HinesSight

Sign my petition to support protected bike lanes in Salem

Yesterday I started a petition that asks the Salem, Oregon City Council to support a proposal by Salem Bike Vision to build a network of protected bike lanes in our city.

You can sign it by clicking this link. Here's what the petition says.

Riding a bicycle in Salem should be much safer and more fun than it is now. Sign this petition to urge the City Council to add protected bike lanes to the projects in a $300 million community improvement bond measure.

I'm excited about this Salem Bike Vision proposal. A "bike lane" consisting of white lines on the edge of a busy street is no substitute for protected bike lanes that separate cyclists from traffic with a physical barrier.

A protected bike lane network can be built for $10-15 million. Adding this to the bond measure won't increase anyone's taxes, since the measure replaces an earlier bond.

Sign now, because the Salem City Council has to finalize what's in the community improvement bond by July 2022. To learn more about the proposal, Google "Salem Bike Vision" and head to their web site.

Three people have taken the lead in coming up with the plan for protected bike lanes: Virginia Stapleton, Ward 1 City Councilor; Ian Davidson, President of the Board of Directors for Cherriots; Dylan McDowell, Vice Chair of the Salem Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

The shows I love to stream tell a lot about me

After writing the title to this blog post, I had a strong feeling of obviousness wash over me. OK, so be it. I plead guilty to stating the obvious.

What people like to watch on TV says a lot about them. So does the music they like to listen to. So do the books and magazines they like to read. 

Still, I find it fascinating how our personality gets projected into those sorts of activities. It's almost as if we don't need to meditate, engage in psychotherapy, or stare into the darkness of a coffee house expresso to know our self.

Maybe I just need the notebook in which I write down shows my wife and I might enjoy on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Peacock, Apple TV+ and whatever other streaming services we have that I can't remember.

Plus my memory of which shows captivated me so much, I could barely wait to see the next episode. Which include, roughly in the order of my passion for them:

(1) Tehran. I'm watching this Israeli show on Apple TV+, which requires closed captioning. A spy thriller, the plotting and character development is much beyond 24 or Homeland, in my utterly personal opinion. I'll be sad when I finish Tehran, I love it so much.

(2) Yellowstone. The scheming, killings, and yes, morality (by their standard) of the Dutton family as they try to save their giant Montana ranch from greedy developers kept me glued to the screen from the first episode. Family dysfunction, mixed with family love, was never so interesting.

(3) Succession. Well, except for Succession. The Roy family members are more polished than the blunt cowboy style of Yellowstone, but they're equally vicious in their privileged rich fashion. None of the Roy's can trust each other, yet they all do their best to pretend that they can. Great entertainment. 

(4) Lupin. Nothing like a good heist story to get my juices flowing, especially when it is set in Paris and features a memorable character who seeks to avenge his father by taking on the persona of a fictional thief with a social conscience. 

(5) Anatomy of a Scandal. Did a Member of Parliament rape his assistant with whom he was having an affair, or was it just a plain old affair, as his wife hopes? Can he be trusted? Seems like a nice guy when he's home with the kids; not so much when he's acting like a jerk. Engrossing drama.

So is there any common denominator to these shows that might reveal some deep dark secret about myself? Sadly, not really, since it isn't a secret that I like spy novels, being especially enamored of Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series.

I enjoy the TV shows listed above because they feature people who are a complex mixture of good and bad, positive and negative, moral and immoral. Just like everybody, really, simply taken to an extreme. I love it when I both admire a character and detest a character.

Doesn't really matter if they're a saint or a sinner at any particular moment, so long as they're interesting.

Don't feed the ground squirrels in Bush Park. They can bite.

Yesterday Laurel, my wife, took our dog Mooka for a walk in Salem's Bush Park. Mooka loves going to the park because she finds the California ground squirrels there endlessly fascinating.

Partly because they're so tame. Partly because Mooka hugely enjoys chasing squirrels on our rural south Salem property, though I don't think she's ever caught one.

(Dogs suck at climbing trees; good news for squirrels.)

Laurel got into a conversation with a man who told her that a child had been bitten at Bush Park by a ground squirrel, probably while feeding one of the cute little critters. He thought the child may have needed to get a rabies shot, but wasn't sure about this.

He also said that because of the proliferation of ground squirrels in Bush Park, there's an effort to kill them. Not sure how, but poisoning their burrows would make the most sense. 

