 2/20/2016 5:54:05 PM No, and I may not either. I think some at work have. I know one friend bought it. Don't know if she's read it. 11713. robertjayb - 2/20/2016 9:37:04 PM Bought it on release and read the first chapter. Must get back to it...too much political stuff going on... 11714. arkymalarky - 2/20/2016 10:11:03 PM How was the first chapter? 11715. wabbit - 2/21/2016 12:19:49 AM RIP Umberto Eco
The Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose, has died aged 84.
His family says he passed away late on Friday at his home. No further details were given.
The Name of the Rose was made into a film in 1986 starring Scottish actor Sean Connery.
Eco, who also wrote the novel Foucault's Pendulum, continued to publish new works, with Numero Zero released last year...
11716. judithathome - 2/21/2016 11:15:37 PM One of my faves of his is Travels in Hyper-Reality. 11717. judithathome - 2/21/2016 11:16:47 PM Scratch the "-" in Hyperreality. 11718. judithathome - 2/22/2016 11:14:32 PM Here we are, America: The NRA's America: Crazed UBER driver Goes On Killing Spree 11719. Ms. No - 3/13/2016 8:07:32 PM I just found out yesterday that the only thing keeping concealed-carry weapons off our school campuses is our Superintendent's decision. Turns out, the county sheriff is the person who approves concealed carry permits. The old sheriff was responsible for approving a couple hundred, but the current sheriff has awarded more than a thousand permits.
Through the vagaries of law, the final word on who --other than police officers-- can and cannot take a loaded fire-arm onto a school campus is the District Superintendent.
That is some scary shit.
11720. wabbit - 3/13/2016 11:13:55 PM Jeez Louise. Your Superintendent has way too much power. 11721. Ms. No - 3/14/2016 5:09:38 AM In light of the rather contentious nature of the relationship between the District and the teachers in recent years, I don't imagine he's going to be approving any concealed carry permits for staff any time soon. That's all he needs --- armed teachers coming to the administrative offices to negotiate the new contract. ;-> 11722. judithathome - 4/1/2016 9:25:14 PM Well...the truth is out there, finally: Big Pharma Pays Off Generic Drug Companies; We Pay Billions More For Drugs
The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a case worth billions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies and American consumers. The issue is whether brand-name drug manufacturers may pay generic drug manufacturers to keep generics off the market. These payments — a form of settlement in patent litigation — began to blossom about a decade ago when the courts, for the first time, appeared to bless them.
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