Black Friday
This is why I don’t leave the house on Black Friday.
Save a life. Observe Buy Nothing Day.
Tagged : buy nothing day, black friday, death, consumerism
Tagged : buy nothing day, black friday, death, consumerism
Of Mormons and Millions
A complaint was recently filed against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints due to their understated involvment in the passing of Proposition 8 in California. The Mormon Church reported about $5000, which does not take into account expenses for things like phone banks and websites the Mormon Church organized and sponsored. California’s law requires that these expense be filed as though they were direct contributions to the passing of the bill.
What I think is interesting in all this is that a Church can openly support and endorse a proposition such as this, but if they endorse a candidate for office they can be fined and for repeat offenses have their nonprofit status revoked. Why is it that in a system that is supposed to stay secular the religions are even allowed to affect an outcome in state or national elections? Our government is supposed to be secular, so let’s keep it that way by putting pressure on religious organizations that are caught abusing the system.
Tagged : mormon, proposition 8, lbgt
You’re Not In Kansas Anymore
Sorry for the late update.
So, if you hadn’t heard, the mayor of Silverton, Oregon is the first openly transgendered mayor in the United States of America. Of course, this has attracted critisism of the worst kind: The Westboro Baptist Church, the God Hates Fags protesters. Four of these people flew out here to protest the mayor of Silverton. Those four were met by one-hundred and fifty counter-protesters from the town of Silverton. It makes me proud to live in a state where even the small towns refuse to turn a blind-eye to the type of bigotry the Westboro Baptists Church has become famous for. When a town of 7,000 people loans only counter-protesters and does not bolster the number of bigots, that is an amazing victory against this horrible hate-mongering.
Tagged : silverton, oregon, stu, hate
Nothing Today
Problematic
The Only Show In Town
When it comes to internet providers, there aren’t many shows in Portland, Oregon. Sure, the edges of the city as well as the suburbs have access to a variety of providers, but the closer you get to downtown, the less options you have. Internet service in Portland is largely provided by two companies: Comcast and Qwest. These two companies offer your basic cable and DSL speeds, both have upload/download caps, and Comcast has been known to try to regulate certain types of traffic that comes through it. These two companies run as each others only opposition in the downtown area, and it is not to the benefit of the customers.
Once you leave the downtown area and head to the edges of the city you find a different service, Verizon FiOS. For the same price as Comcast you get speeds that are nearly twice as fast. The service runs through fiber optic lines (hence the name of the service) which seem to carry a more consistent speed than its cable and phone line counterparts. Qwest offers a faster service in various areas of Portland, but again as you get closer to Downtown you are less likely to be eligible for the service.
Now we have Comcast, with largely a lack of competition, getting ready to offer “Premium” services: Bumping their speed up to the fastest Qwest already offers in some areas for about $20 more. Yet if you want faster internet in the Downtown area you are going to be forced to go through Comcast for these speeds. Comcast seems to have a monopoly on the Downtown area, an area which is certainly tech savvy with the creative-class-filled Pearl, Alphabet and Nob Hill Districts. Portland needs to find a way to break this damaging monopoly and get better and cheaper services to Downtown.
Tagged : comcast, cable, internet, isp, competition
Learning The Trade
I want to apologize for not posting yesterday. I don’t know why I forgot to, I just did. I’m trying to be a little more diligent, honestly.
I’ve been working on learning how city government works, as it’s not really a subject I’ve focused on in the past. I spent all my time looking at the national level, where I honestly believe no individual citizen can affect change, rather than looking at our local level where I think a citizen’s abilities to change their surroundings is a little more significant. I’m changing that focus now, as I said Monday, and I’m pouring my attention into our city’s structure.
Portland, Oregon is the last large city in the United States that has a city commission government. What this means is that Portland is run not by a mayor with a city council under them, but by a group of commissioners who share an equal amount of power. The mayor in this form of government is basically another commission member with a symbolic title. The four commissioners and mayor make up the city council, who acts as the executive and legislative branch, as well as a quasi-judicial branch. In Portland there is a sixth elected official, the city auditor. The auditor works towards ethical and transparent government activity.
Each of the commissioners and the mayor are assigned different responsibilities and titles. What I find strange is that the titles assigned to a commissioner do not necessarily denote what they work with. For example, the Commissioner of Public Works doesn’t always have any public works bureaus in their portfolio.