So it isn't a good idea to feed the ground squirrels, as tempting as that might be. They aren't native to Oregon, as evidenced by "California" in their name. We've had quite a bit of experience with them on our property.

The squirrels have gnawed away at the bark of a gorgeous tree in our yard, almost completely girdling it before we put up netting to keep them away from the trunk and branches. In 2009 I wrote about another problem we had with them in "California ground squirrels are driving us nutty."

Crawling under the deck, Laurel found that the little bastards had dug completely under our house's concrete foundation and had made their way into our crawl space. Evidence: insulation that they had dragged out through the tunnel (probably to make a bed where they will have sex and create more California ground squirrels to drive us even nuttier).

Back then I said that I couldn't imagine killing them, so we got a live trap and took them elsewhere. But it was difficult to trap them, and transferring them just moves the ground squirrel problem.

I got a Varmint Killer Air Rifle in August of 2009, blogging about this in "I become a fearsome (ground squirrel) killer." That was wishful thinking, since I don't believe I ever actually hit one. So I increased my firepower.

It turned out that a .410 Mossberg self-defense shotgun was just the thing I needed to compensate for my lack of accuracy with the air rifle. Loaded with birdshot, and living as we do out in the country where shooting is common, I was able to blast away at ground squirrels in our yard with pleasing results.

Not that Laurel and I enjoyed killing them. We're both vegetarians and animal lovers. However, when the ground squirrels started digging into our crawl space, that caused us to declare war on them. 

Since, we haven't seen many ground squirrels. Mooka, a fairly young dog, is quicker than our previous dog, who died from a liver problem. We let her out when we see a ground squirrel in our yard, which seems to be scaring them away, by and large.

Here's a good article about how to get rid of ground squirrels in your yard. It describes ways to deter them rather than killing them -- which is our preference also whenever possible.

Right-wing extremism responsible for 10 mass shooting deaths

Yesterday thirteen people were shot and ten killed at a Buffalo supermarket by an 18-year-old white man armed with an assault rifle and high capacity magazines.

A day after one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent American history, law enforcement officials in New York descended on the home of the accused gunman and probed disturbing hints into his behavior, as Gov. Kathy Hochul promised action on hate speech that she said spreads “like a virus.”

The suspect, Payton S. Gendron, 18, shot 13 people on Saturday afternoon at a Tops supermarket in east Buffalo, killing 10, officials said. Almost all the victims were Black — shoppers, grocery workers and a security guard bound together by little more than tragic happenstance.

But Mr. Gendron picked his target carefully, the police said, choosing an area known for its large Black population and even visiting the neighborhood the day before the attack in what authorities described as “reconnaissance.”

Clearly his motive was racial hatred. Gendron left a lengthy manifesto professing concern about the "great replacement" theory that bizarrely warns about white people being replaced by immigrants, Blacks, Jews, and Latinos.

Before embarking on a racist rampage in Buffalo on Saturday, the alleged gunman left behind a document denying membership in “any organization or group.”

“I am the sole perpetrator of this attack,” he wrote.

But the 180-page screed, which authorities are scrutinizing in connection with the massacre, leaves little doubt that the alleged perpetrator, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, belongs to a global fraternity fused by the Internet and fixated on the idea that White people are being intentionally replaced.

That idea, once relegated to the fringe, has gained currency on popular right-wing television programs and in the halls of Congress. The theory, known as the “great replacement,” has turned white nationalism into an international call to arms. The apocalyptic vision has accumulated followers during the coronavirus pandemic, which has deepened political polarization and accelerated the online flow of racist ideology.

All mass shootings are horrific. But they used to be mainly the work of deranged individuals who wanted to kill a bunch of their fellow human beings. 

Now, though, we're seeing mass shootings with a far-right political motivation. That's even scarier, since the crazy ideas motivating the killers are emanating from inside the Republican Party and right-wing media outlets like Fox News.

Tucker Carlson, notably. He's been spouting lies on his Fox show about how Democrats are encouraging illegal immigration so they can get lots of new voters, which is a version of the Great Replacement theory. This is an excerpt from the April 13 CNN story.

Obviously, Carlson was never going to apologize for or retract his remarks. But he could have chosen to ignore the controversy, move on, and let it die out. Instead, he did the opposite. Carlson opened up his show by first replaying the comments he made last week — comments in which he essentially endorsed the "great replacement" theory.

