Month: November 2010

From the Oregonian, in an article about how Chris Dudley didn’t even win the vote for the governor’s race this month in his hometown of Lake Oswego (text in the print edition varies from the online version):

Republican pollster Bob Moore, with perhaps a touch of GOP scorn, complained that Lake Oswego is now dominated by an “uppity, well-to-do, West Coast, liberal-left crowd.”

Apart from the “liberal-left” label, I’m not sure what city Moore thought he was talking about. Lake Oswego has been one of the more monied, exclusive communities in the state for a long time. And I’m pretty sure it’s always been on the “West Coast.”

I’ve been banned again by Jack Bogdanski. Sometimes I have to wonder why I even bother.

As ever, I’m not sure what the offense was, but I think that it’s related to a post he made alleging that a Portland Online web page about getting around without a car was “hectoring” him day after day to spend less time in his car.

I pointed out that a passive web page isn’t exactly the kind of bullying, abusive behavior you’d associate with the verb “hectoring,” but naturally there were a number of mouth-breathers thumping their chests about how they were all imposed on by bike lanes and stuff. In a follow-up comment after someone said “Consider biking to school. In the fog. When it’s 33 degrees. And the road is wet” I mentioned that I used to do just that for miles through junior high and high school (I neglected to mention that I did it for a few years after that as well). I think the thing that got me banned was a closing statement I made where I equated the hyperbolic claim of hectoring came from the same part of the brain as the claims of Republicans that anything they don’t like is being shoved down their throats.

Didn’t realize I was banned until I tried to post a reply to another comment, by which time the biking story was scrubbed.

First, the discussion wasn’t about “being active”, it was specifically about “bicycling”.

Actually, the überdiscussion was about non-car transportation. The link Jack referenced includes alternate forms of getting around from walking to public transit to carpools. Not just bicycles.

Actually, the car part is exactly what’s happening all over the world through congestion taxes, tolls, fees, reduction in auto access, and other policies.

All that and no mention of the price of gasoline? Gas was an astounding $2/gal. by the end of 2000, after a year of dizzying rises. According to the Pew Center the public paid far more attention to stories about the cost of gasoline than they did to the attack on the USS Cole, the recall of Firestone tires, Elian Gonzalez, or the presidential election. In that order.

Hope you had a great Guy Fawkes Day!