This has been a particularly fun Olympics to watch.
Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller fulfill expectations and win gold. Ryan Miller withstands 45 shots on gold from Team Canada to lead Team USA to hockey victory.
Evan Lysacek skates a perfect program for gold, then takes the high road when the Russian Bear grumbles, growls and pouts and whines.
But perhaps my favorite moment came during the women’s hockey game between Canada and Finland. Supposedly there’s no body checking in women’s hockey, but somebody forgot to tell Canada’s Gillian Apps. She laid a bonejarring check on Finland's Jenni Hiirikoski that put the Finn on ice for a good minute and a half.
No penalty was called, even though the Finn was obviously hearing little birdies and wondering how she wandered into an NHL game.
The Candadian papers are calling it a “collision,” but it was a check. A perfect, clean, powerful check. And notice that women’s hockey is the real deal.
I also got to watch two biathlon races, which was really cool. Personally, I’d like to see ALL Winter Olympic Sports incorporate shooting. Ski jumping and sporting clays. Curling and 10m air pistol. Just imagine bobsled mounted twin .50s...
Don’t give Gillian Apps a gun though. Her shoulder already packs more punch than a 12 gauge.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Dysfunctional government
Evan Bayh quit the Senate because he considers our government dysfunctional. That’s a conclusion most of us reached a long time ago. Dysfunction is endemic at the state level, too. John Kitzhaber famously said that Oregon is “ungovernable.” He still wants to take another shot at it though...
On the local level, things seem to be functioning pretty well at the City of Sisters. They are certainly getting some work done on the public works front and the financial house is in order. The city has approved a Transportation System Plan and a housing plan, both a long, long time in the works.
Now, they need to get the elements of those plans underway. THAT would be a truly functional government.
I still think the city needs to convince us that a gas tax is necessary before the March vote. Maybe next week...
The recent public hearing on the development code is a heartening display of democracy in action. Those with skin in the game have offered up some incisive criticism of the code and the planning commission and planning staff seem to be paying attention.
Planners walk a fine line with codes. Too tight and they run the risk of scaring off potential businesses and residents. Too loose and they risk erosion of the quality of environment that attracts businesses and residents to a backwater like Sisters.
The public cry is for “flexibility” in the code. That’s all well and good — we all want decisions governed by common sense. But flexibility always runs the risk of creating a climate for arbitrary decisions and an arbitrary government is a dangerous government.
Like I said, a balancing act — and it ain’t as easy as it looks.
Things look pretty dysfunctional right now in the school district — at least at the governance level. The school board wants to prioritize student achievement, but they are going to be bogged down for months in a superintendent search (yes, I understand that a good superintendent is vital to student achievement) and, apparently, in a recall drive.
The board has spent a huge amount of time dealing with a charter school situation that had to be resolved but soaked up an awful lot of time and energy for the number of students involved. The recall effort grew from that issue.
Hopefully, the board won’t take too long to do its due diligence and launch the proposed biomass boiler project. It would be great to get a project like that done — no cash outlay and significant savings down the road.
It’s easy to fall into “get government out of our lives” rhetoric, and when it is conspicuously dysfunctional, it seems that it wouldn’t be missed. But what we really need is government that works, that is limited in scope and has core missions and competencies, government that delivers. Good roads, good schools, cops and firefighters there when you need them — that sort of thing.
At least on the local level we can help make that happen. All it takes is doing a little homework and showing up...
Jim Cornelius, Editor
On the local level, things seem to be functioning pretty well at the City of Sisters. They are certainly getting some work done on the public works front and the financial house is in order. The city has approved a Transportation System Plan and a housing plan, both a long, long time in the works.
Now, they need to get the elements of those plans underway. THAT would be a truly functional government.
I still think the city needs to convince us that a gas tax is necessary before the March vote. Maybe next week...
The recent public hearing on the development code is a heartening display of democracy in action. Those with skin in the game have offered up some incisive criticism of the code and the planning commission and planning staff seem to be paying attention.
