Flooding, low level

The heavy rain of the last few days has started to have its effect. Wennerberg Park is partially flooded, in part because water just hasn't drained, but in part because, on the lower, southern, end, the Yamhill River banks have overflowed.

Not that much of this is likely to help a great deal in what may be drought this summer; the effect on the snowpack is unlikely to be very great. But it does make us wonder what's happening elsewhere around the region, since the river here is usually about five or six feet below the park level.

Whose morality?

The Terri Schiavo debacle brings up not only questions of procedure - which is where so many liberal commenters have had their say - but also very real questions of morality. And these are at least as scary as the procedural implications.

Today's David Brooks column in the New York Times sums up the view of those who have argued for intervening in the Schiavo case: "The core belief that social conservatives bring to cases like Terri Schiavo's is that the value of each individual life is intrinsic. The value of a life doesn't depend upon what a person can physically do, experience or achieve. The life of a comatose person or a fetus has the same dignity and worth as the life of a fully functioning adult."

There are two deep problems here.

The first is a contradiction inside this form of "conservative" thought. An ideology that genuinely gives equal value toward all, depending not at all on what they "do, experience or achieve," sounds a whole lot more like socialism - even language right out of the Karl Marx playbook - than it does the laissez-faire rugged individualism of the social conservatives. How can this kind of approach possibly square with an ideology seeking to do away with anything resembling a social safety net? It doesn't fit, which suggests that Brooks' interpretation is nowhere near what it makes out to be - a central, core tenet of conservatism. It smacks more of dishonest spin.

There's a second, deeper problem, which lies in the notion of what constitutes worth and dignity. I for one would consider what has happened to Terri Schiavo to be among the most undignified ways imaginable to end a life, and if polling is any indication, most Americans seem to agree.

When is a life worth living? What is the nature of dignity? Most of us probably have always assumed that these are questions each of us must answer individually, and those individual answers will not all be the same. Some of them may happen to match with Brooks' prescription. But many others will not: I for one can easily imagine ways of living which would be far worse that submitting to death, and - again, if the polls are to be believes - most other Americans probably do, too.

The most serious problem with the Brooksian approach is not that it cannot be legitimate for some people but that it posits it as a requirement for all. We all must submit to this theology, because some people - those currently in power - happen to adhere to it.

Where is the morality here? According to Brooks, it can be found in doing away through hardball politics with freedom of conscience and even freedom of religion - for that is what this amounts to. According to most of the rest of us, it is a search for the best answer, with the recognition that absolutes are seldom as useful as they seem.

truck stop blogging

Back in 1996 and 1997 when Linda and I were roaming the lower 48 states on our year=plus around the country, one of our bigger challenges was in staying on line. When we stayed in motel rooms, getting to the Internet usually was not a big issue: Motel phones usually would accommodate a connection by jack. But not always, and much of the time we were camping. In those days there was no wi-fi, there were no cybercafes (actually, the first of them appeared toward the end of our trip), and option for getting access to a phone line tended toward the difficult.

One of our best options turned out to be something we would never have guessed - truck stops. We'd stop in for a lunch or dinner, and at a significant number of truck stops phones were located at the dining tables. You can see the usefulness for truckers; they were just as useful for us, as we'd play around a bit with the machinery and usually get on line.

Not always, it should be noted, was this regarded favorably by the management: These places are oriented toward truckers. But options were few.

We had to gather the information on which truck stops had phones bit by but. We bought one annual guide to truck stops which provided quite a bit opf help. But would have loved something like Layover.com, which I just spotted on the web. It has a state by state rundown on "computer friendly truckstops," as in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, California, Nevada, Montana.

It not only tells you which stops are "computer friendly" but also how to get the connection - at the dining table, or in some cases just ask the waitress to plug you in (so to speak).

Not a resource to abuse, and probably less critical for most of us nowadays, but something to consider if you've just go to get on line and you have no other good options.

Misconceiving WalMart

You can't make intelligent decisions if you don't stop to think.

This KBCI-TV story was jammed full of misconceptions about WalMart - faulty logic not the fault of the reporter, but in the minds of the people interviewed.

The story concerns a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Sam's Club to be placed in Nampa. Several people quoted were cheering it on.

"I think it's going to be cool because there's not many other places to go shop that are quick and easy to get to," says Nampa resident John Murphy.

Actually, there already are even by including WalMart in that definition - Fred Meyer, KMart and the stores at Karcher Mall are just a few of those in Nampa. But what makes a megastore "easier" to deal with than a smaller one?

A Nampa city spokesman remarked that "what it does is it helps to lower the tax burden for everybody who lives here it brings in a development and that development itself brings in jobs." That's jaw-dropping. There will be some plus, to be sure, in the property taxes on the store buildings, and in the wages paid the construction crews. But the rest constitute a loss. WalMart's low wages/benefits make a joke out of the "all the new jobs" line of jabber: The rest of the community winds up picking up the cost for people who aren't earning a living wage. And the idea that a WalMart coming to town represents an economic expansion is pure illusion. Just think for a moment: WalMart is in the business of selling a variety of goods to consumers. Unless you want to argue that people will be spending more money just because WalMart came to town - an absurd notion - you're stuck with the reality that WalMart's arrival represents a displacement of someone else. That means those low-wage jobs at WalMart are displacing other jobs - possibly higher-wage - somewhere else.

Some people get that point. The KBCI story does quote Debbie Hovde, owner Ma & Pa's Smoke Shop at Nampa, as saying, "if everybody can go to one store and get their shopping done, what's it going to do to us little people."

I think we know the answer, Debbie.

Sunset

From the front yard, looking over Wennenberg Park toward the Coast Range.

Early in the day, but as pretty as summer, the onset of rainy season notwithstanding.

Back from Boise

The latest trip to Boise yielded little in the way of change. Just about everything looked the same, save only a few storefronts and - around Meridian - a few new motels.

Just not a lot to report. Even the politics, six weeks out from election day, seems hardly of note.

A picture

Introducing Bismark, in an old picture from Boise.

Why this blog

So the issue is, I already have another well-established blog - ridenbaugh.com - so why this one?

Ridenbaugh is dedicated to a specific professional purpose - the publication of certain Northwest-related publications and reports (along with a few other items which have become attached to it over the years).

But there is more to say - about other professional activities, people, places, ideas and so on. Hence, Stapilus blog.

Publication may be a little more erratic here than on the other, but it may also be more widely varied.