Music, bicycling, politics . . .and a little science

Abandon the concept of illegal alien

2012-02-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

In a recent column ["Rethinking Deportation" Oregonian, January 23], Richard LaMountain denounced President Obama's proposed rule that would make it easier for illegal aliens to become legal residents, claiming it will undermine respect for law. But don't immoral rules also undermine respect for law?What would satisfy people like LaMountain? Would it increase respect for law to load all 12

Double taxation? Nonsense!

2012-02-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Andrew Tobias is treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, so he might be presumed to have it in for Mitt Romney, or any other Republican presidential nominee. However I think he does an excellent job, in today's edition of his blog, of explaining why a lot of the talk about "double taxation" is double talk.I think his basic point is that you can't argue that rich Americans shouldn't have

Another bit of autobiography: contingency and careers

2012-01-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

Doris and I have been watching a video about the making of the award-winning movie, Temple Grandin, based on the true life story of an autistic woman who has made good in a big way and had a very successful career. Temple Grandin herself participates in the discussion, along with the actress who portrayed her in the movie.Grandin makes a big point about how chance events played a major role

Dissecting the Soviet Corpse

2012-01-15T13:51:00.000-08:00

I have just posted a comment on the New York Times web page about an article in which the first sentence in my posting appeared:************************************"But the revelations that poured out in the late 1980s — when Moscow’s evening newspaper featured daily profiles of people murdered by Stalin and pioneering television shows toured Western supermarkets — proved fatal to the Soviet

TV: How times have changed!

2012-01-14T20:06:00.001-08:00

About 25 years ago, when I was teaching introductory Russian classes as a sideline at Adrian College, I looked into what we would need to do to allow our students to watch Soviet TV. I thought it would improve student ability to understand spoken Russian and make the subject more interesting. The answer was that the special equipment needed to tune in on satellites carrying Soviet TV would

A Goal For Occupiers: Down with regressive taxes!

2011-11-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

Although the occupy movements have elicited widespread sympathy, they have been better at expressing general unhappiness than at suggesting specific reforms. One trouble with specific goals is that it is hard to find any that broad masses of people can agree on. It would be wonderful if the energy, sincerity, and enthusiasm of the occupiers were focused on some concrete action that they

Unemployment not just a problem for returning veterans

2011-11-13T15:06:00.000-08:00