Planners walk a fine line with codes. Too tight and they run the risk of scaring off potential businesses and residents. Too loose and they risk erosion of the quality of environment that attracts businesses and residents to a backwater like Sisters.
The public cry is for “flexibility” in the code. That’s all well and good — we all want decisions governed by common sense. But flexibility always runs the risk of creating a climate for arbitrary decisions and an arbitrary government is a dangerous government.
Like I said, a balancing act — and it ain’t as easy as it looks.
Things look pretty dysfunctional right now in the school district — at least at the governance level. The school board wants to prioritize student achievement, but they are going to be bogged down for months in a superintendent search (yes, I understand that a good superintendent is vital to student achievement) and, apparently, in a recall drive.
The board has spent a huge amount of time dealing with a charter school situation that had to be resolved but soaked up an awful lot of time and energy for the number of students involved. The recall effort grew from that issue.
Hopefully, the board won’t take too long to do its due diligence and launch the proposed biomass boiler project. It would be great to get a project like that done — no cash outlay and significant savings down the road.
It’s easy to fall into “get government out of our lives” rhetoric, and when it is conspicuously dysfunctional, it seems that it wouldn’t be missed. But what we really need is government that works, that is limited in scope and has core missions and competencies, government that delivers. Good roads, good schools, cops and firefighters there when you need them — that sort of thing.
At least on the local level we can help make that happen. All it takes is doing a little homework and showing up...
Jim Cornelius, Editor
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Blood & Oil
Pundits are fond of tracing the fault lines between the West and the Islamic world back to the Crusades, often in the context that Islamic extremists dwell on that past as if the perceived wrongs of that long-ago age were still fresh.
That perspective isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s mostly off the mark.
The historical roots of the West’s modern conflict with Islam really lie in the Great War, what we call World War I.
The dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled over the Middle East for 400 years, led to the creation of the nations of Iraq and Syria, and the formation of a political entity known as Palestine, with a promise from the British for the area to become a national home for the Jewish people.
The British promised much to the Arabs to entice them into the Arab Revolt (famous as the guerilla warfare arena of Lawrence of Arabia) and mostly welshed on their promises.
Historian David Fromkin calls the postwar settlement of the Middle East as “the peace to end all peace.”
This is all brilliantly laid out in a DVD titled “Blood & Oil” (available from the Deschutes Public Library). The “blood” in the title is obvious; while the war was not as gruesome as the trenches of the Western Front, it was plenty bloody. The “oil” refers to the growing recognition of the strategic value of the resources in the Middle East.
When the war started, oil was not widely recognized as a significant issue except by visionaries like Winston Churchill. By war’s end, it was, and it would ensure that the Middle East, far from fading back into obscurity in western minds, would remain at the forefront of the world’s concerns.
This is history most Americans don’t know, and it’s very well done. Check it out.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
That perspective isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s mostly off the mark.
The historical roots of the West’s modern conflict with Islam really lie in the Great War, what we call World War I.
The dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled over the Middle East for 400 years, led to the creation of the nations of Iraq and Syria, and the formation of a political entity known as Palestine, with a promise from the British for the area to become a national home for the Jewish people.
The British promised much to the Arabs to entice them into the Arab Revolt (famous as the guerilla warfare arena of Lawrence of Arabia) and mostly welshed on their promises.
Historian David Fromkin calls the postwar settlement of the Middle East as “the peace to end all peace.”
This is all brilliantly laid out in a DVD titled “Blood & Oil” (available from the Deschutes Public Library). The “blood” in the title is obvious; while the war was not as gruesome as the trenches of the Western Front, it was plenty bloody. The “oil” refers to the growing recognition of the strategic value of the resources in the Middle East.
When the war started, oil was not widely recognized as a significant issue except by visionaries like Winston Churchill. By war’s end, it was, and it would ensure that the Middle East, far from fading back into obscurity in western minds, would remain at the forefront of the world’s concerns.
This is history most Americans don’t know, and it’s very well done. Check it out.
Jim Cornelius, Editor
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