Overall, I find our system of city government to be interesting, and I think it’s fascinating that we have a system of government that is unique to us as far as large cities go.
Tagged : city commission government, portland, oregon, power
Change
Is it still okay to use that buzzword? I’m I good on that, or did I miss the opportunity?
As I announced previously, I’m working on making a switch to covering local politics here in the Portland Metropolitan area and occasionally at the state level. As I’m moving into this transitional period I’m going do be doing a lot of research as my knowledge of local politics is currently a bit lacking due to my long-time focus on the workings of national politics. It’s entirely possible that I’m going to be missing a post or two as I do my research, but I’ll try to let you know whenever this happens. One prime example is today. I’m starting my research on local politics and economy, specifically taking a look at Mayor-Elect Sam Adams policy proposals and plans, and I should have something together by Wednesday for you here.
Again, please stick with me in this transitional period. I appreciate your readership, and hope to have something interesting for you soon.
Tagged : change, local, portland, oregon, politics, economy
Breaking Away
Now that the election cycle is all but over I feel I can comfortably break away and talk about something else again.
Now, I’m sure you all know my position on DRM. If you don’t know, let me reiterate: DRM is a waste of money. It does absolutely nothing to prevent piracy and the money spent on developing new types of DRM could be invested in the products themselves or better technologies for product delivery. Imagine if we set up a fund for technology development that took what would normally be spent on developing DRM for PC video games. Imagine the technology we could develop with all those millions of dollars! It would be amazing.
Now why am I talking about DRM? I have to tell you that DRM does not deter piracy. Not in music, not in movies, not in games. How do we know this? The Pirate Bay is attempting to be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the worlds largest torrent tracker as they have seen an 8 million user increase since last year, putting them up to 22 million users. Clearly nothing is being done that honestly deters piracy when one torrent tracker has seen that sort of boost in its traffic.
Tagged : pirate bay, piracy, world record, drm
The Crossroads
The election has come to a close and I am very pleased with its outcome. As I took the MAX home from an election night get-together people all around us outside where shouting and waving signs. People boarded the train, headed home after an exciting night, and were greeted with great cheer. As we pulled up to Pioneer Courthouse Square there was a long sustained cheering, and we can only imagine how long it had been going given that the election had been called more than an hour ago and Obama had already given his acceptance speech. People around the country, even around the globe, are celebrating what transpired in America last night. But while the election is over, the hard times ahead have just begun.
Obama’s presidency will be met with resistance. On that same train, we heard a conversation. “Why aren’t you happy Obama’s president?” a girl asked. The boy responds “I just can’t trust the nigs.” I’m sure this is a sentiment that is being echoed, as we’ve already seen two foiled assassination plots on our President-Elect. And this isn’t the only hardship that we face moving forward. We have an economic crisis, war being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Eastern Europe is becoming destabilized. Barack Obama has a lot on his plate, a lot of messes to clean up, and a lot of systems to fix. We have a real opportunity for change, and as great as Obama seems, he still has to show us that he’s not The Smiler. He has to follow through on his promises and enact his policies. He has to be that change he asked us so often to believe in.
He has to be Hope.
Tagged : obama, president, summary, election, change, hope
Special Election Night Update
Moment Of Truth
Well, we’re there. Tomorrow is election day, polls are looking good, and early voters are favoring Obama heavily. Both of the candidates have made their closing arguments, and it is time to get out there and vote if you haven’t already. Me, I’m lucky enough to live in a state that has a vote by mail system, so I got my voting out of the way already. For those of you who have not been to the polls yet, make sure you get counted. Know the local laws on campaign gear near the voting booth. If you have problems voting, report it and get a provisional ballot. Make sure to vote in your local elections, because your vote actually counts there. Don’t make excuses and avoid the ballot box, make excuses to make it there. Can’t get out of work in time to vote? Call in sick. Have to pick your kid up from school? Have the people around you reserve your place in line if you have to leave. Do whatever you need to, because almost nothing is more important than being heard. Here are some resources to help if you have issues voting:
Wired’s How-To for Casting a Provisional Ballot
Wired’s Problem Reporting Map
Our Vote Live Problem Reporting
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