 

Then he mocked critics who were outraged he had done so. "It is amusing to see them keep at it," Carlson said of those who have called for him to be removed from Fox's air, a group that now includes the Anti-Defamation League. "They get so enraged! It's a riot!"

 

Making a mockery of those with very real concerns about his rhetoric wasn't enough for Carlson. He then went on to recite the core element of the "great replacement" theory, describing it to his millions of viewers as accurate. "Demographic change is the key to the Democratic Party's political ambitions,"

 

Carlson said. "In order to win and maintain power, Democrats plan to change the population of the country." Carlson told his audience that the "goal" is "to make you irrelevant." He said it is "provably true." Over and over again, he referenced "demographic" change.

Now that ten people have been killed by a man motivated by the lie of the Great Replacement theory, Tucker Carlson should vow that he'll never bring it up again. Of course, he won't do this. Nor will a House Republican, Elise Stefanik.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the No. 3 House Republican, and other GOP lawmakers came under scrutiny Sunday for previously echoing the racist “great replacement” theory that apparently inspired an 18-year-old who allegedly killed 10 people while targeting Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo.

Yet Republicans around the country are passing laws against discussing race in schools because the United States supposedly has moved beyond racial discrimination. That obviously isn't true, a fact underlined by the deaths of the 10 people in Buffalo.

Mr. Gendron’s writings were littered with racist, anti-immigrant views that claimed white Americans were at risk of being replaced by immigrants or people of color, once-fringe ideas that have been given a fuller airing in recent years by some prominent conservative commentators.

On the far right, the theory, which sometimes blames Jews for fomenting the “great replacement,” has been tied to gunmen in several other mass shootings as well as the 2017 right-wing rally in Charlottesville, Va. that devolved into violence.

Our country desperately needs national gun control legislation. Sadly, the odds of that happening in Congress are slim to none, since Republicans will filibuster it in the Senate.

We also need to control the hate speech that is rampant in the Republican Party, which loves to denigrate immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and anyone else who doesn't conform to their archaic political views, including women who want to choose for themselves whether to have an abortion.

Vote for Democrats. That's the only way the United States is going to pull out of the moral tailspin Republicans have gotten us into.

Statesman Journal eliminates opinion section. I'm irked.

I've been a subscriber to Salem's Statesman Journal newspaper for 45 years. The paper has always had an opinion section. 

It's been my favorite part of the Statesman Journal. I enjoy reading letters to the editor. I like to peruse guest opinions by local people. Syndicated columns interest me. So do editorials written by newspaper staff, even when I disagreed with them -- which was frequent over the years.

But yesterday Cherrill Crosby, the executive editor, wrote a piece saying that the Statesman Journal is doing away with the opinion section. The reasons were lousy. 

Crosby claimed "this content does not resonate as it once did with audiences." Well, neither do newspapers as a whole. I wasn't aware that the job of newspapers is to only publish what the greatest number of people want to read. Silly me. I thought news was what newspapers were all about.

A big part of news isn't purely factual. It is interpretative, putting things into a broader context, viewing news through a lens that goes beyond who/what/when/where/why. 

That's what opinion pages have always done. Yet Crosby and her bosses at Gannett don't care about that. They aren't interested in providing the best journalism. They care only about generating enough eyeballs on Statesman Journal content to support their advertising rates.

Crosby said, "Opinion content is often cited as the reason for canceling a subscription." OK. And now I think you're going to find that a lack of opinion content also is a reason for canceling a subscription.

What's bizarre about this screwy decision is that the opinion pages can cost very little. Dump some of the syndicated columnists if you want to save money. Ask people in Salem to submit more letters to the editor and more opinion pieces.

After a bit of editing, you've got an opinion section written by citizens who aren't paid a dime by the Statesman Journal. And it adds local content to a newspaper that currently has very little of it, being mostly a rehash of USA Today.

But Crosby didn't go that route.

Instead, she chose to dump the longstanding tradition of an opinion section entirely, rather than updating it to be more appealing to readers of the paper. Judging by comments on Crosby's announcement, many subscribers aren't happy with her decision. Here's a few of the comments.

This is a blatant attempt to silence readers and guest opinions. Misinformation as the reason to stop the opinion page is a very lame excuse considering almost all of Statesman Journal's articles aren't even fact-checked by a copy editor or editor. Copy editors were part of Gannett's massive layoffs in the past decade. Let the reader decipher whether it is opinion or fact. Also if it is so unpopular then why does Time magazine have 12-16 pages of articles in a section titled "The View?" Here lies the Statesman Journal ... may it rest in my kitty litter box.

