Yearly Archives: 2003

Here’s what happens when Bushie gives you a tax cut

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Portland Crime lab too broke to respond to some crimes: “But the lab’s work has been slowed by the state’s budget turmoil. A total of 85 out of 135 state lab positions were originally cut by the Legislature. About half of those jobs have been restored. Still, the cutbacks have had a profound impact on the crime lab… Bullet casings from a shooting spree in Portland went unanalyzed. And a body in Astoria lay in a kitchen in a puddle of blood for 30 hours, because the lab was too broke to send specialists on the day of the shooting.”
Yeah, the government doesn’t need all that tax money, does it? Better not get raped or murdered in Portland any time soon. Or in Indiana, for that matter.

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Blame Canada

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From Toronto’s Globe & Mail newspaper: “Washington delivered a stern message to Canada on Tuesday, saying Americans feel disappointed and betrayed by the Canadian decision to stay out of the war in Iraq.
At a breakfast speech to the Economic Club of Canada, Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, said “there is a lot of disappointment in Washington and a lot of people are upset” about Canada’s refusal to join the United States in its efforts to depose Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.”

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Weekend Update 2003-03-23

I dug up the brick pathway in front of my house this weekend, and moved the bricks to the side of the house so I can use them in the path in the back yard. I also uncovered part of the sidewalk and started work on the flowerbed on the side of the house. Kathy and I started to put drywall up around the fireplace, but I need a better masonry bit to pre-drill for the masonry screws. When I get that, I’ll have all of the drywall finished. I’ll stop by Lowe’s to get that tonight. I’m also going to buy a wheel-barrow to move stuff around in the yard.

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Oh, I’m So Certain.

I just got a memo at work that reads in part, “Pearson Travel Services wants to reassure employees that it has established the necessary processes and information sources to assist travelers during these uncertain times…”
The “uncertain times” phrase is becoming as ubiquitous (and meaningless) as “the terrorists have won,” a phrase I thought had finally been put to rest, except that our Governor O’Bannon (whom I proudly donated blood with shortly after Sept. 11) said the “terrorists” phrase just yesterday in a statement supporting the Iraq war effort.
When have times ever been certain? That’s as dumb as the idea of “the good old days.” Do you think the times were certain right before, say, the Black Plague? How about after? What about during the Salem Witch Trials? They were pretty certain then, right? WWII — we all knew what the outcome of that would be. And say, the 1980’s — how could anyone have been certain, given the bad haircuts we all had?

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TV Coverage of the War

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Or I should say, non-coverage…. because there was nothing on but a picture of the Baghdad skyline and a bunch of guys yammering about how they didn’t know anything about what was going on, but we might not have hit Saddam. Or we might have because that video might be one of his body doubles. But they talked for hours about absolutely nothing and it got on my damn nerves big time.

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