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So another way to silence the voices of the SJ readers and our communities. So sad.

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My Grandfather was part owner of this newspaper long ago and he must be spinning in his grave to see how bad this rag has become since it was swept up in Gannett's game of Pac Man in the newspaper consolidation industry. (If I wanted to read USA Today I would have subscribed to that.)

 

I wonder what the "real" reason is that brought you to this decision, and doubt seriously the one given. I find it odd timing, since we are in the throes of possibly the most important election in my lifetime.

 

Gannett presents the news like a tabloid and pushed that format down to all its owned subsidiaries. Unfortunate for all who consume the news.

 

I find it amusing that those still wearing their red hats still think this paper is too "liberal." Sure it is, if you are used to the "Daily Stormer" or FOX for your "news" consumption. I find that this paper leans middle-right (like it's parent company.)

 

It would make more sense to turn off comments on individual news stories and continue with an opinion section. One more reason to dump my over priced subscription and go to a local independent news service. The Gods of journalism are weeping.

Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series is so good, I'm marrying it

At the (very real) risk of sounding like CNN's Wolf Blitzer, I'm announcing some Breaking News, Happening Now.

After my many years of passionate dalliances with other writers of spy novels -- notably the Gray Man and Mitch Rapp series -- I've decided to commit to a literary marriage to Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series.

I discovered Silva in 2018 after making the mistake of buying the book Bill Clinton wrote with novelist James Patterson, "The President Is Missing." 

The book was bad. Not the worst I've ever read, but poorly written with shallow characters. After buying it, I read a review in The New Yorker that said Clinton should have chosen Daniel Silva as his collaborator rather than Patterson.

That led me to purchase one of Silva's books in his Gabriel Allon series.

Right away I was hooked. Compared to other writers in the highly-skilled-spy genre, Silva has a rare ability to captivate the reader with thrilling action and finely honed characters who are both wonderfully human and exceptionally talented.

Gabriel Allon is a master Israeli spy who also is one of the world's top art restorers. Brilliant combo!

Allon is the guy you want if, as in the book I'm reading now, you're trying to save the honest wife of a Russian illicit arms dealer who has been captured by the modern equivalent of the KGB and you need someone who can calmly shoot three guards in the head even though they only have sight in one eye due to being repeatedly punched in the other eye by a Russian thug.

He's also the guy you want if you've got a precious painting that needs restoring to its original condition and only the best restorer will do.

Allon is thoroughly committed to defending Israel against its enemies. But I like how Silva often has Allon engage in conversations with Palestinians who he has to combat, yet have good reasons for why they're battling Israel. 

That sort of nuance typically is missing from other spy novels -- which I enjoy for the thrilling plot and action, yet disappoint me because Daniel Silva's writing is so superior.

I've read about half of the 20, I think it is, books in the Gabriel Allon series. It's my bedtime reading, what I read just before I turn the light out. Since I'm usually sleepy, my habit is just to read four pages or so.

Another reason I do this is to make the Gabriel Allon books last longer, since I enjoy them so much. However, the older I get (I'm 73), the more I worry that at the rate I'm going, I could die before I finish all of the series.

Hence, my decision to commit to reading a Gabriel Allon book not only at bedtime, but during my nightly hot bath where I've been reading the Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn and his writing successor, Kyle Mills, who took over the series after Flynn died.

Perhaps I'll change my mind. I tend to be fickle when it comes to my reading habits. Maybe the later Gabriel Allon books won't be as good as the ones I've read so far. I doubt it, though. 

Silva is such a skilled writer, the chance of him writing a lousy Gabriel Allon book seems slim. "The Cellist" was released in 2021. Here's part of an interview with Silva that shows how seriously he takes his craft.

Lots of books and movies use the “torn from the headlines” tag line. It’s usually just PR, but, in this case, it’s a literal description of The Cellist. 

It is. I was working on the book, and I got a call from my wife. She said, “Turn on the TV.” I did, and I saw our capital being overrun. I write about national security issues, and I’m not an intelligence officer but I have to think like one when I’m writing. I have to imagine current and future threats to our country. Twenty years after 9/11, and all the trillions of dollars spent to make our homeland safe, to see our capital overrun by our own people was really awful. I knew I had to write about it.

How did you work it in?

 It wasn’t easy. I had to rewrite most of the book in six weeks.